Viewing: September, 2010
September 30, 2010
Conference Schedule Online
The schedule of parent-teacher conferences is available on our class website. Click on “Parent Resources” (on the left-hand sidebar) to access the schedule. For privacy reasons, I have password-protected the page so people outside our class cannot access the page. I will send home a flier with the password so you can access it. (If you lose the paper, you can always email me for the password.) If you still need to schedule a conference time, please use this schedule to see what time slots are still open.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 29, 2010
Prefix and Suffix Homework (September 29, 2010)
Tonight’s homework is an ONLINE homework assignment. To complete it, visit the website, below:
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/trophies/test_tutor/grade4/skill12/gehrig.html
Complete the questions online. If you have a printer, please print out the final page that shows your score. (It has an animated cartoon of a dog with a wagging tail, and a button labeled “Replay” at the bottom.) Write your name on this print out and bring it in. If you don’t have a printer, get a brief note from “Aunt Petunia” telling me that you’ve completed this assignment.
UPDATE: If you are getting a “missing plug-in” error, you probably need the Adobe Shockwave player, downloadable (for free) here.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 29, 2010
How to Raise Boys Who Read
Parents often ask me how they can motivate their kids to read more. In recent years, this seems to have become a bigger issue for parents of boys than parents of girls. My advice has always been simple – let them read what interests them. If that’s Captain Underpants (<shudder>), so be it. It’s still reading. But there’s more to it than that. This outstanding article was recently published in the Wall Street Journal, and it explains what else might play a role. (Parents, before having your sons peek at this article, beware that it lists lots of other titles or book series that seem to make Captain Underpants look downright classy by comparison. Never have I seen the words “butt” and “fart” used so much in a serious article!) Here’s a sample of the article:
Everyone agrees that if boys don’t read well, it’s because they don’t read enough. But why don’t they read? A considerable number of teachers and librarians believe that boys are simply bored by the “stuffy” literature they encounter in school. According to a revealing Associated Press story in July these experts insist that we must “meet them where they are”—that is, pander to boys’ untutored tastes.
For elementary- and middle-school boys, that means “books that exploit [their] love of bodily functions and gross-out humor.” AP reported that one school librarian treats her pupils to “grossology” parties. “Just get ’em reading,” she counsels cheerily. “Worry about what they’re reading later.”
To read the rest of the article, click here.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 28, 2010
A big piece of Pi
For all you math buffs out there: The impressively long value of Pi just got a bit longer, as specified in this Engadget article:
Yahoo! researcher breaks Pi record in finding the two-quadrillionth digit
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 28, 2010
Meet Mrs. Linkovich
We are very fortunate this year to have a full-time paraprofessional working in our classroom. Mrs. Kelly Linkovich has worked at PGS for many years in both the special education resource room and in classrooms. She has a strong background in working with students in small groups or in individual one-on-one settings. This year, Mrs. Linkovich will likely work with all students at varying points throughout the year, usually in small group situations. Mrs. Linkovich enjoys baking, hiking, and traveling with her husband and two daughters (one of whom went to URI, my alma mater). We’re glad to have Mrs. Linkovich in class!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 20, 2010
Math Family Letters
Missing one of the family letters that go with the Everyday Mathematics units? You can download them directly from the publisher’s website. They give you great information about what skills we are covering in math. Plus, they come with the answer keys to all the Study Links. (I know you all know your math, but I have a feeling that you might want a guide for some of the “funky” math strategies that WE never learned in school, like the good ol’ Lattice Method of Multiplication.
)
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 19, 2010
Meet Mr. Martucci
A letter of introduction from Mr. Martucci, a student teacher working with Mr. Feschler in PE:
September 8, 2010
Dear Parents/Guardians:
Hello! My name is Matt Martucci and I am currently a Student Teacher for your child’s Physical Education class at Pine Grove Elementary School. I am completing my undergraduate coursework at Central Connecticut State University this fall, and will be earning my K-12 teaching certification. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to be learning from and working with Mr. Feshler over the first eight weeks of the school year. He is an excellent role model and cooperating teacher. The Pine Grove faculty and staff have kindly welcomed me as a new member of the school community, and I certainly appreciate their support.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or concerns that you may have at the email address provided at the bottom of this letter. I look forward to having the pleasure of teaching your child, and hope to meet many of you at Open House Night next week. Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
Matt Martucci
Tooch022@sbcglobal.net
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 16, 2010
Reminder: Open House TONIGHT
Open House will be held tonight promptly at 7:40, ending at 8:10 pm. I hope to see you this evening! For directions to our classroom, click the “Read the rest of this story” link, below.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 15, 2010
Off to a great start!
We’re now in the third week of school, and I’m so proud of the great work the kids’ have done since the first day of school!
Our year began with several getting to know you activities including Two Lies and a Truth (on display on the kids’ lockers for open house), a Q&A time, and more. I focus a lot on building a positive classroom community, and I think we’re off to a good start.
One of the most time-consuming parts of the start of a new school year is going over classroom routines. By now, kids are familiar with the arrival and dismissal process, our homework policies, classroom management routines, etc.
Our first truly academic activity of the new school year was the start of our “Summer Item” writing activity. Each student brought in an item that represented a memory from the summer. This gave us the opportunity to discuss the difference between narrative (story) writing and expository (article) writing – the kids were given the choice of styles for their writing. We started by planning out the who, what, when, where, why, and how of each student’s summer experience, and now the students are writing rough drafts of their summer item stories. I’ve conferenced with a little over half the class so far, and I’m hoping to start final drafts within the next week. My one-on-one conferencing with kids has given us a chance to practice independent work habits – something that sounds simple but is often challenging for students.
We started our reading series in the second “week” (all two days of it) and are now finishing our second story. We are working on narrative elements (setting, characters, problem, solution, main events), prefixes and suffixes, and (tomorrow) types of sentences. These are all skills you can review with your child at home during shared reading time, while watching TV, or when at the supermarket. If you need ideas, I’m happy to help!
In math, we are in the middle of our first geometry unit. Kids have learned about lines, line segments, rays, polygons, parallel and perpendicular figures, and more. The kids have worked together for a variety of activities.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s open house, and to a successful school year in general!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 15, 2010
Headlines for Mid-September
Here are some key pieces of information you should know:
- Book orders are due this coming Monday. You can order online, or by sending in a check. To order online, go to the special Scholastic website and enter our class code: GZD87
- Our classroom’s temperature has a tendency to shift to extremes. In the afternoon, it can get a bit chilly, and during the winter, the heat can make the room quite warm. Please plan accordingly and consider sending your child into school with a sweater or indoor jacket that he or she can keep in his or her locker.
- We have our first Spirit day this Friday! Kids are encouraged to wear silly footwear for our Town Meeting at 2:30! Remember, we will have an outdoor recess, so if your son or daughter needs to bring a spare pair of shoes for outside, he or she will have a chance to change.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss