Dear
Families,
It was so nice to meet so many of you at
Curriculum Night this week! If you were
not able to come to Curriculum Night, please feel free to contact me with questions,
check on your child’s progress, or share good news. Email is probably best as I can get back to
you late in the evening or even on the weekend, if necessary. My email is Karri.Allen@evergreenps.org.
Lifeskill/Handbook: In October,
we are featuring the lifeskill of work ethic.
We will compliment classmates on lifeskills we notice that the students
are using at school. We notice
lifeskills in other situations too. We
use them to solve problems and we will reflect upon the different lifeskills
characters have in our literature studies.
Learning about lifeskills and practicing them adds to our positive
learning environment at school. I hope
that you will find them useful at home. Please
make sure to read the school’s student handbook online and fill out the form
that documents that you and your student have read it. To access the student handbook, you can go to
the Fisher’s Landing Elementary website and click on the “For Parents”
tab. Then scroll down to “Student
Handbook.” Click on “Student Handbook.” Make sure to read through the handbook and
discuss its contents with your child.
Then please print the “Handbook Signature Form” and have your child sign
it and then sign it yourself to verify that your child has read the handbook. You can also send in the last page of the
printed version of the handbook coming home this week. All students are required to knowledgeable
about the handbook and our school’s rules. Please send these forms in by parent
conferences.
Reader’s
Workshop: The end of
this month we’ll be learning about the thinking strategy of accessing
background knowledge/using schema.
Schema is any knowledge you already have about a topic and you gain that
knowledge through your experiences.
Schema/background knowledge allows us to connect to what we are reading
and better understand the emotions/needs/etc. of the characters in the story or
people involved. We will be exploring
how schema helps us as a reader as we move into October. Then we will move into the thinking strategy
of determining importance. Students will
learn to identify what’s most important and filter out those details that,
while interesting, are not the main focus in the text. With our strategy work with determining
importance, students will learn about theme, summarizing, main idea and
supporting details, as well as story elements such as main characters, plot,
problem, and solution. To encourage reading of chapter books from day to day, I
have designed the High Five Book Club for our class. The goal is for each student to read at least
500 pages by report card time. Once a
student finishes a book, they write a summary of the book read on a piece of loose
leaf paper to demonstrate that they read the book and understood the
story. The students earn a star punch in
their High Five Book Club bookmark for each 100 pages read. I will send reminders throughout the
trimester and will put the student’s progress toward this goal in the comments
section of the report card.
Writer’s
Workshop: This month
we are exploring the writing trait of ideas.
Students will learn to narrow their topic down to a “seed” idea- a
single moment to blow up big with details.
Students will learn to anticipate what questions the reader may have in
order to add more detail and make their writing “crystal clear.” Students will learn to use the technique of
“so what about” to link details together as they write. During the month of October, we will map out
an experience we would like to share with others, then narrow that experience
down to just a portion of the actual event/the most important moment. We will take that piece through the writing
process to publication.
Math: Now that my beginning of the year math
assessments are completed, we will spend the next few weeks working with developing/practicing
concepts for multiplication and building our problem solving skills. You should have received information about
accessing our math textbook from home-the web address is: www.pearsonsuccessnet.com. The username for each child is the first and last name they
go by in our class (all in lowercase). For example, my username would be karriallen. Everyone’s password is math4u. Students who do not finish in class
activities should visit this web address to access the page from class work and
finish that work for homework. I can
print textbook pages for those that do not have internet access at home. This website also offers access to additional
practice and games.
Math Facts: Your child
will be working with a parent to quiz and improve their fluency with their math
facts this year. The timings consist of a page of mixed fact practice focusing
on one operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division). The “Math Moms/Dads” will work with your
child on progressively more difficult/higher facts within the operation that
your child is focusing on and then test them with a paper test consisting of 90
problems. Your child must get 80 out of
the 90 problems correct and skipped problems are considered incorrect. The “Math Moms/Dads” will let you know via
the planner exactly which facts your child should be working on. It is expected that your child be working on
their facts each day for about 10 minutes to be working toward their next math
timing. This is the MOST important thing
we can do to help each student be successful in math this year. Please check with your child to find out which
ones they are working on and work on them at home. I ask that when the math fact flashcards come
home in the plastic pouch and that you keep track of them please. The plastic pouch with the math facts should
stay in the child’s backpack. Take them
out and practice at home but return them to the backpack so your child can use
them for fact practice at school when we have math stations. Knowing your multiplication
math facts by heart is vital to math success with more advanced math
concepts. I am still looking for more parents that might
want to help. I still need to find three
more parent helpers this year for this program.
If you are available Wednesdays from 9:05-10:30 please email me as soon
as possible. I need four volunteers to
make it work. I need three more parents
or this successful program may not happen for these kids this year.
I
wanted to share some websites that offer opportunities for kids to practice
their math facts.
Book
Reports: Students should choose a quality literature chapter
book (100-200 pages unless otherwise approved) at their level to read from start
to finish during the month of October and complete a book report. One way to help your student identify a book
at their level is by using the 5 Finger Rule.
This is how it works. Find a book
that your student is interested in. Then
turn to a random page full of text. Have
your child read the page aloud and each time the student stumbles on a word put
one finger down. If the student stumbles
on more than 5 words, the book is too challenging at this time and the
difficult words will break down the students’ ability to comprehend the
text. If the student doesn’t put any
fingers down as they read, the book is too easy and not quite at their
level. I have talked with the students about
this technique. Try it out and see how
it works for your student. Directions
have been provided for the book report and can be found in your child’s
homework folder. Students need to let me
know their selected book by this Friday so that I can approve it before they
get started with their book report.
Poster paper for the project will be coming home in the next few weeks. This book report will be due Tuesday,
November 13th. On this day,
we will begin our book talks on the book report books. This will be a formal presentation for a
communication grade. Please keep checking in with your child about
their progress toward completing their book and their book report.
Science: We are using the scientific process to
investigate rocks and minerals and their properties. The class will learn about the rock cycle and
about the types of rocks.
Social
Studies: We
are learning about Washington State this year.
During the month of October, we will be learning about how our state was
formed and the major landforms and features that make up our state. As part of this learning, students will create
a salt and flour map of our state.
Last thoughts: My class has some amazing thinking. However, we are still struggling as a class
to make sure our work is HIGH quality, is complete, and meets expectations. Please encourage your child to do their
personal best in all their work for our class.
PLEASE encourage your child to
use correct spelling and punctuation in all subject areas. I also appreciate your efforts to help your
child complete all his/her homework on time.
The children who complete their work have a clearer understanding of the
next day’s lessons and are more confident.
This is a very special class and they are so sweet. We are beginning to really hit our
stride! I hope you all have a wonderful
week!
Kindly,
Karri
Allen
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