Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Update 8/31

Please read the other post from today titled "PSG Fundraiser Update" for important and fun ways to volunteer without actually being here at Reagan!

Social Studies:
We are working on a regions scrapbook throughout the year. This scrapbook should stay in your child's GAME File, in the SS section.

We will have a Northeast Regions quiz on Friday. The students completed a study guide and we have discussed the guide two times together this week.

Reading:
We have a quiz over the story "Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family". The kids are encouraged to bring home their reading books tonight and tomorrow night to prepare for the vocabulary and comprehension skills on this quiz.

Math:
Homework tonight is to read the Family Letter for Unit 2 with a family member (if possible). I will also send this letter via email today. The results of our first math test were AWESOME! Thanks to all students and family members that guided them--your hard word was well worth it!

Spelling:
Spelling will resume next week. There are a few students that have tested out of spelling for this nine weeks, so those students will have vocabulary words instead. You will know whether your child is on a spelling list or a vocabulary list by Tuesday of next week.



PSG Fundraiser Update

Take a look at all the ways you can contribute to your child's school/classroom without lifting a finger:

1) Entertainment Books: Our class has sold a total of 10+ books so far. The books will pay for themselves, so think holiday gifts, birthday gifts, etc.  The class who sells the most books wins a pizza party.  There are prizes for every level of selling, too. Even for just selling one book, students will receive Alvin prizes the day the order(s) is returned. 

2) Box Tops: Even though our first contest has not officially started, I wanted to alert you to a couple of great ways to earn Box Tops for our school.  The first is the Meijer special that is going on only through today, August 31st.  Meijer is a Box Tops GOLD MINE!  Each time you purchase 10 Box Tops products, you get a certificate good for 70 Bonus Box Tops (it prints by the receipt).  The trick is you can do mulitple purchases in one day. If you would like to see a list of all of Meijer's Box Tops items, go here: http://www3.meijer.com/boxtop/list.pdf. Please begin sending Box Tops into school as you have them.
 
3) Avery products is also offering a contest based on voting.  The top five schools at the end of the promotion will each win $10,000 worth of Avery School Supplies, 10,000 Bonus Box Tops coupons, and $1,000 worth of gift cards. Twenty-five runner-up schools will also win 5,000 Bonus Box Tops coupons! 

Reagan is really moving up the ranks!  As of this morning, we are in 475th place (after starting somewhere in the 3000s less than 2 weeks ago).  In the last several days, we have been gaining about 100 positions a day.  Many of our Box Tops committee volunteers are voting, but we could use your help too. This contest only lasts a few more weeks and is over on Sept 16th, so please vote daily to help us.  It literally only takes a few seconds.  To join in, visit http://givebacktoschools.avery.com/

Let's all work together to make Reagan more spectacular than it already is! Plus, it sure would be fun to win a pizza party and prizes!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Update 8/30

What a busy but productive learning day today!

If students finished page 14 from their social studies workbooks, there is no other homework due tomorrow. We will, however, have a reading quiz on Friday over this week's story and vocabulary (Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family) and the Northeast Regions states and capitals (study guide went home Monday). I will link a few new sites to the links section of this blog tonight.

Just to clarify: Those students attending the reading lab in the mornings DO NOT have social studies requirements. Those students attending the math lab in the afternoons DO NOT have science and/or health requirements. I will specifically discuss each assignment with each individual child. Please contact me if you are not sure.

Keep selling those Entertainment Books! Due September 8!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Update 8/29

We had a very busy Monday! The kids, as a whole, seemed totally on it today all across the curriculum! That's great news for the progress we're making each day!

Assignment Avenue:
Math: Unit 1 Assessment on Tuesday--all students should bring home his or her Student Reference Book (SRB) and Math Journal to guide studying. They each have a new study guide, too, that is for studying/practice purposes only. It is not a grade nor required to complete for a grade. We reviewed the other study guide as a class today and students had the opportunity to work in a small group with me during math, as well as at recess is desired.

Social Studies-We will have a Northeast regions quiz on Friday this week. Students received a handout this morning to complete (locate the state in an atlas and list its capital). We reviewed this handout together this afternoon so students can use it for a study guide for Friday.

Reading: Workbook pages 11-12 due Tuesday (Students were given 12 minutes to complete in class today with a partner.)

Health: Ad Techniques handout due Tuesday (Students were introduced to the various types of techniques in advertisements briefly today. We also discussed this handout thoroughly before giving the kids 5 minutes to begin working on the matching section.)

NO SPELLING THIS WEEK!

Have a wonderful evening! I know the assignment lists seems lengthy, but please be advised that I allow students a lot of time to complete these activities in class (other than test prep). In fact, we had 15 minutes (car riders and walkers) to 25 minutes (bus riders) to complete any unfinished work today or ask questions about anything.

Reading/Vocabulary

Each week, we will focus on the current story in the book (green reader). This week's story is "Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family" page 72. The vocabulary and comprehension questions to guide students are in the book as well. We will take a quiz over the vocabulary words and comprehension of the story every Friday unless otherwise stated.

Picture Day

As you're planning ahead, school picture day will be Tuesday, October 4. We will send home picture packages as soon as they arrive.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Update 8/26

Go Bulldogs! Come out to see all of the BJFL players in their uniforms on the field tonight as the Bulldogs take on a win!

We WILL NOT have a spelling list next week. We are working out a system to challenge those students that ace spelling each week, so we're allowing ourselves some time to figure it all out. We will let you know how the system will work once we know the answers.

Instead of spelling next week, the students will have a Northeast Regions quiz. Students will fill out the states inside this region on Monday. They will be tested over this region on Friday. Of course, this will be something they have time to work on and study at the end of each day, too, and we will continue lessons about this region all next week. It will also be on the Assignment Ave. board daily.

We have our first unit test in Math on Tuesday over Unit 1. The students are bringing home a Test Alert handout with page numbers to focus their studying. They also have a study guide to work on (not an assignment, but highly recommended) in order to prepare for the test. We will also review Unit 1 on Monday. Students can access the math website, too, at http://www.everydaymathonline.com to play games, access the textbook and journal pages, as well as have the book read to them. Each student has a login and password--it is coming home today, too. Each student was also told to bring home his or her SRB and Math Journal for studying this weekend.

I updated the gradebook today, however, I'm not sure if the system updates the grades until Monday at 4. You should see any missing and/or late assignments in your child's PowerSchool account, as well as all grades thus far in 5th grade.

Please continue to attempt to sell just 1 Entertainment book for our school. It really holds some pretty amazing coupons that each family would use (even for Kroger). All books and/or money is due by Thursday, September 8.

Have a relaxing, fun-filled weekend!