Dear Families,
We’ve
had a great week, and I could not ask for a nicer group of young people!
(Sincerely) I hope your child has come home this week feeling excited about the
school year. We’ve done a lot activities to build our
classroom community such as some games like Moon Ball, Retail-Detail, and
Morph. We’ve been getting to know each
other by sharing and listening to each other explain five items that represent
our interests and passions. We’ve created fun, artistic t-shirt designs with a
goal using different representations of numbers to show others the numbers of
our lives. For example, we might have
shown that they were born in MMVI (2006) or that we have 22
goldfish.
A practical task for the week was to get
students organized for the year.
Students have a place for everything -all of their belongings have
labels (chairs, folders, pencils, cubbies, coat hooks, etc.) They have signed a Cubby Contract and Chair
Rental agreement, agreeing keeping our cubbies clean and organized and to stack
our chairs at the end of the day.
Students made “Clock Buddy” sheets they will use all year to quickly get
with different learning partners. We’re
off to a great start in the organization of our things.
MBA has
embraced a new Positive Behavior Plan. This week, our class has been discussing
the expected behaviors at school in terms of Safety, Responsibility, and
Respect- in the many different contexts of school. (For example, safety might
look very different in the café than it does out at recess.) Our hope as a
school is to recognize good behavior and praise students frequently. Students will be given chips, which each
class will then contribute to a school-wide pile of chips. When we reach our goal, we’ll have a
celebration.
We’ve also completed many of the
necessary assessments need at the start of the year. In math, we have taken an
Everyday Math beginning-of-the-year assessment that measures students
understanding of math concepts that were developed in fourth grade. They also took
a facts assessment (fact knowledge makes powerful math students). A computation
assessment was given to determine if students have the skill to add, subtract,
multiply, and divide…which is one of our first trimester goals. In reading, students were assessed on their
current level of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. They wrote their best personal narratives,
and I’m excited to see how much they grow as writers in this trimester! Now that these assessments are complete, I’m
excited to dive in to some new learning with informed understanding of your
child’s needs!
It’s fun to see all of the new
faces, including some younger siblings of my past students. I look forward to building a solid
partnership with you this year. I invite
you, at any time, to share questions, concerns, or celebrations that you have.
Like you, I’m a parent. My wish for my
children are probably very much like many families. I want a teacher that cares
and is supportive…one that strives to bring learning to life…one that is skilled…and
one that knows how to have fun and make school a joyous place. …I also hope that their homework doesn’t
stress out the whole family! Please let
me know how things are going for your child, and if you need anything- or want
me to consider trying a different approach.
Sincerely,
Neil Renner
