Cara Mentzel

Reminders

• Wednesday, April 6th, Publishing: 1:10 - 2:40
• Monday, April 11th, Math Night:  5:30 - 7:00
• Friday, April 29th, Professional Development:  NO SCHOOL FOR KIDS
  

Homework Help
We will be studying time lines in social studies and in math and then revisiting our number line strategy for computation.  The homework assignment coming home on Friday asks your child to come up with five special events in his life.  Your child will make a time line of his own life and place those five special events on the time line.  Ms. Bazler and I have limited the events to five so that all students feel equally 'special'.  These are due next Thursday, April 7th, so we can make personal time lines the next day in class. 

In Other News
Thanks to Ms. Bazler, our geometry unit went splendidly and your child's assessment will be in this week's Friday Folder.  There were a couple of areas where students would benefit from a little more instruction, so we'll be re-teaching a little bit. Overall, they did terrific.  We'll be moving back into strategies for addition and subtraction with double-digit numbers and having multiple 'number talks' daily.  These 'number talks' allow students to teach other students how they think about a math problem.  The talks are also important for developing oral language skills.

We will begin our study of India next week, but we won't be saying goodbye to China.  We will be comparing and contrasting cultures, communities, and geographical features so that we can delve deeper into both countries.

Students are finishing up their insect research and will be publishing in the afternoon on April 6th.  If you would like to volunteer for publishing, we need the help.  It's quite an undertaking (it involves glue), but highly rewarding. 

Ms. Bazler is more than half-way through the soloing portion of her student teaching. She is doing a beautiful job and the children have learned a ton. But alas, the control freak in me must take hold of the reins again and I will slowly take them back in a couple of weeks.

Finally, I'd like to have another class math night.  The year will be over before we know it and I think we can make even better gains with your support in the homestretch.  I would love the opportunity to teach you how I teach your children math so that you feel better able to support them at home. You will leave the math night with games to play, specific guidelines for helping your child build number sense and computation, and tips for the summer. I'm attaching a sign up for Monday, April 11th. I'd love to have everyone attend, but I know you may have other obligations. My goal is to have five or more attendees.  Your student can attend, but ideally littler ones would stay home. I hope we can make this work and I can share some eye-opening math pedagogy with all of you.

(By the way, there's a problem with the website and I can't switch out the dragonfly picture with a gorgeous photo of  India--bummer!)