Newsletter 12.05.17

Good Afternoon,

A few quick notes for you from the Chameleon class. 

In English this week we began to draft our essays. I was really pleased to see that everyone had chosen to write the literary essay about Sing or a well known text and almost everyone had completely finished their plans. This set them up in a perfect place to start writing. I modeled how to write a summary which connects to the thesis sentence and we looked at drafting our first behavior paragraph. To teach this a used the saying ‘we’ll make our paragraphs B.E.T.R’. This is a four step process to writing paragraphs which focuses on students explaining the reason they chose their evidence to represent that specific behavior. This is a slightly trickier skill for students however it is far more valuable and demonstrates and better understanding of both the character strength and the film or text.

Out math sessions this week were full of mini lessons that taught children everything they needed to know for the small quiz on Tuesday. We started by recapping 2d and 3d shapes (I have provided a handout for those children who wanted it), then moved on to perpendicular and parallel lines, next came angles, how to identify and label them as well as being able to measure them with a protractor or set square, Wednesday included learning out the diameter and radius of a circle and then finally we started to cover area and perimeter. This does sound like a lot but the majority of it is recap from last year. All of these terms will need to be known for the quiz on Tuesday.

In science this week we revisited the water cycle and began to look at the impacts of the water cycle on our planet. We learned about weathering and erosion and demonstrated how erosion can change how the earth looks. We also did our first experiment for the unit which looked at the rate at which water cools.

A quick reminder to say that the Wegscheide permission letters need to be returned by May 19^th.

Thank you for all the scrap donations, we now have an enormous amount of materials to build with. I’m really excited to see the giant city that children will build using what you have provided.

Below are a number of dates that you should be aware of in May, a few of these are related to assessments in both Math and English. More details can be found in their respective sections below.

Important Dates:

-          May 16^th – Formal Math quiz related to Vocabulary

-          May 19^th –Deadline for Wegscheide permission letters

-          May 24^th – Bundesjugendspiele (weather permitting)

-          May 29^th – June 2^nd – Formal Math conference of Geometry Project

-          May 29^th – June 2^nd – Published Literary Essay to be handed in

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

English:

Next week in English we will continue to the write the guided literary essay based around a character from Sing, children are now deep within the writing process. Please check in with your child at home to see what stage of the their writing they are on. I would expect children to be some way through drafting their behavior paragraphs by now.

I will also continue to assess reading using the readers workshop non-fiction rubric.

Math:

On Tuesday we will write a short quiz which will ensure children have comprehended all the vocabulary related to geometry and shapes that we have covered, this will go towards the final math formal assessment grade. I will then introduce the next part of the assessment which will be to design and build a miniature city using strict guidelines that we will provide.

Science:

This week children will begin to develop their own hypotheses for the next part of the changing matter project. They will then conduct the experiment and perform a short presentation which looks at the impacts of their topic of experimentation.

German:

Liebe Eltern der Chamäleon-Klasse,

in dieser Woche haben wir verschiedene Übungen zur Personenbeschreibung durchgeführt (vor allem zur treffenden Wortwahl: Verben, Adjektive, Nomen, Satzanfänge).

Desweiteren haben die Schüler neue Lernwörter erhalten (s. Anhang). In dieser Woche fand auch die letzte Stunde unserer Lesepatenschaft mit der 1. Klasse statt.

Die letzte Klassenarbeit in diesem Schuljahr schreiben wir am Montag, den 22. Mai 2017. Für Schüler sollen eine Personenbeschreibung anfertigen sowie die Zeitformen Präsens, Präteritum, Perfekt und Futur I richtig anwenden.

Ich wünsche Ihnen ein erholsames Wochenende!

Agnes Fojcik

Enjoy the long weekend.

Sincerely,

Mario Civico and the entire Chameleon team.