It's Friday!

WOW...what a week! You all have sent the most well-mannered, delightful children...and I thank you. I know many of you are thinking, "Is she talking about MY kid?" I am. The 21 students in my classroom have had a wonderful week and I'm really excited about the upcoming year! I have so much to share, so let me get started.

SOARING WITH PRIDE
You may have noticed that our whole staff was wearing t-shirts that said, "Soaring with Pride" at our Open House. This is the theme for our new positive behavior support system at Urbana. The students have been introduced to the expectations and have been informed how they will be rewarded (classroom stickers and star student stickers) and how they will be reminded/what consequences they will face if those expectations are not met. "Think Sheets" are one of the ways we're asking kids to think about their actions. A think sheet is given after a warning...a silent warning. In my classroom that silent warning is a "Thinkman" card...this is a picture of the same "man" that is on the Think Sheet...it is supposed to warn the student that "I've asked you to stop that behavior and now I'm leaning toward giving you a Think Sheet." (I will go over this more at BTSN.) Anyway...I'm happy to report that I've only had to set the "Thinkman" cards on desks a few times and as of yet, they've not resulted in a "Think Sheet"! Today we celebrated by attending a "Soaring With Pride" assembly and each student was given a wristband with the theme on it...it was a fun assembly where the third grade teachers did skits showing good choices and no-so-good choices! This new positive behavior support will bring consistency throughout our school...our entire staff is involved and we like what we've seen the first week!

Math
In Math this week we've been focusing on numeration and place value. We've been working on "really big numbers" and using many different ways to manipulate these numbers. The students have worked with a place value chart, had to read numbers aloud, used white boards to show their ability to write the numbers in expanded form, composed and decomposed the numbers, and put large numbers on a number line. The kids also took a Quarterly pretest this week. The results of this test help me to structure the lessons and groupings for each concept in math. I will be scoring them this weekend and will spend the remainder of Quarter One covering fourth grade indicators and extending/enriching when appropriate.

Writing
The kids now have writing folders and are chomping at the bit to have "free writing" time. I introduced the writing trait "IDEAS" this week and gave them a parking lot to put in their folder. This is where they are to park ideas as they get them. A couple times a week the students will have writing time where they can work on their "masterpieces"...or as I like to call them :-) "works in progress!" They were given a Quick Word handbook to use as a resource when writing...a place to put words that they need to ask how to spell...sort of like their own private "word wall." Now that we have these folders set up, they are one of a few choices that kids have when they have finished their classwork. Many kids are dying to take them home and work on them...I am allowing that...please refrain from helping them "improve" their pieces. These pieces will be taken through all steps of the writing process and need to be their own work! Trust me, I know how hard it is to not help...but try not to, please!

Language Arts
I read a book this week called By My Brother's Side. It was a story written by Tiki and Ronde Barber and is about when they were young. It's a wonderful story that Mrs. Wright, our media specialist, recommended...we used it to discuss the Pillars of Character that our school recognizes: citizenship, caring, responsibility, respect, fairness, and trustworthiness. The kids worked cooperatively to define these six pillars and then after the story, illustrated a pillar and defined it in their own words. They did a nice job. Next week we will dive into unit one which deals with reading strategies. We will be responding to literature and having class discussions...it's a great unit!

Social Studies
This week we focused on communities and being good citizens...the curiculum suggests we touch on this later in the year, but it seemed so timely as we worked on classroom rules and the new behavior system. We have 21 FINE citizens in our community of learning and I'm proud to spend my days with them!

Daily Schedules
A few kids have asked for another copy of the daily schedule. In an effort to save paper, I have added links to the side bar of this blog so that you may access your child's daily schedule whenever you need it...the only information you'll need to know is which group your child goes to specials with!

Please know that if you ever have a question, comment or concern I am all ears. Please feel free to email me. I check email throughout the day and over the weekend. I hope you enjoy your families this weekend...I sure plan to!