Newsletter for August 29, 2014

What We Learned This Week

It was great seeing so many of you at Curriculum Night! We're off to a great school year.

English Language Arts

I was able to complete fluency assessments on all students. I will send these results to you next week. Fluency represents speed and accuracy, which contribute to student comprehension. This will support my ability to help students choose just-right books. A just-right book should be read at an accuracy rate of 98% and within a time frame that promotes comprehension and expression, somewhere between 75 to 125 words per minute depending on the text type (fiction or informational) and complexity. I will focus on four areas within all reading: comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary. I will use this as baseline data to track student growth and inform my instructional strategies.

I will continue to emphasize reading a just-right book. It is essential that students read just-right books to maximize their growth in reading. I've asked the students to be patient. If you really want to read Harry Potter, but aren't ready, wait. It will be there for you when you're ready.

We explored fluency as a class with the classic, Green Eggs and Ham. This seemingly "easy" book presents many challenges when attending to ending punctuation (. ! ?). Try it for yourself:)

Students wrote their first paragraphs. These first writing efforts will serve as a valuable watermark for student reflection.  I have not given anything more than the most basic instructions for this first writing so it will be a true initial writing.

Don't forget to read with or have your student read independently 20 minutes a night (the weekends are great catch-up time). I know every family's schedule is unique, but get it in whenever and wherever you possibly can. Research supports the importance of this practice over all others in predicting students' future success.

Finally, I conducted the Developmental Spelling Assessment (DSA). This reliable assessment will indicate which stage of spelling and phonemic awareness your student is currently in and which spelling features (generalizations such as vowel-consonant-silent e, "ice") your student knows and needs explicit instruction in. I will send home this information next week.

Math

Your student will bring home a math quiz on Monday. It represents the key concepts we covered this week:
- fact strategies (zero more, one more, two more, and sums to ten)
- representing numbers in standard (e.g., 42), written (e.g., forty-two) and expanded (e.g., 40 + 2) forms
- expressions (e.g., 3 + 2) and statements (e.g., I read three books. I read two more books.)

I introduced multiple strategies for determining the number of possible combinations given two variables. For example, Ted had a red shirt and a blue shirt. Ted also had green shorts and white shorts. How many and what clothing combinations does Ted have?

red shirt - green shorts                     rs - gs         
red shirt - white shorts                     rs - ws
blue shirt - green shorts                   bs - gs
blue shirt - white shorts                   bs - ws

2 shirts x 2 shorts = 4 combinations

We also talked about the importance of being organized in writing combinations so we don't skip one or write the same one twice.

I also administered an initial fact fluency assessment. I will send the results of this assessment home next week as well. Students who have not mastered their addition and subtraction facts must practice these at home. Mastery of fact fluency is crucial for multi-step and authentic story problem success.

Important Dates and Reminders

Fall conferences will be the second week of November. Please visit the signup genius page to choose your date and time by clicking on this link.

FALL CONFERENCES

I love Halloween! I also love Star Wars. I would like to combine both to build community in our classroom. Over the years, I've tried to come up with a class theme that would be a shared interest. I've asked the class to consider dressing up as Stormtroopers or for Halloween. I think it will be fun for us and will also build community in our shared identity. I don't expect everyone to do it, but the more the merrier. It will make a real statement that we have a class identity and are all working together. I think these will be pretty easy to find and not terribly expensive. Click on the link to visit the Amazon.com page for costumes.

STORMTROOPER COSTUME

Important 1st Quarter Dates & Reminders

Lots of new dates this week! We would LOVE any and all help we can get for our upcoming field trips. I know everyone is very busy and I know it can be a real sacrifice to take time away from other work and obligations. Your volunteering makes our trips successful so thank you in advance! 

New dates and times are indicated in red. 

September 1, 2014 - No School in honor of Labor Day
September 2 through 26, 2014 - STAR Reading and Math Diagnostic Testing
September 3, 2014 - Walking Wednesday (See PTO website for future Walking Wednesdays)
September 4, 2014 - Fall Picture Day
September 5, 2014 - Blue and Green Day: Show your Windermere Hawk Pride
September 9, 2014 - PTO General Meeting at 7pm (See PTO website for future meetings)
September 10, 2014 - Early Dismissal/Teacher Development at 1pm
September 12, 2014 - Thompson Park Tree Trek Field Trip
September 19, 2014 - Black and Gold Day: Show your support for UA's homecoming
September 22 through 26, 2014 - PTO Book Sale
September 26, 2014 - Wacky hair day
September 26, 2014 - Fall Family Fun Night from 5 till 7pm

October 3, 2014 - Hat day
October 6 through 10, 2014 - Hawk Walk for the Playground
October 8, 2014 - Ohio Reading Achievement Assessment (Please avoid scheduling absences on this date)
October 10, 2014 - Blue and Green Day: Show your Windermere Hawk Pride
October 13 through 17, 2014 - Collection days for Box Tops for Education
October 17, 2014 - Blue and Green Day: Show your Windermere Hawk Pride
October 17, 2014- Field Trip to Thompson Park (please email if you would like to volunteer)
October 23, 2014 - Fall picture retakes
October 24, 2014 - End of the first quarter
October 27, 2014 - No school, teacher grading day

Important 2nd Quarter Dates & Reminders

October 30, 2014 - UA Trick or Treating from 5:30 till 8pm
October 31, 2014 - Halloween party (extended lunch from 12 till 1:30pm, most students go home to change into costumes)

November 3 through 7, 2014 - First quarter conferences
November 4, 2014 - No School for Students, Teacher Development Day
November 5, 2014 - Progress Reports sent home
November 6, 2014 - Early Dismissal/Conferences at 11am
November 10 through 13, 2014 - Fall conferences
November 17 through 21, 2014 - District Gifted Screening
November 25, 2014 - Scarlet and Gray Day
November 26 through 28, 2014 - No School Thanksgiving

December 1 through January 9, 2015 - STAR Reading and Math Diagnostic Testing
December 3, 2014 - Early Dismissal/Teacher Development at 1pm
December 19, 2014 - Holiday parties 2pm
December 22 through January 2, 2015 - No School Winter Break

January 16, 2015 - End of second quarter
January 19, 2015 - No School Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 20, 2015 - No school, teacher grading day

Important 3rd Quarter Dates & Reminders

January 27, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home
January 29, 2015 - Early Dismissal/Conferences at 11am

February 2 through 13, 2015 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 4, 2015 - Early Dismissal/Teacher Development at 1pm
February 9 through 13, 2015 - Collection days for Box Tops for Education
February 16, 2015 - No School Presidents' Day
February 17, 2015 - Math State PBA
February 23, 2015 - English Language Arts State PBA
February 23, 2015 - AASCD

March 9 through 13, 2015 - PTO Book Sale
March 17, 2015 - 3rd Grade Musical
March 20 through 27, 2015 - No School Spring Break

April 2, 2015 - End of third quarter
April 3, 2015 - No School
April 6, 2015 - No School, teacher grading day

Important 4th Quarter Dates & Reminders

April 8, 2015 - Early Dismissal/Teacher Development at 1pm
April 9, 2015 - Spring Picture Day
April 13 through May 22, 2015 - District Writing Diagnostic Testing
April 14, 2015 - Progress Reports sent home
April 21 through 22, 2015 - English Language Arts State EOY
April 22, 2015 - Ohio Reading Achievement Assessment
April 24, 2015 - Kid Fest
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