The Putney Post
West Homer Elementary--5th Grade
Dates to Remember
December 3- Christmas Concert 7:00 p.m. (Mariner Theater)---Students arrive at 6:30
December 14- Pajama Day
December 11, 12, 13- Analytic Writing Assessment (AWA)
December 14- Movie Night in the WHE Gym
Classroom Happenings
Last week we concluded our unit on adding and subtracting decimals. The students of room 317 have become experts at lining up place values, rounding decimals, reading decimals, and comparing decimals. It has been fun to watch their hard work pay off as we finished up the unit and took our test. In writing students broadened their understanding of the revision process by participating in a play dough project. Students were asked to create a play dough creation and then add, eliminate and change aspects of their creation. After practicing with play dough students went back to their mentor essays and revised by making additions, eliminations, and changes. We have continued to read “City of Ember” By: Jean DuPrau which has aligned perfectly with Mrs. Bynagle’s science unit on electricity. In reading students are working on the skills of summarizing and checking for understanding.
What's Next?
This week we are headed into our new geometry unit where students will be exploring various aspects of angles. We will be taking a look at the formation of angles by lines and rays and then applying our knowledge of angles to better understand polygons and circles. We will continue our work with expository writing by studying topic/conclusion sentences as well as transitions. In reading students will continue to read “The City of Ember” and practice identifying main ideas and details.
Christmas Concert- Monday Night
Tomorrow at 7:00 pm in the Mariner Theater (at the high school) is the West Homer Elementary Christmas Concert. Each grade level will present 1 or 2 pieces. The 5th and 6th grade band will also perform. Before and after the concert the 5th grade class will be selling baked goods to raise money for our spring field trip. Please drop your baked goods off at the high school before the concert, or send them to school with your child Monday morning. Tina Moore, our music teacher, has asked that students arrive around 6:30 pm to prepare for the concert. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night!
West Homer PTO
Lexile
Our school library is in the process of being lexiled. Lexiles is a book leveling system that matches kids with books at their appropriate level. If kids are reading books that are too easy, reading growth will not be rapid. If students are checking out books that are too difficult comprehension break-down will happen quickly and the student will not be growing as a reader. In order to have students make growth as readers they need to have access to books at their unique level. That is why the teachers and staff at WHE are thrilled to be introducing Lexiles! It is a huge undertaking and we are looking for volunteers willing to help look up the levels of books online. This is a project that can be done at home or at school. If you are interested in helping please let me know and I will send a book list and informational guide home with your child. Every little bit helps! If you are interested in knowing more about lexiles and helping your child find just-right-books please check out the link below.
Librarian's Note
I am very excited. We launched our Lexile labeling project last month. A reading specialist came from the Kodiak school district where they have done this project already. They have had great success with this program. It took them 2 years but I hope to get our 20,000 books labeled this year. We will be a model for other libraries. One of the founders of the Lexile Program is coming in March to train our staff!
Throughout the rest of the year there will have many opportunities to help out:
· Clip boards of lists of books to look up and record lexile numbers—may do at home or at school
· Labeling books—this may be done during the school week during the day and also we will have Saturday Lexile Labeling Parties.
We feel that the students would greatly benefit by having the books marked with a visible label with both color and number of the Lexile level so that they may set reading goals and progress through books incrementally.
Please call or email if you have any questions.