Newsletter for April 28, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Science 
Students began using BookCreator, an app on their iPads, to create books about the Tree Trek. While I am often disappointed with apps, I find this one to be very intuitive and a great tool for students to share what they have learned. It is a true multi-media tool, incorporating images and sound and is only limited by the students' creativity.

    

Important Dates & Reminders

I hope you are able to come to Kid Fest (and that the rain holds off!). Have a lovely weekend.

I will not need reading volunteers for the remainder of the year. We are doing several science, reading and writing based projects and will need to use our WIN time for these. I cannot thank our reading volunteers enough for all of your help!

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

May 2 - Primary Elections, Students will eat in the classroom
May 8 - 19 Terra Nova & Inview Gifted Screener
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment
May 19 - Device collection 

May 22 - Field Day, Please apply sunscreen before your student arrives at school and feel free to send students with water bottles, old athletic shoes that can get wet, and swimsuits under their clothing. This will be a fun, but hot day.  

Happy Spring and welcome to the 2017 Windermere Field Day.  This year promises to be the best field day ever!  In order for this to happen, we need your help.  Sign up to be a field day volunteer.  We are in need of parent volunteers for the morning and afternoon session.  Full day volunteering is also available and encouraged if possible.  Sign up below so we can put on an awesome day for our kids!!  Please contact me with any questions.

AM Session:  8:30 - 11:05
PM Session:  11:30 - 2:30

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050d4bafad23a31-windermere3             

May 26 - Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 - Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 - Early Dismissal 1pm  

Newsletter for April 21, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We continued our cursive this week. We devote out attention to lower case letters based on a common shape. We concluded the first "family" of letters: c, a, d, g, and q. We also continued with our spelling patterns by group.

Reading
Students are creating plays based on favorite scenes from books they've read this year. I love this project as students have to read, interpret, write and present all in an authentic process with an audience. They are excited to do this. The challenge is to get them to slow down and understand it is not about props or acting, but about reading aloud to convey a mental movie. I am modeling this process using a favorite scene from Charlotte's Web.

Writing
Students continued their daily letters to classmates, focusing on attributes and examples of when they demonstrated admirable qualities.

We have also added a daily short write where students have to reflect on something they are grateful for that is specific to today. I will send these home at the end of the year. They are really heartwarming and you will see just how much they appreciate you, their parents :)

We are also writing poetry, describing organic objects in figurative ways. We started with antlers and students were very creative in describing them as a throne, a crown, bony white fingers, etc. They are naturals!

Math
I introduced dominoes with the intent of developing math fact fluency strategies. Scoring is based on multiples of five. As our number system is based on tens, recognizing fives and tens is an incredibly important skill in developing automaticity. I am also explicitly demonstrating strategies for adding and subtracting efficiently, rather than slowly counting each dot on the domino one at a time. Students are also revisiting subitizing (the ability to recognize dot array patterns as a value).

Science
We were lucky this year in terms of weather and blooms for our final Thompson Park Tree Trek. Students were able to revisit their trees and will use their photos to create iBooks that compare their trees over time. Thank you again to all of our wonderful volunteers! We couldn't do this project without you. I believe this project also builds stewardship of our community as we recognize the value of our parks.

We began an end of year science project with our fifth grade buddies in Mrs. McCormick's class. Students will work in mixed grade groups to create table marble runs using Keva planks, marbles, steel ball bearings and magnets. We will introduce a few mystery items as we progress. The challenge is to see which group can build the slowest marble run using all of their materials. The motivation is high as the team that wins gets to dump a bucket of ice water on the teachers.

Important Dates & Reminders

Please make sure iPads are charged and ready each day.

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

April 22 - March For Science    

April 24 - 28 Scholastic Book Fair      

Come visit Mrs. Hemmelgarn during our Book Fair!

April 28 - KID FEST 5 - 8pm Please click on the following link to view the KID FEST raffle basket items: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa9af2da31-star1

We have the Outreach Fund to help those who are currently going through financial challenges. If you are in need of help purchasing Kid Fest tickets or the Dabbing Hawk t-shirts, please email our school counselor, Katie O'Keefe at kokeefe@uaschools.org by April 21st. Please let her know how many family members need tickets to Kid Fest and sizes of t-shirts, if needed. 

Mr. Kerstetter and I will be joined by some wonderful acoustic musicians this evening. We hope to see you there!

May 2 - Primary Elections, Students will eat in the classroom
May 8 - 19 Terra Nova & Inview Gifted Screener
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment
May 19 - Device collection 
May 22 - Field Day, Please apply sunscreen before your student arrives at school and feel free to send students with water bottles, old athletic shoes that can get wet, and swimsuits under their clothing. This will be a fun, but hot day.               

May 26 - Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 - Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 - Early Dismissal 1pm  

Newsletter for April 14, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We began cursive this week. We will focus on lower-case letters and reading cursive. We will continue to devote a few minutes each day to proper keyboarding.

Reading
Students began reading poetry and we focused on finding powerful words and short phrases in others' writing that evoke mental images and emotions. Students's work is in the hallway.

Writing
We began our end of year writing project. Each student will end up with a letter from each of their classmates sharing what they admired for. These will come home at the end of the school year and are intended to be read occasionally throughout the summer. I have found this to be a very meaningful writing project as the audience is authentic and very important.

Math
We reviewed all of our math concepts learned this year as we prepared for this week's state of Ohio testing.


Important Dates & Reminders

Please make sure iPads are charged and ready each day.

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

April 10 - April 28 STAR Reading and Math Assessments

April 19 - Field Trip to Thompson Park - 9am till 11am Room 120 (Because we use iPads, this will be a weather dependent trip.)
April 22 - March For Science    

April 24 - 28 Scholastic Book Fair        

April 28  KID FEST 5 - 8pm Please click on the following link to view the KID FEST raffle basket items: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa9af2da31-star1

May 2 - Primary Elections Students will eat in the classroom
May 8 - 19 Terra Nova & Inview Gifted Screener
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment
May 19 - Device collection 
May 22 Field Day             

May 26 Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 Early Dismissal 1pm  

Newsletter for April 7, 2017

Important Dates & Reminders

Please look for the service learning permission slip for girls. This looks like a great project. These are due Monday, April 10.

If you have not already done so, please return your student's permission slip for the Tree Trek. Thank you in advance to all of our volunteers. We have had a great response already. It is a little tricky to plan this trip, given the weather's ups and downs, as I hope to maximize the number of trees that are in bud or flowering. However, it is usually a lovely trip.  

Kid Fest 2016 will soon be here!   One of the highlights of this fun, family event are the GIANT raffle baskets!  This exciting tradition is always eagerly anticipated and a great fund-raiser!  Please click on the provided link to view the third grade raffle basket.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa9af2da31-star1

I will not need any Reading Volunteers next week due to testing.

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

April 10 - April 28 STAR Reading and Math Assessments

April 12 - 15 Ohio Mathematics Assessment (Headphones and fully charged iPads are needed for this assessment.)
April 14 - No School for Staff & Students: Good Friday 
April 19 - Field Trip to Thompson Park - Please email if you would like to chaperone.

April 22 - March For Science    

April 24 - 28 Scholastic Book Fair        

April 28  KID FEST 5 - 8pm

May 2 - Primary Elections Students will eat in the classroom
May 8 - 19 Terra Nova & Inview Gifted Screener
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment
May 22 Field Day             

May 26 Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 Early Dismissal 1pm