Updates and Announcements:
Curriculum Night
You are cordially invited to our Curriculum Night
event, taking place on Wednesday, August 24th (grades 3-5). The even starts at 6:00
p.m. in the Arete gymnasium, with opening remarks from Mr. Gillingham, Ms.
Pantalena, and Mrs. Mason.
The purpose of this even is to acquaint you with the
school’s curriculum and individual classroom procedures across all grade
levels. Teachers will give parents an opportunity to ask questions. (Please
note, this is a parent only event.) We look forward to seeing you there!
Math Centers will start this week. I have contacted
some parents to help, but more would be ideal so we can work in smaller groups.
This means students get more individual attention during Math Centers. Parents
who volunteer must have their Fingerprint Clearance Card. Please contact me if
you are interested in volunteering.
Please aim to drop students off by 7:40. We have an
“A” schedule, which means that our Special class (Music, Art, PE, French)
starts at 7:55. Our morning looks like this: the bell rings at 7:50 and I start
calling attendance. If there is an absent student, I mark them absent. After
announcements at about 7:53, I call the absent students again (just in case
they came during announcements). Then I send in our attendance by the time we
leave at 7:55. I try to give grace when I can, but I need to turn in attendance
before we leave for Special. Students who are late will need to stop by the
office for a late pass. Please let me know if you have any questions or
concerns.
We will have a Roots quiz every Wednesday. Students
will be quizzed over the previous week’s roots plus one bonus root from a
different week. Students can come to expect these just like weekly Spalding
tests.
Our week in learning:
This week, students will be preparing for their
first unit test on Spacial Sense. The unit test is on Wednesday in
their homerooms. We will be studying U.S. geography throughout the year.
Originally, this is all supposed to be one unit in May, but we have split it up
into different regions. Students will start with an introduction lesson this
week, with more lessons between units. We will have periodic quizzes and a
final exam toward the end of the year. We will also start their new unit, World
Lakes, on Friday. We will be looking into the major lakes of Africa.
Students will be applying their knowledge of scientific
investigation, once again, in an interactive science experiment. Through this
week’s lab they will learn how to share their scientific findings with others.
The following week, we will be doing an engineering lab to explore dependent
and independent variables. I am requesting donations of a few materials. Please
follow the sign-up genius link if you are willing to donate. I need the
materials by August 26th. Thanks! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0f4da4ae2fa0fe3-science
In writing and grammar this week we will be taking a
break from grammar and focusing on writing summaries. We will be reading
both narrative and expository texts and will develop a well written summary of
six to seven sentences.
This week in math, students will be multiplying and
dividing by 10’s, 100’s, and 1000’s. Students will also be preparing for their
first unit test on Friday.
