Important Announcements
~ Please fill out and return all forms from your parent's night folder ASAP.
~ Take a few minutes this week to look at the packing list for the 5th grade trip. Let me know if you have any questions. 5th Grade Trip Packing List
~ Friday, September 6, is our first walk to school day. To celebrate, the Lower School will have a NUD (Non-Uniform Day). Walkers and carpoolers will sign their names on a signing wall in front of the library when they arrive.
~ The Unit 1 math test will be coming home in their Friday Folder. Please make sure to go over the test with your child, sign the test, and have them return it next Monday. I will hold on to all of the tests and pieces that are returned to me and will give them to you, permanently, at the end of the trimester. We will spend time this week going over the test and how it is graded. Hopefully your child can explain it clearly to you. If not, please feel free to ask me questions.
~ Our first Lower School Chapel is tomorrow Wednesday, 9/4. Please remind you child to wear his or her chapel uniform.
Math
This week in math we will be continuing Unit 2: Estimation and Computation. We will be focusing on subtraction strategies, addition and subtraction number stories, and estimation and data landmarks. We will also be learning the traditional algorithms for addition and subtraction. From now on, only the traditional method should be used.
How many of you have ever felt like this?
~ Please fill out and return all forms from your parent's night folder ASAP.
~ Take a few minutes this week to look at the packing list for the 5th grade trip. Let me know if you have any questions. 5th Grade Trip Packing List
~ Friday, September 6, is our first walk to school day. To celebrate, the Lower School will have a NUD (Non-Uniform Day). Walkers and carpoolers will sign their names on a signing wall in front of the library when they arrive.
~ The Unit 1 math test will be coming home in their Friday Folder. Please make sure to go over the test with your child, sign the test, and have them return it next Monday. I will hold on to all of the tests and pieces that are returned to me and will give them to you, permanently, at the end of the trimester. We will spend time this week going over the test and how it is graded. Hopefully your child can explain it clearly to you. If not, please feel free to ask me questions.
~ Our first Lower School Chapel is tomorrow Wednesday, 9/4. Please remind you child to wear his or her chapel uniform.
Math
This week in math we will be continuing Unit 2: Estimation and Computation. We will be focusing on subtraction strategies, addition and subtraction number stories, and estimation and data landmarks. We will also be learning the traditional algorithms for addition and subtraction. From now on, only the traditional method should be used.
How many of you have ever felt like this?
My goal this year is that, by the end of the year, none of our students will feel like this when they approach a math problem. Please encourage your children to see every wrong answer or careless mistake as an opportunity to learn instead of a failure. We want them to focus on their opportunities to improve in the future, not on what they've done wrong.
Reading
This week in reading we will be focusing on being active readers. Active readers don’t just read for the plot. They are constantly thinking deeper about the character’s actions and motivations. They draw on all of the reading skills that they know to discuss their books and respond to their reading in a thoughtful manner. This week, we will begin to discuss several different strategies for digging deeper into books. We will also learn how to support our thinking with evidence from the text.
Writing
This week in writing, we will be taking our four or five ideas and narrowing them down to one. We will then begin to develop that idea, keeping in mind all of the features of a good memoir. Later this week, your child will be asked to bring in a picture that tells a particular story from their life. The picture should preferably be more of a candid shot, but any picture will work. You will be getting the picture back.
Social Studies
Our SS focus this week is "What makes America great". We will be focusing on the principles and values of our Founding Fathers and discussing how their idea of what a country should look like differed from anything else that had been seen at that time.
Homework
~ This week's reading comprehension is on Niagara Falls.
~ The writing homework is below. I encouraged the students to talk to parents of other family members about this assignment, but the writing must be all their own.
Reading
This week in reading we will be focusing on being active readers. Active readers don’t just read for the plot. They are constantly thinking deeper about the character’s actions and motivations. They draw on all of the reading skills that they know to discuss their books and respond to their reading in a thoughtful manner. This week, we will begin to discuss several different strategies for digging deeper into books. We will also learn how to support our thinking with evidence from the text.
Writing
This week in writing, we will be taking our four or five ideas and narrowing them down to one. We will then begin to develop that idea, keeping in mind all of the features of a good memoir. Later this week, your child will be asked to bring in a picture that tells a particular story from their life. The picture should preferably be more of a candid shot, but any picture will work. You will be getting the picture back.
Social Studies
Our SS focus this week is "What makes America great". We will be focusing on the principles and values of our Founding Fathers and discussing how their idea of what a country should look like differed from anything else that had been seen at that time.
Homework
~ This week's reading comprehension is on Niagara Falls.
~ The writing homework is below. I encouraged the students to talk to parents of other family members about this assignment, but the writing must be all their own.