Ms. Wertheim's Little Leaders
News and Resources from Room 203
Week of October 5, 2015
Hi Room 203 families! I hope everyone enjoyed this rainy weekend and managed to stay dry. I'm happy to see a bit of sun peeking through the clouds today! Here are some highlights from last week and upcoming news for this week:
Snapshots of learning
Leadership Lanyards
Interactive Reading Notebooks
Purpose of Nonfiction Features
Little Leader
4th Graders modeling a morning pep talk
Nonfiction Text Features poster
We found the Hurricane!
Combining our weather knowledge and map skills...
To make radar maps!
What we're learning about this week:
- Reading- I am so proud of our second graders' stamina! They've come a long way since Day 1. We are continuing with non fiction text features including: title, table of contents, headings, captions, bold print, charts, maps, and glossary. We will be reading books about weather and maps and use our knowledge of text features to navigate the texts.
- Writing- We are continuing to write personal narratives. Students are practicing the Writing Process: prewrite, draft, revise, edit, share (publish) and the Six Traits of Writing (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, fluency, conventions). This week we are focusing on scoring writing pieces by using a rubric and practicing peer editing.
- Math- We are continuing to explore money. This week we are focusing on counting coins, using the fewest number of coins to make a value, and begin story problems involving money. Students will play a variety of games during Math Daily 3 to practice counting money. They are prepared from our skip-counting practice during our introductory place value unit. We will continue to apply place value knowledge to math throughout the year. Here is an excellent online money-sorting game from abaya.com: http://www.abcya.com/learning_coins.htm
- FUNdations- We are beginning Unit 4 which introduces base words and suffixes. We will continue practice with closed syllables and closed syllable exceptions. A detailed description of this syllable type and other syllable types is attached to their FUNdations homework packet. For a video tutorial on marking base words and suffixes, please visit the Fundations page on my blog: http://mswertheim.blogspot.com/p/reading.html Our Unit 4 test will be next Friday, October 16.
- Science- We are continuing our explorations of weather in our interactive notebooks to study meteorologist weather tools and continue to track weather data. Our science vocabulary this week includes: meteorologist, climate, weather instrument, temperature, air pressure, wind, cloud, and humidity. I encourage you to make daily weather observations with your child. We will also be using Google Earth's weather filter to compare live weather around the world.
- Social Studies- We are continuing with geography. This week we use atlases and google earth to practice using compasses and latitude/longitude.
Wish List
We still need...
- Tab dividers for our Leadership Notebooks
- Snack (healthy options please)
Our 7 Habits Hand Motions
Important Dates and Reminders
- Tuesday, October 6- PTO meeting at Hillcrest. ALL FAMILIES ARE WELCOME! This is an awesome way to see what we are up to. I am at all meetings and would be happy to sit with you! If you’d like to carpool, plan on being at Claxton at 5:30pm to share a ride.
- Wednesday, October 7- WALK TO SCHOOL DAY Meet at Fuddruckers parking lot and walk to school with parents and staff.
- October 16- Picture Day and early release day
- October 20-Anti-Bullying Rally: Asheville City Schools along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Asheville Police Department, and Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office will be conducting an Anti-Bullying Rally on October 20th from 5:30pm—7:30pm in Pack Square Park - Downtown! There will be FREE FOOD, GAMES, and a couple of surprises! All students will receive tickets to the rally. When the student attends the Anti-Bullying Rally, they will turn in the ticket they received from school to the registration table. These tickets will serve as points for each school. The school with the most tickets, a.k.a. the school with the most students in attendance, WINS!!
The prizes include:
· A trophy
· School wide treat on field day
· An activity with Superintendent, Dr. Baldwin (i.e. kickball, softball, etc)
- October 26- No School--Teacher Workday
- October 27- No School--Professional Development Day
Class Dojo, Behavior Assessments, and Homework
Behavior assessments are filled out each day by your child. I am so proud of their self-reflection skills! They've done an excellent job with their self-assessments so far. Please be sure to discuss their achievements with them and sign the assessment each evening.
Homework this week consists of:
- Read each night for 20 minutes and fill out reading log/Bingo board
- Fundations
- Math packet (due Friday)
We will begin reading responses next week.
Students are tracking their weekly Dojo points on a hundreds chart. Please make sure this chart stays in the page protector in their homework folder. When they fill their hundreds chart, they can choose a reward. We had a class meeting to brainstorm possible rewards including: buddy lunch, bring a stuffed animal, wear a hat, pajama day, teachers chair. Be sure to ask your child what goal they're working toward!
As always, thank you so much for all you do. It is an honor to teach your child.
Contact Ms. Wertheim
Email: rebecca.wertheim@asheville.k12.nc.us
Website: mswertheim.blogspot.com
Location: Claxton Elementary School of Arts and Humanities, Merrimon Avenue, Asheville, NC, United States
Phone: 828-350-6514