Things are definitely settling down in Room 208. The kids are learning the routines and we are better understanding our learners. Here are some updates for the next couple of weeks:
US Education Department Visit:
9/19: Ford Elementary has been selected as a stop on the U.S. Education Department’s Green Strides Tour. In order to minimize disruptions for our students and families, Ford Elementary will begin dismissal 15 minutes early on Tuesday, September 19th. Bus riders will dismiss at 2:00, and car riders will begin as soon as the buses leave campus (around 2:10). Please expect your children home about 15 minutes earlier this day, and ensure that someone is at the bus stop to meet them.
CATO field trip:
We go on our first off campus field trip to CATO,Thursday, 9/21. CATO is an awesome Cobb County resource that helps support our science standards with a very hands on approach. Please make sure your child dresses appropriately. We are outside for a good portion of the day and will take a short hike in the woods. They will need to wear their class t-shirt as well as whatever clothes/shoes that weather permits. If they are not buying a lunch, please make sure the lunch from homes is 100% disposable!
Fall Break:
Fall Break is coming up! No school 9-25-9/29.
Conference Week:
Conference week will be October 16-20.
Students will come for 1/2 day every day. We will be sending home conference times soon. If your schedule is not very flexible and you need a certain day/time, please email me and let me know and we will do our best to accommodate your needs!
Curriculum:
Math:
We have done some great work with math basics the past few weeks. We have introduced the algorithm for multi-digit addition and subtraction. The kids like to call it "old school" math. Addition is definitely easier than subtraction and we will spend more time on this to ensure mastery. The addition and subtraction math fact fluency will allow students to work these types of problems with much more ease. These facts are a very important building block in math!
We will be introducing multiplication before the nine weeks is over, but we will not be adding those grades to our 1st qtr. report cards. We will begin our weekly multiplication fact quizzes after we have introduced the "why" behind multiplication. We will send out more information as it gets closer.
Reading/LA:
The kiddos really enjoy their Daily 5 time. We are seeing great gains with independence during this time. Encourage them to read nightly at home. The more they read, the more they know!
We have been working on the basics of a constructed response from a grade level text. Right now they are only required to "restate the question" and then "answer" the question. We will move on to citing our evidence from the text soon.
After testing we will also be moving into our first writing piece which will be a narrative. We will be working on how to "hook" our readers!
Nouns have been the talk of the town the last few weeks... nouns, proper nouns, pronouns, abstract nouns...we've done them all!
Science:
Mrs. Kalra has wrapped up most of the Rocks and Minerals unit. The kids have had a great time exploring this standard in their own worlds! We have seen some great rocks and minerals come through the classroom!
Social Studies:
We have begun our new Native Americans unit. We are learning about the 6 different Native American regions in North America. We have a lot of fun activities planned to support our unit. A sign up genius will be coming to you soon for supplies for our culminating lesson where we will have a grade level STEM challenge! We are all very excited!
As always if you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us!
US Education Department Visit:
9/19: Ford Elementary has been selected as a stop on the U.S. Education Department’s Green Strides Tour. In order to minimize disruptions for our students and families, Ford Elementary will begin dismissal 15 minutes early on Tuesday, September 19th. Bus riders will dismiss at 2:00, and car riders will begin as soon as the buses leave campus (around 2:10). Please expect your children home about 15 minutes earlier this day, and ensure that someone is at the bus stop to meet them.
CATO field trip:
We go on our first off campus field trip to CATO,Thursday, 9/21. CATO is an awesome Cobb County resource that helps support our science standards with a very hands on approach. Please make sure your child dresses appropriately. We are outside for a good portion of the day and will take a short hike in the woods. They will need to wear their class t-shirt as well as whatever clothes/shoes that weather permits. If they are not buying a lunch, please make sure the lunch from homes is 100% disposable!
Fall Break:
Fall Break is coming up! No school 9-25-9/29.
Conference Week:
Conference week will be October 16-20.
Students will come for 1/2 day every day. We will be sending home conference times soon. If your schedule is not very flexible and you need a certain day/time, please email me and let me know and we will do our best to accommodate your needs!
Curriculum:
Math:
We have done some great work with math basics the past few weeks. We have introduced the algorithm for multi-digit addition and subtraction. The kids like to call it "old school" math. Addition is definitely easier than subtraction and we will spend more time on this to ensure mastery. The addition and subtraction math fact fluency will allow students to work these types of problems with much more ease. These facts are a very important building block in math!
We will be introducing multiplication before the nine weeks is over, but we will not be adding those grades to our 1st qtr. report cards. We will begin our weekly multiplication fact quizzes after we have introduced the "why" behind multiplication. We will send out more information as it gets closer.
Reading/LA:
The kiddos really enjoy their Daily 5 time. We are seeing great gains with independence during this time. Encourage them to read nightly at home. The more they read, the more they know!
We have been working on the basics of a constructed response from a grade level text. Right now they are only required to "restate the question" and then "answer" the question. We will move on to citing our evidence from the text soon.
After testing we will also be moving into our first writing piece which will be a narrative. We will be working on how to "hook" our readers!
Nouns have been the talk of the town the last few weeks... nouns, proper nouns, pronouns, abstract nouns...we've done them all!
Science:
Mrs. Kalra has wrapped up most of the Rocks and Minerals unit. The kids have had a great time exploring this standard in their own worlds! We have seen some great rocks and minerals come through the classroom!
Social Studies:
We have begun our new Native Americans unit. We are learning about the 6 different Native American regions in North America. We have a lot of fun activities planned to support our unit. A sign up genius will be coming to you soon for supplies for our culminating lesson where we will have a grade level STEM challenge! We are all very excited!
As always if you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us!