Week in Review: August 25th

Congratulations on a successful start to the school year.  This week was the 1st full week of school.  Students had a Spelling list and Reading homework this week.  I have been very pleased with the number of homework pages returned before their due date (Friday, Aug. 26th).  And, the students did a fabulous job on the Unit 1 Spelling pre-test.  Thanks for your dedication and support.  Way to go parents!

In addition to Reading homework and a Spelling list, we also began the ALEKS Math program.  Every 3rd-5th grade student will participate this year.  ALEKS is a web based program which supports the Iowa Core Curriculum and a portion of our Math goal of building Math fluency (speed and efficiency with basic facts and problem solving).  The 3rd grade ALEKS time is 12:30-1:00 every day, unless it is an early dismissal day.  Since all 3rd grade students are doing ALEKS at the same time, we utilize the computer lab and both mobile laptop carts (Thank you, PTO for the funding of the 2nd cart).   Every student has been assigned a user name and a password.  I have written both on the outside cover of their ALEKS notebook (all good mathematicians need paper/space to write down problems and strategies).  The ALEKS notebooks are kept in a book basket in our classroom, so we can easily grab them when we are headed to the computer lab.  In addition to working on ALEKS during the school day, students may do ALEKS at home.  The web address is http://www.aleks.com/.  Students need to use the same username and password as they have on their notebook.  If you would like to have your child work on ALEKS at home, please send me an email or a note and I will send the username and password home.  Plus, it is a great way to check out the program and see how your child is progressing or areas where you could build on his/her skills.

Next week our student teacher will begin.  Miss Kylie Harris is finishing her education degree through Buena Vista University.  She will be observing our classroom routine and lessons for the first few days.  Then she will begin creating and implementing her own lessons, based on guidance and support from myself.  At the end of her 9 weeks in our classroom she will take over the majority of the classroom responsibilities.  I am excited for her to join our classroom.  And, I am glad she will get to know these 3rd graders.  They are an intelligent and humorous bunch of learners.

As always, feel free to contact me with questions, comments, concerns or suggestions. 
Mrs. C.