September 2-5 Weekly Update

Our first week has come and gone, and what a fabulous week it was!  Now that we are up and running we thought we would give you a picture of what each subject area looks like in our learning space:

Math-
Students were given a pre-assessment at their grade level.  Based on their pre-assessment  and classroom observations, students were placed in groups based upon their needs.  Groups vary in size of 4-7 students.  In these groups, students are instructed directly by a teacher.  When their group is not meeting with a teacher, students are in a math fact practice station, a technology station or an independent station (where they work on workbook pages/remembering sheets).  As teachers, we are loving the small groups and the ability to focus on a select number of students at a given time.  The students are loving the movement of the math time and the ability to work with so few kids and one teacher.

Science/Social Studies-
We are starting the year in science with a focus on plants.  More specifically, their life cycle, how they make food, and what role they play in the oxygen cycle.  We did a short video preview of plants and are going to start off running with a fun activity that will last about two weeks, beginning on Tuesday.  Please visit our signup for materials needed for the activity: Science Sign Up.  Also, during this time, students will be brushing up on their typing skills. 

Literacy Workshops-
For our reading workshop, students were placed in book clubs of about 4 students/book.  The students set up their reading calendars to make sure they would be able to finish their book and complete a short report by September 24th.  When in our workshop model, students are using what they are reading to complete a book log and a reader's response.  Students are asked to write a short paragraph to answer one of the prompts we have given them-there are about 10 to choose from.  Also, during this workshop, students have visited two fun reading websites: abcya.com and Tumblebooks.  Next week, students will continue these stations and Mrs. Petersen and Ebert will being assessing the students using our Fountas and Pinell books.  
This week, students also took their first spelling assessment which helps us locate what their needs are as far as word work is concerned. We are calling spelling "Words" this school year and although it has a different title, is still the "Words Their Way" that we used last year.  There will be no weekly spelling assessments this year, instead we will check for understanding roughly every 5 or 6 weeks to ensure students are utilizing the new patterns-not just memorizing a list of words each week

We have heard from a few parents with questions on homework expectations.  Each week, students are asked to read at least 100 minutes.  The reading that is done at home should be documented in the assignment notebook with the title of the book and the minutes read.  Why is it so important to read at home?  Take a peek at this graphic:

We also check each morning to see that the assignment notebook has been signed by a parent.  This signifies to us that at home, the parent has checked the assignment notebook for notes from the teachers and has checked to make sure any homework for the night has been completed.  The assignment notebook is a fantastic tool for communication between home and school!

Some more exciting news-most kids have already handed their Google Permission forms back in with a parent signature so the Chromebooks should be making their appearance next week!

If you need to get a hold of us for any reason. please feel free to write a note, send an email apetersen@kewaskumchools.org & nebert@kewaskumschools.org or call 262-626-8427 ext. 5107.