Group News
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Curriculum
Night is Wed., Sept. 19. I will be
available in my room. I have a handout
that will explain some of the possible units we’ll cover this year. Feel free to stop by and pick one up. I will post the entire packet here next week.
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Book
Orders are due to me Thursday, September 20, or placed on line by the end of
the day Friday, September 21. I will
send in the order on Saturday. You can
access the online ordering by going to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs.
You will need to register as a parent the first time you order. Our class code is GL7HN.
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The
GATE Program Philosophy and Goals are posted one entry below this one. I have been reviewing the goals with every
class. When we finish an activity I’m
asking them to identify which goal we worked on. Often there are many goals in one lesson. In
addition, I try to address the Common Core Standards, just as the classroom
teachers do in their lessons. I however,
often work a grade level or two above your child’s designated grade. Please keep that in mind when they are
struggling to finish assignments. It’s
ok for them to struggle. Often GATE
students find school easy and get lazy.
They hit my class and wow, it’s hard, and it’s a challenge. That’s ok. I‘d much prefer that you email me
and let me know your child is struggling rather than just helping them get
through the work.
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Please
know that I seem to plan way too much work to finish in one class period. I do this so that if they finish an
assignment I’m ready with the next lesson.
However, sometimes even my plans go awry and we don’t finish everything. We will always follow up the next week to
complete work if I don’t send it home as homework.
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Overall
it was a wonderful week of reunions. It
is so fun to have the same children year after year. Thank you for all the kind emails. I hope you have been able to have a better
conversation with your child about the work they do in the GATE classroom.
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First Grade – Wednesday
Mornings
First graders were introduced to Sybil the Scientist this
week. We used magnifying glasses to look
more closely at Sybil’s outfit. Her lab
coat held many items that are useful to a scientist. We also read another chapter of the Flat
Stanley book in preparation for next week’s activity, making our own Flat
people. I would like everyone to finish
reading the book and maybe read it again.
Your child should have their copy in their binder. Any papers in the front pocket of the binder
can be kept at home. Last, we reviewed
the answers to the school questions. This is a great way to get to know each
other. Any time your child needs to
answer questions, we are looking for complete sentences. This is not just the GATE expectation, but
the first grade expectation.
Second Grade – Tuesday
Mornings
We immersed ourselves in fairy tales this week in second
grade. We took a trip to the Flynn Park
Library and Mrs. Gilchrist told us about fairy tales and how they used to be
stories told within a village or family.
They were the social hour of the time.
Because of this, fairy tales can be found in the NON-Fiction Social
Sciences Section of the library, 398.2 to be exact. We then checked out two different Cinderella
tales. Your child is expected to read
both books this week. We also did two logic puzzles that had a fairy
tales theme. I hope you were able to see
these activities in your child’s binder.
The children also spent some time in class beginning to read their fairy
tales. If you have time, it would be wonderful if you would take your child to
the U City Library to check out other Cinderella stories. I know the librarians love to help our Flynn
Park students.
Third Grade – Tuesday Afternoons
I began our first class by reviewing the GATE Program Goals
with the children. There were many words
that were not familiar to the children.
But that’s ok. I explained them
as simply as possible, but will expand those definitions as we do our
activities in class. We then jumped back
into the PETS Critical Thinking program.
I introduced the Problem Solving Matrix.
Please check your child’s binder and see if they can explain any of it
to you. We’ll be doing a couple more
activities with this tool which will increase their comfort with it as well as the
vocabulary we introduced: criteria, problem, solution, and matrix. We then began our One-Hour Mystery, which of
course took longer than an hour. They
have the beginning of the mystery in their binders and we’ll finish it next
week. Last, I had them all begin reading
a Cam Jansen mystery book. We’ll use
these books to help us identify the parts of a mystery. The Cam Jansen series follow a very predictable
pattern that will assist in our analysis of the genre. Next
week we’ll continue on all three of these activities.
Fourth Grade – Monday
Afternoons
It seems so long ago that I saw these students. We spent the majority of the class working on
a very difficult One-Hour Mystery. I’m
not sure who thought these could actually be done in one hour, but they can’t. Please look over the logic puzzles your children
were solving. They are quite complex for
this age. The best part is your children
love the challenge. They were quite
disappointed when we couldn’t finish the story.
Next week we will finish the rest of the puzzles to find out who stole
the giant cookie. I also briefly
discussed the Alphabet Book research project.
The homework was to think of three topics they would like to write a
book about. The children must have the
card with the three topics and your signature with them on Monday.
Fifth Grade – Wednesday
Afternoons
We were all about the stock market in fifth grade. After a very quick brain stretching with word
plexers we moved on to reviewing the Stock Market Game Rules and the quiz the
children completed for homework. Through
this review we covered most of what they need to know in order to begin
trading. I gave two homework assignments.
One is a simple looking up of stock prices. I demonstrated how to do this and gave them
some websites to use to find the stock. My favorite is finance.yahoo.com. With this site you do not need to know on which
exchange the stock is traded. The second
assignment will also require a bit of research.
We discussed the difference between a brand and a company and how to
find the company via the internet or maybe even a package. The second assignment is one that you can
help with. I told them it was ok to ask
for suggestions and help. I am looking for a variety of products which is why
the crossed out closet and were to write house.
Please let me know if you have any trouble with these assignments.
Websites: www.finance.yahoo.com ; www.nyse.com; www.nasdq.com
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