9.13 From Room 227

Hello! We have been very busy the past couple of weeks so I have a lot to talk about. I promise that it won't usually be this long! We are fully immersed in the workshop model in writing, reading and math. This week in math we have been continuing to practice our math workshop procedures. Students have been enjoying their freedom of “choice” in both reader’s and math workshops. The class has now embraced all five of the Daily 5 choices: read to self, read to partner, listening to reading, working with words and AR quizzes. During Listening to Reading, the students have been working on the computers on the Raz Kids site (www.raz-kids.com Students can access this at home as well. My teacher code is ahayesah). The students are able to listen to stories being read for them. With several students working in this area and with limited space in the classroom, it has quickly become apparent that it would be very beneficial for the students to have his/her own ear phones or ear buds to use. If you have these at home and would like to send them in for your child to use, please feel free to do so. I will label them and have each student keep them in a bag in their literacy workshop folder. Tomorrow we are setting AR goals for first quarter based on each student’s individual Star Reading results. They are setting this goal independently and should earn his/her designated number of points for their goal by the end of first quarter. Since the first full week of school I have been talking to my class about reading AR books and taking the quizzes to the students should have already started earning points towards his/her goal. I have read several books out loud to the students and the students are provided approximately 40 minutes a day to read so earning these points should not be a problem. That being said, students are always welcome and encouraged to read at home to help them reach the goals that they have set for themselves. We are currently on our second round of word lists for Working With Words. The students are provided a new sort each week and then practice those words and the word patterns throughout the week during Daily 5 time. Some of the Word Tasks throughout the week include activities such as sorting (categorizing the words) with a friend, using sign language to sign the spelling of the words, creating the words using pipe cleaners, using symbols and pictures to represent the words, rainbow spelling, cursive spelling and using fancy font such as curls and dots when writing the words. The students are enjoying the creative nature of many of these activities. In math, we are retesting on number sense skills. These skills include representing numbers using standard, word and expanded form and reading and writing numbers through the hundred thousands place value. In addition, the students need to be able to demonstrate that they can round to the tens, hundreds and thousands place. We also began discussing double digit multiplication more in-depth this week. The students are seeing these types of problems daily on their Super Six morning work so we took some time to learn three different techniques for solving two digit numbers multiplied times another two digit number. They learned the old-fashioned way that many of us "older" adults learned when we were in school. They also learned that they could break the problem into two separate problems and add them together. The last strategy is called the Box Method in which they break each number apart by place values and multiply them together into a box grid. As we were practicing these double digit multiplication problems, it became pretty clear that many students were having a hard time quickly recalling basic multiplication facts. I would really like to help them with this so we are going to be starting a new program for fluency (speed) of multiplication fact recall. It is called Rocket Math and the students will be required to pass all multiplication facts, two numbers at a time (i.e. 0's and 1's, 2's and 3's, 4's and 5's) in order to move on to the next set. I would like for all students to have passed all of these tests by the end of first quarter if at all possible. We have already been working on these skills in class but the students would benefit from a structured effort so they know exactly what multiplication facts that they need further practice with as they may have great recall in one set, such as 2's, 5's or 10's, but struggle with another. This will help us identify each student's strengths and weaknesses so they can target the facts for which they need focused efforts. I know this will be of enormous benefit to each student since the multiplication intensifies from this point on. Quick fact recall will lesson any frustrations with these more advanced concepts. During Math Workshop, the students have been working through stations including laptop games, a mystery number activity, time with the teacher, games in partners. In addition, the students have working on a place value challenge for further enrichment. Students must complete 4 out of 5 activities which include things such as listing the planets from farthest to nearest from the sun, finding the largest number they can in a magazine and labeling the place value of each number, etc. The kids are having a great time with this! In writing we are continuing to work on strategies for generating ideas for personal narrative writing. We have brainstormed people, places, things and events which are important to us and brainstormed stories which we associated with those people. Tomorrow we will do the same thing with places and on Monday with objects. We have also been discussing how every day moments can become personal narratives as well. I shared a recent story from my life about my dog and my son that could be turned into a great personal narrative. We have also been discussing how these moments are usually short moments in time that are stretched by using sensory details rather than have a longer story that lacks details. We call those short, zoomed in stories "seed" topics while the longer stories are referred to as "watermelon" topics. We have also been learning what it looks like and sounds like to be a good writing partner. In science this week we talked about how ecosystems hold living and non-living things and how both play important roles in ecosystems. The students have begun reading an Missouri ecosystem magazine during their Read to Partner time in our Daily 5 work. After reading together, the students complete a short worksheet that's lets me know that they understand what they have read together. Last Thursday we had a guest speaker, Mr. Woodland, speak to us about animal adaptations. After the presentation the students got to feel different animal pelts to feel and see the differences between them and how those differences help that animal survive in their own ecosystem. Just a quick note, if your child has a transportation change after 2:00, please be sure to let the office know so they can inform me before the end of the day. I am often unable to check my email at this point in the day because this is our math workshop time and I am working with students during this period of time. I would hate to miss an email and send a child home the wrong way. If you do email me, please also include the office staff (Charlene Frerking or Patty Kolb) on that email. They will make sure that I know before dismissal. Midterms come home on Monday. Please sign and return these as soon as possible. If you would like a copy of the midterm, there will be a place next to the signature line in which you can indicate this and I will send a copy home with your child. All of Tiffany Ridge musical dates are now set for each grade! J Miss Buck has posted the dates and times on her music website. The website is www.tiffanyridgeelementarymusic.shutterfly.com . All music information is posted there, and will be updated regularly.

Adaptations

This is a video about adaptations that we viewed today:

PACK Points

Families and Friends,

As you have heard we are working hard to earn PACK points for our positive behaviors. In case you were wondering how our friends can spend their PACK points I thought I would send out the reward menu. You might notice that some of these rewards involve notes, and phone calls to you. Thank you so much for supporting our PACK system!