Weekly Newsletter 9.20.13

This week, KIS ACHIEVE students continued to work on our Charlotte's Web book. I sent home the book and their comprehension packet for you to review. We will continue to work on Charlotte's Web and cannot wait to move into Global Read Aloud. Most of the students are working on Touch Math to reinforce their number sense. Everyone is doing a wonderful job. We have worked on the skills of reading and writing numbers 0-5. We have also focused on the concepts of greater than, less than and equal to. Finally, we have started working on the concept of one more. Since we have such a diverse group of learners, my other students are working on multiplication and arrays. I would like to try to enhance fluency so we may be doing quick drills daily. We will be introducing our Fall unit this week.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not too kind to us this past Friday. We were forced to cancel out field trip but I am happy to report that it has been rescheduled for Friday, September 27th. Students will get on the bus at 10:30am, golf from 11-12 and take a trip to Wendy’s in Chardon for lunch. We will return to school by 1:30. I will send out a menu for Wendy's and forms for you to order and send money. If you want your child to bring their lunch that is fine too. We were able to participate in International Peace Day this past Friday. The student's made flags in Mrs. Allemang's art class. International Day of Peace provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. In 2002, the General Assembly officially declared Sept. 21 as that date but because it fell on a Saturday, Kenston students celebrated Friday, Sept. 20. We also kicked off the KIS PTO Fundraiser. The kids got to see their favorite Kenston teachers do activities in the gym. Everyone was super excited with lots of high energy. We sent the packet home with you.

This week we reviewed:

Spelling Words: as, with, his, they, I

Wilson Reading: short a sound and students read aloud Let’s Be Pals and Zak and Cat

Social Studies: All About Me Timeline

Writing: Our Address Social Studies Strand - All About Me

Math: Base 10 number operations

Science: Animal identification

Dates to know:

9/27: APE Field Trip - Putt Putt

Weekly Newsletter 9.13

Good Morning! It is hard to believe we have been in school for over a month! September has been flying by and the students are settled in.

The students will be taking their STARS assessments soon. STAR assessments allow teachers to accurately evaluate students’ abilities in just 10 to 15 minutes. I will then use information provided by the assessments to target instruction, provide students with the most appropriate instructional materials, and intervene with struggling students. They are not allowed to use accommodations for these tests but there will NOT be a grade. All students will get a “benchmark score” (completed 3 times a year) and we’ll use the assessments to progress monitor (approx. every 2 weeks) your child as well.

We were visited by our therapy dog Calena. The students had so much fun and we are happy to welcome her every two weeks. :)

The students read the first four chapters of Charlotte's Web. We completed comprehension checks and they were introduced to the characters. On "Fun Friday" we watched the first few chapters during lunch.

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This week we reviewed:

Spelling Words: he, was, for, on, are; 5th Grade Sight Words: exercise, dance, expensive, forecast, heart

Wilson Reading: 3 sounds in a word - cat, mat, sat

Social Studies: All About Me and Hero's of 911

Writing: Our Address Social Studies Strand - All About Me

Math: Count with base ten blocks using a cube (1) and a long (10), Addition numbers 1-5 using touch points

Science: Weather Unit - Weather Sort

Dates to know:

9/20: APE Field Trip - Putt Putt

To reinforce the skills we learned in class. I would love if your children could practice Spelling City at home. It has some wonderful games with their targeted sight words. See the sidebar under websites to login.

Weekly Newsletter 9.6.13

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for the wonderful items our kiddo's shared in their "Me Bags." We enjoyed seeing family pictures, baby pics, and items that were special to them. :) Some students will be sharing on Monday and we cannot wait.

Friday picture day was a success. Thank you Mrs. K. for making sure that our students had beautiful smiles. The boys looked handsome and the girls looked very pretty. (They are always adorable)

In Social Studies, our topic will be "All About Me" unit. This will tie into our Grade 5 standards. <

Theme: Regions and People of the Western Hemisphere

Strand: History

Topic Historical Thinking: Historical thinking begins with a clear sense of time – past, present and future – and becomes more precise as students progress. Historical thinking includes skills such as locating, researching, analyzing and interpreting primary and secondary sources so that students can begin to understand the relationships among events and draw conclusions.

Content Statement: 1. Multiple-tier timelines can be used to show relationships among events and places.

We lesson will be to create a timeline. I am so excited because I cannot wait to see all of the special events in my student's life.

Parents: If you could send 4-5 pictures in your child's life we will create our timeline. I understand how precious pics are. Your children are my son's age and I think digital cameras came around a few years after 2002. I will copy the photos, laminate them and return them ASAP. If you were able to print the digital on paper, I can laminate it as well. If you do not have a colored printer, please email them to me and I will print. Stephanie.Marshall@geaugaesc.org. I will send a hard copy note in case you did not read the blog. I would like them in by Tuesday or Wednesday.

This week we reviewed:

Spelling Words: in, is, you, that, it; 5th Grade Sight Words: exercise, dance, expensive, forecast, heart

Wilson Reading: Consonants

Vocabulary in Social Studies: longitude, latitude, equator

Writing: Our Address (Social Studies Strand - All About Me)

Math: Number Recognition and addition with manipulatives

Science: Weather Unit - KWL Chart on Weather.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with your family. Mine was busy as usual. My son had his first football scrimmage and my youngest daughters 4th birthday is today. :) Again, if you have questions, please email or call.

Weekly Newsletter 8.30.13

Good Evening Parents! It is 8:30 p.m. on Friday as I am writing you and it is dark outside  Where did the summer go? I guess this means we are quickly approaching fall. The past two weeks in the class have been busy following our various schedules of inclusion, therapists, gaining trust, and learning routines.

As we roll into September, I am looking forward to introducing new concepts to the kids. One, will be a Math Journal called “Number of the Day.” You will get one from your child each quarter. I will have them work on it during math centers. It is great because I can also differentiate each student’s abilities.

Second, we will be participating in a program called Global Read Aloud.

Last year, one of the book studies was Charlotte’s Web. Since Global Read Aloud does not start until September 30th, I would like to practice the student’s stamina of reading/listening to a chapter book. We will do a modified version of Charlotte’s Web starting Tuesday.

Reading: We will continue to practice our mastered sight words as well as introduce new ones.

Science: Nonliving/Living Unit

Social Studies: Maps and Community

Math: Work on individual IEP goals…ranging from Number Sense to Applications

Spelling: We spelled our sight words using play dough this week. (Sorry for the mess!)

Important Dates:

September 6 - Picture Day

I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly Newsletter 8.23.13

We had a wonderful first week! I was so excited to meet all of my students and am so lucky to have Mrs. Karn and Mrs. Porkorny on my team! My #1 goal is getting to know each child and keeping them safe, happy, and learning.

This week we introduced the new schedule to our kids. We were very proud on how well they can adapt to the chaotic schedule and how well they progressed over the summer. We worked on collecting data on IEP objectives and establishing a set routine that mirrored the hard work of Mrs. Southhall last year.

Our goal is to challenge our students and prepare them for middle school. We plan on doing a lot of fun activities and are excited to have Ms. Jen and her therapy dog Calena come into our classroom on Friday, September 13th and will continue every other week for the rest of the year.  I sent permission slips in the Friday Folder.

One of my favorite books is Doug Lemov's “Teach Like a Champion.” I am excited to implement a few techniques in my class this year.

One being SLANT which stands for Sit, Listen, Ask and Answer Questions, Nod your head, and Track the speaker.

One of my passions is teaching reading. I kind of fell into it by accident and rised to the challenge. One of my education idols is Dr. Robert Marzano. Marzano is an educational theorist and expert. He feels that involving students in assessing their own mastery of classroom content has a direct impact on mastery and achievement. It is very important to always have learning outcomes up on the board. I would like to get our students in the habit of expressively communicating what they did in our class. Since some may have trouble with expressive language we can incorporate their talker and make the “I Can” statements easy to repeat while posted on our board.

This week we reviewed:

Spelling Words: the, of, a, and, to & 4th and 5th Grade Sight Word Assessment (Student A)

Wilson Reading: Introducing short vowels - a apple /ă/, e Ed /ĕ/, i itch/ ĭ/, o octopuss /ŏ/, u up ŭ

Vocabulary in Social Studies: longitude, latitude, equator

Writing: Daily Journal Prompts

Math: Review addition (Student A) & counting and identifying numbers from 1-20

Science: Introduced the Scientific Method by playing the game “Saving Fred” and Understand the nature of scientific inquiry by doing the experiment Mountain Dew Light Up Bottle. I am sad to say that it did not work like we thought it might. 

Therapy Dog Program

I am very excited that Ms. Jones has asked us to participate in the therapy dog program! We will begin Friday, September 13th and will continue every other week. We will be addressing our academic and behavioral goals through our work with Calena and her owner Ms. Jen. I will send home a permission slip so that your child may participate.

Class Calendar