Newsletter for August 21, 2015

Wow - what  a great week! This is going to be a great year. We have a terrific bunch of learners and we are starting to build a great community already.

This week was full of community building and establishing routines. We started each morning with special areas, which makes things a bit challenging, but the class adapted quickly and was off and running.

Word Study

I administered two word study assessments, the Qualitative Spelling Inventory (QSI), which is the assessment component of our word study program, Words Their Way, and the Developmental Spelling Assessment (DSA), which comes from the landmark word study text, Word Journeys.

The QSI provides quick direction for grouping and the DSA provides a deeper dive into students' phonological awareness.

Both of these assessments look at word features, such as short vowel sounds (e.g., cat), vowel-consonant-silent e (e.g., tape), blends (two or three letters that you still hear, but they glide together, e.g., frog), and digraphs (two letters that make a single sound, e.g., watch).

I will grade these to identify students' needs. You will note we will not talk about spelling in third grade, but will instead learn "word study," with an emphasis on generalization, instead of memorization.

Reading Workshop

I read Sam and Dave Dig A Hole, by Mac Barnett, to introduce reading for the author's message. The author's message was to persevere, an important trait in learning, which we examined through Noodlers later in the day.

The progressively harder puzzles challenged students' willingness to continue to work at a task and provided a real life example of what it means to persevere. Perseverance will be a consistent theme in our classroom this year.

Students received reading logs which will record their books, genres and how much they read on a daily basis. I will use these reading logs to ensure students are reading appropriately leveled independent texts and a broad range of genres of informational and fiction texts, including poetry. We discussed the importance of reading "just right texts" to develop comprehension beyond the text, fluency, (phrasing and expression) and vocabulary. Many students are tempted to read books that are too far above their reading level and do not benefit them.

Writing Workshop

We will focus on personal narratives initially as they are far easier to develop students' writing with than fiction. Students will work on single paragraphs to develop their craft. We will take this in small bites to develop an understanding of all the elements of a paragraph: topic sentence, supporting details, conclusion, rich language, and convention. Students will also learn the importance of revision, rather than "being done."

Math Workshop

I sent home two math fact fluency assessments on Friday. Students should be getting 25 out of 36 math facts to demonstrate mastery. This is a significant need for most students and we will begin to learn math fact strategies: zero more (3+0), one more (4+1), two more (7+2), doubles (6+6), near doubles (3+4), sums to ten (6+4), make ten (7's, 8's, 9's) (7+5=10+2=12).  Fact fluency is an essential tool for all mathematicians, especially for mental math, which represents the majority of authentic math most adults use on any given day.

We also looked at place and value. We will look at numbers to the one hundred thousands place to take advantage of the repeating places of ones, tens, and hundreds. Students will need to understand that any give place can only have one of ten values (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9) and that these values can be named two ways. For example, the 5 in 350 is either "fifty" or "five tens."

Important Dates and Reminders

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

August 27 - Parent Information Night from 7-8pm in the art room (parents only please). Grade 3 will be presenting together.

September 2 - New Parent Breakfast in the Multipurpose Room at 9am
September 7 - No School Labor Day
September 23 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

October 9 - Fall Family Night
October 16 - End of First Quarter
October 19 - No School Teacher Grading Day
October 25 - Scarecrow Display Contest

To further build community, our class discussed choosing a theme for our annual Halloween parade. Ideas ranged from Adventure Time and Harry Potter to a classroom full of mummies or zombies. In the end, Star Wars won. I've encouraged all of the students to choose a character from Star Wars to dress as for Halloween. However, students who are not interested in Star Wars, should not feel ANY pressure to do this. It is simply a fun way to build community. There are many fun DIY costumes available on the web as well, which could provide some family fun.

October 26 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

NOTE: The district changed the fall conference schedule to prevent conflicts with Halloween festivities. If you have already scheduled a conference, please visit the new link below to choose a new date and time. I'm very sorry for any inconvenience. I know it is hard to work around schedules. I have added later evening times to hopefully accommodate more families. 

You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa5ac2ea64-fall3

November 2 - Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
November 2 through 4 - Fall Conferences 

November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

Windermere Hawks

Welcome to Room 120 for the 2014-2015 school year. I'm Mr. Hudson, your home-room teacher. I'm so excited to work with you this year. We have many fun and challenging learning experiences already planned.

Please take time to visit the many links at the right. There are many helpful resources I have found over the years. This is also an easy place to find the Windermere PTO Website. Check it often for many student extracurricular activities!

Please bring an independent chapter book you would like to start reading on the first day of school.

Special Area Schedule

Our special area schedule follows an ABCDE rotation, rather than days of the week. A copy of this schedule will be available during Meet Your Teacher Night.

A Days - Art
B Days - Music and Library
C Days - PE
D Days - Music
E Days - PE

Your student will need athletic shoes on all gym days and should plan to leave an art smock in their locker.

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

Important Dates and Reminders

August 18 - Back To School/Ice Cream Social 4-5pm Room 120
August 19 - First Day of School:) Breakfast on the Green 7:45am provided by PTO
August 27 - Parent Information Night from 7-8pm in the art room (parents only please). Grade 3 will be presenting together.

September 2 - New Parent Breakfast in the Multipurpose Room at 9am
September 7 - No School Labor Day
September 23 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

October 9 - Fall Family Night
October 16 - End of First Quarter
October 19 - No School Teacher Grading Day
October 25 - Scarecrow Display Contest
October 26 through 29 - Conferences
October 29 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0A4FA5AC2EA64-fall2

November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

What We Learned This Week

Technology
Students were given district Google docs account this week. As a Google district (meaning we use Google products for staff and students), students must use Google docs to upload, save and share work. Fourth grade will be using this platform at the start of next year for sharing work with teachers and peers for immediate feedback.

There is NO texting and use of Google docs is expected to follow the student technology use agreement signed by every student at the beginning of the year. Google docs will also obviously not be used for casual communication between students and should be seen as no different than paper based work shared in the classroom for co-authoring and revision. The only people who will see a student's work are those they intentionally share them with. Students will not have access to outside contacts from school.

The intent of adopting the Google docs platform for sharing is to prepare our students for the technology they will use in the future for careers and to encourage efficient and productive collaboration. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Important Dates & Reminders

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

May 18, 2015 - All library materials are due. 
May 18, 2015 - 3rd Grade Team attending full day professional development
May 22, 2015 - Volunteer luncheon
May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day
May 28, 2015 - 3rd Grade Team attending full day professional development

May 28, 2015 - Visiting author, Kristen Otte, visits (Please see previous email and mail.)

June 1, 2015 - Field Day (Please see Mr. Moore's email.)
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm

June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home 

Newsletter for May 8, 2015

Happy Mother's Day.

Thank you for all you do!

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We are continuing our study of r-controlled or r-influenced patterns. We reviewed our initial patterns of ar, ir, or, and ur. R-influenced vowels are tricky as many of these words have to be memorized due to them sharing sounds. For example, ir and ur have the same sound which can lead to misspellings of bird (burd) and burn (birn). We introduced ar patterns and related features this week by studying ar, are, air, and patterns that share these sounds, e.g., where. Students did an open sort first where they determine how they will sort the words. Students might sort by alphabetical order or shared beginning consonants. These inventive sorts show a lot about how a student views decoding and encoding and they can be directed to look for initial blends and vowels instead, which are often much more helpful features. We follow the open sort with a  closed sort, where the features are dictated by the teacher. Closed sorts still require the students to use both sight (spelling features and patterns) and sound to sort and may include "oddballs," words that share a sound but not a spelling pattern or share a spelling pattern, but do not sound alike. Oddballs we encountered included bear, heart, pear, wear, and where. R-influenced words include a number of homophones (e.g., pear and pair, bear and bare) which require direct instruction and memorization as well.


Reading Workshop
Students are continuing to grow through individual conferences. I'm seeing great growth in these conferences as I can focus on truly individualized reading and word study goals for each student. Conferences with fiction books are focusing on figurative topics of author's message and inference. Book choice is still a challenge for some students. As we head into summer reading, it is important to support your student with appropriate or just-right books. Students should read books they can read fluently, with a normal speaking voice pace, an accuracy rate of approximately 98%, and expression, attending to punctuation and context. You can challenge your student with harder reading material of short passages if you are explicitly working with them on an identified skill, but they should read just-right books when reading independently. 

Writing Workshop
Students are building productivity and stamina through their peer letter writing. Students are encouraged to use "wonderful words," great vocabulary and to support them with specific examples or memories of when their classmates were "kind" or "enthusiastic." Each letter gets stronger. This increased writing will support students this week as they take the District Writing Assessment.

Students continue to research animals, working towards a final product which will share what they have learned. Students will get to choose how they do this (e.g., slide show, iMovie, poster board, diorama, etc.).

Math
We continued our study of the metric system with an emphasis on personal references. Students know there are 100 centimeters in a meter and have personal references for a centimeter (width of a jumbo paperclip) and a meter (width of a door). Students also used meter sticks to explore the school looking for personal references. We discussed how a good personal reference is something that will be consistent over time. For example, our height will change and the size of posters and flags will be different, but a piece of printer paper is always 8.5" x 11", a good reference for 1 foot. Personal references are essential for catching errors in measurement computations. Centimeter also contains "cent" which means 100 and can be remembered by thinking of 100 years in a century or 100 cents in one dollar. We ended the week by introducing the fact that there are 1,000 meters in a kilometer.

Science
We continued life science through our research and studying the commonalities of life cycles: birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Important Dates & Reminders

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

Happy May!

May 12th through May 14, 2015 - Students will eat in the classroom due to the 5th Grade Musical. Please do not send peanuts or tree nuts in packed lunches!

May 18, 2015 - All library materials are due.
If you have lost an item, email our media clerk, Edie Hartmus to confirm payment or replacement at enhartmus@uaschools.org. You can look for a used copy online or at a book store. It's usually cheaper for you and it guarantees the book will be back on the shelf for next year.  If you lost the book and it was hardback, please purchase the hardcopy edition. Alternatively, send cash or a check to Windermere for the replacement cost.  Mrs. Hartmus will let you know what that is. Outstanding items that have not been replaced will block your child's record at the beginning of the next school year. 

May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day

June 1, 2015 - Field Day
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm

June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home 

Newsletter for May 1, 2015

 What We Learned This Week

Word Study

We focused on linking verbs (being verbs, e.g., is, am, are, etc.) and r-controlled vowels. Four new vocabulary words were introduced from our Words of the Week resource. Students defined the words, used them in sentences, and looked for them in their daily reading.

Reading Workshop

Students are diving deeply into fluency. Using poetry, tongue twisters, Seuss, and "voices," (such as teenager, quarterback, cowboy, etc.) students are reading a broad range of short passages with an emphasis on phrasing that matches their speaking voices, expression, and attention to context and punctuation.

The first annual Book Room film festival was hosted at the Tremont Library this week. Here are a few shots of the festivities. If you weren't able to attend, you can still see the students' work at our Book Room blog here: http://mrhudsonsbookroom.blogspot.com/ Thanks for coming out. The students were very excited to show their work and more importantly, talk about books! I also want to share my sincere thanks with Mrs. Hastings for her time and energy in this collaboration.

We are on to our final novel read aloud of the year, a favorite piece of contemporary fantasy, The Edge Chronicles: Beyond The Deepwoods by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. I'm trying to engage students in this read aloud through all of the strategies (e.g., prediction, inference, question, compare and contrast, message, etc.) we've studied this year.

Finally, we began our last research project of the year. Students were assigned two animals (with as much choice as possible) that they will compare and contrast across classification, habitat, adaptations, food web, and life cycle. They will then determine how they would like to present and share the information they learned. This is a challenging project and demands use of all of the reading and writing skills we've learned this year. This project will culminate in a fun art project based on their two animals' adaptations being utilized in a foreign habitat. More to come on that...

Writing Workshop

We are writing our end of year "Memory Books." Using a list of positive adjectives, students are composing a two paragraph letter daily that describes a classmate as a friend and a learner. Students are encouraged to use adjectives that describe their classmates and to make each letter unique and sincere by including examples of the attributes they include. This has been a great end of year project in previous years and really ends the year with rigorous writing practice with students becoming much more efficient. Because their peers are a meaningful audience they tend to be easy to motivate to do a good job and put a lot of thought into their work. The letters will go through a final editing process and will be shared on the final day of school as a keepsake from the year. I will also have students write a final letter to me about what they found most meaningful and challenging this year as well as what they might suggest to improve the year. This can be supported by discussion at home prior to this final writing assignment.

Math Workshop

We reviewed multi-digit operations for addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Mastery of basic facts is essential. We also kicked off our final math unit of study: measurement. We introduced different types of measurement (time, length, volume/capacity, and mass). We also talked about why we might need each of these forms of measurement to build interest in the topic. I started our in-depth study with metric length and converting centimeters to meters and vice versa (e.g., 125 cm = 1 m and 25 cm; 3 m and 18 cm = 318 cm).

Science

We skipped our typical rotation this week to take a final trip to Thompson Park to document change in the Thompson Park Tree Trek. We will be updating the blog soon. I'll post an update once we've had a chance to complete this.

Guidance
From Ms. O'Keefe...
"The Art of Positive Parents (TAPP) EXPRESS
Sign up now for a 3-week parenting class at Windermere Elementary taught by Dionne Meddock.  This class will be held from 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on May 5, 12, and 19.  Registration fee is $75.00/person and $125/couple.  Register online now at www.positiveparents.com or call 614-224-0222, ext. 103."

Important Dates & Reminders

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

Happy May!

May 7, 2015 - Walk-A-Mile Day
The entire Windermere community (staff and students) will walk one mile around the Windermere block next Thursday as a follow-up to the Walk-a-Mile Day that we held in the fall. This time, we will walk in honor of our Wish Run beneficiary, Canine Companions for Independence. This is held in lieu of a pep rally, to foster enthusiasm and encourage participation for the upcoming Wish Run. Please be sure your child dresses appropriately for the weather and wears comfortable walking shoes.

May 9, 2015 - Wish Run
Registration starts at 8am. 5K starts at 9am. One Mile Fun Run starts at 10am.
All proceeds go to Canine Companions for Independence!
Register online at www.premierraces.com.  Click on Events and search for Wish Run.

May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day

June 1, 2015 - Field Day
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm

June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home 

We have a big week planned!



On Tuesday, we will meet at the Tremont Library to celebrate students' Book Room videos. Due to limited seating I will be splitting the screenings and awards ceremonies into two groups.

Students with LAST names beginning with A through G will present their films at 7:00pm.

Students will LAST names beginning with L through W will present their films at 7:45.

I want to share my sincere thanks to Mrs. Hastings who has given so much time and direction to this project! I hope to see you there.

 

On Thursday, we will head to Thompson Park for or final field trip of the year. Rain threatens to dampen the day so we will NOT plan to eat at the park. We will likely go on the field trip rain or shine so you may want to send a change of clothes for your student. Keep an eye on the forecast for updates. We will meet in our room at 9am for a quick review of what we hope to accomplish and our protocol for documenting change in our trees. We should be back at Windermere well before 11am.

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

April 28, 2015 - Film Festival of Book Recommendations (Tremont Library 7-8pm)
 
May 9, 2015 - Wish Run
May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day

June 1, 2015 - Field Day
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm

June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home 

Newsletter for April 3, 2015

Happy April! It is so nice to have finally reached warmer weather and sunshine.

What We Learned This Week

Word Study

We concluded our cursive loop group: lowercase h, k, b, f, l and e. We will begin our final group, "hills and valleys" next week: lowercase n, m, v, y, x, and z.

Reading Workshop

We are focusing on fluency. Students are learning that fluency is so much more than just speed and accuracy. Fluent readers:
- Read "just right" books.
- Read with appropriate pace, which is influenced by context and convention.
- Decode automatically using context clues and visual clues (e.g., recognizing prefixes and blends).
- Read with expression, also influenced by context and convention.
Students are reading "easy" texts, Dr. Seuss, which require students to pay attention to all of the above elements and rhyme. We will support this practice further using poetry.

Writing Workshop

Students are finishing up taking notes on their African American study subjects. Having read for vocabulary and main ideas, they used t-charts to record main ideas and supporting details. Next week we will order their main ideas and work with partners to identify missed noteworthy facts, correct incorrect information and understanding, and share questions for additional research. Students will then compose paragraphs from their ordered notes. This is a very slow and challenging process, especially finding the right reading level for all students. Where I was unable to find an appropriate level, I met with students to support them in their comprehension of materials and note taking.

Math Workshop

We started our geometry study this week introducing polygons, sides, vertices, regular polygons, irregular polygons, and angles.

Science

Students celebrated their science in technology study with a grade level Invention Convention. I was so pleased with their work, presentation boards, prototypes and sharing. It can be very intimidating for third graders to share, especially to adults, but they did a great job! Here are a few photos of them sharing their ideas. Thanks to all of the parents who were able to come and share in our celebration. I meant a lot to the students!

Important Dates & Reminders 

It's Kid Fest Raffle Basket time again and PTO needs your help sending out the SignUpGenius link below to your class and collecting the students' donations.  Each classroom will have a box for donated items and a separate envelope for money.  We will try to come through and collect items every few days, so your classrooms don't become too cluttered.  You may either keep all of the money until the April 14th deadline or give it to us on collection days.  I will be out of town from April 2 -11, so Heather Petzinger will collect items from the classes. 

Again, thank you for everything.  Our children are so very lucky.  Windermere is a very special place because of YOU!  

Warmest thoughts,

Brooks Whitcomb

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0A4FA9AF2DA31-3rdgrade1/9247238

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

April 9, 2015 - Spring Picture Day
April 13 through May 22, 2015 - District Writing Diagnostic Testing
April 14, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home
April 14 & 15, 2015 - PARCC Math Assessment
April 22, 2015 - Ohio Reading Achievement Assessment
April 24, 2015 - Kid Fest
April 28, 2015 - Film Festival of Book Recommendations (Tremont Library 7-8pm)
April 28 through 29, 2015 - Math State EOY

May 1 through 29, 2015 - STAR Reading and Math Diagnostic Testing
May 9, 2015 - Wish Run
May 25, 2015 - No School Memorial Day

June 1, 2015 - Field Day
June 3, 2015 - End of fourth quarter/Last day for students, Classroom parties 12:05 till 1:05pm

June 9, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home