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  

Newsletter for March 31, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We continued last week's study. I really like our program, Words Their Way, and the research behind it is fantastic. However, I feel the program can sometimes add too many patterns or features in a single unit, which can confuse students. Therefore, I typically take two weeks to cover a single unit. My goal is to have students truly learn what we study, not just cover it.

The Yellow group is working on closed syllable/short o vowel sounds (e.g., cot); and long o vowel sound patterns (vce, oac, ow). They are using visual patterns to sort and then saying the words outloud to ensure they have the right sound (long or short) to go with their pattern.

The Green group is working on open and closed consonant-vowel-consonant multi-syllabic words (e.g., closed syllable, short vowel soundCVC cab/in; open syllable, long vowel sound ro/bot). The open syllable, long vowel sound is more common and should be tried soon. This week I asked them to mark words (where they would split the two syllables and which sound (long or short) they hear). They did an outstanding job!

The Blue group is working on recognizing derived words (e.g., diplomat > diplomacy > diplomatic).

Reading Workshop
We are making great progress in reading. Students are supporting opinion responses, distinguishing between main idea sentences and supporting details, using context clues and writing summaries.

Writing
There is no formula or recipe for good writing. I expect a strong topic sentence that answers the question, as much support as is needed in the student's own words, and a strong conclusion. This can be a real hurdle for many students and they often ask, "How many sentences do I need?" My standard response is "enough." I have tried to model for them that the length is not important. Their clear and well supported writing is the key.

Math
We jumped into geometry this week and explored parallel and intersecting lines, angles (right angles, acute angles, obtuse angles), area & perimeter, quadrilaterals (rectangles, squares, rhombus, kite, trapezoid) and other polygons. We used a new app, Geogebra, to make quadrilaterals.

Science
I introduced states of matter this week. Students should know:
- Everything is composed of matter (even if you can't see it, e.g., gases).
- Matter is composed of microscopic building blocks called (atoms and molecules).
- The three states of matter are solids, liquids, and gases.
- Solids keep their shape, have tightly packed molecules, and are the most dense (heaviest).
- Liquids take the shape of their container, flow, have looser packed molecules that move more freely than solids and are less dense than solids and more dense than gases.
- Gases take the shape of their container and fill the space, have very loosely packed molecules that move rapidly.
Please understand I know there are exceptions to all of these rules, but I have found it best to keep these concepts as straightforward as possible at the beginning. We will begin to explore these next week with a density lesson.

I filled a clear tub with room temperature water. I then added ice cubes made with blue food coloring and very hot water mixed with red food coloring. The blue ice cubes melted quickly and the blue went to the bottom because of its increased density due to the absence of energy. The hot red water stayed on top because it is less dense. The molecules are moving rapidly because we added energy. This visual separation is very helpful in explaining the differences between states of matter and how energy impacts density. 

Important Dates & Reminders

Please make sure iPads are charged and ready each day.

I will not need any Reading Volunteers for the next two weeks 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 5 - 6 Ohio English Language Proficiency Assessment (Headphones and fully charged iPads are needed for this assessment.)

April 5 Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon

April 6 Spring Picture Day          

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  

Newsletter for March 24, 2017

Happy Spring! I hope you're able to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather.

Progress Reports
Progress reports will be sent home on Tuesday. I will also send your student's end of the trimester math test. You will notice that questions marked in green were missed and possibly corrected. If it is still wrong it is marked in red. I return students' math assessments and let them make corrections to support the habit of checking work (and learning they are capable of making errors).


Pen Pals
We Skyped with our London based pen pals today. We shared about our recent Invention Convention, exchanged songs and learned about each other's schools. Despite a few technology hiccups, this was a great experience and we will Skype with them again before the year is over.

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
Students were encouraged to be systematic when sorting their word study words (and more importantly when they are decoding unfamiliar words) by looking first at the pattern and then listening for the predicted sound second.

The Yellow group is working on closed syllable/short o vowel sounds (e.g., cot); and long o vowel sound patterns (vce, oac, ow).

The Green group is working on open and closed consonant-vowel-consonant multi-syllabic words (e.g., closed syllable, short vowel soundCVC cab/in; open syllable, long vowel sound ro/bot). The open syllable, long vowel sound is more common and should be tried soon.

The Blue group is working on recognizing derived words (e.g., diplomat > diplomacy > diplomatic).

Students revisited using vowels and vowel teams to segment words by syllable.

Reading Workshop
We are revisiting many reading strategies and skills that were introduced and practiced in isolation earlier this year in conjunction with each other and in much more complex passages. Some of the skills we are focusing on are:
- Highlighting and looking for the main idea (topic sentences) - first step in note taking
- Comparing our answers and defending them to peers
- Understanding questions and identifying key words
- Sequence of events
- Main idea and supporting details
- Multiple answers/best answer
- Cause and effect

Writing Workshop
We did daily writing, responding to multiple texts. Adding an additional passage, regardless of how short or how similar adds a great deal of complexity for students. We are trying to move beyond copying the passage and showing we understand it by putting it into our own words.

Math
I introduced area and perimeter in several different ways, including playing a Simon Says version around the basketball court's perimeter. We calculated the area of rectangles and irregular polygons by tiling and multiplication. The area of a rectangle is simply calculated by multiplying the lengths of adjacent sides. Students should remember that perimeter is the outside rim's length.

Important Dates & Reminders

Testing dates are in bold. 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

March 28 - Progress Reports Home Today  
March 28 - Super Games Event to Support Stoyan 6-8pm

April 5 - 6 Ohio English Language Proficiency Assessment (Headphones are needed for this assessment.)

April 5 Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon - Please plan to join us and let us celebrate your time and commitment to our students. If you have volunteered or supported us in anyway, please plan to join us. 

April 6 Spring Picture Day          

April 10 - April 28 STAR Reading and Math Assessments
April 12 - 15 Ohio Mathematics Assessment
April 14  No School for Staff & Students: Good Friday 
April 22 - March For Science    

April 24 - 28 Scholastic Book Fair        

April 28  KID FEST 5 - 8pm

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  

Newsletter for March 3, 2017

What We Learned This Week

There will not be a newsletter next week. I hope you are all able to spend some fun and relaxing time together during spring break. Safe travels!

Congratulations in advance to all of the third graders on a successful Invention Convention and 3rd Grade Musical.

Reading Workshop

I am pushing students to persevere. A tangible difference between successful and unsuccessful readers is their willingness to work hard and stay focused on the task at hand, especially when the content and tasks are asked in unique or new ways. Students have to be willing to read a passage multiple times in many cases to find the answers and understand the text. 

We are looking for cause and effect and main idea & supporting details in more complex samples. Being willing to reread can make all the difference in the world. Many, presented with a daunting task, give up before they even start. I am supporting students who struggle with this, so they can be successful and realize they can flourish if they will only put forth the effort. 

Students are working on finding cause and effect in larger passages using text support and are looking for helpful terms such as so, therefore, resulting, etc. 

I will not need reading volunteers next week as we will be preparing for the Invention Convention and assessing for the end of the trimester. 

Writing Workshop

We are firmly rooted in using multiple sources to respond to. Each pair of texts are used for an opinion, an informative and a narrative writing. Students are slowly getting over the hump of thinking, "I'm done," in their writing and realizing we can continuously improve, as well as use the same source material for different purposes and audiences.

Math Workshop

We are wrapping up fractions this week and I will assess this new, and challenging, content next week. Students began converting improper fractions (numerator is greater than the denominator) into mixed number fractions (a whole number and sometimes a fraction). We are also comparing fractions with common denominators and common numerators. This takes a strong understanding of what fractions are to be successful.

Fire Safety

The Upper Arlington Fire Department visited and reminded students to change the batteries in their smoke detectors, to make an escape plan (purchasing fire extinguishers, determining multiple exits and a meeting place) and to practice it.

Important Dates & Reminders

Testing dates are in bold. 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

March 6 - Recycled percussion instruments due - Mrs. Delcamp will discuss with students. 
March 9 - 3rd Grade Musical @ 7pm - Students should wear green. 

March 10 - Invention Convention 10:30-11:00 Cafeteria/Multipurpose Room. 

March 10 - Town Hall Meeting1:45 PM

March 10 - End of second Trimester

March 13 - 17 Spring Break - No School 

March 20 - No School for students - Teacher Workday 

March 28 - Progress Reports Home Today  

April 5 - 6 Ohio English Language Proficiency Assessment (Headphones are needed for this assessment.)
April 5 Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon 

April 6 Spring Picture Day          

April 10 - April 28 STAR Reading and Math Assessments
April 12 - 15 Ohio Mathematics Assessment
April 14  No School for Staff & Students: Good Friday     

April 24 - 28 Scholastic Book Fair        

April 28  KID FEST 5 - 8pm

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