October 19, 2012

Students are excited about the upcoming Halloween Party on Wednesday, October 31.  We will be eating breakfast in our costumes and enjoying a game and small craft.  Please be sure that your child has a bag to bring their costume home in so that nothing gets left behind in the classroom.

We started Raz-Kids this week which is an internet based reading program.  Some students used it last year and were familiar with the program.  We used it this week in computer lab so students know how to get on the program.  A note will go home today explaining how you can set up a free account for use at your home.  Title I funds paid for our classroom membership, so please check it out.  This is yet another way students can help to improve the amount of reading they are doing.   The reading progress has been good in this class.  Some students are able to read for longer periods than others.  Beginning on the 23rd, some students will be pulled for additional reading assistance from 9:00-9:40 everyday.  While students are gone, I will be meeting with small groups or individual students to monitor their progress in reading.

We are completing Chapter 2 in our math book; addition with and without regrouping.  I must say, this class is doing really well.  My method is to give students individual or small group assistance when I see they are not quite getting a concept.  This one-on-one time has really helped some students overcome their difficulty.  Once work is completed, I check it right away, make note of the students performance then have them correct minor mistakes, or meet with them to assist with difficulties.  I'm finding that the quick feedback to the student is really helpful.  Students are also getting used to finding their mistakes and correcting them by redoing the problem.  We will have our test on Tuesday, October 23 and I expect great results as we had with the first test.  Chapter 3 will cover subtraction with out borrowing to begin with, then we will move onto borrowing and finally subtracting across zeros.  Please check in with your child on their homework to show your support and give them the encouragement they will need to succeed.  Remember it is better to compliment hard work than to say they are smart.  Students who realize they must work hard to accomplish tasks perform better when tough problems come up.  They don't give up compared to students who are always told they are smart.   There is a difference.

We will also have a short quiz on science, October 29 and social studies October 30.  Students will bring home materials they can review.  

Please remember there is no school for students on October 26.  Enjoy the weekend, the weather is supposed to be quite nice.