Our Classroom Newsletter
September 2-6
Teacher's notes
It was nice to see many of you at Curriculum Night last Thursday. You had an opportunity to "experience" a game we play on the ipad at school called KaHoot. If you were unable to join us, the content we shared information about our school day, grading procedures, field trip info and more...Here are a few of the HOT TOPICS and highlights discussed...
Q: What will your child have for homework? Read to self 20 minutes each night, studying spelling words, and sometimes math
Q: How many spelling words will my child have and what will tests be like? Students will be tested over 15 words each week. They will also need to use 3 words in 3 complete sentences to show they know the meaning of the word.
Q: What happens if my child gets a low grade 76% or below? Your child will participate in teaching time and given an opportunity to raise their grade to an 80%. The ONLY EXCEPTION to this is spelling. Because students are given the week to study at home, they CANNOT retake spelling tests.
Q: What is the student planner used for? Students copy this information each morning and it is reviewed at the end of the day. If the task was completed, it is crossed off. If the task is in progress, it will be circled and if it is homework, it is highlighted.
** We ask parents to look at the assignment each night!
Q: What happens if my child misses an assignment when gone for Orchestra? It will become homework that needs to be made up at home. If there are questions the student may ask during our soft start or quiet time, or they can come in for help during their recess time.
Q. Best way to contact my child’s teacher? Email aeandersen@mpsomaha.org
Q. Can my child call home if they forget their instrument, assignment notebook, homework, etc? NO. This is part of learning about natural consequences, and we are teaching and reinforcing skills of independence. They will not be allowed to call home.
Picture Day is THIS FRIDAY.
Order forms were sent in Friday folders and need to be returned by this Friday.
Every week as part of our enrichment time 4th grade will be using Maker's Space.
We could use many more donations to help them create. Here is a list of things we could use. Simply drop off items in the office or send them with your child.
Rohwer MakerSpace
Classroom Highlights
Fact practice with cards
review games
Quick and easy fact practice
OUR Hopes and Dreams
Morning meetings
Within our day we are taking to time to reflect about ourselves as learners within a community. We used these hopes and dreams in a morning meeting to help us establish our classroom norms and expectations. We will revisit these often to check in on our progress.
We also practice positive community interactions and discuss how we can be the best learners/people we can be. The Morning Meeting is a HUGE part of our community building and reflection. When students enter the room as part of our soft start, they read the morning meeting message to get a glimpse of what our day holds in store for us. Sometimes kids use post-its to add thoughts, answer questions or pose questions, and sometimes they simply check a column that reflects their thinking. Morning Meetings are getting us connected and thinking about learning before the day really gets going.
Next Week
Reading
We will be reading realistic fiction this week and practicing the skills of
Making predictions based on evidence
Summarizing
Idioms
Problem and solution as found in PLOT
Using dialogue to learn about characters
Spelling
Our Rule this week is words with LONG A. A copy of your child's spelling list was in their Friday Folder. You can also access the words and review activities in Spelling City. Use the link below.
Grammar
Our mentor text is Saturdays and Teacakes. and our grammar skill will be proper nouns and a review of adjectives.
Math
Our Big Idea or focus this week will be on SUBTRACTION with greater numbers. This means we will be using what we practiced last week with place values and apply and grow our thinking as we UNgroup and estimate when subtracting.
Lesson 9
subtracting to 1000
Lesson 10
Inverse operations
Lesson 11
Checking subtraction