La classe de Madame Morgan

Bienvenue à la classe de la 4e et 5e année!

My name is Cindy Morgan and I am very happy to be your child’s teacher this school year. I believe that it is important for all of us to work together as a team in educating your child. If you have any questions of concerns, please feel free to contact me. I check student planners every morning so they are a good way to send quick notes. For more lengthy communication my email is cynthia.morgan@ed.amdsb.ca. I try to respond within one school day but I do not always have time to check it before classes begin. Instead of newsletters, I will be posting regularly on our classroom website. If you require paper copies please let me know

A Little Bit About Me

Mme Morgan

Tribes

We are a Tribes Learning Communities classroom. Tribes is a democratic group process, not just a curriculum or set of cooperative activities. A “process” is a sequence of events that lead to the achievement of an outcome. The outcome of the Tribes process is to develop a positive environment that promotes human growth and learning. (Taken from Tribes Learning Communities by Jeanne Gibbs, 2006). This means that our class will frequently be working in various student focused learning groups with myself acting as a facilitator. This will allow students to learn the valuable skills of listening, group problem solving, valuing others’ opinions, sharing of ideas and co-operating.

We will be following four agreements:

Attentive Listening: To pay close attention to one another’s expression of ideas, opinions and feelings; to check for understanding; and to let others know that they have been heard.
Appreciation/No Put-Downs: To treat others kindly; to state appreciation for unique qualities, gifts, skills and contributions; to avoid negative remarks, name-calling, hurtful gestures and behaviours.
Right to pass/Participate: To have the right to have more think time during participation in group activities, to observe quietly if not participating actively.
Mutual Respect: To affirm the value and uniqueness of each person; to recognize and appreciate individual and cultural differences; and offer feedback that encourages growth.

Academics

During September we will be studying place value, addition and subtraction in Math. Grade 4s work with numbers up to 10,000 and grade 5s to 100,000. In French, we will be focusing on oral communication throughout September as we build our classroom community. They will soon be receiving their first assignment in French. Each child needs to pick 5 objects that represent themselves. In class they will need to explain their connection to the object. Further details will soon be sent home. In English we will be incorporating the daily five in English—read to self, read to another, listen to reading, work on writing and word work. We will be working on writing good paragraphs with topic and concluding sentences. In September we will begin to read Fish in a Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt. It is a story about a girl, Ally, who struggles in school with reading. Once a teacher identifies her dyslexia, a new world begins to open up to her. In Social Studies we will review the geography of Canada and then study its different levels of government. In Science, our first unit will be on the human body.

Routines

Special classes

Your child will have gym class on day 2 and day 4. Indoor running shoes are required for gym. Library will be on day 1. We have the Chromebooks on days 2 and 5.

Food and drink

A quick reminder that Anne Hathaway is a nut-free school and anything that contains or may contain nuts is not to be brought to school. Proper nutrition and hydration can DEFINITELY boost thinking and learning! Each student will be allowed to keep a non-glass bottle of water with a lid at his/her desk throughout the day (it gets very warm in this class!) and will be able to refill it during Nutrition Breaks. We are on a balanced day so students will have 2 twenty minute nutrition breaks following their recesses.

Indoor shoes

Students are asked to have a pair of indoor shoes to change into when they come inside. An old pair of running shoes works fine. Students require this footwear to participate fully in gym class, to avoid injury when walking around the school or classroom, and to avoid wet and cold feet during a fire alarm. When it is wet outside, they are also encouraged to bring an extra pair of socks.

Planner

Planners will be checked EVERY morning, so feel free to write notes in it and I will be sure to see them. Please look at and sign the agenda every night. On Mondays, we will write down the important information for the week but from time to time we will add to it mid-week. I do track planner and homework completion on a regular basis. This is an indication of the student’s learning skills of responsibility and organization as recorded on the report card.

Supplies

Most supplies that students will need are available in the classroom. Students are not to bring binders as their desks are not big enough. They are to use the duotangs provided to organize their work. Students will benefit from having their own pencils, pencil crayons, erasers, markers, glue (we go through a lot of glue), and dry erase markers. I also recommend not sending a year’s supply in September. These tend to get used or lost quickly. Sending a few at the beginning of each month works best.

Homework

It is expected that students in Grade 4 and 5 spend some time on homework each night. Each activity should take no more than 15 to 20 minutes. If your child is struggling with an activity and it is taking longer than that, have your child talk to me the following day. If it is a math question we will take it up in class. In reading, I can go over a word that they are having trouble with and post it on the website.

Reading is the most valuable form of homework there is. Each week a French passage will be sent home to be read each and every night. Usually there will be comprehension questions. The class will have already read the passage in class on Monday and we will post a list of unfamiliar words and their definitions on the website. In addition to this, students should be reading something of their choosing for about 20 minutes a night in English.

For Math homework students usually have a choice. A calendar will be sent home each month in the homework duo-tang. There will be one problem for them to solve every night. The questions will not necessarily reflect what we are currently studying in class but will serve as a preview, consolidation or review of what is taught in class. Students can either write their answers on the calendar itself or on a loose page inside the duotang. Please do not use another notebook. Label these pages so that they are easy to find. Sometimes the homework is more of an activity, such as playing a game, in this case, a parent’s signature can go in the calendar box instead. If students would prefer a challenge or if they completed the calendar last year, they can attempt the Problem of the Week. They would then need to only complete the one problem for the week but the problem can take more than a day to complete. When we are working on more complex Math subjects such as division or fractions, there might be homework sent home that is for the whole class to do.

French Vocabulary lists will be sent home each Monday. Students will need to learn what they mean and how to spell them. While there will be no formal assessment, we will be working with these every day in class and students would benefit from reviewing them at home. They are sometimes taken from the weekly reading or sometimes from what we are studying in Science or Social Studies. Some weeks we will study a grammar concept instead. If this is the case there will be a formal assessment.

The homework duo-tang is to be returned to school each Friday with completed math and French homework. I understand that this is not always possible. Encourage your child to do what they can and hand it in as soon as possible. It will be marked as late, but late is better than not handed in. Students will be given enough time to complete assignments in class, however, sometimes students might choose to work on them at home. We will be using Google Classroom for many of our writing assignments. Students will be able to access this at home. If they have any questions they can post it as a comment and I will respond when I can.

I will keep you informed of any other important dates (field trips, tests, large projects) in the planners, the website and through Twitter. Each Monday I will post about the homework on the website. I will use Twitter to notify parents of important dates coming up and when I have added new content to the website. My Twitter profile is @mme_morgan. Please consider doing this so that you do not miss any important information. Once again, I ask that if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me right away.

Sincerely,

Cindy Morgan

Twitter: @mme_morgan

Website: https://sites.google.com/ed.amdsb.ca/mmemorgan/home

Email: cynthia.morgan@ed.amdsb.ca

Report abuse