Fabulous Friday!

We had an awesome day today!  The author visit was fantastic, and students had a great time celebrating the August birthdays!  We missed our snack because we were playing musical chairs to celebrate.  I hope you have an amazing Labor Day weekend.  For those of you heading to Dragon Con, I want to see pictures of you dressed up for the parade.  Remember that we have a math quiz next Wednesday.

I will update on Monday with some pictures of our amendment projects, math games, and author visit!

Parents - Graded work will be sent home with students on Tuesday in their red folders.  Please sign and return the papers.  We will be keeping all work in a portfolio in the classroom.

Have a great weekend!  I cant wait to hear about all of your fun times (especially if you are only doing yard work).

Mrs. Prophet

Mellow Monday!

We had another great day in room 262.  We are officially finished with our Fall MAP testing.

This week we have a lot going on.

Math - We are starting to work with the different forms of a number.  We will also begin comparing.  Students have a pre-assessment tonight for homework.  Please have them circle any questions that are confusing.

Science - We have a quiz tomorrow on animal classification.  Be sure to study the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates as well as all the different categories of animals.  Students can also use the Quizlet to study.

S.S. - We are studying about amending the Constitution and the differences between an amendment and a law.

ELA - We started working on our grammar skills today.  Students will be focusing on different conventions of English each morning.  We will also continue to work on the pre-writing stage of the writing process.

Reading - We are working on informational text.  Students will be asked to work in small groups during reading workshop to investigate the different tools used to demonstrate information in expository text.

I'm looking forward to a great week!

All students received their graded S.S. quizzes.  Please sign and return.  If you have any questions please let me know.  

Remember - To kick off the college football season, Friday is college colors day.  I will be proudly sporting my Hoosier gear!

Mrs. Prophet

Freaky Friday!

We've had a very productive week.  We have one more day of MAP testing, and then we should be back on our normal schedule.

ELA - This week we continued to develop strategies for generating personal narrative ideas.  We also worked on organization.  Many students shared their small moment stories, and everyone was very excited to be writing.  Next week, we will continue to work on developing ideas.  We will also begin working on language conventions.  I have noticed that students need a lot of work on creating complex sentences and punctuation.  This will be a point of focus next week.

Reading - We continued working on developing our workshop format.  Students were introduced to 5 days of vocabulary activities that they will complete each week during our workshop.  Students were also given a STAR reading assessment which will help them determine books that are on their reading level.

S.S. - We had our quiz on the Bill of Rights today.  We will begin discussing the process of creating laws and amending the Constitution.  This is an introductory video to check out this weekend.  http://bit.ly/r9hN8y

Science - We will be reviewing animal classification on Monday, and students will have their first science quiz on Tuesday.  We will be taking a walking field trip to the community garden on September 10.  In order for the students to be ready for the field trip, it is essential that they learn the different classifications of plants this week.

Math - We continued working on powers of ten and the metric system this week.  We will begin place value next week.

FYI:
Students are not required to keep a reading log in my class because it does not demonstrate to me that they comprehend what they are reading.  I discussed this with the class today, and they all agreed.  Several students also suggested that reading logs can cause them to lose focus on what they are reading.  I totally agree!  For this reason, I use the Accelerated Reader (AR) program to assess their comprehension.  Students are expected to earn at least 36 points per term with an average of at least 90%.  This proves to me that they are truly reading and comprehending the books.

Have an amazing weekend!  I hope to see some of you tonight at the party!

Stay cool.

Mrs. Prophet

Happy Monday!

We continued reading The Giver today.  I'm excited for students to find out what happens tomorrow in the book.  This is my favorite part of the morning!  This book also has great connections to our Unit of Inquiry.  We are currently studying about how we organize ourselves.  The Giver represents what happens when people attempt to control all aspects of life.

Students were introduced to the first element of vocabulary instruction.  We will continue to add an element of vocabulary investigation each day this week.  Students will have 5 strategies to use when working with words during reading workshop.  

We all struggled through conversion of units in the metric system.  We will continue working on this skill in our small groups this week.  Our focus will be shifting to our understanding of decimal place value which should help our understanding of the powers of ten.

In social studies, students will spend a few more days working on the Bill of Rights before we have an assessment on Friday.  Please help them study the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution.  We are frequently making mistakes on the 5th, 6th, and 7th Amendments.  I have also loaded a quizlet on Edmodo to help them study.  

MAP testing begins this week.  We will be testing in the afternoon on Thursday and Friday this week.  We will also have MAP testing next Monday.  Our testing is occurring in the late afternoon.

Here's to another great week!  

Mrs. Prophet  

10 Days!

We have officially completed our first 10 days of school!  The students have seen my craziness, and are learning to pay really close attention to me when I'm teaching because I might just decide to stand on a chair (or a table).  We also used our iPads for the first time this year.  Students learned about Edmodo.  We will learn how to turn in assignments electronically next week.

Academically, we have been continuing to work on building reading stamina during reading workshop.  Your students have also been taking reading assessments during this time.  Students will begin vocabulary work next week, so be on the look out for that.  In math, we finally have a good grasp of the powers of ten.  We will be applying that knowledge to the metric system next week.  We have also enjoyed reading the first 5 chapters of The Giver.  We compared our system of government with the book.  It lead to some very interesting discussions.  In science, we are still working on classification.  The students will continue to work on classification next week as we move into the the different groups of classification.  Finally, in social studies. we have been applying our knowledge of the Bill of Rights to different creative scenarios.

We desperately need glue sticks for our UOI notebooks!  Please help!  We would also like a volleyball.  Some of the students have been practicing their volleyball skills during recess, but the soccer ball is not working very well.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prophet

Week 2!

We are off to another great week!  We began reading The Giver.  Our discussion focused on the connection between this story and our unit of inquiry.  We also had our first fire drill today.  Please remind your student about the importance of following directions during emergency drills!

We will be busy this week learning about our classmates as readers.  Don't forget your collection of reading artifacts is due tomorrow!  I can't wait to hear about all the great things you have been reading.  

Students were introduced to math workshop today.  We did a great job working on math the whole time.  However, we are having some struggles with applying powers of ten to decimals.  We will spend the next few days focusing on place value with decimals, and operations with powers of ten.  

For some extra practice, try these problems:  

1.4 x 100 =

0.013 x 1,000 = 

 34 x 100 = 

4.5 x 10 =

There are also more practice problems under extra math practice.  

If you have not turned in your iPad agreements, please do so ASAP!  We can't open the cart until I have an agreement from EVERYONE!

See you tomorrow!

Mrs. Prophet

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Thank you so much for a great first week of school!  It was awesome getting to know everyone.  It has also been great to see you master the procedures of our classroom.  Most of the week was consumed with practicing procedures and developing rules.  However, we definitely got started with some important information in all subject areas.  In Reading, we focused on selecting "good fit" books and building stamina.  I am very impressed with this group of amazing readers.  During Writing Workshop, we spent time developing concept maps for our hopes and dreams.  We know that during workshop it is essential for us to read/write the entire time.  Next week, we will also begin discovering our individual preferences as readers.  Don't forget your collection of materials.  Also,  I'm excited to begin reading The Giver on Monday!

We spent some time talking about problem solving in math, and we started learning about the powers of ten.  Some students also learned the game of poison, as well as the mathematical trick to win every time.  In science, we discussed how the dichotomous key can be used to classify organisms.  Students were very inquisitive during these lessons.  In social studies, we began our discussion of rights and responsibilities.  Students learned that rights are not absolute.  In other words, I have the right to free speech, but that doesn't mean it is responsible to yell fire in a crowded theater.

Student representation of the IB learner profile trait reflective.  

Finally, we celebrated our IB kickoff on Friday morning.  Students had a great time dancing and learning about the IB attitudes.  We also spent some time creating posters of the IB learner profile.

Announcements: 
Mr. Brooks is asking all students to get a folder for music.  
The deadline for job applications has been extended to Monday, August 11.  
Remember to bring in your reader collection on Tuesday!  

Our Classroom Agreement:  We will be safe, participate, and try our best.  We will be responsible and think before we act.  We will strive to be open-minded and consider how our words and actions will impact others.  Most of all we will have fun in all that we do!

I can't wait to see what we can accomplish next week.  Rest and prepare for the next challenge!

See you soon,
Mrs. Prophet

First Day of School!

We had a great first day!  Our learning targets today focused on procedures for our classroom.  We spent much of the day working to build a classroom community.  We began developing our essential agreements.  We started with Morning Meeting.  We decided (after a trial meeting) which items are most important for productivity.

Classroom set up and ready to go for the first day.  

Ideas we used to develop essential agreements for our Morning Meeting.  

Students should begin collecting books, pictures, and items that represent them as a reader.  These items will be brought to school next Tuesday.

I also realized that I made a mistake in our posted schedule.  We have PE on Fridays from 12:30 - 1:00.  Please make sure you make that change.

Thanks for the great start!

Mrs. Prophet

Meet and Greet!

It was great seeing so many students today during our Meet and Greet.   I'm very eager for this year to begin! I hope to see some of you on Sunday at the pool party!  If you missed the sign on our door, I will be posting the job descriptions and applications tomorrow evening.  I have a reading challenge for all of you this weekend.


During the first two weeks of school, we will be discovering who we are as readers.  Please begin collecting images, books, or other items that can be used to describe the types of things you like to read.  These items should also encompass how (when/where) you like to read.

I will see you soon!