Reading Counts Reward System

After a fabulous visit from our own famous football player dad, Mr. Johnson, our kids are even MORE excited about reading than ever before! Mr. Johnson challenged them to reading 1,000 points on Reading Counts before the end of the school year. We’ve already read over 850 points combined as a class since August, so reading 1,000 more points by May should be as easy as pie!  If the kids reach this goal, Mr. Johnson will provide a pizza and pop party for the class!

 

However, we don’t have to wait until May to be rewarded for our reading! There are chances along the way to earn prizes, too: for every 10 points each third grader in our class earns on Reading Counts books from this point forward, he or she will get to choose a Mr. Sketch scented marker, thanks to the Johnson family! These markers are a necessity in our classroom, and "rock our world" in stations! How long will it take your child to collect the whole set?!

 Reading Counts quiz books can be checked out in our school’s media center. We also have a daily literacy station called “Books in Hands-Reading Counts” that allows each student 12-15 minutes per day to just read books at his or her Lexile level, and then take quizzes over these books at the computer station or at various times throughout the week! ***All Reading Counts quizzes can ONLY be taken at school on our server. The reading of the books, however, as long as your child has checked the books out of the media center, can be read at home, too.

**If you’d like to donate a package of Mr. Sketch markers for our reward system, I will not turn your donation away! J

Please see the attached letter for more information regarding Reading Counts points.

Lindsey Hill

Skating Permission

Skating permission slips are due by the end of next week. Please be sure to sign the permission slips and return as soon as possible. We have had some very generous donations, so if the funding is an issue, please just send a permission slip with your child, and we’ll take care of the rest! **I attached a permission slip to today's email update should you need a new copy.

Riley Spirit Week-February 19-22

Riley Hospital for Children Fundraiser

Please help us raise money for Riley Hospital.  One example of a child that Riley has helped is Faith. Faith is a 5 year old girl who has brain cancer.  Faith loves to play Barbie’s with her big sister Savanna who is a fifth grader at Reagan!  By donating money to Riley Hospital you are helping children like Faith!

We will have the following activities to help raise money.  If you want to donate a $1.00 for each dress up day that would be great, however if you can’t donate a dollar that is okay too!  ALL students can participate in the dress up days! Class that raises the most money for the week will get extra gym time with Mr. Trimmel!

February 19- Wear your favorite team clothing

Students will be able to pay $.50 to shoot a 3 point shot (closer for younger students).  If they make the shot they will get a prize.

February 20- Wear Red for Riley

Class that wears the most red wins extra recess!

February 21- Brownsburg Bulldog Day wear your favorite B-Burg Gear!

February 22- Hat Day!

We are "falling in love" with simple machines!  The kids have been studying the 6 simple machines during science for the last week, and we are continuing our study even further this week.

 

***Using this knowledge, each child will construct a Valentine Trap using at least 3 simple machines. The traps are an AT HOME project, and should NOT cost any (or minimal) money, depending on the design you and your child come up with. The projects are due on or before Wednesday, February 13.

 

***Please see the document attached to my email message today for further instructions. (The following pictures are an example of a finished Valentine Trap from a previous year-please use it as inspiration, but do not allow your child to make an exact replica of the project provided as an example!)

 

Parents Invited to PE

Jump Rope for Heart

 ***We will be making adjustments (see below) to our assignment notebooks at the end of the day today. The 2 hour delay and a little confusion with handouts, we bumped a few things forward. Thanks for your flexibility!

Basal Story this week—Read the story Thursday night and story quiz on Friday-I always allow the kids to use their books, however, so a good read through together or aloud is perfect practice.

Math—Friday is still our Unit 7 assessment. The Home Link that was supposed to come home last night will come home tonight. A Unit 7 study guide will also come home on Thursday to study/review, but we will be working with it today in class.

Reading Logs—still due on Friday-ALL students must read for 2 hours or 120 minutes from last Friday to this Friday. ALL reading logs MUST be signed by an adult once the reading is complete.

Please, please be patient with me regarding communication via email or phone and updating grades this week. I have a list already graded, and your child’s work will be coming home, but updating the gradebook is going to take me an extra day: we welcomed TWO new students to our class this week, so we’ve been really busy getting them up to speed with our crew!

 Thanks

FAQs as of 1/16/13

1.   IREAD and ISTEP-How can I help my child study for these tests coming in March and April? We will be sending home several different packets of activities/questions to prepare each third grader for the IREAD and ISTEP assessments. Those packets will come home mid-February. They will NOT be optional, so we’ll probably scale down the reading log minutes for those weeks ONLY. More information to come on that next month. J

 

2.   Reading Log: Can my child read his story from the reader and count it toward his 20 minutes each night? YES!!!! If you want to read the story to your child (as I often do with my own 2^nd grader, go for it! You’re modeling what a fluent reader sounds like, and your child will probably gain MORE from listening and discussing with you than doing so alone.

 

3.   Math: We will be finishing up Unit 7 and will be testing over the unit next Friday. Study guides and review sessions will come next week. PRACTICE THOSE FACTS (multiplication) at home each night to help ACE this unit’s test!

Grades Updated

Report cards are available on your Power School account! Please take a moment to log in and print your child’s current Quarter 2 report card.

 

Additionally, please be patient with me on the updating of the grade book with Quarter 3 grades. I already have a few items to insert, but I’m waiting on a few other things before I can update.

 

***I WILL PROMISE TO UPDATE THE GRADEBOOK EACH TUESDAY by 5:00 PM. I might possibly update it more frequently, but this is the expectation J. Thanks!

Math Effort Clip Up

I've offered your child a chance to "clip up" on our Being Presidential behavior chart one time each morning just for working on math-related skills at home. Possible ideas:

• Acuity at Home
• EDM Math games online
• Fearsome Fifteen facts
• Computation-Adding and subtracting three digit numbers with regrouping and borrowing
• Examples    469 + 478=          OR      671-348=

Your child's math efforts MUST include a brief note from you in his/her assignment notebook, on the previous night's homework, or a piece of note paper. Thanks!

Fearsome Fifteen Math Fact Practice

There are over 100 basic facts kids are expected to know before they leave third grade! We think that's way too many when we can make things much simpler . . . We are so excited to now by studying just the "Fearsome Fifteen" multiplication facts! Your child can "clip up" on our classroom management chart each day just for giving a solid effort to studying these facts! The effort must be accompanied with a note signed by parents/guardians, however. Signing the assignment notebook or jotting down a quick note is fine with me!

3x 4 = 12
3 x 6 = 18
3 x 7 = 21
3 x 8 = 24
3 x 9 = 27

4 x 6 = 24
4 x 7 = 28
4 x 8 = 32
4 x 9 = 36

6 x 7 = 42
6 x 8 = 48
6 x 9 = 54

7 x 8 = 56
7 x 9 = 63

8 x 9 = 72

Reading Log Clarification

I hope the new reading log is going well! The kids have been buzzing about it at school, and very excited to get to choose how they read each night/week! ***Just to clarify, the reading for the log folder is to be done before or after school hours. The kids were hoping they could log their Reading Counts quiz books that we provide time to read in class, but that is not the case. They will log the titles for taking quizzes, but it CANNOT count toward their “reading time”-the reading logged in the folder is in addition to what we already do in the classroom.

Yearbooks

If you’re planning to order a yearbook for your child this school year, the order forms went home before the holiday break. If you need an additional order form, please let me know.

 

This Week's Homework & Reading Counts Quiz Info

This week's homework: (I will not post this each week, but until we all get used to the new expectations, I will do so . . .)

• Tuesday night:
• Read for at least 20 minutes and add to reading log folder
• Math Home Link 6.5
• Wednesday night:
• Read for at least 20 minutes and add to reading log folder
• Read this week's story (can be used for the 20 minutes of reading)
• Math Home Link 6.10
• Thursday night:
• Read for at least 20 minutes and add to reading log folder
• Prepare summaries and reading log information to turn folder into Mrs. Hill each Friday
• Unit 6 study guide for math (complete what we do not finish in class)

***I am only requiring 60 mintues of reading logged this week in the new reading log folder.
***Please remember the variety of ways your child can READ at home. Please see the YELLOW family letter in your child's reading log folder or binder.


Reading Counts quizzes
Each student now has at least TWO (2) Reading Counts quizzes due by the end of each month. Even though we only have three weeks in January, I am still requiring the same number of completed quizzes due by this month's end.

***Please remember that the quizzes can only be taken online at school since the program is only offered on our network.

 ***We spend at least 15 minutes each day in a "Books in Hands" literacy small group, specifically reading books from our school library. Each of the books has been selected to reach a variety of reading levels, and each book has a Reading Counts quiz available at the computer station each day!

Weeky Reading Practice (Homework)

Weekly Reading Practice

 

“Books in Hands” is the foundation for our daily literacy stations. Reading does not stop there, however! Books (or any reading material) in your child’s hands EACH day for just 20 minutes helps to foster a reading habit for a lifetime! A fluent reader will surface through focused reading practice when reading time is provided at HOME, too, in three different ways:

 

TO:             Read TO your child.

WITH:       Read WITH your child.

BY:              Read BY himself/herself

 

Your child’s weekly reading homework will challenge him/her to focus on reading (in many different ways with a variety of materials) for two hours or more each week. Please guide your child to use the pages inside his/her reading log folder to help organize weekly reading and his/her Reading Counts quiz titles and scores.

 

Ideas for building fluent readers:

·       Listen to your child read aloud to you

·       Read aloud to your child

·       Take turns reading together

·       Provide digital books for listening to fluent readers read

·       Provide a variety of reading materials: magazines, newspapers, online news websites for kids (see our class blog for links)

·       Use Acuity at Home interactive lessons

·       Use RAZ Kids online leveled readers and quizzes