Sunrise over Haleakala, Maui, HI
                              

Weekly Notes - Week of November 2, 2009 

Dear 3D,

Thank you to all who made our class Halloween party so great! It was a wonderful day.

This week, we have a short week due to the NJEA Convention. When we discussed wrapping up the math and science units, students generally thought it would be worth studying a little harder and not having the pending assessments ruining a four day weekend. So the math assessment is tomorrow and the science assessment is Wednesday. I sent home two packets last week for those who wanted a little more review. The packets were optional, but it would be a good idea to have looked them over as a study guide. I have attached as a file the science power point review for chapter 8. We finally have the starboard up and running again, so students were very focused going over the review today of lessons 1 and 2. We will do 3 and 4 tomorrow. You may want to use it at home as a review for the assessment as well.

In language arts we have moved on to Unit 2. We took a spelling pretest today on long e. The test will be next Wednesday. (I will be out next Thursday and Friday as the second half of a college worldwind tour with my daughter.) Students should be working on the mystery bag project for November 16.  Conference forms should be returned asap!

I am going to cut my note short tonight as I am not the only one needing my computer. I will have to finish up my usual Monday letter and general update tomorrow!

Fondly,

Mrs. Dalton

 LANGUAGE ARTS: We use the Treasures program, which was also used in the lower grades.

  READING:  Our first unit will address the comprehension skills of character, setting, plot, main ideas and details, and problem and solution. Novels, leveled readers,
response journals, and learning center activities will be introduced over time. 
     - RAZ-Kids - Students now have been leveled and need to work through all items at each level to move up tho the next one. Students will also need to logon and their passwords are
the same passwords as for Spelling City.
  WRITING: Students will write in a variety of genres and for a variety of purposes throughout the year. We will use the strategies of the Six Traits of writing
to improve our writing. The first focus will be on ideas.
           -  GRAMMAR: We will begin with sentences - statements, questions, commands, exlamations, subjects, predicates, and compound sentences.

 WORD STUDY: Our first 5 week unit will focus on words with short vowels, the CVCe pattern, and words with long a,o, and i. Students will be learning various
ways to study and explore words and the study lists will be posted on Spelling City. The "Reference Desk" below has more information on general word  study.
   -  Spelling City - The logon for a practice test is the student's first and last name (no space in between) and the password is a three letter word beginning with a.
                        To get credit for the spelling practice test, a student MUST logon and click the button underneath it, not the button to the right!
   - Students need to focus on writing in lowercase UNLESS uppercase is needed and watching letters with ascenders and descenders.
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MATH:  We regularly use the Everyday Mathematics program  and supplement it as appropriate. Students will be working in class in the program's
Math Journal (MJ) and have homework from the Home Links (HL) book. (The Home Links book will be kept at home.) Unit 2 focuses on addition and subtraction. We will review fact families, fact extentions, What's My Rule?" problems, and will use various organizers for completing word problems.  Additionally we will work on
math facts and word problems throughout the year. The Everyday Math program is now available online. Go to LINKS and use the logon and password written
in the homework book.

 SCIENCE:   We have a new science curriculum this year. Areas of study will be in life science, earth science, and physical science. We will begin with
exploring the scientific method and then jumping to Unit 8 on Planets, Moons, and Stars. (Moon rocks and Star Lab were reserved a year ago for this fall!)
The text may be accessed online. Use the last LINK and enter the code that is written there as well. Students will be going to Ms. Ellersick once every day 1 for lab.

 SOCIAL STUDIES: "Our Communities " is both the name of our text and the focus of our study for the year. Geography and map skills will be
infused within our study.  Our first unit, Communities Around Us, will explore the "big idea" of communities are alike and different and are found all over
the world. We also will be exploring holidays, traditions, and current events.

  CHARACTER EDUCATION:  Throughout the year we will focus on six pillars of good character: Respect, Responsibility, Citizenship, Fairness,
Trustworthiness, and Caring. The focus for September is RESPECT and October it is RESPONSIBILITY.

For more information, activities, and resources go to "Links."

Visit the related arts teachers' webpages for updates in those classes!

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      MYSTERY READER: The only thing better than having a guest reader is trying to guess who it will be! Pick up a book
(doesn't need to be a mystery!) and come read to our class for 20 minutes. Just don't tell your child! Dates and times TBA here. 
Email me if there is a slot that you would like. When I send back a confirmation, I will ask that you answer a few questions.
These will be the clues I will give the students to see if they can predict who the mystery reader might be!

New MYSTERY READER DATES: Thursday, October 8 at 8:45 - taken
                                                Friday, October 16 at 2:30 - taken
                                                Friday, October 23 at 2:30 - Taken

          CUSTOM AND CULTURE SHARING: The more we know about one another's traditions, beliefs, culture, and customs,
the better a community we become. If you have anything that you would like to share with us, around specific holidays or just in general,
please email me with what you would like to share and we will work out some mutually convenient time.      

Our special visitors naturally can be any loved one!                 

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Happy Birthday: October 8 -Zoe

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         RELATED ARTS SCHEDULE              

Day 1:  Music, PE, Science Enrichment

Day 2: Spanish, Library

Day 3: PE

 Day 4: Health, Art

Day 5: Music

Day 6: Art, Spanish
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           THE REFERENCE DESK

CODE OF EXPECTATIONS

 The following is the Code of Expectations set for all students who attend Ridgewood Avenue School-

I will maintain a positive ATTITUDE.

I will act with INTEGRITY.

I will take RESPONSIBILITY for my actions and set a good example.

I will demonstrate PERSERVERENCE toward accomplishing goals.

I will honor the COMMITMENT to make our school a safe and exciting learning community.

I will take PRIDE in my school community and myself.

        Rhino Reading: This is REQUIRED for EVERY STUDENT! Each student needs to read a minimum of 100 minutes per week. That is  20 minutes 
a night for 5 nights, or any combination that equals 100 minutes. Minutes are to be recorded daily in your homework book. Each week's minutes need to be totaled
and initialed by a parent for each Monday. (This includes holiday weeks.) If you prefer recording minutes on something  you can hang on the refrigerator, a rhino log
may be used instead (it is under "Files"). Minutes can be accumulated by silent reading, reading aloud, reading with a partner,  listening to books, or any combination. 

It is strongly urged that students read more than the minimum. Students really should read 30 minutes a night (150 per week). As a reward for making the 150
minutes per week goal, PIZZA HUT BOOK-IT! coupons will be given to students who have read 600 minutes for the month (150  x 4) for October through March
reading minutes. Students reading 1,000 minutes a month and top reader of the month will be recognized as well.

The annual school competition rewards the class in each grade level that has accumulated the greatest number of minutes (each student is capped at 1,000 minutes
for this purpose), the student in each grade who has read the greatest number of minutes (no cap), and the whole school when it has reached the goal of 2,000,000
minutes.

 TTT (Tuesday Time Test): On most Tuesdays, students will take a TTT. Students will have 60 seconds to complete up to 50 math facts. The number of
facts completed correctly will be recorded and goal for the next week is to improve the number correct. When the quiz is returned, the students take it home and
correct and complete the problems for homework that night.  There will be weeks when there is no TTT or when the TTT will be on a different day. The TTT is not
announced ahead of time for studying purposes as students should be regularly reviewing facts to improve speed and accuracy. 

  WORD STUDY:     Remember to go to link #10 for Spelling City!

1. Most weeks students will take a pretest on words that follow (or deviate) from a spelling principle. The pretest is taken and corrected in a word study notebook.
Most students will use the regular spelling list for the week. If a student gets fewer than  _ words wrong on the pretest (at the teacher's discretion), the student
will use the spelling list with the *.  If a student is absent, they can take the test on Spelling City as a pretest.

2. Homework for those weeks will usually be as follows:
     Monday - Write the spelling list in your homework book and have a parent check and intial it. Write it a second time on the handwriting sheet. Play a Spelling City game.
     Tuesday - Play a few Spelling City games. Use the spelling list, vocabulary list, and other posted lists for the week/ month.  
     Wednesday - Complete a spelling activity as assigned or from our posted class list (not yet!).
     Thursday - Take a practice spelling test on Spelling City. (Alternatively, a parent may give you a written practice test , but it must be corrected,
initialed, and returned to school on
          Friday.  Practice the words you got wrong!

3. The sixth week students will review the 5 regular lists and there will be a mastery spelling test of 30 words chosen at random from those lists. 

4. The seventh week students will make a personal spelling list of words they need to learn.