January Scoop
News from Room 5
Important Notes & Events
•Jan. 5 Return from Winter Break
•Jan. 7, 14, 21, 28, & Feb. 4 & 11: Love & Logic classes for parents
•Jan. 9 Fitness Friday
•Jan. 14 Young Scientist's Club First Meeting (7:45-8:30 a.m.)
Jan. 21nd/28th Young Scientist Club Meetings
•Jan. 16 Science Discovery Day
•Jan. 19 Martin Luther King Holiday
•Jan. 30 Friday Assembly (2:15 p.m.)
Our PTA will be offering a series of Love and Logic classes to parents beginning this week at Skyline. One of our former parents, Shelly Cassar, has organized this event. Classes will be held at the Activity Center on January 7, 14, 21, 28 and Wednesday, February 4 and 11 from 6:30pm-8:00pm. Childcare will be provided in the CDC (Room 28), at Skyline. Each participant will receive a free workbook at the first class, to be used for the entire 6 weeks. Email questions to Shelly
at shelley@cassars.com. Please share this information with your families, especially those that you feel would benefit from this great opportunity.
Speech Topics at a Glance
•Week of January 5th:
Goals. Do you have a New Year’s Goal? What are you going to work on this year? What do you hope to learn or work on improving in 2014?
•Week of January 11th: Free Choice
•Week of January 19th: No Speeches
•Week of January 26th: Think about a hero in your life. Explain why he/she is your hero and how this individual has made a difference in your life or the lives of others
•Week of February 2: How To. Everyone knows how to do something well. Please prepare a “how to” about something you know how to do (i.e. play a game of HORSE, tie your shoe, or make a peanut butter sandwich). Tell us the materials or things you need followed by the steps in order for us to be able to do it as well.
•Week of February 9: Pick a President. Next week we are recognizing President’s Day. Please choose a U.S. President that interests you and someone you have learned about. Give us three to five facts about him including what number president he was/is in our country.•Week of February 16: (No School this week)
INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT MATH
"Why Math Might Be The Secret To School Success"
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/12/why-math-might-be-the-secret-to-school-success/
Math Newsletters
Be on the lookout for the Math Newsletters that will be sent home periodically in your child's SURF folder. They will keep you up to date on the skills taught in class. These newsletter will share examples of problems and how your students are going about solving them.
LINKS
Below you will find links to Compass Learning, Room Recess, Bedtime Math, Dreambox and Raz-Kids.
Please Note: Staff is being trained on Dec. 3rd about Dreambox for the upper grades. I will keep you posted with this site for more math practice.
This is the information for login:
- For Grades 2 and up, Students pick their teacher, then enter their username and password
- Username is firstnamelastname (e.g. johndoe)
- NOTE: Long names are truncated to 20 characters
- Passwords are the last 4 digits of the Student ID
- Username is firstnamelastname (e.g. johndoe)
Focus Areas for This Month
Language Arts
We continue with Unit 3 of the Treasures program this month. Here is the link to activities related to this unit "Let's Create": http://treasures.macmillanmh.com/california/families
We are spending a lot more time on "reading with a purpose". It means reading closely in order to interpret messages, make inferences or simply state the main idea. This week we will be applying the skill of cause and effect. Students act as reading detectives to find clues to demonstrate their knowledge and prove their point. Another comprehension skill that will be introduced is drawing conclusions. As you child sits to read, you can practice those skills. Remember, the home/school connection page on the homework does provide some information about the skill.In 3 weeks, students will take the cumulative Unit 3 assessment.
Writing
Math
We continue to focus on money concepts and its relationship to place value.
Our current focus is on understanding money concepts. Skills included are as follows
1. Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have?
January Birthdays
Cooking & Gardening
Snowball Recipe
Total Time: 1 hr
Prep:
20 min
Cook:
40 min
Yield:
2 1/2 dozen cookies
Level:
Easy
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for coating baked cookies
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
1 cup pecans, chopped into very small pieces
Directions
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or wax paper.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at low speed until it is smooth. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed gradually add the flour. Mix in the pecans with a spatula. With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into a ball. Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies. Place onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 40 minutes. When cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in additional confectioners' sugar. Cool on wire racks.
Class Wish List
Wish List for the Classroom
1. Little prizes for our Treasure Chest
2. Class set of iPad styluses
3. I purchase a lot of items from Teachers pay Teachers. There are so many creative and well-written lessons and products for teachers. All these lessons benefit your child. They offer gift certificates!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Gift-Certificate
Class Code for Front Row: umbgj6
Highlights of Student Work
Mrs. Schroeder's Contact Information
Email: stephanieschroeder@sbsd.net
Website: http://sbsd.schoolwires.net
Location: 780 Santa Victoria, Solana Beach, CA
Phone: 858-794-3705