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The Shakespearean Sonnet

January 13, 2008

Hello all!

A quick reminder for those of you who are interested, we are having another CMT/middle school preparation class on Thursday night at 6:00 for those of you who were unable to attend the previous meeting.

In the event that there is no school, this meeting will be rescheduled. 

Charlie Award winners!

Congratulations to our last three Charlie Award winners! 

First, to Jordan, who was chosen for the number of times she raised her hand to ask or answer questions during a given day.  I tried my best to determine which student participated the most in a single day and Jordan stood out above the rest.  Great job, Jordan, on being such an active learner!

Next, congrats to Emma D., who was chosen as the Charlie Award winner for her efforts during Colonial Day.  I asked the fifth grade teachers to pick out one student who seemed to put forth an extraordinary effort and Emma’s name was mentioned by more than one teacher.  Excellent work, Emma, during a day full of fun and learning!

And congratulations to Laura, who was the latest Charlie Award winner.  Last week I judged the overall effort on all of the homework assignments, and Laura’s work was thorough, detailed, and well done.  She explained her math reasoning well, put forth great effort on her essay, and demonstrated the use of many strategies in her reading.  Way to go Laura on a job very well done!

And though they won’t win Charlie Awards for their efforts, I also wanted to mention the efforts of some kids in the class who have been going above and beyond to improve their learning.

First, Jessica has been routinely requesting additional math practice for the objectives that she has not yet mastered and has been completing this work at home on her own.  So impressive to see a student focused on her individual needs.

Also, Colton has been busy identifying areas in writing that he feels he needs further instruction and has requested materials and teaching in order to assist him.  He truly wants to be a great writer and is taking the steps to make this happen.    

Meghan, Jordan and Kiera are looking to continue a book club that they were placed in by me last month and are striving to read a more challenging book.  They are showing great initiative and a desire to improve their reading skills. 

Kaity has not been afraid to seek out help on two digit multiplication and has been very determined to master this skill and become 100% accurate. 

I’m sure that there are others, but these few kids came to mind immediately. 

Newly Published Writers!

Congratulations to Jessica, who was chosen by the editorial board to read at Town meeting in two weeks.  Her poem entitled The Report Card is full of humor and truth and I think you’ll love it!

And don’t forget to look for Hector at this week’s Town Meeting.  He’ll also be reading in the Writer’s Spotlight as previously mentioned. 

Homework

Homework for the week is as follows: 

MATH

The kids went home with another review packet on the math objectives that we have been studying throughout the year.  This should be relatively easy for the kids, and if not, we’ll be doing some review on these topics in class. 

The kids should also be practicing their basic math facts.  75% of the class went up one level last week, an enormous increase.  We’re hoping to see similar results this week!     

READING

This week your child went home with a Cloze assignment and two open ended questions to answer.  The open ended questions should be used in conjunction with whatever your child is reading each evening.  In an effort to prepare to answers these questions effectively on the CMT’s I’ve asked the kids to give themselves just five minutes to answer these questions, which is the amount of time they will likely have on the mastery test. 

GEOGRAPHY

Your child also went home with this week’s geography packet on The Waterways of the United States.  As always, he or she will be quizzed on the material contained in this packet on Friday. 

WRITING

The kids went home with another weekly essay this week, in order to prepare for the prompt writing that they will be doing on the CMT.  Like last week, I’ve asked the kids to do is simulate the same conditions that they will encounter on the CMT at home:

A 45-minute, timed essay on an assigned topic, with no more than three sheets of paper to complete the essay.  This must be hand written. 

I’ve also sent home a scoring sheet for you.  Please take a moment and read your child’s essay and comment on it.  We’ll do the same in class on Friday and formally score them as well. 

We met in groups this morning and scored essays, so your child received feedback on the last effort.  Hopefully the advice received will be put to good use!

SCIENCE

One of the bridge building websites that we will be looking at in conjunction with our bridge building contest, http://bridgecontest.usma.edu, offers a free, easily downloadable bridge design game that the kids LOVE!  I started teaching them the program today, which was originally designed for high school students but was quickly picked up by most of the class.  It is an outstanding program that allows children to construct, test, and design bridges, and also allows them to analyze the cost-effectiveness of different bridge designs.

 Kids begin by just trying to build a bridge that will support the weight of traffic, but can then move onto building the most cost efficient bridge possible.  The website which offers the program sponsors a contest every year, and contestants submit designs, with the most cost efficient design taking first prize.  If you have Internet access, I strongly encourage you to download this free program for your child.  Not only does it tie in perfectly to what we are doing in class, but more importantly it promotes higher order thinking, creative problem solving, geometry, and things I probably haven’t even thought of yet.  And I promise that you’ll love the program as much as your child.   

I’m still trying to coordinate another date with my judges for the science fair, but it’s looking like mid February.  We had two kids conduct parts of their experiments in class today and have heard about the progress of at least a couple others.  The kids seem to be moving along nicely, and I’ve invited any student who would like to bring in parts of the completed project for us to examine and critique.  It seems like about half the class is finished and ready to go, so although I don’t want the projects in ahead of time (for fear of having them ruined), bringing the project or parts of the project in for a day is fine.     

That’s it for today!   Stay warm!

Warmly,