Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Thanksgiving Lunch

Forest Creek Elementary will be hosting lunch for students and families on Thursday, November 15, 2018.  If you would like to join your student for lunch, please RSVP so that we may have your badge printed in advance, when possible.  This RSVP is separate from the meal RSVP you may have returned earlier.  This RSVP is to have your badge pre-printed.
If you have previously ordered a Thanksgiving meal through the cafeteria, the visitor price is $3.65, payable upon arrival. Your child's class will eat lunch during their regularly scheduled lunch time.
The opportunity to RSVP using this link for your pre-printed badge will end at noon on Wednesday, November 14.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

And suddenly, November!

It's hard to believe that we have been together as a class for 1/4 of our year.  In some ways it feels like we have been a classroom family for much longer and yet I already feel my time with your kids slipping away too quickly.  We have ALOT to do this year!

In math we are shifting our focus from Time back to addition and subtraction strategies.  The focus will be on regrouping for both and I will be encouraging students to let go of inefficient strategies.  I will be working with some students on the algorithm.  If you approach that method with your child and they have not done it in school, it may be that I am concerned that they don't understand the concept of needing to regroup yet.  They have to be able to visualize that ten stick breaking up and moving into ten ones.

In science we are studying magnets and patterns of motion -- always a fun unit and we have a couple of engaging STEM activities to support the learning.

In reading we are gradually moving away from Non-Fiction back to Fiction and thinking deeper!  New concepts will be inferencing and summarizing.

Writing is a bit of a mixed bag right now.  We are completing mini biographical paragraphs about a fellow student, thinking about procedural text and transition words and a little personal narratives.  We are also working on our writing foundations which are:  1- the sentence has to make sense!  2 - Each and every sentences starts with a capital letter.  3 - There must be punctuation at the end of sentences.  For some reason, even though students can parrot these rules and they have been taught and reviewed since Kindergarten, we are not consistent.  

So two weeks of really intense learning and then everyone gets a break.  Behavior is key during these days.  If I contact you about your child's behavior, please know that it wasn't a single event.  A student has to have redirections in the dozens or of such severity that I am turning to my parent partners for support.