Home       About       Adventure Education       Culture       Expedition       Documents

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Crew News 4.26.12

 
Announcements:

New Genre Study: Procedural/How-to Writing
For our next genre study please send in an instructional manual, recipe book, directions on the back on a macaroni & cheese box, etc. for students to learn more about how to do procedural writing. Put you name on the item if it needs to be returned home. Thanks!

Homework/ Behavior Crackdown:
I know students are getting antsy for summer, but I plan to hold them accountable to prepare them best for 4th grade for the remainder of the year. Thanks for your support! :)
Thank you for your help!
Thank you to the ladies who came in to help organize student portfolios! What a huge help!!!

Last reminders! Life is Art fundraising event tomorrow night!
Life is Art- Adults Only: Friday, April 27th from 6:30-10:30 pm
Come support our school's efforts to fundraise at the Life is Art event on Friday, April 27th. This event will be a blast-- there will be art, auctions, food, drinks, and live music! It will be at The Grange at The Meadows, and we hope to see you there. You canpurchase tickets online ($40 for a single ticket, $75 per couple). 


OLE Work Day: Saturday, May 5th
As part of our recent expedition, our third grade crews will be constructing an outdoor music area in the OLE. To that end, we will be actually installing all of the instruments and building our structure at the OLE work day on May 5th. Please visit the sign-up genius to sign up for a time to come help. Please only sign up for one time slot.  If anyone in your family has building or construction experience and would be willing to help, please contact me as soon as possible. This project requires some adult help, and we would really appreciate your time and support! 

Spring Climbing May 21st-25th: We need volunteers to belay
Sign ups for the Training and to Belay for a crew are available onwww.SignUpGenius.com, click the "Find a Sign Up" tab and enter Mr. Doug's email,doug.baker@dcsdk12.org



Crew Learning
Expedition/Language: This week we put our knowledge of persuasive writing to the test, as students wrote donation letters to local companies and individuals asking for materials to be donated for our outdoor music environment. Ms. Brittany and I will be delivering these letters this weekend... Were they persuasive enough? :) 

HINTS AT HOME: Tell me about how it went drafting your donation letter. What information did you include? How did you make it persuasive?
Writing
A new section that is in the portfolios is the "culture" section. We took time to do a quick-write about several areas that we do at Renaissance that helps build culture: morning meeting, drum circles, having portfolios, all school meeting, what it means to be "crew," and character traits. Students chose one to describe in more detail and do a reflection on. This will be published and put in their portfolios.


HINTS AT HOME: Tell me about what topic you choose to write a culture reflection on. How does that help build the culture we have at Renaissance?

Math: This week we have learned about factors, the lattice multiplication method, and how to do double digits with the partial product method. Students are doing very well with understanding how to solve these problems.

 HINTS AT HOME: Keep practicing math facts. We will be doing end of the year assessments of multiplication facts in May.
Reading Workshop: This week, we worked on using text examples to support our thinking. We used the reading strategy of visualizing (that students feel comfortable with), and I pushed them to identify what part of the text helped them create a picture in their head and how did it help deepen their understanding of the text.

 HINTS AT HOME:When students share their thoughts about a text, ask "What makes you say that? Point to which part of the text supports your thinking."

Spelling: Spelling will come home in Thursday folders. Please remind students to study these patterns and do spelling homework due next Wednesday. Click Here for our Spelling List!

April 27: Life is Art, for adults at the Grange
May 5: OLE Work Day
May 9: 3rd Grade Portfolio Presentations
May 15-17: Book Fair- Buy one, get one FREE!
May 21st-25th: Spring Climbing
May 28th: Memorial Day; No School
May 31st: Last Day of School

No comments:

Post a Comment