Hello! Before I say a word about anything else, I want to thank the families that were able to come to Crescent Park School Tuesday night during our "Open House". Your children were very proud to show you around their building, and I was happy to get the chance to meet some new families, and to get reacquainted with others. Thank you for taking the time to show your child how important school is to you, and should be to them.
The caterpillar we received from the Mulleys entered its chrysalis stage either last Saturday or last Sunday, so the children did NOT get a chance to see the "Change". :( When we returned to school on Monday, its chrysalis was hanging on the inside "lip" of the storage container. During the fourteen days it will take to metamorph into a butterfly, we will find out many things about butterflies in general, and monarch butterflies in particular. For example, we learned that one difference between a butterfly and a moth is their antennae--butterflies have long, slender antennae, and moth antennae look more like feathers or ferns. We "googled" images of both. We also saw pictures of the groves of trees in Mexico on which MILLIONS of monarch butterflies rest through our "winter" months. We learned that the word "metamorphosis", when applied to science, means "major change in form", and it is a term used to describe a MAJOR change from the early stages of an animal to its final adult form--as in the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly, and from a tadpole to a frog. We also discussed that most animal babies look like a smaller, rounder version of their parents. They do NOT go through metamorphosis. The kids' seem to be enjoying having this visitor in our room. Because one cannot tell the gender of a monarch butterfly until it IS a butterfly (ask your child how one can tell if the butterfly is a male or a female), the children voted to give him/her the gender-neutral name of "Flapster"--or "Flappy", for short. In the process, they also learned something about "brainstorming" (listening to and accepting all names offered), "selective elimination" (voting several times, each time trimming away the choices with the least or no votes), "voting" (choosing only ONE name from the list each time we voted), and "compromise" (going with the name the "majority" of the children voted for). We also learned that when we vote, we don't always get OUR choice, especially if the "majority" of people voting choose something different from us. The experience has been wonderful, and offered such fabulous learning opportunities. I feel VERY fortunate to have a monarch caterpillar this year, as so few are available now. Flapster is making the transition from pupae to adult now within the chrysalis. The expected date for his/her emerging from the chrysalis is the 26th of September (a Saturday, of course!) As the day approaches, I will put flowers in the holding tank in an attempt to prolong his/her life until Monday when the kids are back at school. Or maybe we'll be lucky enough to have an early arrival on Friday, or a late arrival on Monday. Stranger things have happened!
The children have had a very good week in school, despite the unbearable temperatures. In fact, they worked so hard and smoothly together on Thursday that they ALL received a "Coyote Coupon" for their kind, cooperative, and respectful treatment of one another. AROOOOOOO! Coyote Coupons are collected during the month, and something special will happen for all who receive one or more on the last day of the month. We don't know yet what that something will be.
This coming week will be the last week of the fairy tale books your child has been bringing home each night. I appreciate your rereading these with your child. As you could tell from this week, I have already begun to send home "leveled readers". These are the books that have been in the book bags with the fairy tales. Once fairy tales are over, one "leveled reader" will be coming home each night Monday - Thursday. The homework schedule you receive each week tells you what your child should be doing for homework Monday - Thursday. Homework includes a practice of sight words (make it a game, if you can), review of fluency sentences (mix the order up, please), and reading the "little reader" to you. Please do your best to see that these "readers" come back to school each morning. We have a limited number of books, so the book your child has today may be someone else's "reader" tomorrow. People are most successful with this by having their child put the book back into the baggie and then back into their Daily Folder right after they finish reading it.
We are almost done with patterning, and are starting to work on
recognizing the addition side of "Fact Families". We will begin,
sometime this week, introducing ten-frames, and how to add numbers +0, +1,
and +2 to numbers 1-10. We will also work on what an equation is, how
to write it, what it consists of, and learning to answer word problems
involving simple addition by drawing the problem out, by using a number
line to "show the action", and by writing the equations for the
problems. Sounds like a lot to learn (and it is) but if your child
REALLY learns this now, he or she will carry the knowledge on into the
future, and "math" in general will appear to be more systematic for him or her. We will continue to review this information throughout the school year, since it is SO important. It won't be long before we are working toward passing our
addition timed tests. First graders are required to be able to complete
50 basic addition problems, and later 50 basic subtraction problems, each within a 5
minute period, before the end of the school year. We will start with
addition as soon as we have covered adding with 0-6. Don't be overly
concerned--your child has all year to pass both of these tests.
However, if he or she passes them earlier in the year, he or she will proceed
on to learning to add (and subtract) double-digit numbers, first
without "regrouping", and then later with "regrouping". More about that
as the time approaches.
Just a word about papers in folders--hopefully by next week, I will be correcting papers each day, and you will be receiving them on the NEXT day. Please empty the "Keep at Home" side of the Daily folder each evening, so I have a place for corrected papers to go. In the upper right hand corner of each corrected paper, you will find a number. That is the score your child received on that particular paper. A 3 means that your child seems to understand the work I am asking him or her to do, and is able to demonstrate this understanding. A 2 means he or she is having some difficulty understanding the skill or concept being taught, or is not able to independently demonstrate this understanding. A 1 means that there was a lot of confusion when working on this skill or concept, and that I will be working with your child as soon as possible to reteach the skill or concept to him or her. A 4 is very hard to get in my class. To me, a 4 means that not only does your child thoroughly understand the skill or concept being taught, but has initiated a demonstration of that concept in some way that goes beyond what I set for him/her in class. It is NOT for a neater paper, or for better coloring. It is, for example, attempting to label the pictures used for a vowel sort. Although the requirement of the paper was to sort pictures into the proper vowel category, "labeling" the picture with the CVC word associated with the picture requires your child to use the skill learned in a way that is "above and beyond" what I am asking him or her to do. Another example is creating and completing problems on the back side of a paper that are similar to the tasks on the front of the paper.
A third example is your child making up his or her own "worksheet" on a topic we have been learning or have learned during his or her free time, like drawing what he or she has learned about the stages of a butterfly and attempting to label it. If a page has a big smiley face on it but no number, the work was done correctly, but not graded. If the smiley is missing, and the "grade" is missing, and the paper is on the "Return to School" side of the Daily folder (I will TRY to remember to put it on that side), it is work that was NOT completed during class time, and needs to be finished at home and returned to school as soon as possible. A missed grade is a zero in my grade book until the completed work is returned to me for review. Zeros can "bump" a grade on a report card from a "3" to a "2" or a "1".
Before I leave today, I wanted to remind you that our first NWEA test (Math) will take place this Thursday (9/24) from 12:15 - 1:15 pm. Please talk with your child about this test, pointing out to him or her that the need to try his/her best so he/she can show me what is already known, and what needs to be worked on this year. The test is designed to jockey between hard and easy problems until it determines a level that is "just right" for your child. This means, from its very nature, that some of the problems will be too hard for your child, and some will be too easy. Explaining this idea to your child will help eliminate much of the anxiety associated with testing. Your child should just "try to do his or her BEST" without guessing. You can help by letting your child know that you will be happy with their score as long as they TRY to do their best. Getting to bed on time, and having a good breakfast before school that day will help, too.
Within a very short time of completing the test Thursday morning, the school will be practicing a "LockDown". This drill, like the ones we do for fire drills, are to help us know where to go and what to do in the event that danger of some type comes to Crescent Park School. If you have a child who seems like he or she might worry about "danger at school", you might want to spend talking to him or her about the need to practice such scenarios, and spend some time reassuring him or her that we don't think we will EVER need to go into a REAL "Lock Down", but that the practice will help us all know what to do in the event that one occurs. I believe it will be about a half-hour in duration.
Have a wonderful week! I understand that we will actually be experiencing some "fall" temperatures this week?! That's great (at least for me)! It's much easier to concentrate in school when you're not wishing you were home in air conditioning, or in the pool!
Important Dates in the near future:
September 24th-- First NWEA test (Math), first "Lock Down" drill
September 30th--Second NWEA test (Reading) in the afternoon
October 9th No school for your child--This is a Teacher Workshop Day.
October 12th No school for anyone--Columbus Day holiday.
October 16th Grandparents' Day from 8:30 to 10:30
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