9.11.14 Crew News

Announcements:

Bootcamp is coming... More information will be sent home next Monday.

Student Led Conferences: Our crew will be holding student led conferences in November. I will send out a sign-up at the end of Fall Break. 

Box Tops: Please cut out and send in box tops!

Our official 'Pupil/Student Count Day' is Wednesday, September 24th

.  Please make sure all students are in attendance on this day! Our 'Count Window' is September 17th to October 1st.  It is VERY important you are not absent 4 or more days during this window.  Schools receive their state funding based on attendance during this enrollment window.

Calendar Updates: 

Sept 24: Official Count Day (Please make sure your child is not absent on this day)
Sept 26: No School; Professional Development Day
Oct 3: Students are IN school (different than other schools in the district)
Oct 6-17: Fall Break
Oct 20: No School; Teacher Work Day (different than other schools in the district)

Experimenting with Mysterious Matter  also known as Oobleck also known as cornstarch & water. :) Students worked as scientists to: ask questions analyze describe experiment discuss This was a great launch into our science expedition! Khan Academy (copied from Tuesday's email and this information can also be found of my Resources page) Khan is a great program, in which I can recommend lessons for students and monitor their growth. Students can click on instructional videos for on-the-spot individualized learning. It is highly motivational for students (collecting points and badges). It will be a resource that we will be using in the classroom and sometimes for homework. Students are ALWAYS welcome to log on and work on Khan at home. :) Instructions to log on: -Go to khanacademny.org -Click "Log in" at the top -Click Log in to Khan Academy with Google (shows a big Google icon) -It will prompt students to log on to Google using their email address and password (if their email is open in another tab, it will skip this step)     *when students log in from home they need to add @s.dcsdk12.org to their username -Click the bell icon at the top for notifications, and it will show lessons that lmgunn (that's me) has recommended. Crew Learning:  Expedition: In expedition, we have been exploring the three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. Students started doing some experiments to learn more about the characteristics of these in order to give a definition of each. We are creating a science concept map to chart our learning and make connections.            HINTS AT HOME: Ask: What have you learned about matter? Give a definition and example of each state of matter.  Math: This week we worked on time elapse, patterns, and money. When given a combination of items and prices, students solved problems that required an estimation of the price, asked how many dollars would be needed to cover the cost, calculate the exact price, and then find out the amount of change that would be given. Tomorrow, we will take our first math test.           HINTS AT HOME: When you are out shopping, invite your child to help estimate the costs of items. About how much will it cost? Have a calculator and find out the exact cost (before tax). How much change will you get back? Let your child count the coins if you give exact change. It is important to connect this as a real-life skill in authentic situations. Writing: Our literacy routines are coming into place. It is divided into twenty minute chunks where students will do the following: "Ms. L" - They will write with me focusing on one learning target. This week we worked on topic sentences, writing in complete sentences, indenting, and sentence variety. "Directed"- Students write a paragraph on their own showing their understanding of the day's learning target.  "Choice"- This is a time to write for fun. They can be blogging, free writing about topics of interest, writing poetry, illustrating, creating art, and more. "Catch-up"- This is a time to finish to math pages, complete other work that was not finished, or go on Khan Academy. "Rosetta Stone"- Students are working away at learning a new language.           HINTS AT HOME: Have your child share with you about our literacy blocks. Ask: What did you write your directed paragraph today? What are you working on in choice? How is Rosetta Stone going? Reading: We have been polishing expectations and procedures. Students are being given the opportunity to buddy read to practice their fluency. They defined fluency as reading clearly and smoothly, not too fast & not too slow, and changing your voice for dialogue and suspense. Additionally, they have been meeting with me in small reading groups.             HINTS AT HOME: This week, we took some time to read a book to learn about the events of September 11th. We  talked about the facts and timeline of events. As this is a sensitive topic, please take a moment to answer any questions they might still have. Just for fun: Last weekend, my husband and I took our dogs to the "Pooch Plunge" at Butterfield pool. We put a GoPro on our yellow lab Piper, and then had some putting together a video of it. Here it is :)