Friday, April 6th, 2007
Dear Parents,
Now that April is underway, Open House Day is coming up on Wednesday, April 11th, from 1:20-2:00 pm. You will be able to meet with me for the first 10 minutes in the homeroom, followed by a 10 minute meeting with Mrs. Choi, and then 10 minutes to meet with the Writing/Grammar class teacher, which will be either myself or Mrs. Onarecker from class 3-2. A time to ask questions will conclude the session. All teachers look forward to meeting with you.
While the IED Elementary department does not have midterm tests, I will be giving tests designed to summarize what the students have learned thus far. You can expect a progress report coming home soon. I hope your children have been taking home the tests to show what they have been accomplishing. These tests should be kept in their Clear File folder.
In other news, all teachers in our department are attempting to come up with an “IED Code of Conduct” standard to encourage respect, discipline, and social skills for the students. When it is complete, I will send it home in the newsletter.
Our class would also like to thank the PTA for donating the beautiful plants to our classroom, and thank you also to Hannah’s mother and Bryan’s mother for organizing last week’s enjoyable birthday party. Unfortunately, there are no birthdays for the month of April.
As well, if parents would like to consult with Mrs.Choi and I, we both are available from 1:00 to 1:40 pm on Mondays.
Now I will review what we did this week, and what we hope to do next week.
Reading/Comprehension
We read the story “Wilson Sat Alone” this week in the Harcourt reading book. The students should have completed up to page 16 in the workbook.
Oral/Vocabulary
I am trying to make the Weekly Spelling and Daily English as useful and comprehensive as possible. Therefore, I am taking words and phrases from our study material when possible. We are also making a “Word Wall” in our classroom. Every word from our spelling list will go on this wall at the end of the month. This is a good way to keep these words in constant use.
Most of the students are doing very will with the Weekly Spelling and Daily English, but some students, who have not been studying English as long, seem to have problems. If you feel your child would benefit from an easier spelling list and easier English phrases to memorize, please let me know, or have your child ask me for an easier list.
This week’s pop song was “Yesterday Once More” by The Carpenters. It is available for viewing on the website.
I would also like to congratulate Min and Sally for doing a great job in the CCTV Speech Contest. Both students will go on to compete in the next round coming up on April 22nd. Good luck to Min and Sally!
Writing/Grammar
For homework, I would like to have each student rewrite three pages from their journal by the end of next week. I will put a purple star on the pages I think they should rewrite. This is so they can notice the differences in corrected grammar.
Miss Onarecker and I have begun to teach the leveled Writing/Grammar classes, and things are going well. We have now completed Unit 2 in the Megaflash book, and will begin Unit 3 next week. There will be a Unit 2 test on Tuesday.
Science
Today we had our Science Day, and the experiment I chose to do was mixing Mentos Mint Candy with Diet Cola. When these are mixed, a “chemical reaction” occurs as the Mentos are a “catalyst” for the carbon in the cola. If you wish to see this experiment, you can see it on the internet at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM
We also had our first Science test on Thursday. The average score was 61%, and two students, Tom and Jenny, scored 100%. As most students did not do very well, I will make another test next week that will be easier. I designed the test to expose them to typical western-style science test questions, such as “True and False,” “Choose the best answer,” and labeling of a diagram. These kinds of tests require careful reading rather than a lot of writing or memorization, and this is a skill I want to encourage.
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