Week 4 & 5 Highlights

Can you believe we are about halfway through the month of October already?! October is definitely flying by! We have been extremely busy the past two weeks with fun activities and finishing up several of our units of study. Before I share what Room 307 has been up to the past couple of weeks, I have two reminders to share:

1. Please make sure that if you haven't signed up for conferences that you do so as soon as possible. It is coming up next month!

2. 5th grade families: the camp money & forms are due tomorrow, October 13. Please contact me if you need scholarships or have any questions or concerns regarding camp. It is coming up in two weeks!

Highlights:

-We started off the month of October with making delicious apple crisp in a crockpot and having it with some vanilla ice cream!

-We published our 2nd personal narratives to finish up our Personal Narratives unit in writing. This week, we will start a Realistic Fiction unit in writing. For homework writing entries, students are encouraged to continue the writing entries they are working on in class or to start new stories in the same genre as our writing unit. 

-In math, we are working hard on long division and double-digit long division. It is a very challenging skill for students, but practice will help to get students more fluent in division. Please send students early to school to get math/homework help from me if they need the help!

-We are finishing up the last third of our read aloud, Something to Hold. Next week on October 21st, we will have a special visit from my grad school literacy professor from Seattle University, Katherine Schlick Noe. She is the author of our read aloud book, and she has agreed to come meet 307 students, share about her writing, and do a Q&A. I am so excited to have my former literacy professor come and teach my students!! We will definitely update with pictures from the visit. 

-Last but not least, we finished our humdinger challenge:

... and started a new challenge in science, designing functioning go-carts! We will have many different challenges with the go-carts - here are some students getting creative and building their models:

*Student post written by our class bloggers/journalists coming soon!!

Week 4 Highlights

Thank you to all of the families who made it out to Curriculum Night this past Tuesday! It was great to be able to reconnect with families and be able to communicate to you about the rest of this year. There were lots of questions around the new standardized testing that will be implemented this year, and here is the website for the spring assessment that has been adopted by Washington State called: Smarter Balanced Assessment. The other change that I mentioned was that we will be replace MAP (Measurement of Academic Progress) to Amplify, which is a district-wide decision. Amplify will help to support students in being able to successfully take the Smarter Balanced Assessment because it is computer-based. Please contact me if you have any other questions about this topic. This is a big change/shift in the district and schools, principals, teachers, students are all learning together how this new testing will work!

About half of the families have signed up for fall conferences. It is extremely important to me that I get a chance to meet with families about the progress of their child and how we can better team up to support 307 students! I have sent out emails and email reminders about signing up for the conference. It will be done through Volunteer Spot, which is a great digital sign-up sheet that is very convenient for parents to check and switch dates without having to contact me. If this method does not work for you, and you would rather sign up by email with me or paper and pencil, PLEASE let me know and I will be happy to accommodate!

Fall is a busy time with lots of students in sports and other after school activities. At Leschi, we will have Seattle Music Partners starting up fairly soon. There is a Parent Night for interested families on September 29th, from 5:30-7:30. Instrumental Music will also begin soon and this is the IN-SCHOOL music class. Those students who signed up and received their admittance letter will need to make sure that letter is read thoroughly to see what instruments, books, and materials are needed.

Along with that, please invite me to sporting events or games! I like to come watch if my schedule allows it, and for students who give me their schedule, I like to at least attend one game/performance/event so that students can see that I support their hobbies!

Highlights:
-We finished our published writing for our first narrative drafts and students are choosing to type out their published writing on our new Chromebooks! Ms. Trapp and I have also started our weekly conferences with students so that we are setting writing goals together along with checking what has been written that week in class and at home for homework.
-Math groups have launched into their second unit of math! Most groups are working on multiplication/division. The math homework will begin to get harder and take longer at home.
-In reading, students met with their reading partners to learn how to discuss books and talk about them politely and respectfully. We will continue this work throughout the rest of the year.
-We started building our own humdingers in science this week! In pairs, students will continue to get more time to build their humdingers so that next week, we can share our ideas and how each pair got to build their humdingers. The following activity will be to build go-carts! 

-We finished up our Amplify baseline assessment for the fall. Students who have not finished will have time to work on it in class this week.
-3/4 of the class finished their work plans this week! Students are really getting into the groove of work time and most students are efficient and pacing their work load well.
-5th grade families! PLEASE return your 5th grade camp packets/forms as soon as you fill them out! We need to be able to see all of the accommodations that will be necessary for camp. Camp will be from October 29-31 (Wednesday-Friday).

*Here is Norbert being bathed by our zoologists! His first bath!!

Week 3 Highlights

Wow! Our routines and structures of our class and procedures are becoming smoother every day and these good habits are being reinforced. Setting up routines and learning these at the start of the year can sometimes be a painful and difficult process, but Room 307 students are just amazing! Students new and old are all seamlessly becoming one community and learning 307's ways together. We started our ever-popular Class Economy system founded by Rafe Esquith, a classroom teacher and Vanguard, an investment management company. This system works to help students learn about the real-world skills of money management, earning a salary, paying rent, earning bonuses, paying fines, and holding a class auction at the end of each month. We will continue learning about this system throughout this month and into the rest of this school year.

We also went on our first field trip to the Seattle Aquarium on Thursday for the Salmon Homecoming event. It was a lot of fun - here are some pictures from our time!

Highlights:

-We have chosen our writing pieces to publish next week. Students are continuing work on their writing stamina at home and at school. Each day, students are asked to writing an entry or continue a writing entry at home. 

-Students in the Stanford math group took their first math test on Friday. Princeton math group students will be taking their math test on Tuesday. The second unit that these two groups will start this week is Multiplying & Dividing Whole Numbers. 

-We have gotten deeper into our read aloud book Something to Hold. We had some great conversations on some of the issues that the book brings up. All students have been assessed on their reading levels as well this week. A former teacher donated some chapter books to our ever-growing library! Here are students sorting through and categorizing them into different genres.

-There were lots of hands-on experimenting in science. We made physical models based on our conceptual models of our black boxes. 

We decided to measure Norbert and track his growth. Here is Norbert hanging out with our class - he was a bit timid, but we know he will warm up as he gets older!

-Our Chromebooks arrived! We can't wait to start using them in our classroom. 

Week 2 Highlights

The first full week of school flew by! We got started on many of our units of study in writing, reading, math and science. We have been practicing our routines daily and getting used to the structure of our class, procedures and schedule. Here are some of the things we have been up to and reminders for families to keep in mind!

Highlights:

-Our very first writing unit is on personal narratives. Students are working on building their stamina in writing and learning how Writers Workshop works in Room 307. Students have been asked to write daily entries for homework and continuing those pieces in class. It would be helpful for students if family members check in with the writing entries and ask what we have been working on in class. 

-Math groups started this week and students are in differentiated groups to learn exactly what they need. Groups are named after some of the top universities in our nation: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford! Math homework will be a daily sheet or two. It is collected every day and the work directly corresponds with what we are working on in class. 

-Readers Workshop launched this past week as well with lots of reading stamina-building, routines, and a read aloud titled Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe (who was my professor in grad school). We have asked her to come visit so that the stories from her life that are told in her novel can become more of a reality to students.

-Our first science unit is Models & Designs. I'm so excited about this unit because it is so hands-on and is all about building, creating, and testing their models. We started with black boxes and making conceptual models of what we thought the maze in the boxes looked like. Students were engaged in groups and were asked to come up with a consensus on their ideas. 

-We also got our Donors Choose project funded! We will have two new Chromebooks added to our classroom to use - thank you to those who donated! 

-Please turn in field trip and 5th Grade Camp permission forms as soon as possible. Thank you!!

New Donors Choose Project Up!!

Please check out our new Donors Choose project that was recently put up! Here are some of the details:

I want to make sure my students have the materials they need to succeed, so I just created a request for my classroom at DonorsChoose.org: Chromebooks in the Classroom!

Give to my classroom by September 16 and your donation will be doubled thanks to DonorsChoose.org. Just enter the code INSPIRE on the payment page and you'll be matched dollar for dollar (up to $100).

If you know anyone who may want to help my classroom, please pass this along!

Week 1 Highlights

The first week of school went smoothly and all too quickly!! We filled our days with fun cooperative group activities to get to know each other and assessments that help me to know what students already know. We will be hitting the ground running this coming week and getting to learn more of our routines and procedures. 

We held daily class meetings this past week to come up with an action/behavior plan that everyone will agree and commit to. Once we are finished with our class plan, I will share with families what we came up with. 

Here are some quick highlights from the week:

-Cooperative groups worked together in activities such as The Marshmallow Challenge and Saving Fred Activity.

-Mrs. Johnson, our new math specialist for our school came in to introduce herself to our class and do a fun math activity!

-We had our first Readers Workshop session where we shared about our reading lives and found comfortable spots in the classroom to read to self.

-Last but not least... Introducing our class pet: Norbert, our bearded dragon! 

Have a great weekend!

New Supply List for 2014-15

Welcome to a new school year! I am looking forward to reconnecting with returning families and getting to know the new families. This blog/class website will be the primary method of communication (unless families prefer notes home), so the first thing that needs to be done is to sign up to get these blog updates through e-mail. Many returning families still have not signed up through e-mail - you are not required to, but it is an easier way to stay connected if you want e-mail updates instead of checking the blog each week. To sign up, please click on the subscribe by email button on the right. After doing so, you have to confirm from your e-mail - many people forget this step!

As families begin to prepare and start to think about gearing up for the school year, I wanted to post a supply list to help guide in the madness of back-to-school shopping! If you are unable to purchase any of the supplies, please let me know and I am happy to provide supplies for students!

Personal Supplies:
-3 ring binder (1 or 1.5 inch)
-5 tab divider
-3 ring pencil pouch (that clips into the binder)
-1 clipboard
-1 pair of student scissors (I recommend 5-6 inch scissors that will fit the student's hand)
-3 jumbo glue sticks
-mechanical pencils (0.7)
-0.7 lead
-1 soft eraser
-1 composition notebook
*If the student was NOT in Room 307 last year, please bring a USB Memory Stick (any size). If the student WAS in Room 307, I have kept their USB and we will use the same ones again this year.

Shared Supplies:
-2-3 Clorox wipes (no baby wipes, please)
-2-3 boxes of Kleenex
-1 gallon-sized Ziploc bags
-2 black Flair pens
-0.7 lead (as much as possible!)

*If you are able, please consider donating $5 to other classroom supplies which have been purchased and will be used by students including: math binders, notebooks, folders, pencil pouches, etc.

Please contact me if you have any questions about the supplies or if you would like me to have all of the items ready for your child on the first day of school. I hope to see many of you at the "Ready, Set, School" event on August 28th (6:00-7:30)!