Newsletter 24.02.17

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

This week in English I gave pupils the date for them to be completed with their final published piece of persuasive writing. I will begin to grade and conference with children about this on Monday 13^th March. This still leaves pupils with 2 weeks to work on and improve their writing. I’ll continue to meet with children related to their writing and check to see if all the strategies that I am teaching are being used. If you could ask your child to read their letter allowed to you, I feel this could help pupils greatly to notice their own mistakes.

In maths this week children have been working on our volume unit, this has been a very short unit without that much content. The main areas have been converting between L to ml and then solving various problems involving volume measures. Children have now become quite adept at converting units of measure. There are some still finding this difficult, once we have completed this unit I will be spending some time reviewing everything we have done within the measurement block. This will include teaching a slightly different skill that can help greatly with conversion. On Wednesday we had an amazing math lesson in which children created and measured their own juices. Everyone in the Chameleon class seemed to enjoy this and got a lot out of measuring the liquids precisely, on top of that some of the juices were delicious!! I just want to say a massive thank you to parents who purchased juices for that session, it was well worth it.

Pupils have worked hard on their presentations and should now be at a point ready to present on Tuesday 28^th. For those who are not quite ready, they may require some time over the weekend to complete this. I’m really looking forward to seeing their presentation as I feel like I am genuinely going to be learning some things.

If you have any worries or concerns about your child going on the Wegscheide field trip you need to contact me before March 1^st. If you do not contact me I will assume your child is coming, this is important for us to calculate the cost of the trip. 

Important Dates:

-          27^th February – Rosenmontag, school closed

-          28^th February – Carnival party in the afternoon. Pupils able to come to school in costume. 

-          28^th February – Science presentations due

-          13^th March – Published persuasive letter due

Here is an overview of the areas of study we will focus on throughout the next week:

English:

Within writers workshop we will be continuing to improve our persuasive arguments with the new rubric that was given out to children, they will also begin to me with me in their pairs. This will ensure that I meet with children more regularly and that they are getting strong guided support from their partner.  

We will continue to analyze and read non-fiction texts critically. We will be continuing our small research project in Readers Workshop, children are now in groups and are researching a type of extreme weather. Children are already making good progress with this.   

Math:

On Monday we will complete the check in quiz for the volume unit. After this we will be beginning a review of everything we’ve done so far, firstly revisiting multiplication, division, addition and subtraction and then taking each of our measurement topics and ensuring that children can solve a range of problems involving them.

Science:

In science this coming week we will be watching pupils’ individual presentations that they have been working hard on. I will be grading these using the same rubric as I have been for previous science inquiry presentations. They will be looking at the scientific knowledge, speaking and presenting ability and finally their self direction on this task.

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche haben die Schüler Rechtschreibstrategien , doppelte Mitlaute sowie die Satzglieder Subjekt und Prädikat wiederholt. Zudem haben sie eine Lesespurgeschichte gelöst.

Am Mittwoch, den 1. März, schreiben wir das nächste Lernwörterdiktat. Die Lernwörter dazu finden Sie im Anhang.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Agnes Fojcik

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 17.02.17

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

Most pupils have now started their second or even third letter, which is wonderful. I’m amazed at what pupils are able to create as they write and I’ve heard that a number of pupils have actually managed to use their letter to sway your minds about things. This just shows the skill that the Chameleons have with their writing. Each lesson we go re-cover a section of persuasive writing that will help to build a more conclusive letter. At the beginning of the week I gave pupils new writing partners, they will spend each Writers Workshop session next to their new partner. They will confer with each other to ensure their writing is progressing. On Friday I introduced the students to a new peer-to-peer assessment rubric, this is one they can use with their writing partner to help identify the areas that they need to work on.

This week pupils finished the money unit in math, pupils seemed comfortable with money by the end of this unit and were able to solve a variety of problems involving money notation. In the latter half of the week we focused on multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 which was a skill that a surprisingly low number of pupils already knew how to do. This is then going to be used to aid with conversion in the final measurement unit (Volume) and in the review weeks before the formal assessment.

Next week will be the final week for pupils to work on their presentations for science. We will then begin to watch the presentations in class on Tuesday 28^th February. I have shown pupils the science rubric which is almost identical to that which has been used for presentations before. It looks that the scientific knowledge, presentation skills and self direction that students have shown during this process.

Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend the parent information evening on Wednesday, attached to the email about this newsletter are the slides from the evening. All the information that we conveyed in included in these slides, if you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

One key piece of information from the slides that I would like to reiterate here, if you have any worries or concerns about your child going on the Wegscheide field trip you need to contact me before March 1^st. If you do not contact me I will assume your child is coming, this is important for us to calculate the cost of the trip. 

As discussed in the parent evening on Wednesday, unfortunately there will not be any bike training for us now. We received information from the Police that they will not be able to support us with our training this year. We have not given up on this and will keep you informed of any updates in the future.

Important Dates:

-          27^th February – Rosenmontag, school closed

-          28^th February – Carnival party in the afternoon. Pupils able to come to school in costume. 

Here is an overview of the areas of study we will focus on throughout the next week:

English:

Within writers workshop we will be continuing to improve our persuasive arguments with the new rubric that was given out to children, they will also begin to me with me in their pairs. This will ensure that I meet with children more regularly and that they are getting strong guided support from their partner.  

We will continue to analyze and read non-fiction texts critically. We will be starting to small research project in Readers Workshop that focuses around a particular type of whether. This will give children practical examples of how to use non-fiction books well.  

Math:

We will begin the final measurement unit before the assessment, this will focus around volume. As part of this unit we will be spending one Math session designing, measuring and creating mixed fruit juice drinks. Today your child will bring home a small slip of paper asking for one type of juice that we’ve decided upon in class, we ask if they will be able to bring that juice in on Wednesday for the activity.

Science:

Pupils now have this week to finish and prepare their presentations. We will begin to view these on Tuesday 28^th of February. They will have some class time however very little use of a computer.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 10.02.17

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

It is great to see pupils finishing up their first persuasive letter and move on to planning their second. I think a lot of children are enjoying this persuasive unit and a number of children have asked if they can write out of lesson time as they ‘want to persuade their parents’. I introduced Syllogistic logic this week which has really helped students focus their reasons by giving them a simple process to follow when they choose a topic to write about.

We’ve worked hard on money and will be continuing on this briefly into next week. One major part of the money unit is playing a game called Gotta’ Collect ‘em All. In this game children start with a number of collectible cards that they have designed and a small amount of money. Pupils then trade, barter and buy from different people around the room to try and meet one of four different winning conditions. This game gives pupils practical money skills as well as building quick thinking into an approachable and accessible game.

Children are now well on their way with their science projects. Most have chosen there 3 or 4 overarching questions. Students were great at creating large, interesting questions that would give them a lot to research. Pupils will have more time over the next week to research and then another week to prepare and practise their presentations. They are able to make a poster, powerpoint or even simply stand and talk to the class if that is what they wish.

If you have not returned the back page of the report card to yet, please do this within the next week.

The up and coming bike training sessions are below, on these dates your child will come to school as normal and the school bus will take us to the training centre. Please ensure that your child brings their cycling helmet on these dates.

Important Dates

-          Bike training dates (update)

o   Monday 20^th February

o   Friday 24^th March

o   Thursday 27^th April

-          Parents Evening Wednesday 15^th related to up and coming teaching and the Wegscheide overnight trip.

Here is an overview of the areas of study we will focus on throughout the next week:

English:

Within writers workshop we will be continuing to improve our persuasive arguments with use of connectives and a final closing statement.

We will continue to analyze and read non-fiction texts critically. This week we took special notice of the structures and features you can find within a non-fiction text and used this to help us take notes effectively. This has paired wonderfully with our science unit as children have been reading a lot of non-fiction whilst researching.

Math:

We will continue with our money pathway next week. I informed pupils that I expected them to have the first side of the pathway finished by Monday so they appropriate time to finish the rest next week. We will then be completing the check-in quiz on Wednesday.

Sport:

Within sport we have been focusing on moving quickly and safely around our environment. This has involved jumping and landing safely, completing a forward roll, using walls and objects to get to new height and finally completing the 3 point vault. During next week’s session I will be assessing pupils on these skills.

Deutsch:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche standen die Buchpräsentationen der Schüler im Vordergrund. Dabei hat die Klasse ihren Teamgeist und ihre Fairness bewiesen. Trotz vieler Präsentationen waren die Schüler stets aufmerksam und stellten jedem Kind interessierte Fragen oder gaben differenziertes Feedback.

Desweiteren wurden die neuen Lernwörter ausgeteilt (s-Laute: s, ss, ß; siehe Anhang).

Zu Ihrer allgemeinen Information der Notenspiegel der 2. Klassenarbeit (Reizwortgeschichte):

Note 1	Note 2	Note 3	Note 4	Note 5	Note 6	Durchschnitt
7	7	5	3	-	-	2,18

Ich wünsche Ihnen und Ihrer Familie ein erholsames Wochenende,

freundliche Grüße

Agnes Fojcik

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.

Newsletter 03.02.2017

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

We are continuing to develop our persuasive writing and this week the writers workshop mini-lessons have focused around revising their drafts; the additions that I’ve been teaching are only small but add incredibly to the letters that pupils are working on. We also had a quick write lesson in which students worked together to plan and write a letter about whether children should choose their own bedtime.

The weight unit in math flew by this week, students completed the pathway quickly and we wrote the quiz on Friday morning. There were a few people ill therefore they will complete this next week.

We were able to see the first round of presentations from pupils in science this week and I was blown away by the detail and effort that some groups put in. Students had researched spectacularly, answering the big topic well.  

Report cards have now come home with pupils. Please sign and return the second page of the document by Friday 10^th February.

The up and coming bike training sessions are below, on these dates your child will come to school as normal and the school bus will take us to the training centre. Please ensure that your child brings their cycling helmet on these dates.

Important Dates

-          Bike training dates (update)

o   Monday 20^th February

o   Friday 24^th March

o   Thursday 27^th April

Here is an overview of the areas of study we will focus on throughout the next week:

English:

Within writers workshop we will be continuing to improve our persuasive arguments with use of connectives and a final closing statement.

We will also be officially starting our next readers workshop unit which is look at non-fiction texts. We will dive into the difficulty that can come from non-fiction texts and be able to identify the information we need to remember and the information that we can set aside for the time being.

Math:

Pupils will be moving on to the next pathway which focuses around money in the coming week. They will be using money in a practical sense as we use games to aid understanding as well as incorporating problem solving into the unit. Pupils will see that solving problems involving money can be simple and straight forward.

Science:

Pupils are now beginning to inquire into their own interest based investigation. We have slightly changed the over arching theme of this section of the inquiry unit from ‘The Interconnectedness of Biomes’ to ‘Adaptations within biomes’. For this pupils will be focusing in on either a biome and looking at the common adaptations within that biome or looking at a species of animal and then identifying how that animal has adapted to fit into the biome in which it lives. Pupils have already begun to research for this and will continue their research next week.

Deutsch:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche haben die Schüler ihre Leserollen fertig gestaltet. Nur noch wenige Kinder müssen kleine Restarbeiten über das Wochenende erledigen. Empfehlenswert für alle ist es, den Vortrag nochmals zuhause zu üben sowie die Stelle, die sie ihren Mitschülern vorlesen möchten.

Wir beginnen mit den Präsentationen am Dienstag, den 7.2.2017. Somit können am Montag noch Fragen geklärt werden, die zuhause beim Üben eventuell noch aufgetreten sind. Bitte entnehmen Sie der beigefügten Liste, an welchem Tag Ihr Kind sein Buch vorstellen soll und stellen Sie sicher, dass es zu dem Termin die Leserolle und das Buch dabei hat.

Bei Krankheit/Zeitmangel durch überlange Referate/Unvorhergesehenes verschiebt sich der Termin automatisch auf den nächsten ausgeschriebenen Termin.

Die Referatsdauer sollte 5-10 Minuten betragen inkl. des Vorlesens (1-3 Seiten). Vorgestellt werden nur die Pflichtaufgaben. Falls ein Schüler eine Wahlaufgabe besonders interessant oder gelungen findet, kann diese exemplarisch natürlich auch vorgestellt werden.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende,

freundliche Grüße

Agnes Fojcik

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.