Well, Saturday Live has once again come and gone. It was nice to see so many of you there. Please don't forget to write SATURDAY LIVE in the planner if your family attended so I can give your child their $200 reward. Thanks for supporting our school!
Weekly reports came home on Friday. There were not very many missing assignments! YAY! Grades are looking pretty darn good for the first quarter. We still have a few weeks of grades as well. Please discuss, comment if need too, and sign the front page of the weekly report and send it back into school tomorrow. Kids always love seeing a good job kiddo or some kind of positive note from you! Thanks.
Speaking of positive people. Above, you will see our first Purple Hand Cookie Award nominees and winner. Each morning the kids say the Purple Heart Pledge outside after they line up for the day. The pledge says I promise not to use my hands or my words to hurt myself or others. Ask your child to say it for you and show you the actions that go with it. If they can, write PURPLE in the planner for $20 on Monday. At any rate, last week during our CC meeting, we nominated kids that we noticed going above and beyond to be kind to others or that have corrected their behavior from one that used hurtful words or hands to solve problems and now don't. I gave them three examples by nominating three people for actions I saw that went above and beyond. Then kids gave me nominations of those they saw throughout the month. Olivia was nominated for having super sonic hearing when a child's art tub dumps over. She hears the sound and she flies out of her chair in the direction of the sound and helps the child pick it up! Wow!!! Evan was nominated for cleaning up the lunchroom floor, under the class tables, without being asked. He picked up garbage that wasn't even his!!!! Wow!!! Ali was nominated for noticing that Ms. Erickson forgot to get down the library book collection bucket, and going to get it himself. He saw a need and went to a solution all on his own. He did not disrupt Ms. Erickson, as she was taking attendance, to ask where the bucket was. Wow!!! Alyssa was nominated for seeing a girl with an oxygen tank playing alone at recess. She approached the girl and said hi. She then played with her at recess. Alyssa also continues to say hi to this girl when she sees her in the hall. Wow!!! Natalie was nominated for seeing a bully situation and going over and standing up for a friend. She used a kind voice to say hey, please stop saying that to my friend. It worked! Wow!!! Austin was nominated by a classmate he had last year as well as this year. They said that they have noticed that last year he used to get really mad when he got into trouble. This year the child had noticed that he just lets it go and moves on. WOW!!!! Robby was nominated for helping Sebastian carry his books. Sebastian has a cast on his arm. He did this without being asked. He saw a friend in need and helped him every day. Wow!!! As you can read, this class has strong character. They have character warrior shields upon their hearts, and they are learning every day how to defend themselves from negative acts and to only do good upon others. I am so proud of all the nominees and all those that will be future nominees. We will do this each month. It is a school wide program started by our counselor Mrs. Neese. I am proud to say that Miss Olivia won the cookie award this month. She was voted the winner by her classmates. Way to go everyone!
Speaking of character warrior shields...hilarious!!! I am loving watch these kids transform themselves into battling knights. I have not finished taking all my pictures yet, so watch for the upcoming slideshow soon. Awesome!!!
This week we will be starting our two Bitterroot computer programs. We have touched on them here and there up to this point, but now we are ready to start using them on a regular basis. The first one is Read About. It will be used during our reading block. Those that are in Read 180 and System 44 use a similar program in their class daily. We will do Read About 5 times a week. It is all nonfiction text. The kids read a selection of high interest ON THEIR LEVEL and then are asked to use that information using tons of reading strategies. They will do fact/opinion, cause and effect, summarizing, comprehension, vocabulary, literal and inferential questions, sequencing, and on and on. It is a great program. I will start sending a report home of their progress with their weekly report. The second one is Success Maker. It is a math software. Skills are given to each student ON THEIR LEVEL. At first, kids are given a test of all skills. The computer tracks which ones your child got correct/incorrect. Then it starts shooting those types of problems at them. The best part is that if they miss it the computer will take them step by step and explain how to do it. It is like there is a teacher built right in. This program is designed to use at least three times a week. We will use it 4. Once kids get out of the testing portion of it, I will use their daily grade for that day (shows up at end of their session) as part of their math grade. If the programs are done seriously and given effort, they have been hugely successful in the past. Those that need extra help, get it. Those that are above the classroom instruction and need a challenge, get it. Everyone wins. :0) Both programs require headphones. I wrote a note in planners for those that still need to bring their headphones to school. Please have those as soon as possible. I know that Walmart has them in their technology department for one to two dollars. Those that don't have headphones have to turn their volume way down and it is not as effective. Thanks.
As far as academics go, this week students will be focussing on the following topics:
Math: Algebra expressions and equations
Lead 21 Reading: Small Group Historical Fiction-Summarizing
Language-Irregular plurals, Common/Proper Nouns, and Action Verbs
Spelling-Review Week of units 1-5. No list to study, it is just know what you learned.
MT History-Mountains and Rivers found in Montana
Regional States-Geography of US Lat/Long and NE Region
Science-Weather effects on Wild Fires
It will be another packed week!
Well, I think that is about it. Have a wonderful Sunday with your family. Enjoy the fall weather!
