Atkinson Gazette
Room 203's Weekly Newsletter
What's UP in Room 203?
How is it already May? I cannot believe I will say goodbye to your kids in four short weeks! This week will be dedicated to fun review games to prepare your students for STAAR on May 9th and May 10th.
Pawsitive Panther for April - Effort: Eva Milby (Not yet announced on KPAW)
On Friday, the students worked with Dash and applied their knowledge of geometry with coding. They had to create a square and code Dash to follow the square. They loved it! The next step was for the kids to create a rectangle, a square, and a rhombus. However, they had to code Dash to draw the shapes. This one was a little more challenging! I would love to give them more time next week to work on it.
Academic News for the Upcoming Week
Math
With that aside, this week we will be taking our morning work and playing trash basketball - all my kids in the past have loved this! Then, we will move into math stations where I will give students problem-solving questions in areas where I think they need more work in. Afterwards, we will play a game called STAAR Wars. This is a friendly competition game where students really do show a level 4 effort!
Students will have math review homework coming home this week every night. Some students may bring extra work to redo if they aren't showing their thinking.
Reading
Last week we completed a close read over a vocabulary passage together to see what they retained from Camp Read-a-Lot. Your kids did very well! I will send this one home on Monday so you can see what they've been working on. On Thursday, we started a folktale story called Gu Dong is Coming! We performed a close read together, but they turned and talked with a partner to summarize their chunks. Monday I will post the questions around the room and they will be placed with a group to discuss and create an answer. On Tuesday, we will pull out the test with the answer choices so they can see if their answer was close to any possible answer choices. I feel this way really gets our kids thinking deep. On Wednesday, we students will get a new text and they will perform a close read and the 8 questions on their own.
I've taught the kids the close reading strategies to help them for the test and I've gradually released them from with me, with a partner, and now on their own. I will send these home as soon as we are done so you can see how your child is doing. I do want to say that I have been very impressed with their reading skills!
Science Lab
Class News Reporter: Owen Johnson
Scotland’s greatest mystery spotted in the Thames River in London, England!
Rumors about Scotland's most famous resident have been around since 500A.D. Studies and research has been conducted since then to determine if Nessie is hiding beneath the waves. And now, it is being proved to people that old legends can sprout in new places.
This was spotted by a YouTuber named Penn Plate, who was travelling on the Emirates Air Line cable car across the river. The film shows a large creature lurking below the surface.
Here is a link to the video
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/658587/Loch-Ness-Monster-Thames-Scotland-foota
See you next week,
News Reporter, Owen Johnson signing out.
Important Dates
UP Carnival Picnic
Thursday, May 5, 2016, 12:15 PM
University Park Elementary School, Amherst Avenue, Dallas, TX, United States
Math STAAR
Monday, May 9, 2016, 08:00 AM
University Park Elementary School, Amherst Avenue, Dallas, TX, United States
Reading STAAR
Tuesday, May 10, 2016, 08:00 AM
University Park Elementary School, Amherst Avenue, Dallas, TX, United States
Spring Book Fair
Monday, May 16, 2016, 07:30 AM
University Park Elementary School, Amherst Avenue, Dallas, TX, United States
UP Field Day
Friday, May 20, 2016, 09:00 AM
University Park, TX, United States
About Miss Atkinson
Email: atkinse@hpisd.org
Website: http://up.hpisd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=419982&type=u
Location: 3505 Amherst Avenue, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: (214) 780-3400