Classroom News
2/5/18
Mrs. Fox and Mrs. Hughes
Email: lindsay.fox@acsgmail.net
Website: claxton.ashevillecityschools.net
Location: Claxton Elementary School, Merrimon Avenue, Asheville, NC, United States
Phone: 828-350-6528
Field Trips!
Thursday, March 1st: This week you will be receiving a permission slip and payment request for a trip to the Diana Wortham Theatre to see a performance of "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type" by Doreen Cronin. We will not need chaperones for this trip.
Wednesday, March 14th: Lego Stem Workshop on Weather - Brickz4kidz are visiting our classrooms to support our Science unit on Weather - payment details to come. No need for chaperones
Other upcoming field trips: Arboretum, Fish Hatchery, Weaver Park - dates to be released soon! Chaperones will be needed for these 3 trips.
Valentine's Day Cards
All parents are welcome to our party from 1:30 onwards. Contact our room mom, Miriam Scott (mimsbee@gmail.com) , if you are able to volunteer. You are all so generous with your talents!
100 Days of School - projected for February 14th
Peppermint - taking bookings!
If you would like to book a weekend with a guinea pig, it means that you pick her up after school on Friday and return her on Monday morning. She is extremely adaptable!
A Look at Our Week
Another addition to our Choice Time activities this week, will be our Technology Take Apart Center. Thanks to another classroom parent,Chris Scott, we have acquired a printer to take apart and explore. If you too have any defunct tech, please send it our way so that we can demolish it!
Math: Math benchmark assessments for the middle of the year will be administered this week. This is another opportunity for your child to "show us what they know". I will be in touch with you if there is any concern about your child's progress.
Reading: In honor of the Winter Olympics, I will be introducing a reading challenge to them for the month. As you have seen from your child's mclass report sent home last week, your child has achieved a certain level of reading. Their challenge for the months of February and March is to reach the next reading level. I will be progress monitoring them, and when they achieve the next level they will be awarded a Gold Medal for their persistence and hard work. We have learned many reading strategies over the past months: the one that really helps them move up reading levels is cross-checking the first sound of the word with the picture when decoding an unknown word. Once your child consistently does this, the next step is for them to attend to the endings of words to see if the word looks right. It is also very important for your child to memorize their sight words. The difference between a child reading at grade level, and beyond, and a child still emerging as a reader is the size of their sight word bank and their ability to use "Sound Power" (ask your child to explain!) and "Picture Power" together when trying to figure out an unknown word.
Groundhog Day was funny, watching "Phil" being surrounded by all these old men in hats and tails! The class predicted that he would see his shadow......and they were right! Thank them for the 6 more weeks of Winter headed our way! Ms. Wurster, one of our regular volunteers (a Grandma to a member of our class, and a retired teacher!) told them all the story of "Punxhatawney Phil" before we watched a newsclip about his emergence.
Thank you to all of our volunteers. You all bring so much to our children's learning, and enjoyment of school. You really are providing a great village to raise these children in!