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 28th 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 1st.
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:
-
27th February –
Rosenmontag, school closed
-
28th 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 28th 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.
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