Report Cards
Report cards came home on Thursday with students. I hope you enjoyed the new template! It is my goal each reporting time, that there are no surprises for parents when they read their child's report card. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Heather or myself at the school as soon as possible.
Language Arts News!
Parent Emails
The students have been emailing home over the past couple of weeks. Last week I noticed that more time was being spent changing the font or colour of the text than on the actually writing. Today, we fine tuned our rules and expectations around this activity.
These are my expectations:
1) the email has a subject
2) the text starts with a proper greeting
3) writing is organized into proper paragraphs that stay focused on the topic introduced in the topic sentence
4) paragraphs should contain a topic sentence, 2-4 supporting sentences and a closing sentence
5) a proper closing should end the email
6) the font or colour of the text will NOT be changed
7) a closing little sticker is ok
If you are not receiving emails from your child please let me know ASAP. Damion was unable to send one today due to some technical difficulties.
The students LOVE reading your replies and are eager to write back! If a student has free time, emailing home will be one of their primary options.
Sentence Structure
We have continued to explore writing with different sentence starters. After working on where sentence starters, we focused on when sentence starters. The following when sentences were written independently by students:
In the spring, the bear woke from its slumber.
Suddenly, the grizzly slashed the tire on the car!
In a flash, the bear splashed to get his baby!
At that moment, the grizzly fell asleep.
Once students had a handle on when sentences, we went on to how-ly sentence starters. The following sentences were written by the students:
Hungrily, the mouse dove into the garbage.
Softly, the mouse tip-toed across the classroom floor.
Silently, the mouse pitter-pattered up the staircase.
Angrily, the bear charged at the bunny.
Throughout these focused sentence starter activities, the students are also focusing on using specific verbs for the noun in the sentence. Notice the different verbs used to describe the movement of the bear compared to the mouse.
This week, we will look at how-ing and what sentence starters.
Reading
Last week our read aloud stories were all stuck stories. While I was reading to the students, they were focusing on identifying the parts of the story:
Characters
Setting (where and when the story takes place)
Motive (what does the character want)
Stuck (how the character gets stuck that doesn't let them get what they want)
Attempts that failed
Successful attempt
Motive carried out (the character getting what they want)
The stuck story format is the one that we will be using for story writing this year. Reading several stuck stories prior to writing serves as an excellent model for the students to follow.
Ask your child to retell one of their favourite stuck stories to you and have them pick out each story element.
Math
We are finally ready to get going on multi-digit addition! I am going to work through three different strategies to assist the students in accurately calculating the sum of two multi-digit numbers. I will introduce the number line method, an expanded form method and then the classic algorithm method (stack and add). Students will be able to choose which strategy works consistently and accurately for them after being introduced to all three strategies.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school.
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