Last week's newsletter!

No it's not lost in a backpack!

Writing up a newsletter for this week got away from me, many apologies.

There is not much going on this week beyond our day to day activities!

There WILL be a newsletter coming home Friday afternoon :)

WE USE OUR RESOURCES!!

A task was added to our writing storm today!

If we think we're finished, instead of closing our notebooks and looking for something else to start, let's start the editing process! We have a high frequency word wall (the bonus words on spelling tests) that students should master by the end of third grade, a GREAT glossary in the back of our spelling books and two anchor charts ALL to support good sentences! 

Building skills, like editing, in small chunks of time makes it much 

easier to bring into when we have more formal writing projects! 

OTES Picture Day

School Pictures will be taken

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 

Please send envelopes back with your student if you wish to order their 2014- 2015 photo!!

Monday Monday MONDAY!!

I hope you all had WONDERFUL weekends! 

Starting this week off on the right foot- chuckles at letters the students wrote me on Friday, spelling pretest (with some EXCELLENT focus if I may add), and 3 compliments for our great line in the hallway- ALL BEFORE 10:00!! WAHOO :)

The homework routine is starting up again this week. I reached some, but to those I did not- MANY apologies for the disappearance of homework last week. With NWEA testing and Open House, I figured the classes time at home could be better spent playing!

This week:

- Spelling- worksheet, writing the words once, sentences, Thursday   night practice 

- Math- one worksheet per night

- Reading logs- I prefer to consider R.L's "habit" rather than   "homework". Reading each night solidifies the word work and   writing we do in school! 

The more it's seen, the better it's known :)

Parent Teacher Conferences

In addition to seeing where your student comes each day, you will also 

have the opportunity to sign up for conferences this evening!

For those unable to make it to Open House, I will be in touch to set up a time to meet. I have a handful of morning times available, some midday and the rest are throughout the late afternoon/early evening. If these times are not compatible with your schedule, we will find a time that works!! :)

Teamwork makes the dream work!!

In light of all the NWEA testing, I wanted to find a way to get the student's hands on their learning today! As a group we brainstormed many different ways to write numbers- tally marks, money, arrays, pictograms, roman numerals, expanded form, and standard notation just to name a few. This skill is frequently in their Math Boxes!

We worked in four groups of 4 or 5 to brainstorm collectively at least ten ways to record their varying numerals. In addition to building their math language, a goal was to have students improve their abilities to communicate and politely disagree with their peers. After all we often need to be able to see different perspectives! 

These two even pulled out their Math Resource book before looking to me for guidance!
Resources are there for a reason after all  :)

Communicating with each other also opens our mind to ideas we may not have come to ourselves, which is EXACTLY why we conducted a 'museum walk'. Once students wrapped their thoughts and got their final ideas down, they had the opportunity to check out the work of their peers; to see if there were ideas they had not reached just yet!

We finished the day working on our own Earth's! The activity most definitely took time and patience, but it was a good means to release some pent up energy. 

I loved seeing our group's willingness to help and support each other! 

:)

Open House at OTES

Join us Thursday, September 18 from 4:30 to 7!

Come on up to the classroom and take a tour of what your students have been working on and take a peek in their book boxes to get a feel of what they've been working on!
There will also be opportunity to sign up for Parent-Student-Teacher conferences!!

Our Spaghetti Dinner open at 5 that evening as well!
Join us in the cafeteria to support our After School Programs (ASP) and enjoy some saucy spaghetti!  

Each community of teachers have donated a unique, themed basket for the ASP raffle at the supper . 

Can't wait to see you all :)

NEWA's fast approaching!

Monday 8:15 Reading

Tuesday 1:00 Math

Wednesday 9:30 Language

Each test will last an hour in length. Please help your student get a good hearty
breakfast and send a nice snack to refuel! I'm making sure to include a little extra movement each day to allow a bit more steam to blow off!

The beginnings of an investigation!!

After thinking about the Earth last week and all that effect our day to day lives, we focused today on the LAYERS of the Earth!! We used a word search to help us create a vocabulary list about the Earth, and, through a group read, we learned what each layer is made of. 

My FAVORITE part about these science notebooks is that they are all a work in progress. You can't "not finish" because theres always more to learn. 

I'm so excited, when the time comes, to have the students start with predictions and creating caption to photos of an active experiment! There are so many directions to go with interactive notebooks, a little something different for everyone

Courtney's planning was WONDERFUL; labeling what she was
 coloring with the appropriate color!

Sharing a nice book of poetry before heading to library!!

 :)

Personal Reading Logs

As you may have seen in your students homework folders, a reading log came home for your student! Consider this version a draft to get the tweaks out, I already have notes for myself just after sharing them with the students in fact. 

It is my hope that students will be able to read 20 minutes independently at least five nights a week. To get the ball rolling, having them read to you or you to them or even to a sibling would be a great way to start their logs positively. 

For every 100 minutes a student reads, they will receive a slip of paper to ultimately build into a paper chain (perhaps a miniature version for the sake of space!). The idea behind the paper chain is that their reading builds and builds into something bigger!

What do you THINK you know?

It is important when learning to be flexible with what we think we know. 

Acknowledging what we think we know is a great way to get started! 

Today was our FIRST science investigation! Prior to exploring what I had displayed, we set up the beginnings of our interactive science notebooks. Our guiding questions for the day- What do we THINK we know about the Earth? Students would use the materials to develop questions and ideas about what they think about the Earth. 

Students had the opportunity to "museum walk" and get their hands on materials, books or manipulate objects. While walking around the room they could go back to their notebooks and record some ideas or wonderings they had. We worked on writing in lists and using bullets or skipping lines to organize our information! 

Reading always looks different!!

Our students are already showing the variety of ways they enjoy reading in! Nothing, of course, compares to a comfortable bed at home, but we all can find something that works in other places!

Just like how everyone learns a little differently, we all are comfortable in different places and positions!

The Second day of School!!

I thought I would give the second day some time in the spotlight. We all focus so much on the first day which can have our nerves in a knot, but we know we will be successful when everyone returns for the SECOND DAY!! WOO

Yesterday was wonderful! We have a chatty but incredibly hard working little family here. A focus of yesterday: having respect for everyone, including ourselves, and for all materials, including our own! We got to know each other so well yesterday, I was excited for the chattiness rather than shyness. We learned from First Day Jitters that even teachers can be nervous and practiced some reading skills to use in our quiet reading or at home reading with you!

It is going to be such a great year :)