Let There Be Light!
You Children Will Not Be Shocked in This Unit
Remember Electricity Supplies Monday
We are starting our electricity unit tomorrow and the students need to have their batteries, box and tape tomorrow to get started. This is a different type of unit where the students lead the investigations into what we study. It is one of my favorites, because this is truly a unit of discovery. Full disclosure, your students will come home and say they got shocked. They really do not. Also, they may want to come home and show you what they learned. Please don't let them take apart flashlights to get to the light bulbs.
New Word Study Starts Monday
We wrapped up our Virginia Geography and mini word study unit on Thursday. Tomorrow we will have word study first thing in the morning. This year we are switching for word study. However, this is only on the first and last days of the cycle. We will be taking the time to help the students understand the process and to allow them to get to know their word study teacher. Word study will be a two-week cycle moving forward. Your child should finish one word study activity a day. They will have time in class to work on it.
Virginia Geography is Strong with These Students
I was very pleased with the overall scores from Thursday's test! We had completed two review games in class and students worked to find all of the geographic requirements on large dry erase maps. (FYI: blue is the hardest color to wipe off the maps.) For all of our science and social studies tests, I will send home a study guide with the test date at least four days before the test. We will also normally do at least two review games (Kahoot! and Jeopardy). These are able to help me see if there are areas we need to go over as a class or just with a small group of students. I hope you all saw your child's science and social studies binder this past week.
They are also creating a travel brochure for a region of Virginia as an assessment as well. These will be completed by the end of the week.
Rolling Out Email This Week
As part of our student accounts, each student has a Gmail account through Albemarle County Public Schools. We will be learning about writing emails this week and your child will be sending you an email and asking for a response. The students and I will be talking about the responsible use of email for classwork only and that if they already have an email account outside of school, they can use that one for personal contacts.