Well, that was an exciting end to our week!! I'm sure you've heard the whirlwind of stories about our last hour in a very dark classroom by now...but you would be SO proud of your children in a potentially very scary situation. They were SO brave and SO mature in their response!! I was fortunate enough to have a few moments advance warning as my husband let me know the storm blew through our town and took down TWO of our 40 ft Bradford pear trees (so sad!!) and it was headed our way. As the skies grew very dark, and your children started to notice, I calmly assured them the safest place to be during the storm was the school. They asked if the power was going to go off...I said it might, so we talked about what we were going to do if that was going to happen. They were worried about alarms, but I reassured them that we already knew what to do if that happened. I reminded them that I would be there with them, and that my number one job was to protect them and keep them safe. Moments later, when the power went out...their response was so sweet: "We trust you, Mrs. Fowler!" I was so thankful to have had that few minutes to talk with them before the power went out! Only a few tears were shed and after lots of hugs, we spent the remainder of the afternoon playing silent ball under the light of my phone's flashlight :)
Important Dates and Information:
Morning Announcements - Permissions slips were sent home today! If your child is interested in being on our Morning Announcements team, please read the information carefully, and send in the permission slip. They will be put on a rotating schedule to serve in one week intervals. You will be notified when your child is on the Morning Announcement schedule - they are expected to be here at 8:45am during that week.
Bike Rodeo ~ Tuesday, 9/9 ~ 3-5pm - Students should plan to attend the Bike Rodeo if they plan to ride their bike to school. It is not mandatory if they have attended a Bike Rodeo in the past.
Maps Testing ~
- Reading ~ Thursday, 9/11 ~ 2:15-3:15pm
- Math ~ Monday, 9/15 ~ 9:10-10:10pm (Tranter ~ Wednesday, 9/9 ~ 9:10-10:10)
It is important that your child is in school on these days, so please try to schedule any appointments outside of these times. If your child is absent due to illness, we will schedule make-ups, but it does mean they will be out of the classroom during instruction. Research shows that students perform better when they are well-rested and well-fed before taking assessments!
Room Rep Meeting ~ Tuesday, 9/16 ~ 3-4pm ~ I will be discussing the need for regular copy moms to help us out with the room moms. Please let me know if you're interested!
Band Meeting ~ Wednesday, 9/17 ~ 7-8pm
What's Happening in the Classroom
Math ~ We started Unit 1 this week in math! We will cover a variety of topics in Number Theory in this unit, including factors and products, squaring and un-squaring numbers, prime and composite numbers, and prime factorization.
As I shared with you on Parent Night, I pre-test the students for every unit. This allows me to differentiate instruction for each lesson based on the results of the pre-test. I teach math in a workshop model so students rotate stations. In the rotation, they will meet with me for instruction, spend time in their journals, and practice skills on Khan Academy or Everyday Math Online. If they demonstrate mastery on the pre-test, they will work on enrichment and advanced content; if they demonstrate a need for additional support, I will spend more time in instruction with them.
I also shared that homework is not graded because it is practice, but it is checked every day. If students do not demonstrate an understanding of the skills covered on their homework, they will be asked to re-do the assignment. Encourage your child to work through their homework each night - even if it is a struggle, they should do their best to complete as much of the homework as they can, but not to worry if they cannot finish it. We do review the homework every morning, so if they do not understand a concept, they will have a chance to discuss it with me.
Most nights, they will have a study link and math boxes for homework - this should take them approximately 30 minutes of their nightly 60 minutes of homework. If you find that your child consistently takes longer than 30 minutes to complete their math homework, please let me know!
Science ~ We started our Human Body unit with a rigorous physical exercise routine on Thursday! I've included some pictures below - I apologize that your children are so blurry, but they were really moving!! They worked out pretty intensely for 5 minutes, then spent some time observing and recording the changes to their bodies as they worked out. The students then tried to figure out what was happening to their bodies to cause the changes. Ask your child what they noticed about their body, and why they thing it might be happening! We will spend the next several weeks learning about those changes as we study the systems of the body through hands on experiments.
Reading - In reading this week, students learned that authors are intentional when writing stories, and they put "signposts" in the text where readers are supposed to stop and "Notice & Note" what is happening. The signposts we discussed this week are: Contrasts & Contradictions, Aha Moments, Again & Again, Memory Moments, Words of the Wiser, and Tough Questions. Ask your child about these signposts to see if they remember what they should "Notice and Note"! We will be looking for these signposts in everything we read this year.
Writing - We started our Informational/Explanatory Text-Based Writing Unit this week. Students will be learning how to respond to non-fiction text in this unit. Most of the non-fiction reading they will be doing in this unit will be on the human body, so it pairs nicely with our science unit.
Enjoy your weekend...hopefully it will be more peaceful than our Friday afternoon!
“Children see magic because they look for it.”
Cheers ~
Theresa Fowler
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