Friday, May 13, 2016

Newsletter for May 13, 2016

What We Learned This Week

Students began their final writing assessment of the year using the district's Developmental Writing Assessment and rubric. Students were prompted to write about a memorable experience. We will complete this next week. Students who missed the beginning of this assessment will begin make-ups next week.

We are still composing letters to friends. A few students have make-up letters to do. I will assign these as homework to ensure they are completed.

Students are enjoying composing poems for two voices.

We are in the final stages of completing our Rube Goldberg Machines. Students will get to try them next week and will demonstrate them next Friday. Students will then be challenged to put them together, creating two larger Rube Goldberg Machines.

We are continuing our math review of the year. We will take our final math assessment and math facts assessments next week. Students who have not mastered their math facts should continue to work on them nightly. I recommend dominoes as a non-traditional way to master addition and subtraction (and multiples of 5).

We were fortunate to work with an Apple iCoach this week. We designed a hypothetical garden and learned how to use Numbers. Students walked away with  deeper appreciation for the power of a visual presentation. This was a great introduction to the power of iPads and MacBook Air laptops that will be distributed next year. It is imperative that we use the technology in authentic and engaging ways to fully maximize its potential.

measuring the garden space

digital documentation of the garden

using QR codes to quickly find a website

working in teams and sharing documents

launching Numbers

seeing the many uses of Numbers (embedded video and tables)

Please click on the image or link below it to see our amazing Windermere Way video. Many thanks to Mrs. Rex for organizing this.


Important Dates & Reminders

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

May 18 - PTO Restaurant Night at Yabo's Tacos!

May 23 - Field Day. Please click on the following link to volunteer!

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

August 19, 20, 26, 27 - Elementary Device Distribution at Hastings Middle School (more information to come from the district)

1 comment:

  1. Mr.Hudson your class blog is fantastic, we really enjoyed looking at how you incorporate technology within classroom. The measuring garden space photos have given us a lesson idea too. We would love to read your class poems with two voices...very intriguing ...look forward to it.
    Best Wishes and Happy Holidays from 4M your penpals in United Kingdom

    ReplyDelete