Hello Room 113 Families!
The second week of May may bring some sunshine and warmer temps according to most news stations (Yay!) as well as one week closer to our Invention Convention on June 2, and Smarter Balanced testing weeks. Did you know that during the month of May, all students can receive a free breakfast? It’s true, so if you’re running late one morning, please know that breakfast is available at no charge here, so you can take that off your list.
The other big event that is coming up is our MEPTSA Carnival on Thursday, June 1. Thanks to Christine Cossu, Henry’s mom, we now have a room coordinator who will be calling on you to take a shift at our booth, typically a giant bouncy toy. Many hands make light work, so thanks in advance to all of you who can lighten the load when Christine calls. Lastly, thanks to our art docent Sonja Sackett who did an amazingly creative project on filling in negative space with the kids last week. Check out the black and white “jungle” that resulted (below). And now, here are the plans for this coming week.
- May 1-31 Earth Month – Weekly challenges sponsored by the MEco Voice Group to focus on reducing trash on campus, reducing energy consumption, choosing energy conscious modes of transportation, and increasing our recycling, reusing and reducing garbage habits.
- •All of May! Free Breakfast for all ME Students. Breakfast starts at 8:40am.
- May 12 Early Release
- May 15, 16, 19 are all ELA Testing Days
- May 22 and 23 are Math Testing Days
- May 29 Memorial Day-No School
- May 30 is the Science MSP Test
This week we will complete our exploration of geometry with a 2 day review session and end with our Unit 8 Test on Tuesday or Wednesday.
In light of the upcoming testing season, we’ll continue to look at sample reading questions on both literary, informational, and research texts over the next couple of weeks so students have a familiarity with the type of questions they’ll be seeing on the Smarter Balanced Assessment in two weeks.
Independent reading – at least 30 minutes per day, and at least 150 minutes/pages per week remains a daily assignment - sometimes accomplished in class, but a daily assignment nonetheless. Students record their progress related to their reading goal, noted on the front of each log, as they read the book, and in addition, they record their thinking as they make their way through each quadrant of the book on the back. FYI - Both the log and the TOPS report (an online comprehension test report) are turned in after the student takes the A/R test on their independent reading book. I make comments on the log/report, return them to the students, and then these reports are stored under the reading tab in the leadership pages section of their binder. The reading log is a part of the trimester reading grade as it documents student application of skills learned in lessons and gives me a chance to comment and connect with each student as they read, noting their successes and suggesting new goals.
Content: We will be moving into the drafting phase for their poetry unit in free verse form, incorporating figurative language-personification, metaphor, onomatopoeia, and simile, and revising for rhythm and meaning, to communicate a message of the student's choice. These will be published by Friday.
Spelling/Conventions: On Tuesday, the test on Greek Roots will be more of a vocabulary assessment, combined with our recent work in conventions with punctuating dialogue.
FOSS Kits: Aquatic environment investigations begin this week as students explore goldfish structure, behavior and movement. Our leading investigation question will be: "How do living organisms affect the quality of aquatic environment?" Students will investigate how carbon dioxide produced by aquatic organisms changes the acidity of the water. They will continue to explore environmental factors that are living and non-living and will follow the scientific method.
Invention Convention: Since we've had such a busy week, we're going to push back our May 8 deadline of the "Intent to Invent" page to be due Wednesday May 10. This page needs to be reviewed and signed by a parent or guardian prior to students building or constructing their inventions/investigations. Students have chosen to either work in a partnership or independently on this project. Their Invention Convention packet (in their binder) has more information on guidelines, timelines and more!
Credits:
Created with images by Unsplash - "tulip yellow bright" • Photo-Mix - "the action plan the road map notes" • Wokandapix - "calculator math mathematics" • ZapTheDingbat - "Reading" • BarbaraBonanno - "typewriter typing black and white" • watts_photos - "gold fish goldfish aquarium"