Sunday, September 17, 2017

Newsletter 9-17-17

We read Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night this week.  We worked on character and setting, predicates, and complete sentences.  We wrote about camping.

We had a great read-a-thon on Friday.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to radKIDS.

We are excited to have a brand new reading program called Raz-Kids.  The instructions for getting started are below, and I will send home a log-in card with the password for your child on Monday.  Replace Lexia with this as part of the daily work in the planner.  I hope you will take advantage of this terrific program! 

Kids A-Z Login Instructions
Step 1: Go to www.kidsa-z.com
Step 2: Enter or choose the teacher's username, kadams125
Step 3: Your child finds his or her username on the class chart
Step 4: Your child enters his or her password,

We finished topic one in math, and tests will go home on Monday. This was a difficult test that required higher-level thinking, and I’m proud of our kids for working so hard.  We want them to be challenged! 

Here is an explanation of what the different scores on the test mean:

1  The students take the test on the computer and record their answers on both the computer and paper copy.  The paper copy is sent home.
2  When they are finished, students bring the test to me, and we submit the test online together.  I write down their score and cross out any problems they got wrong.
3  Students then have an opportunity to go back and see if they can find their mistakes.  This helps me know whether they just made a small mistake and they still know the concept or if they truly don’t understand.  I have them use a red pen to indicate their revised answers.
4  They bring the test back to me, and I see if they were able to find the mistakes.  If they fix an answer, then I write corrected.  If they don’t fix it then I write the correct answer for them.
5  I then grade the test again and circle the corrected score.  If they were unable to fix any of the questions they receive the same score they had before.

This test was difficult for many students and I have already pulled several of them back in small groups to do reteaching.  I will continue to work with students who do not reach a score of 80% or above. Please remember that this is the beginning of the year, and students will have more opportunities to learn and master the skills that they may not have mastered yet.  The best way for you to help your children, at this point, is to help them get on Reflex math every day until they get a green light.  Being able to add and subtract fluently will help free up their thinking for more detailed and complex problem solving skills.  Thank you, and please email me if you have any questions.

If you haven’t signed up yet for parent-teacher conferences, please do so as soon as possible.  I look forward to meeting with you and your child.

Book orders went home on Friday.  If you go to the website, you will see many more books than the ones in the flier.  Our class code is GYPDT.

Have a good week.  Please contact me with any questions or concerns.