During our homeroom science and social studies time we have been engaged in several projects. Students worked toward consensus to decide on their classroom job chart. Then each person contributed to help assemble it. Students worked in twos and threes to create recipes for a successful classroom (hope to post those next week). In response to a student recommendation they are also making personal diagrams to show what it means to reset.
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Ms. Wick has been assessing each student to determine his or her reading strengths and needs to inform planning and reading instruction. These assessments will continue into next week. Reading lessons this week focused on book selection, stamina and word attack.
Some students are preparing videos to share books that are just right, easy and challenging. We hope to post a couple of those next week. Your student should be reading from a "just right" book that s/he can read smoothly with understanding. When attacking a new word, encourage your child to "Flip the Sound." This means to try to pronounce the word a couple of ways to hear what sounds right. Students and parents seemed to have a great time at the Build Night (sponsored by Instructables.com) in the LMC at Open House last night. Forms for the after school options involving technology choices can be found online:
http://stonerprairie2014-2015.weebly.com/sp-after-school.html The deadline for sign up is September 26. Stoner Prairie's Open House is Thursday evening, September 16 from 5:30 to 7:00. There will be a Talk-in delivered by Ms. Cook and Ms. Wick from 6:40 to 7:00 in the steproom. We will review teaching practices in the 4/5, the contents of this blog and be seeking input about the types of communication you'd like to see posted here. We hope you'll make it a priority to attend the talk-in.
We do many activities to encourage student self-expression and to support students in getting to know one another at the beginning of the year. Decorating picture frames that will hang in the hallway is one of our traditions. Students were encouraged to bring in small items from home to add to their frames. They are taking their photos and should have their frames hanging soon! An accompanying writing project will be a short biographical piece.
Below is a general overview of our daily schedule. It will take several weeks before we get regulated. Students will glue a copy of this in the back of their agenda books. While we value flexibility, we also know that students enjoy predictability. We took the opportunity to celebrate our first week together with some laughs and fun. The photos above show us cooling off with a game of Drip, Drip Drop. We also played Rock, Paper Scissors, Scream and Run, Hagoo, Blob Tag and Simon Says. Games like this are a way to support belonging and a sense of community.
We are working to establish homework routines by providing at school time for students to learn homework expectations. By week three, students will be writing journal entries, practicing math facts and reading as their main homework assignments. We will post our expectations to provide clarity for parents.
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AuthorsMs. Cook and Ms. Wick will monitor posts made to this blog. Posts starting in March are generated by both students and teachers. Archives
September 2015
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