Final Expert Project Info

Guess what? This is probably going to be the most relaxing expert project season you've ever gone through as a parent!

I am a big believer in the "Apprenticeship Model" of teaching, which is a gradual release of responsibility.

With each expert project, the expectations for the students have grown and developed. This expert project will be done completely in school, completely by the kids, with some recommendations by me. By following this model, your child has built up understanding of how to use technology, how to search for appropriate and helpful resources, develop skills and strategies for accessing more challenging texts, practiced networking with other students, and developed more organizational skills. It is now time to have the culmination of this work.

Your child is researching a famous event in history. Most of the students have chosen events related to American history, though they had the freedom to choose one that dealt with world history. Their expert projects will center around what led to that event, details about the event itself, and how the result of that event changed history. It's a lot of work and information. They are recording their notes on notecards first and then choosing the most relevant information to include in their slideshows.

You will still be able to view their slideshows when they are created, however I ask that we make this project completely kid-made. I encourage you to ask reflective questions about their work in an effort to make it better; but the work should be done by the student. It should sound like them. This will also provide their new teacher, Ms. Whitecotton, with an excellent work sample as she prepares to teach the kids.

I highly encourage you to come in to listen to your child's project. Their projects will take on the form of a mini-lesson on their event. It would be really awesome to see how your (at one time) 2nd grader has transformed into a confident teacher of their peers! We will do presentations Tuesday May 26th-Friday May 29th. I will provide you with a schedule Tuesday of next week so you can make arrangements if you need.

So, take a breather. Expert project season doesn't have to be a stressful one!  :)

Homework and Dates

Dates:

Thursday, April 23rd: Curriculum Night

Friday, April 24th: 11:30 dismissal

Tuesday, April 28th-Thursday, April 30th: ACT Aspire testing

Wednesday, April 29th: Field study permission slips and money due

Tuesday, May 5th: Field study to the SC State Museum

Homework:

In preparation for the ACT Aspire tests next week, I have created student accounts on two websites that students will access at home or in Aftercare.

www.readtheory.org

www.ixl.com

Your child is bringing home a letter with their log-in information.

This will provide exposure to various types of questions and also will provide data for how they are doing with those questions. Their homework is a practice log. It is on the back of the IXL letter you will receive. It looks like this:

Day	Read Theory	IXL	Parent Signature
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

Students will work on Read Theory for at least 20 minutes and IXL for at least 20 minutes daily. On IXL, you can choose concepts you want them to work on as well, but they can choose different ones to work on. They must get their log signed and brought back each day. Each student is allotted one "pass" day in case there are circumstances where the work could not be done the previous night. As I told the kids, in every job there is "crunch time" where you have to buckle down and challenge yourself more; this week is crunch time. I do not want the students to practice Sunday so they can have a breather before next week starts.

MAP and Pictures from Filter of Hope

Our class will be participating in the MAP Reading and Math tests this week. Tuesday morning, we will take the Reading portion. Thursday morning, we will take the Math portion. I encourage all students to get enough sleep and eat a healthy breakfast to prepare for the test. We worked diligently this morning on the types of questions the test would ask and how to approach answering those questions. We will be spending the next three days reviewing material that we have covered at the beginning of the year in math, just to jog our memory.

There will not be homework until next week, except a reading log without responses. This is due Monday.


Here are some pictures of the water filters our class purchased being distributed in a small African country called Burkina Faso. Our contact at Filter of Hope told me that in this village, 35% of all children die before they turn 5 because of the parasites and bacteria that is in their water. The picture of the small pond is this village's only water source. Please pass these pictures along to those that donated, so they know their donations saved lives of children in these pictures.

Homework

Due to our abbreviated week and then Spring Break, I thought it best to give the students a reading log that they could complete over the two weeks for homework. They can return in the Monday we return.

Thursday is a half day. There will still be after care.

Friday is a student holiday.

I hope everyone has a great and enjoyable Spring Break!

Class Bracket Challenge

Your child may have already told you this, but we are having a friendly March Madness Bracket Challenge. It's something we do in this class every loop to learn about probability and statistics. I absolutely love basketball and I'm always surprised at how much the children enjoy making predictions or guesses and seeing if they are correct. Here's my bracket.

It's pretty much the best bracket ever created. Feel free to compare our brackets if you are filling one out at home.

Here's how the scoring works:
For every correct prediction you get points based on the round.

Round 1: 10 points
Round 2: 20 points
Round 3: 30 points
Round 4: 40 points
Round 5: 50 points
Round 6: 60 points

Homework

I sent an email this morning giving details about how our fractions test that was originally scheduled to be this Wednesday will be moved until next Thursday due to illnesses in our class. Also, I will be out of town Thursday through Monday for my brother's wedding in Florida.

Homework:

Phase 1 (Due Thursday): Students will have editing conferences with their revised fiction pieces. Topics of discussion include spelling of words we should know, capitalization, punctuation, paragraphs, commas in a series, quotation marks, and necessary speech tags. The students did self-edits today in class in preparation for this process. This is not to be rewritten, just show what needs to be changed on the paper. We will publish in class beginning Thursday and add illustrations.

Phase 2 (Due next Tuesday): On Thursday, your child will bring home a fraction review for the assessment the next week. This is to be completed and returned next Tuesday so we can go over the answers and correct any miscues.

Homework

This week's homework will be in two phases.

Phase one will be due Wednesday. The students have written 1st drafts of fiction stories about a character they created and developed. They are to read the story with you and conference about what they can do better in their 2nd draft. This is not the editing portion of the Author's Cycle. We are just focusing on the bettering of ideas conveyed in the story, descriptions, and development of character and plot. Your child is to write down the list of suggestions you have and bring it back to class on Wednesday.

Phase Two will be a math packet that your child will receive Wednesday at school. It will be due the following Monday.