Surveys, Rumor Control, and Upcoming Events, Needed in the Classroom
Thank you parents for returning the classroom surveys that were sent out last week. They were very helpful to me and to Mrs. French!
On Friday, we had an incident at the school that your child may be aware of. If appropriate, Mrs. French will communicate details of the incident to parents. Unfortunately, however, our children thrive on excitement whether it is the good or the bad kind. With access to cell phones, computers, and the old fashioned kind of phones, they tend to magnify problems at school in their free time. This rumor mill is not healthy for them or for those who fall victim to wild stories that are more a reflection of small errors being exaggerated and repeated many times than of reality. In the past, I have tried to teach them that “Rumors are like pink eye. They are contagious and you shouldn’t try to pass them on.” Whenever there is an incident at school, please remind your children of this and consider limiting or monitoring their use of communication devices.
On Thursday, May 8, there will be a visit to the school by former Harpswell Island’s Students to tell kids about what it is like at the middle school.
On Tuesday, May 13th, there will be an all-district band and choral concert.
On Tuesday, May 13, there will be an energy convention at HIS in room 2, from 2:15-3:15. Parents and the general public are invited.
We need several thing for science:
2 liter soda bottles with their caps (26 total)
Potting soil (one bag)
Seedlings of various plants (26 total)
Seeds for fast growing plants like peas, beans, etc.
If you can send in any of these items, please e-mail me or communicate through your child.
Reading
Guided reading is going very well. Students seem to be learning a lot. We are concentrating on the following skills:
Prefixes and suffixes to determine word meanings
Literary devices like similes and metaphors
Summarizing
Please be sure to continue tracking your child’s progress in reciprocal teaching unless they are one of the five students who are doing an independent reading assignment.
Please note there will be a test on Swimmer Vocabulary on Friday of this week. The vocabulary list is attached.
Writing
We continue to work on spelling, vocabulary and grammar as our primary foci. Children are completing and reviewing a Drops in the Bucket worksheet each day and also studying the spelling pattern to make the sound /o/ as in Prescott. We will return to the subject of opinion writing next week.
Students are also learning a systematic way of writing a summary of a story. A copy of the summary rubric is attached to this newsletter.
Science
Please remember that our Energy Convention will be held from 2:15 to 3:15 on Tuesday, May 13 in room 2 at HIS. Every child must have a poster on a way of producing electricity. Please see your child’s rubric and if it is possible to volunteer to send in drinks or food, please do so on the form provided.
Students are studying human nutrition and food webs. We are targeting a few big ideas while students learn specific things about human and animal nutrition and digestion:
All living things are interdependent: One living thing is food to another.
All living things, including humans, are affected by their environment. E.G. In a stream, salmon and trout are affected directly and indirectly by the water quality indirectly—lower water quality leads to fewer insects to eat. Lower water quality could lead to long-term health problems.
Living things (especially humans) change their environment in good and bad ways.
Students got to dissect owl pellets and construct a food web showing the interdependence of organisms this week. They learned about the roles of water and fiber in the digestive tract by trying to move different mixtures containing one or more of crackers, sawdust and water through a straw by peristalsis. They also got to be grossed out by seeing a demonstration where I filled sausage casings made from pig small-intestine sub mucosa with food dye and sawdust (to show that food needs to be broken down into individual molecules to be absorbed into the body.
Swimmer Vocabulary
ancient
sleek
gleaming
fitful
deltas
generation
traditions
myths
skim
scampered
larvae
murky
triggered
lingered
boundless
tundra
cruising
hovered
robust
instincts
grisly
dodge
Your summary:
Possible Points Points earned
Has a topic sentence 10
Includes the title of the book 5
Includes the genre 5
Includes the name(s) of the major character(s) 10
Includes a major event from the beginning of the book (one that sets up the problem) 10
States what the major problem is 10
Includes major events from the middle of the book (without including items that stray off topic) 10
Includes a major event leading to the solution 10
Describes the solution to the problem 10
Is written in complete sentences 10
Has a concluding sentence 10
FUN WAYS TO BUILD FLUENCY
Building fluency is a two-part process: Building sight word knowledge, and building decoding skills.
Sight words—To build sight word knowledge, students must repeatedly read the same stories over and over. Research suggests that somewhere between 5 and 7 re-readings of the same text are required to build automaticity with that text.
Decoding Fluency-- Many readers have trouble when they reach the fourth grade level and beyond if they do not have a fundamental understanding in how to decode words rapidly. To help a child build decoding fluency at middle-and upper elementary levels, they should be taught to recognize chunks of words. For instance, when reading the word “celebration” they should be encouraged to take the word and break it into easy to recognize chunks like cel/eb/ra/tion. This is a syllabication activity. Have children do this with any words that they encounter. Do not ask them to sound it out letter by letter unless they are unable to do anything else. Ask them to try different pronunciations like, “I see the letters c-e-l, it could be keel, seel, sel or kelWhen we go to the e-b we can say it as eeb, or as eb. Now look at r-a. It could be ray or ra. The t-i-o-n is a special ending that is always pronounced shun. Lets try different combinations. . .
One of my student’s favorite ways of working on fluency and vocabulary was by using music. They especially liked the CD Camel Caravan. It can be purchased at: http://www.learningworkshop.com/materials/music/details?cd=130&cd_title=Camel%20Caravan
Be sure to also order the lyrics.
When using the music, do the following:
1. Have your child read the lyrics without listening to the song. Have them decode any unknown words using the chunking strategy.
2. Have your child re-read the lyrics, again decoding any words that they still miss.
3. Discuss the vocabulary in the song and what the meaning of it is.
4. Listen to the music without singing.
5. Listen to the music and sing along with it using the lyrics sheet.
6. Repeat on a periodic basis, but always with the lyrics sheet in front of the child.
LITERATURE RESPONSE IDEAS THAT ARE FUN
There are two goals for a reading teacher that override all others. First, and most importantly, a child must enjoy reading and see a valid purpose in doing it. Second, a child should understand what they are reading. These activities are intended to support both goals at home.
Remember: One of the most difficult things a child has to learn is to be able to think about their own thinking, so when discussing a book or any other life experience, emphasize that they explain why your child has certain viewpoints or opinions. You will be amazed what they will tell you!
1. Find something that is unique about the book that you can react to in real life. For instance, if the story is about living in the arctic, make an igloo and while you are doing it discuss how it relates to the book. If you are reading a story about a boy and his dog, visit the pound and try to locate dogs that have similar appearances or similar personalities to the dogs in the story, all the while, discussing comparisons to the book.
2. Research a non-fiction topic related to the book. For instance, if you are reading about children who try to help re-establish salmon populations, look on the internet and find out about the decline of salmon. Find out why they are doing this. Again, discuss the connections to the book.
3. Make a model of a key part of the story. This is sometimes called a diorama, but it doesn’t need to be the standard one in a shoe box showing a key scene. For instance, if a key part of a story is the location where it takes place, create a model or a map of that location.
4. Extend the story. If the story makes it possible, write a chapter to follow the last one in the book. Discuss the logic of twists in the plot in the new chapter and how they fit in with the rest of the book.
6. Draw pictures from different parts of the book. Discuss how those pictures relate to the words. This is an excellent way to get a child to create a mental image of what is going on. If the book describes a tall, skinny girl with red curly hair, wearing a yellow polka-dot dress, then the picture should have those details (maybe not all of them, but there shouldn’t be anything contradicting important details—like her being short and fat.)
7. Make comparisons between events and characters in the book and your child’s own experiences. If your child is into karate and you read a book about another child who goes to karate classes, discuss that. Discuss how the character is reacting to different situations and if your child would react that way or not. Have them explain WHY.
