ELP News
From Mrs. McDonald
October 2016
We continue to accomplish a lot in ELP! All students are currently in the midst of their unit, using creative and higher order thinking to learn about and understand new things. Each day I encourage students to come to class with a positive attitude so that they can give their very best effort. I want their fabulous skills to be showcased on all of their work!
1st & 2nd Grades (Enrichment)
Whole-class enrichment lessons have been completed and small groups have been formed for the first trimester. This trimester I am focusing on visual/spatial/creative thinking. These groups meet once/week for 30 minutes until the week of November 7. During the week of November 14 I will go into classrooms once again to do whole-class lessons that focus on language arts. I will form new groups from those lessons. During the third trimester, whole-class lessons will focus on visual/spatial/creative thinking and math and new groups will be formed once again. Our hope is to provide new learning experiences for students who show strengths in these areas.
2nd Grade (Extended)
We continue to learn about the rainforest! We have studied precipitation levels and compared those to different regions of the US. We made a graph to represent our learning. Next up is an activity that will illustrate the water cycle and layers of the rainforest. A mural will be created very soon!
3rd and 4th Grades
We have practiced fluent thinking by brainstorming inventions and ranking them in order of importance. We will explore a chronology of inventions and create a timeline. Eventually students will choose a famous inventor and create a presentation to show their learning.
5th Grade
We continue to dive deeper into how economics plays a major role in our society and what factors drive the production of things that we use in our everyday lives. We learned about a production possibilities frontier and how it can be used to most efficiently allocate our resources. We will explore the topics of bartering and the history of money in the upcoming weeks.
6th Grade
Students have taken on the role of a city council member and debated about whether exceptions to the laws would be allowed. We will study historical documents to learn more about where laws come from and will take that a step further by learning about how laws are made. The current political issues are often hot topics of conversation! If you are aware of guest speakers or any other real-world applications please let me know.
Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences
I will be available for parent/teacher conferences on Nov. 10 and Nov. 16. An email will be sent to let you know the dates/times I will be available to meet. Meeting with me is optional. I will have a report on your child's progress to share.
About Mrs. McDonald
I teach ELP at both Penn Elementary and Shimek Elementary. If you need to contact me, email is the best form of communication. I will do my best to get back to you within 24 hours of receipt of your email. It's going to be a great year!
Email: mcdonald.erin@iowacityschools.org
Location: Penn Elementary & Shimek Elementary
Phone: 319-688-1150
Non-Discrimination Statement
It is the policy of the Iowa City Community School District not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, creed, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and socioeconomic status in its educational programs, activities, or employment practices. There is a grievance procedure for processing complaints of discrimination. If you have questions or a grievance related to this policy, please contact Kingsley Botchway II, Director of Equity, 1725 N. Dodge St., Iowa City, IA 52245, 319-688-1000, Botchway.Kingsley@iowacityschools.org.