Hello Everyone,

I am really enjoying your bright, funny and inquisitive children!  

Thank you again, Parents Club, for your constant support with supplies, wipes, hand sanitizer, and so much more to our classrooms!! Your generosity knows no bounds.

With our second week of school accomplished, we are all settling into our routines and working on practicing our play. Our music has been shared with all families.  Please let me know if you are having trouble accessing the shared folder on google drive. Micha will be here helping with choreography starting Monday Sept. 10 from 9-12.  It is important for all students to know their lines and the words to all the songs. We practice daily at school, but your child should read the play as nightly reading in order to memorize and get comfortable with the dialogue. Roles were assigned last Friday so that specific lines can be practice and memorized for each actor. I have added some dialogue and a few parts--the 4 Pony Express parts.  We will practice this so that students know those lines as well.  Our opening song will be "This Land is Your Land" and there is a link to follow to this video for learning the lyrics. This Land is Your Land Youtube video can be listened to here but all additional dialogue and music lyrics are in the shared folder here .

**Play dates: Thursday Sept. 27th evening performance @ 7 p.m. in the Pac room for families and friends and Thursday 9/27 and Friday 9/28 performances @ 11 a.m. in the Pac room for students. We appreciate the help! Please volunteer to help with our play here

Art, Music, and P.E.: your child is enjoying a full, well-rounded curriculum that includes the arts and physical education.  We are so very lucky to have these very talented teachers supporting our students. Thank you Mary Beth Duncan, Ket Tom-Conway and Kim Fleming!

Reading Buddies: our buddies are Ms. Martin's first graders this year! Both the first and fourth and fifth graders are doing very well with this and enjoy reading to their buddies on Friday afternoons before going home for the weekend. Happiness is a reading buddy!

The Blue Binder: includes the planner, a colorful homework pocket for each day's assignments, and a reading log for parent signatures/initials every night. This binder has four sections: notes, homework, lessons, and tests. This is the only binder that will travel back and forth every day between the classroom and home (doesn't come home on Fridays). Your child's planner is the best place to see what is assigned and when it is due. We fill in our planners every morning and Shauna, our wonderful aide, will be checking to see that homework, planners, and signatures/initials are complete every morning. This is a system to help your child manage and organize class work, homework and a schedule. We support each child with this, but it is very important that your child brings his/her binder each day with a parent signature and an initial for the reading log.  Academic success can be impacted if this is a regularly forgotten item. The front of your child's binder has a sheet which outlines all the expectations for homework, please revisit that, if you have questions.  It is helpful to complete and pack the binder in the back pack and place it by the door the night before so that in the rush of the morning it is not left behind. We appreciate the support you give your child with this at home.

Math: we have been reviewing whole numbers and place value up to the millions for fourth and billions for fifth. We will continue to review math facts and begin to go forward this week with estimation, approximation and rounding. We will, as a general rule, have a test every Friday to assess the week's concepts. In addition, we are working on a POM (problem of the month) and continue to do math story problems each period to reinforce concepts.

Social Sciences: Westward Expansion and the Gold Rush as it aligns to our play and our Coloma trip this year. Gold Country here we come!! 

Science: we have moved into our Foss curriculum on solid earth--land forms and soils. Our November Seacliff State Beach fossil field trip (details below) supports this.

Current Read Aloud: Kit Carson. We are mapping Kit's journey through the Sierra Nevada Mountains from California to Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Accelerated Reader: Your child  has successfully logged into Accelerated Reader and has had practice with taking a comprehension quiz.  All quizzes should be completed within 24 hours of finishing a book and must be taken in the classroom, not at home.  Time will be given each morning for this purpose.

Accelerated Reader Book Find: click here Your child should be reading "good fit" books--on their reading level and interest level.  You can check to see that the books your child is choosing to read are in AR. If you put the title in and see the book pop up with information on reading level, points, and quiz #, you know that this is a good pick.  If you cannot find the book in the AR book find, this is a book that has no quiz associated with it and no points.  This is not a good pick.

Novel: By the Great Horn Spoon.  This will be our first novel and deep dive into literature. We will read this aloud together on the doc camera so that all students are supported regardless of varying reading levels. If your child is a fourth grader, this was read to your child last year as a read aloud, and now we are using a second-read (common core strategy) to study this more in depth and develop a deeper understanding of the text  (comprehension, literary devices, academic vocabulary and discussion).

Growth Mindset video: I support best practices and a growth mindset in the classroom. Please click here to view an excellent video on this concept. Your child will view this in the classroom this week.

**Back to School Night and Coloma Meeting: Wednesday September 19. At 6:15 Ms. M. will meet all new families in the PAC room with current Mt. topics, presentation and discussion--all parents are welcome to attend. Then, teachers will give classroom presentations for parents at 6:30 and again at 7:00.  At 7:30 p.m.  I will give information about the 4/5 trip to Coloma this year.  I look forward to greeting everyone and talking about the curriculum, Coloma and our fabulous year! (Mark your calendars Coloma: Oct. 17-19).

**Our First Field Trip: Seacliff State Beach 11/2/2018 10:00 -12:30. Drivers/chaperones will be needed and more information on this field trip will be forthcoming as it gets closer.

Classroom volunteers: please find the volunteer expectations for our classroom here.  If you are interested in volunteering in our classroom, know that we appreciate it very much! It's what makes Mountain so special.  You can click here to put your name on the volunteer list. Thank you.

Warmly,

Heather