Week of March 17th

 Happy St. Patrick's Day! Isibindi is loving this green holiday! Just a reminder that this is the last week of school before Spring Break. This is a full week of learning so please help make sure your student is here if at all possible. :)

ELA:

This week in ELA we will be finishing up our morphemes in our Morpheme Lexicon and for our Morpheme Deck. We will also have a couple of ReadWorks assignments to work on answering short answer questions completely using evidence from the text to support our answers. 

Math:

This week we will be finishing up Topic 12 and beginning Topic 13. We are going to be cruising through these to make sure we get all of the content covered before ISAT testing. Just a reminder that daily math assignments have changed. Each math assignment is now worth 15 points instead of 10. Students will be completing the IXL skills associated with each lesson by getting them to a Smart Score of 80+, that is worth 5 points. Students can then get an additional 10 points for the Quick Check assigned for each lesson. The Quick Check needs to be completed after they have completed the IXL skills. 

Roaring Reader:

If your student is working towards their Roaring Reader pass, their reading log needs to be turned in to me by Thursday, March 20th. That is THIS Thursday. This gives me time to collect all the reading logs and get everything turned into Roaring Springs. 

Christmas Traditions Writing:

Your student brought home their informative writing essay about Christmas Traditions last week. I always struggle to grade writing because I know how far my students have come and what they are trying to do and tend to grade them way easier than I should. :) I had my mom grade these for me this time and use the ISAT rubric for informative writing. The grade they got should be pretty similar to how they would have scored if that was the ISAT because of this. I was really encouraged by how well they did. :)

Spring Break Extra Credit:

I am offering 3 extra credit opportunities over spring break. To get extra credit, students can NOT have any missing assignments. Those need to be completed before an extra credit is given. 

 

1. Xtramath:

Even if your student is not still working on their multiplication facts, they can get extra credit for math homework by completing a session each day of Spring Break. That is up to 7 days at 2 points per day which will give them up to 14 points of extra credit. 

2. IXL Math: 

Students can earn up to 15 points of extra credit by completing up to 150 minutes of math skill practice on IXL. This will be a Daily Work extra credit grade. I would like them to focus on assigned skills that they have not completed first. If they don't have any assigned skills they can work on Recommended Skills.

3. IXL Language Arts:

Students can earn up to 15 points of extra credit by completing up to 150 minutes of language arts skill practice on IXL. This will be a Daily Work extra credit grade. I would like them to focus on assigned skills that they have not completed first. If they don't have any assigned skills they can work on Recommended Skills. 

Again, to qualify for extra credit, students can NOT have any missing assignments. Those can be completed first and then they can work towards extra credit. :) 

I hope you all have a wonderful Spring Break! I look forward to seeing all my cuties back in class on Monday,  March 31st. 

ISAT Testing:

We decided to push back testing dates to give us an extra week to prepare. We will do the ELA ISAT on Tuesday, April 29th and Wednesday, April 30th. The Math ISAT will be on Tuesday, May 6th and Wednesday, May 7th. 

We are coming up on state testing time. I wanted to make sure I let you know the dates of testing so that you can plan ahead and make sure your student is here for that. Also, it helps to make sure your student is getting consistent good sleep leading up to testing. There are two parts to both the ELA and Math ISATs. They are the Performance Task (PT) and the Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT). We will give these on different days so that they kids aren't overwhelmed. That means we will have 4 days of testing total. 

ISAT Party:

Each year I throw an ISAT party for my students to celebrate all of their hard work after they have taken the ISATs. This is different than other class parties because students have to earn an invitation to this party. They can earn an invitation in one of two ways. 

1. By scoring a 3 or 4 on the ISAT or moving from one level to the next. For example if they were a 1 in 3rd grade but scored a 2 in 4th grade, that is moving one level.

2. By working really hard leading up to ISAT testing to do their best. I understand that test anxiety is a real thing. Those students who work really hard and don't keep their classmates from succeeding by being a distraction, can also earn an invite to the party even if they don't get the score that they want. 

Students who do not earn an invitation to the ISAT party will spend that time completing work in another classroom. I will let you and your student know if they are at risk of not earning an invitation to the party while they still have time to turn things around. :)

House Colors Thursday:

I just wanted to remind you that students are welcome and encouraged to wear their house color on Thursdays. I am still making shirts for students as they bring them in. I also had some amazing donations from parents to buy vinyl and had one parent send in vinyl so if your student already brought in a sweatshirt and would like a t-shirt (or vice versa), they are welcome to bring in the other while the vinyl lasts. :) Again, if your student would like a house shirt but it is not within your budget right now, please let me know and I can help out with that! 

I also had a parent donate extra shirts for students who may not be able to afford one! Thank you so much! If your student would like one of those, please let me know! It will be a first come, first served basis. :)

Week of March 10th

 Welcome to the first week of the last quarter! I cannot believe we are already in the last quarter of the year, this year has flown by too fast! We had so much fun on Thursday celebrating our success on Topic 9! We had a Rock, Paper, Scissors challenge going on all day and Lucas had all the necklaces until the very end of the day when he lost to Mr. Ristau! But, Mr. Ristau was so kind and gave everyone a necklace back by the end of the day. We also had Ruby spend the day with us and she was exhausted by the time we made it home! 

ELA:

This week in ELA we will be working on comprehension with paired texts in ReadWorks again. We will be adding two new pages to our Morpheme Lexicon. We will also be finishing up our novel, Because of Winn-Dixie. This is such a great story and we have really enjoyed it in class. 

Math:

This week in math we will begin Topic 12. This topic focuses on decimals and how they relate to fractions. I am going to begin doing something new this quarter. Each math assignment will be the Quick Check, that means that students will be getting the grade that they earn on the assignment. I am also adding in IXL skills that go with each lesson that I want students to get at least an 80 Smart Score on for each lesson. 

Roaring Reader:

If your student is working towards their Roaring Reader pass, their reading log needs to be turned in to me by Thursday, March 20th. That is next Thursday. This gives me time to collect all the reading logs and get everything turned into Roaring Springs. 

Parent/Teacher Conferences:

We have conferences this week on March 13th and 14th. Thursday, March 13th will be from 4:00-6:30. This will be a drop in conference that you can stop by with your student anytime during that time. At 6:30 we will be doing the 3rd Grade Parent Meeting like we did last year, so you won't be able to drop in during that time. I sent out emails to schedule a conference if I have specific concerns I want to address with you about your student in the next week or so. Those scheduled conferences will be on Friday, March 14th. If you would like to schedule a conference to sit down with me, please send me an email and I will get you on the schedule as well. 

ISAT Testing:

We are coming up on state testing time. I wanted to make sure I let you know the dates of testing so that you can plan ahead and make sure your student is here for that. Also, it helps to make sure your student is getting consistent good sleep leading up to testing. There are two parts to both the ELA and Math ISATs. They are the Performance Task (PT) and the Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT). We will give these on different days so that they kids aren't overwhelmed. That means we will have 4 days of testing total. We will do the ELA ISAT on Monday, April 21st and Wednesday, April 23rd. The Math ISAT will be on Monday April, 28th and Wednesday, April 30th. 

House Colors Thursday:

Congrats to ALTRUISMO for winning our Quarter 3 House Point challenge! On Thursday, each student is invited to wear black to honor our winners. :)

I just wanted to remind you that students are welcome and encouraged to wear their house color on Thursdays. I am still making shirts for students as they bring them in. I also had some amazing donations from parents to buy vinyl and had one parent send in vinyl so if your student already brought in a sweatshirt and would like a t-shirt (or vice versa), they are welcome to bring in the other while the vinyl lasts. :) Again, if your student would like a house shirt but it is not within your budget right now, please let me know and I can help out with that! 

I also had a parent donate extra shirts for students who may not be able to afford one! Thank you so much! If your student would like one of those, please let me know! It will be a first come, first served basis. :)

Week of March 3rd

 Hello everyone! I am sorry I did not get this out to you yesterday, I was home sick. This week is the last week of Quarter 3. I cannot believe we will be in the last quarter next week! This year is flying by too quickly!

ELA:

This week we are going to be working really hard on answering comprehension questions on nonfiction paired texts. This means that students will be reading two different nonfiction passages and then answering questions on them individually but also answering them using information from both passages to support their answer. 

February Reading Calendars were due yesterday morning. I will be printing out March Reading Calendars and sending those home with your student today. 

Math:

This week we are doing a really quick topic about data in line plots. Next week we will begin Topic 12 that covers fractions and decimals and how they work together. That is the last topic that contains new concepts for math. After that we will be reviewing all of the things we have learned in 4th grade to make sure that all students have a good grasp of each one. 

Parent/Teacher Conferences:

We have conferences coming up again on March 13th and 14th. Thursday, March 13th will be from 4:00-6:30. This will be a drop in conference that you can stop by with your student anytime during that time. At 6:30 we will be doing the 3rd Grade Parent Meeting like we did last year, so you won't be able to drop in during that time. I sent out emails today  to schedule a conference if I have specific concerns I want to address with you about your student in the next week or so. Those scheduled conferences will be on Friday, March 14th. If you would like to schedule a conference to sit down with me, please send me an email and I will get you on the schedule as well. 

ISAT Testing:

We are coming up on state testing time. I wanted to make sure I let you know the dates of testing so that you can plan ahead and make sure your student is here for that. Also, it helps to make sure your student is getting consistent good sleep leading up to testing. There are two parts to both the ELA and Math ISATs. They are the Performance Task (PT) and the Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT). We will give these on different days so that they kids aren't overwhelmed. That means we will have 4 days of testing total. We will do the ELA ISAT on Monday, April 21st and Wednesday, April 23rd. The Math ISAT will be on Monday April, 28th and Wednesday, April 30th. 

House Colors Thursday:

I just wanted to remind you that students are welcome and encouraged to wear their house color on Thursdays. I am still making shirts for students as they bring them in. I also had some amazing donations from parents to buy vinyl and had one parent send in vinyl so if your student already brought in a sweatshirt and would like a t-shirt (or vice versa), they are welcome to bring in the other while the vinyl lasts. :) Again, if your student would like a house shirt but it is not within your budget right now, please let me know and I can help out with that! 

I also had a parent donate extra shirts for students who may not be able to afford one! Thank you so much! If your student would like one of those, please let me know! It will be a first come, first served basis. :)