Greetings Families,
I hope you have enjoyed your fall break. I had a great time in San Diego with my family. Not only did my wife and children go, but I also had an uncle and aunt, another aunt, a cousin, and his wife and two sons. Because they had dogs, we spent most of the last few days at the dog beach. Strangely, someone brought their pig to the beach. It was only 10 months old and about the size of a medium dog. Most dogs were just curious, but it really messed with one dog.
Anyways, as we just into the second quarter, we have two students joining the classroom. That puts us at 25 students on campus and five remote learning students. This will not change much except that I had to reorganize the room to give students some physical distancing. Given our small rooms, students are all about 18 inches apart--nowhere hear the recommended six feet. We will still be practicing our normal safety procedures of wearing masks most of the time and using hand sanitizer every time we enter and leave the room. Additionally, we will have the students clean their hands with baby wipes after any play: recess and PE.
Here are some things for you to keep on your radar as we move into the second quarter.
GRADES
An email was sent out over break regarding how to see your child's grades via PowerSchool. If you didn't get that email, please let me know as soon as possible.
CONFERENCES
Next week (Oct. 19-21) is set aside for conferences. These will be held over Zoom. This is the time you want to bring up any questions, concerns, or suggestions you have regarding your child's academic progress or other school topics. Additionally, if you are experiencing things that home with respect to homework or attitude toward school (positive or negative), you will want to be prepared to discuss those things during our 25-minute slot.
I will be sending an email out tomorrow with the information for scheduling your conference time.
MATH FACTS
As we move into the second quarter, multiplication and division take center stage in math. I cannot stress how important it is for your child to know their math facts. The amount of time will be drastically decreased for homework and assessments if your child has them memorized. Furthermore, he/she will likely find more success and joy in math if they are mastered. Every minute spent toward memorizing math facts will pay dividends.
We will also be working toward memorizing these in the classroom through Rocket Math. This program starts with the easier facts, the 1's and 2's, and moves up as students master them. We will start with addition and multiplication tomorrow. The goal for each student will be 35 facts in one minute. This is a little less than two seconds a fact. Any student who finishes all of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts by the end of the year will be rewarded with a party.
100% GOOGLE CLASSROOM DAYS (10/23, 11/6, & 12/11)
In order to provide teachers more time to catch up on grading, lesson prep, Google Classroom setup, video filming and editing, and many of the other tasks that have been increased due to hybrid instruction, admin has allotted teachers three days to work on campus without students. These are school days though and students will be expected to complete activities these days. They will have reduced workloads these days though.
For RL students, this won't have much of an impact--except that it will be a little less work for your child to do on this day and there won't be any live Zoom meetings. For in-person students, all worksheets and/or tests will be provided as a hard copy on Thursday. For the weekly Friday math test and Spalding test, videos will be created as usual. Both RL students and in-person students will need to use these videos to ensure they understand the instructions and for the Spalding tests.
BOOK FAIR
NEW! During the COVID-19 crisis, you can choose to have your child’s online book order shipped right to your door or delivered to me with our class order.
All orders earn FREE Books for our class—thank you for your support!
Class Order Due Date: 11/06/2020
Connect to Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/XM4F6
Shop the flyers for your child's grade together: https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=670605
Please feel free to forward the Class Page link to extended family and friends who may want to support your child’s reading.
Class Code: XM4F6
READ-A-THON
Mark your calendars for our seventh-annual Read-a-thon! This special day will be celebrated on Friday, October 30th. Students have the option to come to school dressed as their favorite classical literary character, scientist, or historical figure. Costumes need not come directly from the grade-level curriculum, though they must be classically aligned. Additionally, costumes should allow students to engage in regular school day activities such as recess, lunch, and P.E., and shouldn’t impede their instruction. Violent images or weapons of any kind will not be permitted. Face coverings may not be present, aside from a mask that should be worn in class this year. (Costume proposal slips will be sent home the week of October 19th.) It is sure to be a full, fun day celebrating the beautiful enjoyment reading brings!
LESSONS
ELA: In Spalding this week, students will start the week with a 50 word Spalding assessment to evaluate their grade level. This assessment has no impact on their grade. In literature this week, students will be reading short storing and then imitating those stories. In grammar, students will be learning about direct objects and how to identify the complete subject and complete predicate. Students will start working on a new poem, "Eletephony," by Laura E. Richards. Recitations will be on October 21st.
Math: During the first week back, students will continue to use multiplication. This week, students will be solving world problems with multiplication and learning how to multiply a multiple digit number by a one-digit number.
History: Students will be looking at the religious practices of the Ancient Romans, with a look at their “gods” and their role in daily life. Many were related to the planets in our solar system. In addition, they will be studying the Roman Republic form of government and the two major groups of Roman citizens (plebeians and patricians) that played a role in the functioning of that government. They had an Assembly and a Senate, very similar to our government in the United States that were elected to represent the people. Also, how the status of these citizens was different and what they all had in common.
Science: Science this week will continue to look at sound, and sound waves, as a form of energy. The first lesson will consider how sound travels through different mediums (solids, liquids, and gases). The second lesson will consider different qualities of sound: intensity (volume) and pitch (frequency).