Lunar Eclipse!!

What an awesome sight this week!!  

About 1/2 of our kiddos got up early to see it...

LOVE IT!!

Photo Credit: the Brockman Family  

5th Grade Bound

We are at the halfway point in the year. I always give the kids a talk about how my job has changed. The first half of the year I was molding 3rd graders in to 4th graders but now I am moving them toward being 5th graders. My expectations have increased and I will be looking for much more detailed work from them.  You can review your child's work, grades, and my comments in  Google Classroom anytime.  Ask your student to show you...

MAP Testing

MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) testing will take place three times during our school year.  Next week starts the window for the second "testing window."  We will start with ELA on Monday--and take Math on Thursday. These tests are done on a computer and they measure academic growth throughout the year.  The tests are unique as they can adapt to your your child's level of learning!  Each student has the same opportunity to set goals for themselves and to succeed while maintaining a positive attitude toward testing!  MAP tests take a shorter amount of time to administer and give us detailed accurate information about their growth. Check out THIS Parent's Guide to MAP Growth!

Valentine's Day

We will be having our Valentine's Day party on February 14th.  

A SIGNUP GENIUS came out last week!!  
Please watch for it!!

 If your child wants to pass out valentines at the party, s/he needs to make sure to have one for each person in the class.   No one should be left out!!  

Thinking Journals

Please remember to "go over" / talk about and SIGN your child's Thinking Journal each night.  With the school's "No Homework" policy, we use this journal as a way to keep you connected with what is going on in class, and hopefully "spark" further discussions at home.

Thinking Journals are part of our 21^st century learning skills. Student’s reflections on learning and making connections to their lives are a very powerful tool. Journals are started in class and completed at home every night. Students record the daily word bank of key terms from the day and then reflect on their learning and connections through the sentence frame: “I notice”, “It reminds me of” and “I wonder.” Responses should be 2 or 3 sentences to each frame. Students should be reading these to someone at night and sharing their learning and thoughts. Friday’s reflection [Sticky Moments] is “What stuck with me this week?”  We complete these in class, so it is not homework. The idea is to make learning meaningful to the kids by connecting classroom learning to their own world. Thanks!

Progress Reports

Your child is bringing home an official Progress Report and/or a current Grade Printout. These grades reflect how your child is doing at this time.  Please note that grades may change by report card time.  

Here are some important things to keep in mind:

·         In our class, we celebrate a Growth Mindset. Look at the Progress Report/Grade Printout as an opportunity to encourage your child in areas where he/she needs growth, rather than punish him/her for “bad grades”.

o        Ask him/her, “How can you better understand the material?”

o        “Are you really doing your best work?”

o        “Are you using the strategies you have learned to solve the problems?”

o        “Are you paying attention in class when instructions are being given?”

·         This is the first year they are getting letter grades [A, B, C, D, F], and are still learning to study for tests, etc. This is a skill they will develop as students this year.

Remember that tests with a score lower than 70% can be redone for up to a 70%.  

Computer Use

Our children have access to the GSuite for Education through the school district. This access opens up a very large cloud-based computing platform for them to use. With that comes access to E-mail, Chat, Hangouts, and all of the other GSuite applications. The district doesn't have the ability to pick and choose the ones they wish to use (e.g.,Classroom), while limiting access to the others (e.g., Chat).

This is where good Digital Citizenship comes in. We spend time discussing what is and isn't appropriate on a computer, and we teach how to access appropriate content. We use Classroom every single day in class, along with other software applications that have been uploaded into our Classroom.

At this point, Nelda Mundy is putting in place a policy regarding Chat and Hangout. Students should NOT be using this on their school district accounts, even at home. I won't respond to Chat or Hangout requests, as they shouldn't be using them at all.

Mr, Kubiak let the children know that this is the new policy in our classrooms, and we had an extensive conversation in class as well. Violations of the policy will have appropriate consequences. THANKS!