News from Mrs. Drudy's Class
"We exist so children can excel."
August 23, 2019
Weekly Concept: Pets are our Friends
Essential Question: How can a pet be an important friend?
Next week our class will be discussing the pets in our lives. We will learn about pets and how they can be important friends.
Spelling Phonics Words: Two-letter blends
- grass
- trips
- crack
- still
- west
- mask
- clap
- plans
- milk
- belt
- fog
- tub
- by
- he
- she
Challenge Words
16. clapped
17. planning
18. foggy
Testing, Testing, Testing!
Your child has probably already mentioned that we are knee-deep in testing in our classroom. For math, students are taking the NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) MAP test. With this computer-based test, every student gets a unique set of test questions based on responses to previous questions. As the student answers correctly, questions get harder. If the student answers incorrectly, the questions get easier. By the end of the test, most students will answer about half the questions correctly, as is common on adaptive tests. The purpose of MAP Growth is to determine what the student knows and is ready to learn next. This will be what drives your child's tailored learning. We will take this test three times: Beginning (BoY), middle (MoY), and end of the year (EoY). I look forward to sharing the reports from this testing during our fall conferences.
For reading, we will be using NWEA as well, and we will begin next week. This test looks at your child from nearly every angle: fluency, phonemic awareness ( the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in words), and comprehension. Again, this helps me to know how to best educate your child with "just right" reading instruction.
IXL
I am pleased to tell you that we will be using a website called IXL in our classroom this year. IXL is a comprehensive learning program offering unlimited math and language arts practice across thousands of skills—all of which are aligned to Indiana Standards. One of the best things about IXL is that your child can access it from home, so you have a chance to see your child's progress!
To get your child started on your home computer, please follow these easy steps:
1. Go to https://www.ixl.com/signin/uccc
2. Enter your child's username and password and click "Sign in."
(usernames and passwords are in today's folders)
3. Click on any skill to start learning!
IXL is designed to help your child learn at his or her own pace. The program is adaptive and will adjust based on your child's demonstrated understanding of the material. All of your child's results will be saved, so you can monitor his or her progress anytime by clicking on Analytics. For on-the-go practice, you can download IXL’s free tablet apps for iPad, Android, or Kindle and sign in with your child’s username and password.
I hope you'll encourage your son or daughter to use IXL regularly. Here's to a year of working together to make learning fun for your child!
Next Week's Share Topic:
Family & Pets: Tell about your family, including any pets you may have... how many are in your family or ages, likes, etc. You can bring in pictures of your family, write a story about your family, etc. Be sure to check out the pictures below of the various ways students have opted to share. We all agreed that visual props such as these make listening to the presenter so much more interesting. How much preparation is your student putting into these weekly presentations?
Coming Up
Cub Scout Registration Monday, August 26
Labor Day (No School) Monday, Sept. 2
UCHS Food Pantry Sept. 11 3:30-5:00
Title I Parent Meeting Sept. 11 (for Title I students' parents)
COSI on Wheels Sept. 13 All Day
Our Weekly Related Arts Schedule
Monday Art
Tuesday Music
Wednesday Art & Library
Thursday P.E. & Computer
Friday P.E.
**Remember...your child must wear gym shoes on the days we have P.E.