Wednesday, September 13th

Good Felt Hat Day to you all!

Room 2 @ Poly Drive is still alive and well. We are continuing to work on routines and procedures. Raising hands and asking questions so all can hear, rather than coming to me individually, is still a work in progress. But we have made huge gains in knowing what to do with papers when they are completed, and water bottles are not as interesting as they were the first few weeks.  :-)

Some students are missing friends, teachers, routines, and structures (playgrounds) from their former schools. We have a had conversations about this and how this is a normal thing to be feeling. Overall, in class, most students seem to be happy and are engaging with others in the class.

So, what are we doing? Here is a synopsis and update of the subjects:

Reading--All students who were in attendance have taken the NWEA READING test.

4th grade reading:  Students have finished the book, A Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, and have chosen a writing task to complete. They have also been completing Literature Circle jobs as they read the book. The Literature Circle assignments are graded on effort (1-5). The writing task will be a Performance score, so it will be graded as a percentage.

5th grade reading: The 5th graders have finished Hatchet. They will be choosing their writing task later this week. They have also been introduced to the Literature Circle jobs. All 5th graders in the school district are taking a writing assessment today and Thursday.

Grading
Following the BPS Elementary Grading Scale, As are percentage scores from 90-100, Bs are in the 80s, Cs are in the 70s, Ds are in the 60s, and below that is an F

Spelling
The first unit pretest was given on Tuesday. If students receive an A on the pretest, they are excused from the test on Friday. They may choose to retake it if they would like to try and improve their percentage score on Friday (from a 93% to a 100%). If they did not receive an A on the pretest, they must take it on Friday.

Also, when I am grading papers throughout the week, I will highlight words that students are misspelling in their daily work. These individual lists  will be added to their test on Friday. If they received an A on the pretest, the only words they will write are the words from the individual list. Watch for highlighted words on daily work when the papers come home on Wednesdays. The first individual lists will not be given until Friday, September 24th. I do count capitalizing, as well as neatness, on spelling tests. I am very picky about these two things. However, they may choose to use cursive or printing at this point.

Language--All students in attendance have taken the NWEA LANGUAGE test.

Students have received Daybooks. These are used in conjunction with our reading program. It is a journal-like book that promotes strategies for good reading and writing. Each lesson focuses on specific strategies for critical reading and writing, providing students with the tools they need to become proficient, confident readers and writers. The Daybooks are consumable, so students can write in them and take them home.

Math--All students in attendance have taken the NWEA MATH test.

All students have taken the pretest for Chapter 1 of the regular math book. It focuses on place value and number sense. I have analyzed the data from the tests and will be doing mini lessons with students who need review or reinforcement in particular areas. As a class, we are beginning The Mystery of the Moli Stone. It, too, covers place value and numeration but goes beyond by introducing other based number system. The students have completed the pretest for the Moli Stone as well.

Science


A huge THANK YOU to Lee Gibb, Kim Stone, and Ray Wright for accompanying us on our first field trip to Norm's Island. I think they would tell you that the presenters were very informed and well prepared for our 28 bodies. I forgot my camera (RATS!) on the field trip. But the students were very engaged and had fun finding trees, naming them, learning how the Native American's used particular parts of plants, as well as catching, drawing, and identifying beetles, spiders, butterflies, and  many other insects.

We took a science pretest for the William and Mary science curriculum. We need this data/pretest to show growth. We will be starting that curriculum next week. This Friday we will be working on dry ice again.

Social Studies
 With all the pre-testing and NWEA testing, this subject has been left out. We will get back on track next week with more routine scheduling.

Substitutes


I will have a substitute 3 times this fall for some district level trainings. The first 1/2 day I will be gone is tomorrow, September 16th for the morning only. My instructions to the students is that I expect them to be on BEST behavior. I also ask the substitute to leave names of students who struggled following rules while I was gone. My procedure upon returning is to meet with the students individually and together come up with a plan for the next time I have a substitute. This is to ensure that the child is learning and the substitute can do his/her job.

Wednesday Watch Folders


There is a LOT of information in the folders this week: Saturday Live information, basketball sign up forms, YMCA programs, early out notices, etc. Some students have a 1/3 sheet of yellow paper that indicates they are getting low on lunch money. Please look through the papers carefully. Spelling pretests should be in the Wednesday Watch folders as well.

6-Week Grade Check
I will be sending home an informal 6-week grade check next week. Be watching for it in the Wednesday Watch folder. Some subjects will have very few grades. But I want to make sure you are informed and up-to-date.

I hope your children are telling you about some of the fun things we are doing in class (BACON, push ups, Jumping Frogs, who is a billion seconds old?). They are a wonderful group of highly verbal children.

As always, call or email if you have questions!

Terri

porischt@billingsschools.org