Wednesday Early Out

Thank you for making other plans for your kiddos on Wednesday afternoon!  All elementary teachers met at the high school to take part in some blended learning stations.  Most of our work was centered around common formative assessments and we took a brief look at the Depths of Knowledge, or different levels of thinking.  Time with my 5th grade team of teachers is so important as we work and plan in the areas of math and literacy!  Again, thank you!

Reading Goals

I had a parent contact me with the following questions about reading goals and I thought some of you might have the same questions.  I use genre and pages goals in our classroom.  Each child set a page goal and each quarter I present them a genre goal (they do have some choice in this).  Earlier this week your child should have brought their goal paper home for you to sign.  Please return that to school as soon as possible, if you have not already done so. 

Q1:  Is the reading to be done at school or at home?

A1:  Both!  Their goals include both independent reading at school and home reading.

Q2:  Do books they read earlier this quarter count or do the goals start now?

A2:  I told them we are starting as of now.  I tried to explain that they weren't penalized if they just finished a book because we were starting fresh.  A few students had just started a book in the last day or two and I told them that I would count definitely count those.  For those that are near the end of the book I told them that we could count what they have left.

Q3:  Are the responses to reading to be done at school or at home?

A3:  Once we get reading groups up and running, they will have some time to work on their reading responses here at school.  Doing their responses at school is definitely the norm, but occasionally students do choose to work on them at home.

 If you have other questions about their reading goals, please don't hesitate to contact me.  Thanks!

Walk-A-Thon

Our PTO sponsored Walk-A-Thon will be held the afternoon of October 5th. Your child is bringing home a Walk-A-Thon envelope today.  The goal is for every child to raise at least $25.  We would like the envelopes returned to school by Tuesday, September 27th. 

If your child raises at least $25 AND turns their envelope in by the 27th, they will be entered into a drawing for a new iPad!  Also, if your child raises between $10 and $25 and returns their envelope on time, they will be entered into a drawing for a $20 gift card.  There will also be other small prizes handed out to the kiddos.  The class that raises the most money will be treated to some fun, healthy snacks.

Our Walk-A-Thon is in conjunction with the "Step It Up, Iowa" fall fitness day.  Parents, please join us if you are able!!  Preschool through 2nd grade will walk from 1:45-2:15.  3rd through 5th grade will walk from 2:15-2:45.

Friendship Groups

Your 5th grader led their first Friendship Group this week.  We celebrated Dot Day using The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and "made our mark" in our own way.  We had quite an interesting discussion upon their return to the classroom.  It was kind of funny to hear them talk about how some of their students didn't listen or do what they asked them to do!  They were all so excited; this is kind of a "rite of passage" in our building and something all 5th graders look forward to.  Be sure to ask your child about it!

Parkview

We are again going to partner with Parkview Nursing Home this year and will be traveling there at least one time per month.  Pairs of students are partnered up with a resident and spend time together singing songs, playing games, visiting, etc.  Last year was the first time we had done this and the students absolutely LOVED it.  It is so good for both the residents and our students--very heartwarming to watch the interactions.  Today, we had a visit from Jenny Tobin, Parkview.  She outlined the expectations for our students, let them know some things they might see and hear, and gave them some tips on how to interact with the residents.  Our first trip to Parkview will be Tuesday, September 20th.  We always walk unless there is inclement weather, in which case, we will take a bus. 

Iowa History Bus Tour

We will be taking a Washington County Iowa History bus tour with historian Mike Zahs on October 6th. (This was originally scheduled for the 5th but had to be rescheduled due to the Walk-A-Thon).  This is during school hours.  We will eat lunch at North Park in Wellman before meeting Mr. Zahs.  Mr. Zahs is a wealth of knowledge.  He is so engaging; I guarantee your child will love it and learn SO MUCH along the way!

We need your cans and bottles!

On Thursday, we sorted some of the cans and bottles we have been collecting.  While it is a disgusting job (we found a dirty diaper among other things!), these cans and bottles fund our Des Moines field trip and our overnight fieldtrip to Crooked Creek in May.  These field trips would not be possible without the money we receive from the cans and bottles.  To that end, we have a can drive schedule on Saturday, April 8, from 9:00-11:00 AM.  We also do a bake sale outside of Freeman's on that day.  We will be looking for help to work at the can drive and will also be looking for bake sale items to sell. 

Makerspace

We are doing all sorts of fun things in our Makerspace!  Some students spent some time coding this week with the Beebot.  Some students are working with the Skyrail and its endless configurations.  They were working on creating a more stable tower this week.  Others were making plans to engineer some rubber band projects.  Our room is definitely NOT a quiet place in the morning, but I absolutely love the creativity and thinking of these kiddos!

Rubber Banding

It is always so sweet to see 5th graders work with younger grades.  We spent some time helping 1B and PM Preschool rubber band their shirts for our all school tie-dye project on Friday of next week.  Make sure your kiddo wears grubby clothes on Friday the 23rd as the dye does stain!!

Writing

We have been writing a (crazy!) class story about our marble runs at the beginning of the year.  Most of this week was spent drafting.  We used our prewriting web to help us draft our beginning, middle, and end.  At the end of the week, we began the revision process.  We learned to use a caret when we want to insert words or phrases.  They were hard at work on their revisions!

Pam Holz--Fur Trading

On Monday, Pam came to do a program on fur trading.  After learning about furs, their uses, and their importance in history, the class had their own little rendezvous to trade furs for beads, kettles, clothing, lead shot, etc.  This was one of the most organized and kind classes that I've seen!  Sometimes it can get very heated and supply and demand takes over, but they were very organized about how they conducted business!  Many students were able to complete their "shopping list" and go home happy!

Homecoming Dress Up Days

Homecoming Dress Up Days for Wellman Elementary School

Week of September 19-23, 2016  (NEXT WEEK)

Monday:  Pajama Day (Wear your PJ's to school!  All day!)

Tuesday:  Patriot Day (Wear Red, White, and/or Blue)

Wednesday:  Class Color Day (each class wears a different color)

• PreK:  Wear ORANGE
• Kindergarten:  Wear RED
• 1st Grade:  Wear BLUE
• 2nd Grade:  Wear YELLOW
• 3rd Grade:  Wear GREEN
• 4th Grade:  Wear PURPLE
• 5th Grade:  Wear BLACK and/or WHITE

Thursday:  Farmer Day (Show us your best Farmer outfit!)

Friday:  Black & Gold Day - Show your MP spirit!  Go Golden Hawks!

Reading

We continue to establish routines in reading.  This week, we focused on setting up and using our reading response journals (RRJ).  We made our first entry today about our read aloud book, Wonder, by RJ Palacio.

Pam

We had our first visit from Pam Holz, Washington County Naturalist, earlier this week.  To coincide with Iowa History in social studies, she came to do a program on Glaciers and their effect on Iowa.  She will be coming every Monday the rest of this month to present on other Iowa history topics.

Math

In addition to taking the STAR Math test this week, we learned about square numbers and prime factorization.  Unit 1 will conclude on Tuesday of next week and we will start Unit 2 (Estimation and Computation on Wednesday. 

Science

We continue to explore the length and direction of our shadows and how they relate to the sun's position in the sky.  Next week, we will be creating a sun tracker to take a further look at this concept.

The kids enjoyed many "shadow challenges" this week that included separating yourself from your shadow and making your shadow disappear!

Reading and Writing

We use the Benchmark Literacy Curriculum for reading and writing at Mid-Prairie.  The first 30 days are spent learning and practicing routines that will continue throughout the rest of the year.  For example, next week we will learn how to fill out our reading logs and set up the different parts of our reading response journal.  We will use these tools all year long.  I have also met with each student to go over the green survey I asked them to fill out just so that I can learn a little more about them.    Students have also spent some time free writing and have had a chance to share their writing as well.  We will be setting reading goals in the next week or so.  Routines are so important; we are learning how to be readers and writers!

Math

We are cruising through our first unit in math:  Number Theory.  We spent some time learning about what our math time will look like.  Each day we start out in the large group and spend about 15 minutes reviewing or introducing a concept.  We then move to small groups.  These small groups are based on pretest scores and what the students know and can do.  Each group works with me for about 20 minutes on a concept each day.  When not working with me, students are doing their math boxes (independent work) or playing a math game, usually with a partner.  This week we studied factors, divisibility, prime and composite numbers, and square numbers.  I generally do not send homework on Fridays. 

Today we learned how to use the power key on our calculators in order to work 

with square numbers and exponents.

Science

We just started our first science unit today--Sun, Moon, and Planets.  We went out today to trace our shadows and noticed that our shadows shifted as the day went on.  Next week, we will further study the length and direction of our shadows to see what we can learn from them!

Recess

What a beautiful day!  I was on recess duty today so I took a couple of pictures of the kids enjoying that amazing day!