I hope you have been enjoying the summer-like weather this past weekend!
Some important items of business:
- Please help your students by signing their Home-to-School journals! We changed the day they come home to Thursdays after a discussion that sending home on Fridays was too hard to remember to bring back on Mondays. We have been getting just over half returned. Look for the journal on Thursday. Let's see if we can have 100% signed and returned on Friday! You will find the vocab words for Friday's test if you would like to help your student study one last bit together(also currently posted on the vocab tab on my digital portfolio.)
-We have a field trip to Reuben H Fleet Science Center on Tuesday March 8. Drivers requested!
- We have a bike ride scheduled for Tuesday March 22 to the waterfall in Los Penasquitos Canyon. We may need a couple of shuttles to and from school. (Contact me if interested!) I took a poll of how many students have bikes. We are a couple short if anyone has extras.
-Our Zion trip is officially on the books for Monday May 30 - Friday June 3. Please mark your calendars for a parent info meeting on Tuesday March 15. I will hold 2 sessions: 8:15 am - 9:00 am or 3:45 pm - 4:30 pm
-A payment of $25 will be due March 15, April 15 and May 15. We are right on track for the balance to come from our fundraising!
Meanwhile, in academic news:
In math we had our Ratios, Proportions and Percents test last week. (Students recorded their scores in last week's Home-to-School journal entry) Students were also responsible for completing and turning in at least half of the practice problems from the "Silly Rhymes" packet. This week we start on Exponents and Square Roots. I am trying out a computer program called IXL for more practice of math skills. More about it as we explore it!
Science:The science class portion of our Climate Change project is drawing to a close with the production of our final product. Our scientists are compiling a resource guide for San Diego families on how to reduce their "Carbon Footprint." We will distribute these as well as show of our knowledge at Exhibition Night on Thursday March 24.
News from Keith's class:
We finished up our dedicated class time on writing our informative and opinion pieces for the climate change project. Where we stand on those pieces now are that students have a grade based on the rubric, and will be receiving (if not already had) one on one feedback from me on how to reach mastery. It is their choice between now and Exhibition Night in March whether they revise and improve their pieces further. At that time I will close the window for revision and re-grading.
Project Product: We also played with the different technology options available to create podcasts, and animated videos like this. There were some hilarious efforts when we had a go just to play, on any topic of the students' choice. These will be finished realistically in two week's time, and the goal is to secure interviews with experts and have some groups agree to post / link to our efforts.
Vocab: We were again close to 90% as a class average, with many students receiving 90 or 100%! Whatever support you are giving at home, please keep it up! This week's list is:
1. Wheedle
2. Askance
3. Forsake
4. Revelry
5. Eccentric
6. Vittles
7. Brazen
8. Plethora
9. Gingerly
10. Valiant
The grammar assessment showed that we have some work to do on identifying and fixing fragment and run-on sentences, which we'll re-visit this week.
Have a wonderful week!
