Newsletter for December 1, 2017

I truly cannot believe it is already December. The year is moving along quickly and the afternoons have felt more like spring than winter.

What We Learned This Week

Word Study 
We studied the following word study topics:
- contractions
- apostrophes for ownership and contractions
- commas for lists and pauses
- bonus letters (One syllable words that have a short vowel sound followed by -f, -l, -s, -z double it. e.g., hill, buzz, etc.)
- common past tense verb endings -ed

Reading Workshop
We continue to use Aesop's fables to study author's message, identifying:
- Which animal character learned the message
- What human attributes and behaviors the animals symbolize
- Author's message
- Support from the story
We will continue this unit of study until winter break. I will continue to revisit more explicit/literal reading skills and strategies in the meantime.

Writing Workshop
- We wrote our pen pals from Livingston Elementary who we will host in January for science. Our pen pal letters to Oman were returned six weeks after mailing them so I'll scan them and email them. The mail service is not very good:(
- Students are being held accountable for basic convention: indenting paragraphs, capitalizing the beginnings of sentences and proper nouns, ending sentences with punctuation, and crafting complete sentences.

Math
We are digging deeper into our study of multiplication. We have practiced fact strategies for zeroes, ones, doubles, and fives. Any basic fact involving one of these single digit numbers should remind students they have a strategy and use it to quickly produce the product.

I introduced division as equal groups shared of a whole. Students should recognize the many ways division is represented and the associated vocabulary.

We are continuing to study mixed operation (addition and subtraction) story problems and missing addend problems.

Science 
I introduced basic block coding (as opposed to text coding) in science this week, which the students seemed to really enjoy. It has come a long way since I learned BASIC on my ATARI programmable computer in the early 80's. Here is a link to some of the introductory lessons and activities students can access from home as well as SCRATCH, a popular free online programming language for game/program creation. I used a Star Wars project to introduce code.

December 2017

Holiday gifts - It is a long practiced tradition that elementary students give their teachers gifts during the winter holidays. My gift is getting to work with your wonderful students in an amazing school in an incredible school district and community. Please do not feel any obligation to get me, or any other teacher a gift, but if you and your student feel strongly about gift giving, please consider making a small donation to an organization you support in our class' name.

21 Holiday Parties 2:00 pm

December 22-January 4 Winter Break

January 2018

5 No School for Students:  Teacher Workday/PD Day

8 School Resumes

15 No School for Staff or Students:  Martin Luther King’s Birthday

18 PT Conferences grade 1-5 (students are dismissed at 11:05)
22 STEM Exchange with Livingston (UA Rotary providing pizza)

February 2018

5  State of the Schools at UAHS 5-8 p.m.

5-9 Collection Days for “Box Tops for Education”
8 Third Grade Musical
11-14 Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
14 Ohio Wildlife Center

19 No School Staff or Students:  Presidents’ Day

28 Early Release 1:00 (NO LIFT)

March 2018

5 Spring Pictures

9 End of Second Trimester
9 Invention Convention 10-10:30am in the Multipurpose Room/Cafeteria

12-16  Spring Break

19 No School for Students:  Teacher Grading Day

27 Progress Reports available online

30  Good Friday:  No School for Students or Staff

April 2018

4  Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon at Windermere 11-12 in lounge

May 2018

April 30-May 4  Scholastic Book Fair

4 KidFest, 5-8 p.m.

8  NO School for students or certified staff - Ohio Primary Elections
11 Science field trip to Livingston Elementary

21  Field Day

28 No School Staff:  Memorial Day

30  Last Day for Students

30 End of third trimester

Newsletter for November 17, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study 
We are generating our own list of -oi and -oy words. Students have learned the generalization that -oi is used in the beginning or middle of a syllable (e.g., choice) whereas -oy appears in the end of a syllable (e.g., soy, loyal).

We reviewed nouns to support our understanding of verbs. Nouns are people, places, things and ideas (e.g., democracy, freedom, etc.). Nouns "do" verbs (action words). We practiced identifying verbs and creating more specific/descriptive verbs as well (e.g., Simrit went (raced, danced, flew, sauntered, skedaddled, etc.) home.). I believe I will start to see much more interesting vocabulary in our narratives with this practice.

Students show possessive apostrophes.

I introduced contractions this week. I have already taught students (and look for opportunities to practice this in their writing) that we use apostrophes to show ownership (e.g., Hayden's glasses). We are now composing contractions and circling the letter or letters that the apostrophe is a place holder for.

Reading Workshop
We are still working on determining the author's message. I have seen great growth here. Students are coming up with their own messages and supporting them with evidence from the short stories and fables I'm using for practice.

Writing Workshop
Students are learning to plan narratives using a beginning, middle and end with bullet points. We worked on being much more specific with the expectation that if it isn't in the plan, it probably won't be in the final story. Initial plans were very general so I spent a lot of time modeling being much more specific and descriptive, while still using bullets.

Student Plan	Model Plan
Beginning	Beginning
- Got ready	- Put on blue wig, lab coat, glowing test tube
- Friend came over	- Search basement for jack-o-lanterns
- Got costume on	- Ate snack of cheese sticks and candy
- It was Halloween	- Smoke machine, spooky music on JBL
- Waited to start	- Filled candy bowl and held back "good" candy

Math Workshop
We reviewed time (o'clock, quarter-past, half-past, quarter-till) with relative positions of the hour an minute hands. Students should know that the hour hand moves as the minute hand moves and should also know clockwise direction.

We reviewed rounding to the nearest ten and hundred.

Students practiced two step mixed operation problems (e.g., Mr. Hudson bought a ukulele for $235. He bought a ukulele case for $185 less. How much did he spend all together?). I introduce these problems with much friendlier numbers in the tens.

We spent a lot of time working on mixed number problems within addition and subtraction with an emphasis on rewriting the problem using fact triangles to ensure we understand it. Many students see two numbers and they simply start adding without understanding how the numbers are related. Most students are successful when presented with a problem with an unknown sum or difference, but struggle when the addend is missing.

Typical problem: 45 + 23 = ?
Challenge: 45 + ? = 68

Finally I introduced our first three multiplication strategies:
Zeroes (0 x 3 = zero groups of three = 0)
Ones (1 x 5 = one group of five = 5)
Doubles (2 x 8 = two groups of 8 = 16) This is the same as our previous addition strategy of doubles.

Science
We worked on design challenges using the versatile Keva planks with an emphasis on teamwork.

Important Dates & Reminders

There will be NO homework next week, including reading logs. There will be no newsletter next week. Have a great holiday. 

November 2017

21  Progress Reports available online - I will send home your student's most recent STAR assessments and math assessment.

21 Scarlet and Gray School Spirit Day

22-24 Thanksgiving Holiday
27 Need wide mouth canning jars (32 oz. square Ball jars).

December 2017

21 Holiday Parties 2:00 pm

December 22-January 4 Winter Break

January 2018

5 No School for Students:  Teacher Workday/PD Day

8 School Resumes

15 No School for Staff or Students:  Martin Luther King’s Birthday

18 PT Conferences grade 1-5 (students are dismissed at 11:05)
22 STEM Exchange with Livingston (UA Rotary providing pizza)

February 2018

5  State of the Schools at UAHS 5-8 p.m.

5-9 Collection Days for “Box Tops for Education”
8 Third Grade Musical
11-14 Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
14 Ohio Wildlife Center

19 No School Staff or Students:  Presidents’ Day

28 Early Release 1:00 (NO LIFT)

March 2018

5 Spring Pictures

9 End of Second Trimester
9 Invention Convention 10-10:30am in the Multipurpose Room/Cafeteria

12-16  Spring Break

19 No School for Students:  Teacher Grading Day

27 Progress Reports available online

30  Good Friday:  No School for Students or Staff

April 2018

4  Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon at Windermere 11-12 in lounge

May 2018

April 30-May 4  Scholastic Book Fair

4 KidFest, 5-8 p.m.

8  NO School for students or certified staff - Ohio Primary Elections

21  Field Day

28 No School Staff:  Memorial Day

30  Last Day for Students

30 End of third trimester

Newsletter for November 10, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We are studying action verbs and I have introduced the much harder category of being verbs (e.g., is, am, are, etc.).

I also introduced -oi (e.g., boil, oil, etc.) and -oy (e.g., soy, ahoy, etc.) words. -oi can be found in the middle of a word whereas -oy can be found at the end of a word.

Reading Workshop
I introduced author's message, using folk tales and fables. I'm encouraging students to come up with their own message and to explain it. They are hitting on some great non-traditional messages, which are fantastic as long as they are able to support them.

Writing Workshop
We are working on breaking up single paragraph opinion pieces into multiple paragraphs to help the reader understand each of our points. We are also crafting personal narratives by adding dialogue and descriptive language.

Math Workshop
I spent the majority of this week teaching approaches to multi-step addition and subtraction problems (including presenting single step problems). Many students see numbers and just start adding or subtracting before they know what the question is. I have explicitly taught them to read the question multiple times before they begin solving it. We are making great progress. I assessed students' addition and subtraction fact fluency and am very pleased with their growth - way to go families! I will begin teaching multiplication strategies next week.

Global Education Assembly - Australia
Students gathered to celebrate our building wide study of Australia. Dr. Myers and Mrs. Delcamp were instrumental in crafting our didgeridoos and learning to play them. We will use these instruments again later in the year when we perform our third grade musical.

Uluru in Northern Australia

Sacred site for Australian Aboriginal People

ASL 
We add signs to our instruction daily to help us retrieve information. ASL is often intuitive, which can help us assign meaning to otherwise complex vocabulary (e.g., associative property) and it is multi-sensory/kinesthetic. See if your student can teach you some sign language. Our Deaf & Hard of Hearing Program is one of the most unique opportunities we have at Windermere for students. If your student is interested in learning more sign, they should sign up for one of our wonderful after school enrichment classes.

Important Dates & Reminders

November 2017

21  Progress Reports available online - I will send home your student's most recent STAR assessments and math assessment.

21 Scarlet and Gray School Spirit Day

22-24 Thanksgiving Holiday
27 Need wide mouth canning jars

December 2017

21 Holiday Parties 2:00 pm

December 22-January 4 Winter Break

January 2018

5 No School for Students:  Teacher Workday/PD Day

8 School Resumes

15 No School for Staff or Students:  Martin Luther King’s Birthday

18 PT Conferences grade 1-5 (students are dismissed at 11:05)

February 2018

5  State of the Schools at UAHS 5-8 p.m.

5-9 Collection Days for “Box Tops for Education”
8 Third Grade Musical
11-14 Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
14 Ohio Wildlife Center

19 No School Staff or Students:  Presidents’ Day

28 Early Release 1:00 (NO LIFT)

March 2018

5 Spring Pictures

9 End of Second Trimester
9 Invention Convention 10-10:30am in the Multipurpose Room/Cafeteria

12-16  Spring Break

19 No School for Students:  Teacher Grading Day

27 Progress Reports available online

30  Good Friday:  No School for Students or Staff

April 2018

4  Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon at Windermere 11-12 in lounge

May 2018

April 30-May 4  Scholastic Book Fair

4 KidFest, 5-8 p.m.

8  NO School for students or certified staff - Ohio Primary Elections

21  Field Day

28 No School Staff:  Memorial Day

30  Last Day for Students

30 End of third trimester

Newsletter for November 3, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We wrapped up our study of open, closed and VCe. We will be moving on to new features next week. We also concluded our study of nouns (common, proper, singular, plural, and possessive). I introduced action verbs. Students should know the ASL signs for noun and verb. I love using ASL to support our multi--sensory learning. Finally, I administered the Developmental Spelling Assessment (DSA). I am looking for growth and also looking for application of the syllable types we have studied in student writing samples.

Reading Workshop
We are still working on main idea, responding to questions by using the question in the answer. I also introduced author's message/lesson. We will continue this study via folktales and fairy tales. Individualized reading conferences are incredibly helpful and provide the opportunity for me to support students wherever they are in the reading process. I am very pleased with student growth in reading. I saw my anecdotal observations confirmed by this week's STAR Reading assessment, which I will share when progress reports are available online.

Math Workshop
We are close to finishing our study of three properties of multiplication:
- Associative (e.g., (8 x 3) x 5 = 8 x (3 x 5))
- Distributive (e.g., 4 x 23 = (4 x 3) +  (4 x 20))
- Commutative (e.g., 6 x 7 = 7 x 6)
Students are learning root vocabulary words for each of these properties to help them recall which is which. They are generally successful in isolation, but struggle when they have to remember which property is which. They are learning they should do what is in parentheses first. We are also working on two step problems and made great gains in this perennially challenging standard.

Science
Last week I introduced States of Matter and density. Students should know solids keep amount and shape; liquids keep amount but take on the shape of their container; and gases expand and take on the shape of their container.

I used Alkaseltzer tablets to demonstrate solids, liquids and gases. See if your student can explain the following image.

Water can be used to demonstrate all three of the states of matter: solid (ice), liquid, and gas. I also introduced, but am not holding students responsible for the little discussed fourth state of matter: plasma (essentially an electrified or magnetized gas - think lightning and plasma televisions) and transition states (think slush as solid water turns to liquid).

In our first experiment, we looked at how ice with blue food coloring, room temperature water, and hot water with red food coloring interact. Heat energy added speeds up molecules and makes them less dense. Removing heat energy slows the molecules and makes them more dense. See if your students can explain the next image or if they can explain how we can use different air temperatures to explain density.

Today, we mad lava lamps by adding oil to water and an Alkaseltzer tablet. Students should be able to explain water, oil, solid, and gas in terms of density and states.

Important Dates & Reminders

November 2017

6 End of First Trimester

7 No School for Students:  Faculty In-service Day

21  Progress Reports available online

21 Scarlet and Gray School Spirit Day

22-24 Thanksgiving Holiday

December 2017

21 Holiday Parties 2:00 pm

December 22-January 4 Winter Break

January 2018

5 No School for Students:  Teacher Workday/PD Day

8 School Resumes

15 No School for Staff or Students:  Martin Luther King’s Birthday

18 PT Conferences grade 1-5 (students are dismissed at 11:05)

February 2018

5  State of the Schools at UAHS 5-8 p.m.

5-9 Collection Days for “Box Tops for Education”
8 Third Grade Musical
11-14 Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
14 Ohio Wildlife Center

19 No School Staff or Students:  Presidents’ Day

28 Early Release 1:00 (NO LIFT)

March 2018

5 Spring Pictures

9 End of Second Trimester
9 Invention Convention 10-10:30am in the Multipurpose Room/Cafeteria

12-16  Spring Break

19 No School for Students:  Teacher Grading Day

27 Progress Reports available online

30  Good Friday:  No School for Students or Staff

April 2018

4  Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon at Windermere 11-12 in lounge

May 2018

April 30-May 4  Scholastic Book Fair

4 KidFest, 5-8 p.m.

8  NO School for students or certified staff - Ohio Primary Elections

21  Field Day

28 No School Staff:  Memorial Day

30  Last Day for Students

30 End of third trimester