Red Cluster News
October 2015
What's Happening in Class
SCIENCE
During Nature's Classroom, students had the ability to explore the natural (macroscopic) world, take various classes, and make new friends. Now, our young scientists are exploring the microscopic world using microscopes; one of the most important scientific tools! We will learn about the history of microscopes and how this invention was the iPad of their time. Students will consider how the invention of microscopes led to the cell theory. As a segue to our upcoming cells unit, students will see how cells are organized and work together to form the human body.
ENGLISH
MATH
October will be a challenging month in math. We will be learning about slope and proportional relationships which are abstract concepts for this age group. We will have several quizzes along the way instead of a big unit test at the end. This should give the kids more of a chance of showing their mastery. Encourage your child to stay for help and do a really good job on his/her homework each night. The key to success in math is practice and checking work very carefully to learn from mistakes made in practice. We will also be studying rates and ratios and the coordinate plane.
SOCIAL STUDIES
In Social Studies, we are towards the end of our first unit on Mesopotamia. During this unit, students created videos (using the Adobe Voice app) to explain the importance of farming and agriculture to the advancement of human civilization. Students also created songs to help them remember key irrigation terms. Our trip to Nature's Classroom was a blast, couldn't have asked for a better experience. Many students had an opportunity to make new friends and interact with other kids that they might not normally have the chance to interact with. We begin our next unit on Egypt towards the end of the month of October.
WORLD LANGUAGE
What's Happening Around the School?
Each advisory is decorating a pumpkin and it gets competitive!
First Dance - 10/23
Be sure to sign the dance contract with your child and go over it with him/her. The dance contract can be found on my website (front page).
Week of 10/19
Advisories/clusters will be participating in lessons and panel discussions about the importance of digital citizenry and what it means. Ask your child what it means and what he/she learned.
Writing Goals
Students will be writing SMART goals going into the second half of Term 1. Ask your child about his/her goals. We want them to write achievable goals that can be easily measured.
10/21 Spirit Day
Did you know that Marty & Doc travelled into the future to 10/21/15??? Student Council is inviting the staff and students to travel "Back to the future" on Wednesday, October 21st and dress in the clothes from any generation (past or future).
What's Coming Up??
- 10/21 Spirit Day
- 10/23 School Dance
- 10/23 Term 1 Interim Reports come home
- 10/30 Wear your costume to school (bring a donation towards Heather Abbott Foundation if you would like to) No full masks or paint, no weapons.
Heather Abbott Foundation
Is your child keeping track of his/her homework?
- Where is he/she writing down the homework?
- Does he/she have a checklist to mark off assignments as they are completed?
- Is your child using the calendar that has been provided by the teachers which lists all quizzes and tests?
Contact Us
Mrs. Gumas, Cluster Leader and Math Teacher
Email: mgumas@email.medfield.net
Website: mrsgumas.com
Location: Room 114
Twitter: @mrsgumas
Mr. Keohan, Social Studies
Email: gkeohan@email.medfield.net
Website: http://gkeohan.weebly.com/links.html
Twitter: @ancientCivs
Ms. Reynolds, English
Email: areynolds@email.medfield.net
Website: http://elawithmsreynolds.weebly.com/
Twitter: @areyn37
Ms. Crawford, Learning Specialist
Email: lcrawford@email.medfield.net
Website: crawfordlc7.weebly.com
Twitter: @crawford221
Mrs. Dondero, Guidance Counselor
Email: jdondero@email.medfield.net
Website: blakeguidancepage.weebly.com
Twitter: @BlakeMSGuidance