Digital Planners
Boelter/Young AM Digital Planner (if your student starts their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Young Digital Planner
Young/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student starts their day with Mr. Young in the morning): Young Boelter Digital Planner
Thank you!
I received a lot of Amazon shipments this week from the wishlist I shared. Many of them were anonymous. Thank you for helping to make our classroom even better. I am so appreciative!
Exceptional First Week
This week, we created our classroom reward continuum. Students brainstormed what rewards they wanted to earn when they continued to meet expectations. They came up with some really inventive ideas!. Students can earn housebucks (our whole school reward currency) which they can spend on Friday at the student store for snacks. They can also turn those in for Golden Tickets which can buy them house swag, including shirts! Additionally, students can earn some free time rewards that each class created individually. Their choices included board game time, lunch with a friend or teacher, STEM time, and much more. The highest level on our reward continuum is a Golden Ticket and a positive phone call/Dojo home. If your student earns any of these rewards, know they did so because they had an exceptional day.
We worked hard on classroom expectations in all situations this week. We jumped into some board work around the room and practiced those expectations. We also created our classroom norms, and we were mindful to include all the behaviors that make a warm and cohesive classroom community. Your students carried those expectations into specials. We are capable of winning that specialist trophy and I’ll push your students to reach that expectation.
This week, we will continue to work on practicing those expectations and applying those expectations to curricular practice. Students will learn how to access our digital planner, the one I share with you weekly, through our Learning Management System, Canvas. This will help prepare them for middle school. When you look at the digital planner this week, you will see links to assignments. Those links will take students directly to programs that we use in class including Canvas, Exact Path, Formative, Mathigon, and more.
MAP Testing
We also have MAP testing this week, and I have some great news. We do not have to test science MAP this year. I am personally excited about this, as it gives me more instructional time with your students. Your students will be testing on Wednesday and Friday, and we will start that shortly after we arrive at school. Please do your best to have your students at school on time on those days, so we do not interrupt our students while they are giving their best effort. If you are with Ms. Boelter in the morning, you will test math first on Wednesday and reading on Friday. If you are with Mr. Young in the morning, you will test reading first and math on Friday.
Curriculum
In math, we will continue to learn how to critically think and apply that thinking to any problem. Each day, we’re solving a math thinking question. Ask your students what to share when they learned when they get home. Friday, we solved the problem below:
I shared that my son and I went to a carnival last weekend and though he wasn’t able to win any prizes at the ring toss or balloon popping booths, when we got to this booth, he thought he might be able to win a prize. He was told that he had to arrange the numbers 1 – 5 in the orange circles above, but had to do so in a way that the sums of each diagonal lines equaled the same number. At first, he chose 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in that order. He added 1, 2, and 3 to get 6. He then added 3, 4, and 5 to get 12. He was frustrated because 6 and 12 were not the same numbers, but then he was able to figure it out. Many groups came up with correct answers to this math puzzle. I then asked if they could create a rule about the pattern of the numbers in the circles. It was a lot of fun!
In science this week, we’ll jump into some engineering design.
House Leader Information
If your student filled out their house leader form and turned in their interest form, you should have received a Dojo about next steps. The STUDENT interest form is due Monday. If your student is interested and has not yet filled that out, please make sure they get it from Mrs. Teunis and get it turned in. If they have turned it in, the PARENT form is due by 8/22 at 3:00 pm, no exceptions, and must be completed in order for students to move onto the next portion of the student selection process.
Homework
Many of you have asked how you can support your students at home. We will start our enVisions math curriculum next week. As we do most of our classwork collaboratively at the boards with work from that curriculum, we do not use the workbooks in class. Each week, I’ll post the unit and section we’re currently exploring in our digital planner. If your student would like to complete more work at home, they can do so. The books are pretty thick, so I’ll make sure to let you know when we send them home and you can make sure to take them out of their backpacks. 🙂
Also, we should be reading as part of the Apple Core program. I did not get your students Friday Folders in their backpacks (whoops) before they walked out the door on Friday. I’ll make sure they come home on Monday. They have all of the Apple Core Bookmark information on them. This is a grade that goes in the gradebook, so it is important students record their reading each night.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!
Ms. B. in Class 