9/13 Update

This week was another busy one for room 14.  Students were finally able to go to the library to check out books as well as visit our tech lab.  I hope that your children are using and enjoying our free trial for the Mathletics program.  I know that they were very enthusiastic the two days that I took them into the tech lab to explore the program.  I am hoping that if both parents and students are happy with the program that we can look into continuing with it after the free trial period ends.  I will be sending out more information regarding this in the next couple of weeks.  We finished our first investigation on Mock Rocks in science and students will be quizzed on what they learned next week.  We took the unit 1 math test and I will be scoring these this weekend and you should see the assessment in next week's Friday Folder.  Students also continued to explore our current Problem of the Month and groups are currently working on posters to explain their thinking so far.  In writing we are working on writing summaries for both fiction and non-fiction pieces.  This week they began writing a summary for a short story that they read and they will be finishing them up next week.  In reading we talked about how good readers ask questions before, during, and after reading.  We practiced this as a whole class with two read aloud books and students then had the chance to practice with a partner and individually.  In social studies we wrapped up our first lesson on longitude and latitude and practiced finding the absolute location of cities on a map. 
Don't forget that next week is a short week due to a Teacher Learning Day on Friday and no school for students.  As a result there will be no spelling next week.

Thank you,
Mrs. Barkve

Good afternoon Parents,
Just a few quick things before I go enjoy my weekend and let you go enjoy yours as well. 
First I wanted to address arrival time to school.  We have had several students (not just from our room) arrive to school before 8:15am.  We don't have anyone on yard duty until 8:15am and for safety reasons we ask that students not come to school before that time.  Next we have also had a lot of students arrive to school after the 8:30am bell has rung.  It is very important for students to be inside the classroom no later than 8:30am ready to learn.  Even if a student is just a minute or two late a couple of days a week, the lost instruction time can begin to add up quickly.  It also causes extra time and paper work for the office staff when students are arriving late to school.  Thank you in advance for making sure that your child arrives to school at the appropriate time.
I mentioned to the class today that we will be wrapping up the first unit in math next week and they should expect their first unit test on Thursday.  We will spend Wednesday reviewing the first unit and their homework that night will include more review. 
One last thing that I totally forgot to mention during my Back To School Night presentation last week- it would be a really good idea if all students had access to a dictionary at home.  Any student dictionary should be just fine.  Occasionally they may have spelling homework or other assignments that require them to look up words in the dictionary.  If you have any questions, please let me know.
If you haven't had a chance to send in money for the student planners ($7 donation to Dilworth), or the National Geographic Explorer/classroom supplies ($10 cash donation to me), please do so as soon as possible.  If you aren't sure if you have paid already, just ask and I can let you know.

Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!