GT Expo Number One Approaches!

Perhaps you noticed that your child was more covered with chalk dust when they got home today than usual. This is why. Today we measured the life size lengths of the dinosaurs we've been researching for GT Expo. As you can see, there was a great deal of crawling on the ground.

The Expo is next Friday, November 7th. I hope you will be able to attend. The students have worked hard and are eager to share their learning. There will also be a musical number that you won't want to miss. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Wednesday Early Dismissal

I still have a bit of time left for conferences Wednesday afternoon if you would like to meet to discuss your child's progress. Let me know if you are interested.

Upcoming

I hope everyone will be able to make it out to Open House and the PTA meeting tomorrow night, 10/23. This will be less formal than the orientation we had in September. There is not presentation, just drop in, check out your child's work, and see what we have been up to.

Next week we have early dismissal on Wednesday. School will end at 12:45. However, we will be working, so please make sure your child is at school.

The 31st of October is Sinclair's annual Book Character Day, not to be confused with Halloween. Students may dress as a character from their favorite book, but they must have a copy of the book with them. Also, this is not one of the designated party days, so, sadly, there will be no party.

Beginning next week, there will be a new homework schedule and set of spelling lists. There are some changes that I would like to make you aware of. For starters, the format of the spelling assessments will change, as will the words tested. In an effort to improve each child's word study skills, half of the tested words will not be on the spelling list that is posted. We will study the list words and the particular pattern they follow. Through the week, we will add to a class list as words that follow the pattern or rule are studied or discovered. The non-list words that are tested will come from this class word list, so they will not be totally unfamiliar. The Friday assessments will continue to have the passage with multiple choice questions. Added to this will be 10 more words selected from the list complied during the week. All of this means there will be a change in the homework as well. Next Monday, I will have the class set up a page in their homework journals where they are to collect the spelling words we work on in class. The homework schedule will also indicate that they should add 3 words of their own that follow the pattern for the week to share the next day in class.

Another addition to the homework schedule will be the addition of the "Book Talk" assignment. More information will be forthcoming, but what it means is that each student, twice per nine weeks, will be expected to give an endorsement of a book they have recently read independently and enjoyed. Essentially they will be giving a short commercial for a book. More on this next week.

If you are not already following the class on Twitter, I encourage you to do so. I update that a bit more regularly than I do this blog. It is quicker to post photos of our activities.

I hope to see everyone tomorrow night.

Oops

I forgot to distribute the conduct reports this afternoon. They will go home tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

GT Expo projects are GO!

Today students were paired and assigned a dinosaur to research. They were given a checklist with due dates, a copy of the rubric, and a spec sheet on which to record information. I also gave them a note for their parents and an explanation of the items on the checklist. I did not give them full directions for every part of the project so as to not overwhelm them. For now they are gathering information. The items on the spec sheet should be viewed as minimum amounts of information needed to complete the project. The more they learn and are prepared to share, the better. In the coming days we will discuss in greater detail note taking and research. Next week we will get into using the information they gather to make models etc. for their presentations. If you have any questions, please let me know.

I will post the documents that I gave to the students in the links to the right.

Updated homework schedule

I am changing the homework schedule for the remainder of the grading period. This is to better align to where we are in the curriculum. I will give the students a new copy on Monday, but if you would like to see it now, I have updated the document in the link to the right.