Sunday, February 7, 2016
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Paper Slide Shows
Weather Literature Circle Paper Slide Shows (Weather)
The students have used hard work and creativity to produce paper slide shows of their literature circle book. Each group read together daily and held discussions about the events from the story. My goal was for the students to be able to talk about what they have read, offer feedback to their classmates and enjoy reading! I hope you enjoy the shows!
Ninth Ward Videos
Tornado Videos
How I Survived Hurricane Katrina
Zane and the Hurricane
Monday, November 16, 2015
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Math Help
There are a few different things we have going on in math now. This is a quick rundown. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Front Row
This week you may have noticed a new grade. This is a Tenmarks assignment which takes about 10 minutes. In Tenmarks, they receive 10 questions on an assigned skill. They are allowed to retest on this assignment if they do not like their grade once they receive help or more instruction on that skill. These are always on skills that have already been taught in class. Their score pops up as soon as they finish, so they automatically know whether or not they will need the skill to be reassigned.
Zearn
We still use Zearn but not by itself. The students are still supposed to be "Zearn" a minimum of 1 lesson per night, but we have math workshop that I have incorporated Zearn into. We did a full practice run with it and the students rotate in different stations, one which is a small group teacher directed station. There is also a game or center station that involves a game focused on the skill they are working on or cutting and pasting a foldable into their binder on that particular skill. The fluency station is when they work on the Xtra Math site. This coming week, I have added math journal time into it.
Xtra Math 
Xtra math is a great program and I love it. It focuses on practicing fluency with speed and accuracy. This answers the purpose of Xtra math straight from the site.
"What is the purpose of XtraMath?
XtraMath helps students transition from counting or calculating the basic math facts to recalling them. Recalling math facts instead of calculating them frees up mental resources for higher-level operations.
XtraMath uses timed activities to encourage students to answer the questions as quickly as possible combined with spaced repetition to efficiently develop recall. The three-second threshold is carefully selected to be long enough to type in a recalled answer but not long enough for the student to comfortably enter a counted or calculated answer.
Students should have already learned the basic counting or calculating strategies and be able to solve the problems without time pressure before starting to practice an operation on XtraMath."
XtraMath uses timed activities to encourage students to answer the questions as quickly as possible combined with spaced repetition to efficiently develop recall. The three-second threshold is carefully selected to be long enough to type in a recalled answer but not long enough for the student to comfortably enter a counted or calculated answer.
Students should have already learned the basic counting or calculating strategies and be able to solve the problems without time pressure before starting to practice an operation on XtraMath."
The website is https://xtramath.org/
Front Row covers all of the strands and gives them extra opportunities to practice what we are working on. I have not sent the parent letters home for this, but if you are interested, please send me an e-mail and I can invite you through that link. "With Front Row, students can practice ALL the content from K-8 at their own pace, and teachers, parents, and administration can get reports on how students are doing. This includes 30,00 common core aligned questions, and over 2,000 common core aligned videos, all for free."
Front Row's website for students is: https://www.frontrowed.com/
Tenmarks
This week you may have noticed a new grade. This is a Tenmarks assignment which takes about 10 minutes. In Tenmarks, they receive 10 questions on an assigned skill. They are allowed to retest on this assignment if they do not like their grade once they receive help or more instruction on that skill. These are always on skills that have already been taught in class. Their score pops up as soon as they finish, so they automatically know whether or not they will need the skill to be reassigned.
"Points, games, and certificates reward and encourage learning.
Students earn points for successfully completing work on TenMarks. Points are used to redeem game time in the TenMarket. Students receive certificates for scores >= 80%."
ALL OF THESE SITES CAN BE ACCESSED AT HOME AS WELL!!
Friday, November 13, 2015
News of the Week
This past Wednesday we celebrated Veteran's Day. We had numerous activities in the class, as well as speakers and a special lunch. Thank you to Mr. Perry and Mr. Simon for coming out to speak to our students on their personal experiences in the military. Thank you to everyone who had the opportunity to come out and eat lunch with us as well. Be sure to check out special Veteran's Day post.
Field Trips
parents who braved our last field trip in the rain to Brattonsville: Mrs. Hines (Marc's mom), Mrs. Jones (Savannah's mom), Mrs. Moseley (Claire's mom), Mr. Burba (Kaisen's dad), Mrs. Keim (Ann's mom), and Ms. James (Braxton's mom).
Thursday, the 19th, we will take our 2nd field trip to the State Museum. If possible, make sure your child has a lunch in an easily disposable bag. If your child needs a school lunch, please let me know before the weekend is over, if possible.
Colonial Day Information
We are in need of 2-4 volunteers! If you can help in any way, please let us know. We are trying to make this experience special for the students.
2nd Payment Installment for Camp Leopold
As a reminder, the second Camp Leopold payment was due on November 13. For anyone interested in chaperoning, the cost is $80. Also, we are looking for male chaperones. If you can attend the overnight field study Feb. 28, March 1, March 2, please contact me for details. We do have definitely1 male chaperone as of now.
Sale, Sale, Sale
We are now selling the fall/winter Lake Carolina spirit wear as well as the yearbook. Forms are attached below.
Absences
On Wednesday, I will be at a math workshop in which I am earning my Math Numeracy Leader certification and on Friday, I will be in Atlanta at the Ron Clark Academy. Since I will be absent Wednesday and Friday, please remind your student about appropriate behavior while a guest teacher is here.
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