News From Our Classroom

     Hi.  Today I'm sitting in the kitchen letting a VAT of tomato sauce bubble away while I write this newsletter.  I make my own sauce in big vats, and then freeze 12 or 13 meals-worth to put in the big freezer to eat from during the week.  This weekend, it was tomato sauce and meatballs.  Last weekend, it was lentils and "stone" soup.  That way, I can get home from work between 6 and 6:30, and still have a main meal and a salad on the table by 7:00 pm, thanks to the freezer in the basement.  That's why I can stay at work so late three or four nights a week.  I grew up in a BIG family (11 of us for a good deal of my teen life), so I learned to cook by the VAT, anyway.  With my freezer and my weekend cooking, I can still bring meals down to my father whenever I can get down to see him, and my daughter is always happy to get the frozen meals I drag down to her every other month.  It sure does make the house smell good. . .
      Okay, what's happening this week?  Let's see. . . NWEAs happen for us this Friday and next Friday morning.  We will be doing the Math portion of this assessment on Friday morning, 2/3/17  RIGHT AT 8:10 am!!!   That means your child barely has a chance to get to school before we start the test.  It is EXTREMELY important that your child be at school as close to 7:40 on Friday morning as you can make it. There's no need to worry about kids who take the bus, as they arrive in time.  But I have several children who are delivered by their parents (or who walk to school) who arrive around 8:10.  Please have them at school as close to 7:40 as possible.  If they could have breakfast at home that morning, too, that would also save time.  I'd love for them to have a few minutes to take off and hang snow gear, go to the bathroom, and settle in before I whisk them off to the computer lab for these tests.  There is little else you can do to help them prepare for the test--lots of rest the night before, help them wake up with enough time for a good breakfast that morning, and let them know that what you want from them is for them to TRY THEIR BEST to show me what they have learned since September, when we took these tests last.  The Reading portion of the NWEA will take place next Friday, again at 8:10!   Remember, the tests are designed to oscillate between easy and hard questions.  It's OKAY for them to NOT know ALL of the answers--the important thing is for each child to take his or her time, to REALLY THINK about what's being asked,   to eliminate any answer that just doesn't make sense, and to select the "best fit" from the remaining choices.  For the Math portion, they are permitted to have paper so they can "draw out" problems to help them visualize them, but the children need to be reminded to DO that.    They won't, if they feel they have to hurry.  Trying to take the tests quickly tends to be one of the major reasons for lowered scores.  They have a full hour for each exam, and can go back at another time to finish if they are unable to finish it within the hour.
     This Thursday is our third afternoon for Rugrat Skiing at Sunday River.  The first graders will be picked up by bus at CPS around 12:15 pm, and will be dropped off behind the Perfect Turns ski school at South Ridge.  The children skied for nearly three hours last week!  It's pretty amazing--their ski boots and skis will be waiting for them as they walk into the ski school, and within 10 minutes they are out on the mountain skiing! I think Mrs. Meader is staying at school this week, and Miss Smith and  I will travel with the students on the bus to and from the mountain.  We don't ski with the kids, but are close by if anything should happen and a child needs us.    Thank you for being so prompt picking up your child again last week.  We made it back to school by 4:15 (as we hope to every week), and all of the kids were picked up by 4:30!  Pat yourselves on the back!!!!  That's amazing!  Remember, you have the choice of picking your child up at the Perfect Turns ski school between 3:30 pm and 4:00pm OR picking your child up at Crescent Park around 4:15pm.  The bus leaves Sunday River right at 4:00pm, and any child not picked up by that time will be returned to school.  Anyone not picked up by 4:30 pm will be sent to MKA afterschool program, and appropriate costs will apply.  Thank you for letting me know each week WHO is picking up your child after skiing, and WHERE he or she will be picked up.  Please check in with me (or one of the other teachers if I'm not there on a given Thursday), whether at the mountain or at school, so we can check your child off as having been safely delivered to the appropriate person.   If you did not tell me on this week's bus note the WHO AND WHERE of skiing this Thursday, please, please, please, take the minute or two to jot me a note letting me know what's happening for your child this Thursday. Thank you. Our Rugrat dates are 2/02,  2/09, and 2/16 (always, weather permitting)!
      Spelling began last week.  Thirteen students were able to spell all 5 of the words they had for the week, and so were able to move on to their next 5 words.  One child knew only 4 of the 5 words he was to learn, and so will be working with those same 5 words this coming week.  Today, your child will be writing his five words in pencil, again in crayon, and finally in marker, as part of his morning seatwork.  This list will come home tonight, so you will know what his or her words are to study for the week, if you choose to practice them at home.  Different kids will be on different lists.  Your child's list will contain at least one word (and usually more than one word) he or she already can spell, but also at least one word (or more) that he or she cannot spell yet.  We will do an activity a day in which he or she will have to use those spelling words, and I will try to take a few minutes during the day to make sure the words ARE spelled correctly.  If your child is doing the same words this week as he did last week, then he should spend a few minutes each night practicing writing them at home--shaving cream or pudding writing are always big hits with kids, and something that lends itself better to work at home than at school.  My daughter was allergic to shaving cream, so I put shaving cream or whipped cream or pudding inside a ziploc bag, and she "wrote" with her finger on the baggie.  It had the same effect, and was much less messy!  If you have scrabble squares kicking around the house, your child could use them to construct his words.  Alphabets cereal also works.  If you don't have any materials, I would be happy to give you alphabet letters on hard paper that you could cut out and keep in a baggie for building purposes each week.  Just let me know that you want them.
     We will be doing as much reviewing as possible in Math this week, so you will see a WIDE variety of types of Math come home for worksheets.  I want to refresh the children on many of the different things we have learned in Math since September, so they don't draw a blank when they see it again on their NWEAs.  In the place value sessions we have been doing, we have been trying to help ourselves add/ subtract 1 from a base number, and add/ subtract 10 from the base number.  It is fairly easy to do IF YOU REMEMBER that when you are adding or subtracting one, only the number in the ones section changes (the tens number remains the same), and that when you are adding or subtracting ten,  only the number in the tens section changes (and the ones number remains the same).  This is a difficult concept for some kids to grasp, but most are doing a pretty good job.  We are building and changing numbers using base ten blocks as manipulatives to make it easier for the kids to SEE.  Hopefully, the more we practice it using the manipulatives, the easier it is for the kids to envision the process when they DON'T have the manipulatives on hand.
      This week, we will be spending some time with "silent e" (also known as "bossy e" or "magic e") in Reading.  I have been teaching the kids since September that when they see a vowel surrounded by consonants, it usually has its short sound (i.e.: hat, box, pig, pet, hut), but if it comes at the end of a SMALL word,  it usually says its name (i.e.: no, he, my).  Now I am trying to get them to remember to count the vowels in words they don't know, and try the NAME of the first vowel first in words that have more than one vowel.  Most of the time, that will give them a word that they recognize (regardless of whether the two vowels are close together (i.e:  wait, boat, glue--we haven't really talked about "vowel teams") or if a letter separates them (i.e.: like, time, bone, mule, cane), but sometimes it does not.  Then, they should try the other sound of the vowel.  The English language has many exceptions to any "rule" of pronunciation (since it is made up of words from many different languages), so I try to teach "generalizations" instead of "rules", and also teach what to do when the generalization doesn't seem to work.  As your child reads to you and comes across a word he or she doesn't know right away, help him/her remember to CHECK THE VOWELS to see how many there are, and where they are located.  What sound should they try first, and if that doesn't produce a word that makes sense in the sentence, show them how to FLIP the sound (use the other sound of the vowel) to see if THAT makes a word that makes sense in the sentence.  Yes, this process takes a long time AT FIRST, but as your child gets used to doing it (and it becomes automatic), it happens very quickly.  The trickiest vowel is the a.  It has three different sounds (a like "hat",  a like "cane" or "bait", but it also says /u/ when it appears at the beginning or the end of many words (like "ahead", "away", "pizza" and "data").  You will see several "magic e" or "silent e" papers come home this week and next week.  Please use them to talk to your child about this skill, and how he or she knows what sound the vowel(s) in the word make.
     That's it for this week.  We will still have our spelling/ sight word/ fluency tests this Friday and next Friday, but we will have them later in the day.  We will NOT have "share time" this Friday, or next Friday,  as there will not be time due to NWEA testing.
      Have a good week.  I will be in touch with you again next weekend.