Pumpkins...and Reading....and V.I.P.s...OH MY!

We had a super fun day today!  

We read the story Pumpkin, Pumpkin.  

We worked on writing the sequence of how a pumpkin grows, 

using the words first, next, then and last.  

Some students were ready to share their stories with the microphone!

We even made super cute pumpkins and hung them in the hallway!

We had our FUN READING FRIDAY!  

Today was....read in the hallway day!

A change of scenery makes reading extra fun!

 

 

     

        

AND we had a V.I.P. today!!!

Jack Dennerline

Jack's favorite video game is Minecraft.  

Jack loves to go to the pool with his family.

He loves popsicles for a snack.

Jack wants to be a TEACHER when he grows up!

(Such a smart boy!)

Have a fabulous weekend!!!!

Fun Reading Fridays!

We work so hard during the week on our reading skills!  

The students spend time each day reading "just right" books while I travel around the room holding individual reading conferences.  

We set goals and I check each student's reading fluency, comprehension and decoding skills.  

But on Fridays......we have FUN READING FRIDAYS!  

On these days, I draw a Popsicle stick out of a basket and it tells us a "fun" way to read!  So far, we have had Bubble Gum Reading, Read With a  Buddy and Read Anywhere You Want in the Room!  Today we drew the READ OUTSIDE stick!  How fun!! 

          

          

           

          

Happy Friday!!!

2 V.I.P.s!!!

I am running behind on our V.I.P. updates!!
Today you get 2 V.I.P.s for the price of 1!!

Amelia Watson

Amelia's favorite food is cheese nachos.
A kitten is her favorite animal.
Amelia loves to play with her Barbies.
Her family loves to go to Korea for vacation.
Amelia loves to read at school.

AND...

Will Foster

Will's favorite food is ice cream.  

Will has a pet Beta fish named Goldie.  

His favorite video games are Minecraft and Roblox.  

At school, Will loves gym and music class.  

Minecraft is also Will's favorite book!

Jacob Selm will be our next V.I.P.!!

Book Clubs!

We are having so much fun with Book Clubs!  We started this week.  

Each day we spend some time in our book club groups reading books that are just right for us!  

This week we also talked about the nouns in our book.  We have learned that a noun can be a person, place or a thing.  We became expert noun detectives in our Book Club groups today!  We also talked quite a bit about the setting of our stories.  The setting can change throughout the story and we noticed that, too!  Here are our book clubs - hard at work!!

Safety Training!!!

This week we had a visit from Officer Shoeff!  

He talked to us about how we can listen and follow directions in order to stay safe at school.  

We reviewed the fire drill, severe weather drill and intruder drill.  He made it fun!! 

Ask your child, "Who is in charge of keeping you safe?"  and see what they say!!!

NWEA Testing

·      Next week, we will begin a new assessment program for each student at Carmel Elementary School.  It is called NWEA.  NWEA stands for Northwest Evaluation Association (www.nwea.org).  These tests will tell us our students strengths and areas needing instruction.  They are given on the computer 3 times per year.  

·        The actual assessments are called MAP (grades 3-5) and MPG (grades K-2)

o   MAP means “Measures of Academic Progress”

o   MAP is 3 tests, approximately 50 minutes each.

§  Reading, math, language usage

o   MPG (MAP for Primary Grades) is 2 tests, anywhere from 25-50 minutes depending on student

§  Reading and math

o   Tests are adaptive, meaning that they are individualized for each student.

o   Tests find instructional level, not mastery.  They will tell us specifically what kids are ready to learn.

This link will take you to a “Parent Toolkit” on the NWEA website.  The toolkit is a PDF file with information and FAQs.  https://www.nwea.org/resources/parent-toolkit/

There is a widget on the parent myCCS page.  It is in the upper left hand corner and provides links to practice tests that parents and kids can take, as well as some games that are focused on using the mouse.