23-29 May 2011
I guess you already noticed that I didn't even post anything last week. So sorry about that. We did finish the DRA2 Reading Assessments this past week. It's a very time consuming assessment and several students had to have more than one reading completed and scored. Thanks for your patience with my neglect.
This Week:
We'll begin our last story in the Reading Street series! Yes, our 30th story and skill set will be:
Title: Ben Franklin & His First Kite
Author: Stephen Krensky
Illustrator: Bert Dodson
Genre: Biography
Comprehension Skill: Theme
Comprehension Strategy: Ask Questions while reading
Study Skill: Encyclopedia (we use on-line versions here at school)
Spelling/Phonics: Prefixes un-, re- /Long I,& O
Language/Vocabulary: Multi-meaning Words
Grammar: More About Pronouns
Writing: Plan
Spelling Words:
1. unhappy
2. refill
3. untie
4. undo
5. repay
6. unkind
7. undress
8. retell
9. reopen
10. refund
11. different
12. carry
Students will begin taking the end of year test on-line. It has 60 questions. We will not take this test in 1 sitting. It will probably take 2, and even 3 sittings for some students. Even though Reading Street, our newly adopted Language Arts Textbook has been intense, the outcome with how the students are reading show them performing very well. Thank you so much for all your help with reading/recording/listening/and writing in their journals throughout the year. It wouldn't have happened w/o you! We'll conclude our End of Year Language Arts testing with a final writing sample about What I Learned in First Grade. Students will brainstorm, using a graphic organizer and compose a sentence for each idea. Handwriting, composition and overall organization and spelling will be scored using a 4 point rubric. We''ll sharpen up all our pencils and then we'll do some end of year kinds of things outside the text throughout the final days.
We are also completing our final assessments for the year in Math. We have one more Unit test that will cover addition, subtraction, time, calendar and problem solving using key words with subtraction and addition. The strategy used will be drawing a picture, writing and equation and labeling the answer. There are 20 questions, each one being weighted with 5 points.
We have 3 students PCSing and another student planning to attend a Grandfather's birthday, all with early departure in June. The rest of us will linger to the last day of school, a half day on Thursday, June 16th.
I plan to send all items home on Wednesday, 15th June. Please let your student bring an empty backpack on Thursday, the last day containing only a bottle of water. We'll have some last day fun and be on our way to summer.
Please keep these dates in mind:
9 June: Aviano Elementary School will be having field day on Thursday, June 9th. The events for grades 1 and 2 will be from 8:30 –10:30 and for grades 3,4,5 and multi-age from 12:00 – 2:15. Please consider volunteering to make this a successful event. WEAR APPROPRIATE SHOES and CLOTHING. Apply SUNSCREEN before coming to school.
Water....water.....water!!.and a lot of FUN!
Let's have another great week.
p.s. Thank you to Mrs. Hall, Aiden's mom for bringing us so much nutritious food on the day the power outage occurred! We're still enjoying some of them! :-)
