Champion News
August 31, 2015
Grading and Inow!
All student grades are in iNow. You can keep up with your child's work and averages weekly. I will continue to send home graded papers, but this will give you another opportunity to keep up with your child's progress.
A flyer is going home on Monday to help explain the new grading system.
Progress Reports go home next week.
Playing Addition Games
With Base Ten Blocks
Help us Understand Mathematical Principles
Flyers, Forms, and Information
Please look for lots of information going home Monday.
Mrs. Barnett is sending home a permission slip for you to sign to help her attain National Board Certification. Please read over that and return A.S.A.P.
T-Shirts! Providence is selling grade level T-Shirts! Third grade's color is Cherry Red! Those order forms are going home today.
Lunch Menu for September will also be going home!
Remind!
Computer Invitations!
In class, we are using three computer programs. Saturday, I put your email addresses into these programs to give you another way to check on your child's performance in class. You should have received an email with information on how to log into your child's account for IXL and Scootpad. You may need to check you SPAM or junk folder since it was generated from those sites.
IXL lets the kids practice skills in language and math that we are working on in class. They can also use it to level up or down depending on the difficulty they need to master. Great for practice at home! We use this program occasionally in class.
Scootpad let's me assign students standards to check for mastery. These are skills we have worked on in class. I give students time to complete these assignments in class. Since we are checking for mastery of standards, I do use this for a classroom assignment and grade.
Edmodo is a multi-functional website. I can give students assignments, post links for them to click on, etc. You will be receiving a code to join your child's personal account. I have about 1/2 of the students in already and hope to have the other 1/2 by the end of the week. I will send you your parent code and info when I have it ready. I would prefer to use the Remind App so please join if you haven't.
Mandarin
We have started Mandarin Classes! Mrs. Wong is helping the students read and speak in Mandarin. They will be gluing the words they are working on in their Spelling Notebooks. Please help them memorize the Characters and the pronunciations!
Reading and AR Points
Congratulations to Donnavin! He is our first AR Super Star. (I forgot to take his picture....look for it later). He had the most AR points with at least an 85% Average since we started the program. He earned the RAT SKELETON of READING! Yay!
We are starting again Monday to see who will be the next STAR READER. Every child has a goal for the semester, but we are working on bi-weekly awards right now! The student who reaches their semester goal first (must have an 85% average) wins a T-Shirt!
Our Morning Routine is our Reading Time. Students have a simple worksheet (usually in spelling) to get them going while they eat breakfast. After we watch morning announcements, I work with small groups and students read, take AR tests, and may go to the library.
In small groups, I work with students who may have struggled with previous assignments, so I am stressing turning in work in a timely matter so I can give extra help if needed. I also work with groups to meet individual reading or math skills. Students have lots of time to read and take tests, but they must be self-directed. Centers are also used to help students with individualized mastery of skills.
How Can You Help?
I love to reward my class! They work in groups for prizes! They work for AR prizes, individual prizes for class participation or really thinking that day, being extra helpful, and soon I will have an IB box for rewards.
Most of these prizes are from the dollar store. I may buy a packet of rubbery spiders or dinosaurs, bookmarks, fancy pencils or pens, packs of toy cars, etc. I sometimes use small pieces of candy like skittles, or bubble gum.... I even have racing stickers from my husband's friends who love to contribute to the cause!
If you would like to contribute to our classroom reward box, I would appreciate your help. Next time you go to the Dollar Store, grab a pack of something for $1.00 and send it in! You won't believe what a difference it makes in the classroom.
How Can I Help?
Let me know how I can help you! Please send me an email with questions, or if you joined Remind, text me. We can arrange a conference to meet your schedule. The more we work together, the more successful we will be in helping your child have a great school year!
I look forward to hearing from you!
Mrs. Champion