Martin's Memos
Volume 2, Issue 14: December 7, 2018
This Week
Parents,
Happy Hanukkah to those of you that celebrate!
Please read over the newsletter and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you to everyone that has donated to the food drive! Our class has brought in over 100 pounds of food so far! Believe it or not, some classes are close to 200 pounds of food donated! We still have until December 12th to donate so....keep it coming! :)
-Ms. Kate Martin
Meadows Transition Meeting
Positivity Project
On a group level, kindness is very important. In addition to empathy and sympathy, the character strength of kindness is indicative of an individual’s moral reasoning capacity and level of social responsibility. That means people who develop kindness possess a strong personal ethical responsibility to care for other people. Additionally, their acts of kindness towards others lead to additional acts of kindness by those who have been helped.
What a great character strength for us all to remember at this time of year....and always!
Photos of the Week!
Bought with Grant Money: Over 170 New Books for the GATE Program!
What Did We Learn This Week?
Math: Students continued in their math groups.
Yellow- I can understand ratios and proportions
Green- I can understand ratios.
Orange- I can fluently multiply and divide large numbers and decimals.
Science (5th): We reviewed our unit on the Earth's Spheres and took a test on Tuesday.
Social Studies (5th): We started learning about Colonization and settlement from 1585-1763. The students also will work on a biography project over the course of this unit. Please see the expectations here.
Reading: We continued learning how to read and respond to nonfiction texts in our new unit - "Reading the Weather, Reading the World"! We will continue to learn the Nonfiction Notice and Note strategy and how that can help us understand a text.
Writing: We moved on from responding to nonfiction texts (look in the Friday folder for your child's work on this!) to personal narratives. I felt like we needed a change with writing so that we can be a bit more creative! This week we generated ideas and began expanding on them.
Enrichment: The students continued their Enrichment project - all students will be completing this individually. Enrichment 3.0 (FYI: Enrichment 2.0 is our community service project we had to put on hold until January!) This week we assigned presentation dates during the week of December 17th. Your child has their due date in their agenda.
Looking Forward to Next Week...
Positivity Project (P2)/Character Education: Humility
Yellow- I can understand ratios and proportions
Green- I can understand ratios.
Orange- I can fluently multiply and divide large numbers and decimals.
Social Studies (5th): The 5th graders will continue a social studies unit on Colonization. They will have a quiz on the first half of the unit on 12/17.
Reading: We will continue learning how to read and respond to nonfiction texts in our new unit - "Reading the Weather, Reading the World"!
Writing: We will continue personal narratives.
Enrichment: We will continue working on our enrichment projects. Students present the week of 12/17.
Need More Gift Ideas for the Holidays? How About Books?!
Choose books with (or for) your child from the paper flyers or online at: scholastic.com/bookclubs. There are many books with higher lexiles - you just need to browse the collection!
To order online anytime, connect to our class using our Class Code: R3CHK
As soon as your order is delivered to our classroom, I will send it home with your child. If you want it to be a present - let me know and I can email you when I'm sending the books home in a closed bag.
Every order you place earns FREE Books for our class to share. Thank you for your support and happy reading!
5th Graders only - Scripp's National Spelling Bee
Putting our Positivity Project to Work - - -Gleaners Food Drive!
The food drive runs now through December 12th.
Continuous Important Reminders...
Jackets/Coats, Hats, Gloves...
Unfortunately I still see students with only a jacket or sweatshirts. Now that the temperatures will consistently be in the 30's, please make sure your child has appropriate gear. Bring WARM JACKET, HAT, GLOVES, SNOWPANTS & BOOTS!
Sweatshirts aren't going to be enough! Remember that the students go outside unless the temperature is below 10 degrees. (Including wind chill) They go outside during lunch recess, 2nd recess and sometimes during P.E.
When it gets snowy, your child is welcome to leave their winter gear in a large bag in/under their cubby during the week. They must bring it home each Friday and bring it back on Monday.
Box Tops!
GOOD NEWS! Our class collected the most Box Tops at Woodland! 387! We get to keep the "Box Top Trophy" in class and all students received a small prize.
Keep collecting and sending them in! Don't forget to label your child's name on the baggie so they can get credit.
Book It!
December goal = 525 minutes (Collected on December 21)
Logs need to be turned in by the last day of each month. This is when I'll be passing out the "Free Personal Pan Pizza" coupon!
Khan Academy: What is it? When should my child use it?
In class, the students use it if/when they finish their in-class math lesson with me. However, sometimes I ask that the students do this instead of homework pages. Students can always log on at home and work on it anytime.
Standards-Based Grading
3 = Meeting or Exceeding Grade Level Standards
2 = Adequate Progress Toward Grade Level Standards
1 = Limited Progress Toward Grade Level Standards
Please note that more detailed information will follow from Avondale Administration prior to report cards, and that 4th and 5th graders will still receive letter grades in addition to their standards based grading.
Class Schedule
Ms. Martin’s Class Schedule
8:35-8:50: Morning Work/Welcome
8:50-9:40: Writing Workshop
5th Graders:
9:40-10:26: 5th Grade Specials
10:26-10:35: Snack (Healthy, Nut-Free)
10:35-11:30: Science/Social Studies with Ms. Martin
4th Graders:
9:40-10:35: Science/Social Studies with Ms. Gierman
10:35-11:21: 4th Grade Specials
11:21-11:30: Snack (Healthy, Nut-Free)
4th/5th Graders Return to their Teacher:
11:30-12:30: Math Workshop
12:31-12:53: Lunch
12:53-1:15: Recess
1:15-2:30: Reading Workshop
2:30-2:45: 2nd Recess
2:45-3:30: Enrichment
Woodland follows an “ABC” specials schedule. Tuesday, September 4th will start with “A” day and continue from there.
4th Grade students travel as a class together to specials. Their specials schedule is:
A-PE B-Music C-Art
5th Grade students are split among the three regular 5th grade classes. Their specials schedule depends on the teacher they attend specials with. It may change during the year.
Phou: A-PE B-Music C-Art
(Koen, Nicholas)
Davison: A-Art B-PE C-Music
(Xavier, James, Blair, Georgie)
McNaughton: A-Music B-Art C-PE
(Luca, Kayla, Aapratim, Annabel)Upcoming Important Dates
Normal School Hours: 8:32 - 3:39 (GT dismissal 3:34)
Half Day Hours: 8:32 - 11:45 (GT dismissal around 11:40)
Dec 18: 3rd Grade Concert @ 7pm
Dec 24-Jan 4: Winter Break-NO SCHOOL; Return to School Jan 7th
Jan. 8: PTO Meeting 7-9
Jan. 21: No School
Contact Me
Email: kate.martin@avondale.k12.mi.us
Website: katemartingt.weebly.com
Location: 6465 Livernois Road, Troy, MI 48098, United States
Phone: (248) 537-6900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100017787916756
Twitter: @katemartin84