Week of 4/28 Newsletter

Dear 4th & 5th Grade Families,

I hope this letter finds you well! I want to commend ALL of the students for working so hard during the SBAC testing. They persevered and did great!

The 5th Graders will be doing their PE testing tomorrow, Tuesday, April 29. Please be sure your child comes to school with comfortable clothes & shoes, a water bottle and a hat or sunscreen.

The Spring Concert is this Thursday, May 1 at 5:30. Our students will be playing their ukeleles and singing. The weather forecast looks good so bring a dinner picnic and enjoy the fabulous Mountain School music!

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING ABOUT:

4th Grade Math: Types of lines, angles and how to measure and identify them.

5th Grade Math: The relationship between percents, fractions and decimals.

ELA & Social Sciences: The Bill of Rights and the beginning of the Westward Movement. We will begin reading Patty Reed’s Doll, a story about the Donner Party.

4th Grade Science: Erosion, deposition and how landforms are affected using stream tables.

5th Grade Science: Wrapping up the Water Planet unit.

Mountain School will be getting a new web address next year and I have begun to transfer my account over. Please change your address book to reflect my new email address: rhonig@mountainesd.org. Any emails sent to the other address will be forwarded there from now on. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know via email.

Best,

Ms. Honig

Week of 4/21 Newsletter

Dear 4th & 5th Grade Families,

I hope this letter finds you well! Thank you again for your outpouring of support, last week was fantastic and we are looking forward to the remaining 8 weeks of school to continue that way.

This week, we will be taking the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Pilot Test. We spent some time last week learning how to use the tools and navigate within the test (practice test can be found here) and I feel confident that the students will be very comfortable “testing the test”. Below are a few notes about the test and our altered schedule.

>Gum: Studies have shown that chewing gum can help with concentration so I’d like to allow students to chew gum while they take the test. You may send in gum anytime this week, we’ll begin taking the test on Monday. If you choose to send in gum for your child, I will collect it, distribute it during the test, and return any extra pieces on Friday.  
>Volunteer Schedule: I would ask that if your normal volunteer time falls between 8:30 and 12 that you would take the week off from working in our classroom, since that will be when we’re taking the test. Afternoon volunteers will still be greatly appreciated!

>Homework: I will not be assigning any homework other than reading this week and there will be no spelling nor a math test this Friday.

This Friday is our Mountain School Earth Day Celebration, thanks to the Independent Studies Class! We would also like to celebrate our March & April birthdays at the end of the day, so if your child had a birthday during the last 2 months, please contact me.

Thank you again and please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, rhonig@santacruz.k12.ca.us.

Best,

Ms. Honig

Week of 4-14 Newsletter

Dear 4th & 5th Grade Families,

I want to start off with a note of gratitude for the support I have received from many of you regarding recent classroom behavior. I am looking forward to the remainder of the school year with positive improvements that will continue to allow me to effectively deliver curriculum, while supporting your child. If you have any further concerns, please feel free to contact me or Ms. M directly and we’d be happy to speak with you.

This week we will begin practicing with the SBAC test on our class-set of Chromebooks. (Thanks to Ms. M for purchasing them for our students!) My intention is to familiarize your child with the interface as well as the computer itself. I would appreciate parental support in the classroom during the morning hours, anytime between 9AM-12PM. If you’re available, please let me know.

If you would like more information about the test and implementation of the Common Core,  Ms. M encourages parents to participate in one of two town hall meetings on Wednesday, April 16, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm (ends right before pick-up time) and from 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm, both in the school's Library. Child Care during the evening session will be provided by Mountain School 6th graders for children age 5 and up. Please RSVP to Teresa for either town hall meeting at tbell@santacruz.k12.ca.us. If you need child care for the evening session, please include the number of children and their ages in the RSVP email.

The students have met their first class goal! We will do a test run this week of eating snack in the classroom immediately following the morning recess. I am confident that they will follow the protocol (promptly lining up to come in and eating in a timely manner, cleaning up and staying on task so as not to waste any class time) to be able to continue that for the remainder of the school year.

Thanks again for all of your support both in the classroom and at home. Please feel free to email me with questions or concerns at rhonig@santacruz.k12.ca.us.

Best,

Ms. Honig