Report Card Day!

OK...I have been told that I can be "uptight" and maybe a bit OCD...but it bothers me that I missed a day (yesterday) on the blog...so, sorry! I was at an "in-house" training all day and just never got around to updating the blog. :-(

Report cards are coming home today...check your child's backpack. You keep everything in side the envelope. Then sign the outside of the envelope (on the line next to 2nd mp) and return the EMPTY envelope to school.

In math, we have taken the unit 4 (Geometry) preassessment and gone over it. Today we concentrated on the characteristics of plane and solid figures. We constructed a cube, out of paper, and counted it's faces, edges and vertices. There is a polygon worksheet for homework...just a quick review for the adults...a polygon is any figure that is FLAT (plane), CLOSED and has STRAIGHT sides. So, a circle is NOT a polygon.

In reading we are continuing to focus on point of view. Today we read Rumpelstiltskin and learn what first person and third person point of view means...adult refresher...first person is when the person telling the story is a character in the story, third person is when the person telling the story is not a character in the story.

Yesterday the students read and discussed an issue of Time for Kids and they completed a follow up worksheet...most of the grades were a bit disappointing...I truly believe that this has more to do with using test taking strategies (such as going back to the text, eliminating answers that are obviously wrong, etc.) and less to do with the children's academic abilities. It was a little bit of a wake up call to me that the children need to do more independent, multiple choice activities and be held accountable for their work (more graded work).

I talked with the class about these things earlier today and I plan to work on helping them improve. I KNOW they are VERY capable!

Following PE, lunch and indoor recess, we went to the computer lab to work on travel brochures. When we return to the classroom, the children will read an article about hearing and answer two BCR's responding to what they have read.

PLEASE keep in mind that I encourage students to review the feedback I provide on assignments and they can redo any assignment...

One last item...beginning Monday we will have new reading groups. There will be a group of students beginning the William and Mary reading program, another group will continue working in the Junior Great Books Program and then I will have a group reading the novel Sarah, Plain and Tall. More information will be coming home, next week, regarding the William and Mary program. ALL students will receive SOME instruction from the program but some students will complete the entire program.