Week of April 21st

 I hope you all had a wonderful Easter yesterday! I loved the weather this weekend and we all spent a lot of time outside enjoying it. :)

ELA:

My students will be finishing up their Native American research paper today in class, if they have not already. I am so proud of how they are doing in writing, these essays look amazing!

We will spend the majority of our class time this week preparing for the ISATs that we will be taking next week. IXL has put together a skill plan to help students prepare for ISATs and I have it pinned for my students. I would encourage students to spend their monthly reading time this week, working on mastering those skills so that they are as ready as they can be for next week. :)

Math:

This week we will continue plugging away on our math skills. If your student is absent, please help them remember to complete the IXL skills for that lesson to a Smart Score of at least 80 before they complete the Quick Check. Often times in class we will do that together, so your student may not have that Smart Score because we do it in a game format whole group. Absent students will need to either take a screen shot that shows those skills have an 80, or show me their screen when they come back to class. 

RAD:

I want to give a HUGE shoutout to the kids who performed in RAD on Thursday. Out of all of the years I have watched this performance, this year's really stood out as exceptional! I was able to get some pictures and will be putting them in a Google Folder that I will share with all of you. :)

Enrichment:

Our last Enrichment session begins this Thursday and will run from 12:20-1:20 each Thursday. The last day for this session will be on Thursday, May 15th. Students who have any missing work will not be allowed to attend Enrichment until it is all turned in. 

Science Fair Project:

Your student should be working on Step 3: Testing your Hypothesis right now. This step is due next Monday, April 28th. Your student is welcome to turn in that work whenever they get it done. I strongly encourage my students to hang on to each step and take lots of pictures as they go. They will need these for the final step which is creating their presentation board. 

I have included all of the steps in Infinite Campus. This is because at this point projects may progress at different rates. If your student is able to finish Step 3, they are welcome to look at Step 4 and begin putting things together. I would caution to  not make anything permanent on their board yet because they may want to make changes as we talk about them in class. 

Your student will be presenting their presentation to the class starting on Monday, May 12th. Please do NOT send in their boards before that day, I don't have enough room to safely store them for long periods of time. Bringing them in on Monday will allow them to present to the class and then take it to the Aux Gym for the Science Fair.

The Science Fair will be on Thursday, May 15th from 5:30-7:00. This is a drop in style event and your student is welcome to take their project home at the end of the evening. 

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. 

ISAT Dates:

4/29: ELA CAT

4/30: ELA PT

4/6: Math CAT

5/7: Math PT

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 with a significant amount of missing work, may not get to attend because they aren't meeting this requirement.

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:

Now that I know students all have something in their house color because I have gifted it (hat and socks) or they have gotten a shirt, I am offering a house point for each student who wears 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. :) I have 1 Rêveur shirt left!