Dear Parents,
We completed our third week of school already! Daily and weekly routines are becoming better established, our schedule is running smoothly, and the curricula are well underway.
In math this coming week, we will continue our place value work by looking at expanded form and standard form. We will take some time to review the base 10 math system and the relationships between 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1,000s. Placing numbers (up to a million again) in order from low to high will be introduced next. Students are now very familiar with the Maths Mate and that will begin to come home as homework, but with continued classroom support.
In reading workshop, we will continue working with our reader’s notebooks as a way to ‘think about our reading’ by taking notes as we read, and writing reflections on our reading. As mentioned last week, reflections should emphasize sharing the reader’s or character’s thoughts, instead of just re-telling what is happening in the books we read. Each student has an assigned day each week to complete a letter to us about their thinking with their books. Students should continue to read a book of their choice for a minimum of 20 minutes every night.
For our writing workshop, students are writing every day. Most writing sessions end with a sharing of student’s writing work as students read their work aloud. We have been focusing on being detailed and expressive writers and it really shows in student work. We have written a draft of a small moment, or a seed story in class and are starting to review and strengthen this piece of writing in class. Students will continue to be encouraged to add thoughts, feeling, adjectives, and narration to help ‘show’ rather than just ‘tell’ us their ideas.
Our PYP Inquiry unit, How we organize ourselves, began well last week as we explored how our class is organizing itself and through creating class norms. Our guest speakers from the school community will come and talk to the students about decision making, roles, and organization of groups starting this week.
NWEA MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) is beginning this week for some classes, but grade four will not start until 10, 11, and 12 of September. More information about this assessment will follow next week but know that it is a survey of what students know and are learning, and it is not something to study for. Some research has shown that lowering student anxiety is one of the best preparation method for this tool that is designed to helps teachers guide their instruction.
The Art classroom has a blog too. You can find the link to this blog on my blog on the right side. Here it is if you prefer to gotheir directly.
Best Wishes,
Martin Reinsmoen
Dates and Reminders
• Sept. 2 - E3 Activities Begin
• Sept. 10-12 – Grade 4 MAP testing
• Sept. 13 - No School for Students - PD Day for all teachers.
• Sept. 18 - Early Dismissal at 11:00 for ES students - Ganesh Immersion
General Notes and Information
• Please remember to call the help desk at 022-61313600, or even better to email them (ESHelpdesk@asbindia.org) AND me (reinsmoenm@asbindia.org ) AND the classroom assistant Ms. Anita (BillavaA@asbindia.org), if your child's regular dismissal plan changes.
• Attached is a letter from our PTA Grade Level Parent Representative, please read to find out the great work parents are contributing to the coming school year, and how you can help. Note: the attached instructions’ are not attached but let Ms. Sandell know and she can help you out.• Also attached is our curricular outline for the year. Happy reading!
We completed our third week of school already! Daily and weekly routines are becoming better established, our schedule is running smoothly, and the curricula are well underway.
In math this coming week, we will continue our place value work by looking at expanded form and standard form. We will take some time to review the base 10 math system and the relationships between 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1,000s. Placing numbers (up to a million again) in order from low to high will be introduced next. Students are now very familiar with the Maths Mate and that will begin to come home as homework, but with continued classroom support.
In reading workshop, we will continue working with our reader’s notebooks as a way to ‘think about our reading’ by taking notes as we read, and writing reflections on our reading. As mentioned last week, reflections should emphasize sharing the reader’s or character’s thoughts, instead of just re-telling what is happening in the books we read. Each student has an assigned day each week to complete a letter to us about their thinking with their books. Students should continue to read a book of their choice for a minimum of 20 minutes every night.
For our writing workshop, students are writing every day. Most writing sessions end with a sharing of student’s writing work as students read their work aloud. We have been focusing on being detailed and expressive writers and it really shows in student work. We have written a draft of a small moment, or a seed story in class and are starting to review and strengthen this piece of writing in class. Students will continue to be encouraged to add thoughts, feeling, adjectives, and narration to help ‘show’ rather than just ‘tell’ us their ideas.
Our PYP Inquiry unit, How we organize ourselves, began well last week as we explored how our class is organizing itself and through creating class norms. Our guest speakers from the school community will come and talk to the students about decision making, roles, and organization of groups starting this week.
NWEA MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) is beginning this week for some classes, but grade four will not start until 10, 11, and 12 of September. More information about this assessment will follow next week but know that it is a survey of what students know and are learning, and it is not something to study for. Some research has shown that lowering student anxiety is one of the best preparation method for this tool that is designed to helps teachers guide their instruction.
The Art classroom has a blog too. You can find the link to this blog on my blog on the right side. Here it is if you prefer to gotheir directly.
Best Wishes,
Martin Reinsmoen
Dates and Reminders
• Sept. 2 - E3 Activities Begin
• Sept. 10-12 – Grade 4 MAP testing
• Sept. 13 - No School for Students - PD Day for all teachers.
• Sept. 18 - Early Dismissal at 11:00 for ES students - Ganesh Immersion
General Notes and Information
• Please remember to call the help desk at 022-61313600, or even better to email them (ESHelpdesk@asbindia.org) AND me (reinsmoenm@asbindia.org ) AND the classroom assistant Ms. Anita (BillavaA@asbindia.org), if your child's regular dismissal plan changes.
• Attached is a letter from our PTA Grade Level Parent Representative, please read to find out the great work parents are contributing to the coming school year, and how you can help. Note: the attached instructions’ are not attached but let Ms. Sandell know and she can help you out.• Also attached is our curricular outline for the year. Happy reading!
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