Tiger Squad

Wiggins' Words

Parents,

I love teaching your kids social studies. They are so interested in learning about the past.  Our class discussions are very thoughtful and sometimes provoking as they consider what life was like long ago.  Our first third grade addition to the American Heroes Journal we started last year was Paul Revere.  We read the account of his ride as retold by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his famous poem.  It was inspiring to realize that the poem was written almost 90 years later out of Longfellow's concern that Revolutionary history was already being forgotten.  Your children won't forget!  They thought the story was riveting!  We have now moved to Frederick Douglass, who they noticed, was born the year Paul Revere died. 

There are so many wonderful resources for enhancing these history lessons available on our Activboard.  As you know, we now share one with the other family teachers. Soon we may have our own in our classroom!  I am very excited about the possibility since the more I use it the more daily applications I see possible.  I took a training class this summer and I'm excited to be able to put to use what I learned.

Our reading lessons are focusing on comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary fluency. While reading with your child tonight ask them to demonstrate the cross checking strategy we have been practicing to help with accuracy.  The target for fluency this quarter is 100 words per minute with 95% accuracy.

Summary, connection, opinion.  These are three elements of a response to literature.  Add to those a compelling lead and conclusion and you have a pretty complex piece of writing.  To address the genre we have analyzed lots of responses to literature so the students will recognize a good one and have worked step by step to plan.  The students will draft tomorrow.

We had a fabulous AR party the day before Halloween, thanks to Mrs. Hajra and Mrs. Walton.  Our next party is next Friday, before we leave for Thanksgiving break.  The students need 4 points to attend.  They all took their current reading record home today.

Up until now, our spelling words have  been fairly simple and the students have been able to master them with our classroom activities.  But, the challenge is on.  The words are getting more difficult.  I have sent the words and a game home that you can use to practice. Our test over these words will be next Friday.

Tomorrow we take our division test.  The standard for division is that the students understand the relationship between division and multiplication and between division and subtraction and are able to solve problems using simple division. They have a review page to do in their math book that should have them more than reading for tomorrow's assessment.  Please check over and help them correct anything missed.

Thank you so much for the response to the Thanksgiving food basket.  Thanks also to Mrs. Surasky for organizing that effort.  There are so many things that couldn't happen at school without the wonderful parent support that we have at Tritt. 

I am assuming that everyone has had a chance to digest ITBS scores.  Here is a link that offers some information on interpreting the scores. http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/accountability/testing_info.aspx  Of course, I am available to answer any questions.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We all have so much to be thankfull for.  When I count my blessings, I'll be counting each of your kids twice!

Mrs Wiggins

At Home on the Range

Areas of study:

Math - long division

English - pronouns

Reading - fiction selections.  We will be focusing on various characteristics of great stories.

Social studies - early colonization

Science - simple machines

Spelling - next test is on Friday, November 13.

Writing - non-fiction summaries

A field trip notice will be coming home in your child's folder this Thursday.

Have you had a chance to look at  the various calendar options for next year?  They are available on the Cobb County web site.  Check it out!  Also please read the Tritt Thursday memo regarding collecting items to provide a Thanksgiving dinner for those who need our help. 

Our class won the box top competition for the fourth grade.  Thanks for your help.  The students have earned a special treat to eat at recess.

Benson's Business

Math Facts - Most of the students are making great progress with their math facts. The 1/2 sheet that is coming home today was completed in 3 minutes. 90% of the students finished. If your child still needs extra work I'm posting a link you might want to use to make flashcards for more practice at home.

http://www.aplusmath.com/flashcards/Flashcard_Creator.html

 

If your child has mastered the addition feel free to start subtraction.

Thanks for the help! This will make the regrouping problems much easier.

 

Next week we will begin counting money again and making change from $1.00. Those that master that will move on to making change from $5.00.

Have a great weekend!

Benson's Business

I hope your students came home with lots to tell you last week. They met Tomochichi and James Oglethorpe who were both entertaining and informative. Their exchanges were just as we'd think they would have happened in the early days of Georgia and the students were fascinated. On Friday we had Mad Matter afternoon and the students went to Mrs. Martin's class, Mrs. Gentry's class, and then returned to ours. They completed a 30 min. matter activity in each class and had lots of fun. We were also fortunate to have Mrs. DeMeester (or Mrs. DeMonster as she called herself on Friday) come by and do a fabulous demonstration with dry ice that reviewed the 3 states of matter. Ask your child to explain it.

At the end of the week you will receive a copy of a narrative that your child wrote over the last week and a half.  The scoring rubric is attached with comments to your child describing things done well and one thing to work on for the next piece. Please go over the piece with your child, praise the positives, and review the point of growth. They will also bring home a Monster Playhouse which was scored for complete sentences, capitalization, and punctuation. Our next piece of writing is a response to literature. The students will learn to listen to a book, write their opinions and make connections with the book and support these with details from the story. I think you will notice considerable growth in their writing pieces.

In math everyone is making great progress in 2 digit subtraction. The major hold up is many are still counting on their fingers. In the next few weeks you will hear more about how Tritt is making math computation a school wide focus, but we're going to gear that up immediately. I hope you're using the sheets I sent home earlier to help the students practice their facts. We'll have another time test on Thur. I'll send home another practice sheet tomorrow. Thanks for the help with this.

Kleimon's Commentary

Thank you to everyone for making our "Cider House" such fun!  The students in Room 403 are certainly talented, creative poets!

Reminder:  Anyone interested in volunteering during our Immigration Day, please attend the Parent Volunteer Meeting tomorrow in Ms. Bryer's Room at 2:30.

We've returned to our Social Studies textbook as we continue to learn about our country's history.  Tomorrow, students will begin working on a Reconstruction pamphlet, which will be due next Monday, November 9th.  The next Social Studies quiz (November 11th) will cover Lesson #1, Chapter 8.  In math, we're continuing our focus on division, and this week's math graded assignment will be page 165.  Next week, we'll begin decimal division.  Please remember to work on those basic multiplication and division facts! In Language Arts we're improving our informational reading in guided reading groups. Our first informational writing piece begins this week as each student researches an element from the Periodic Table.

New pictures were posted on Shutterfly.  Enjoy! 

At Home on the Range

Already November??  How could that be possible!!!

Areas of study:

Reading - historical fiction

English - nouns

Math - two digit by two digit multiplication

Social studies - explorers.  There will be a test on Friday.  Study guides will be sent home on Monday.

Science - simple machines

Spelling - next test will be on Thursday

Writing - writing non-fiction summaries

Handwriting is continuous and ongoing.

Important dates:

Tuesday, November 3 - no school.  Teacher in service

Monday, November 9 - informational meeting regarding participating on the Science Olympiad team right after school.  Please send a note if your child is staying for the meeting.

Fifteen points for AR are due by January 5.

 

Wiggins' Words

Parents,

Multiplication facts!  They are the main course of the beginning of second quarter menu!  The Georgia Standard states the students will "know multiplication facts with understanding and fluency to 10x10".  We started our study of facts with the 6's, building on the progress made in second grade.  We will soon begin Rocket Math, which is a method of drill utilizing quick one minute timed tests.  The students take a test at school and take one home to study.  As they master each level the "rocket" to the next. 

In language arts, we are reviewing how to make connections when reading.  These connections help the student better understand the elements of the story.  We will be incorporating these connections into writing literary responses.

Declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory...sound familiar?  These are the four types of sentences we are studying in grammar lessons.  The goal is for students to  recognize them, punctuate them, and most importantly, utilize them effectively in writing.

Our science lab lessons are helping the students investigate the types of soils in Georgia.  They are observing sand, loam, and clay, while recording and interpreting their findings.

The British are coming!  The British are coming!  Or so says Paul Revere.  He will  be the next entry in our American Heroes journal.  We have studied him through books and the Cobb Virtual Library.  Via email I will send you the passwords necessary for this wonderful resource available to you children through the Tritt web site.  We also have some great Active Board resourses for studying Paul.  The students seem to love learning about history.

I am also sending through email a copy of the report card rubric for second quarter.  It has been decided to communicate this information to you in this format rather than attached to idividual assessments.  This way you will be privy to the expectations when going over daily work and homework, as well as at the end of the instructional period.  Neither of the two pieces I am emailing are to be posted here because of security concerns.  They are for Cobb County School District us only.

In TigerSquad the Quad Squad's spent today brainstorming a product they can produce and market in Familiopolis.  This Wednesday, we will have a guest speaker, Mr. Limerick, who will share with the students his experience in developing and moving new products to the market.  On Friday, they will make a prototype and them begin a marketing strategy.

As you know, this Friday is Assistant Principal Hilarie Straka's last day. Since she does not want a party, we’re going to surprise her with something a little different.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30TH:

8:00-9:00 a.m. - Informal Reception in the Media Center for parents to say goodbye

If students or parents would like to make a card for Hilarie, please encourage them to do so. We will need all notes and cards by noon this Thursday.

Thanks for all you do to make Tritt such an exciting place to teach and learn!

Mrs. Wiggins

Kleimon'sCommentary

We have several announcements:

Please join us for poetry and refreshments on Thursday, October 29th, 8:05- 8:45 AM (immediately following announcements) in our "Cider House"!  You won't want to miss this event.

Science Olympiad Informational Meeting:  Miss Wilson's class - November 9 at 2:30.  Students interested in Tritt's Science Olympiad Team should bring a snack, pencil and great attidude.  Sign up sheet is posted in our classroom.

Congrats to Room 403 for winning the Wellness Card contest.  We received a great bean bag game for recess!

Thanks to all the volunteers for making our Civil War Education Day a huge success!

Next week:

Math - ADD will be graded on Wednesday, Oct 28th

  Graded assignment:  page 143 (1 - 33) on Friday, October 30th

Science - New unit begins next week, so be on the look out for the new menu planner

Social Studies - Civil War surrender - Monday, October 26th (who will win????)

From the fifth grade team:

We (the 5th grade team) are in the process of organizing another hands-on, performance based learning day for the students. On November 20th, we are having Immigration Day for all the 5th grade classes. Lady Liberty will be visiting us that morning from 8:15-9:15, and the rest of the day will be spent doing performanced based activities so the students will be able to really understand what the immigrants had to go through when they landed on Ellis Island in the late 1800s. This is the 1st year we are doing this day, so we are asking for help from our wonderful parents. We will be needing artifacts for the day as well as parents dressing up to play the parts of doctors, immigration officials, legal guidance officials, bankers to exchange foreign currency to US currency, etc. If you are interested in volunteering to help out, there will be a parent informational meeting on Wednesday, November 4th from 2:30-3:30pm in Phyllis Bryer's Room (Room 706). We are very excited about incorporating our new Immigration Day into the 5th grade curriculum this year!!! Look forward to seeing whoever can help out at the meeting on November 4th!!! Thanks so much!!

P.S. We will be encouraging the students to dress-up too that day!!! Nothing fancy though!!! :)

 

At Home on the Range

Areas of study:

Math - 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication. 

English - nouns

Reading - We are reading a novel which is historical fiction named Trouble River by Betsy Byars.

Writing - Our class is currently typing writing pieces about our favorite places.   We will begin writing summaries next week.

Spelling - Sort # 8.  Our next test will be on Monday, October 26.

Social studies - The students have a test over their Native American packets on Wednesday.  Then we will begin our Explorers unit which will be lead by our intern, Miss Miller.

Science - simple machines

Health - drug awareness -  Red Ribbon week is October 26-30.

Handwriting - We are currently reviewing the formation of all upper case and lower case letters.

As you can see, we are very busy!!  Familiopolis is going strong too!  (If you don't know what that is, ask you child!)  Auction items are due any time, and warehouse items are due by Wednesday.  Thanks to those of you who have donated stuff.  We are getting a great assortment of goodies to use.

This Wednesday, October 21, is Early Release Day. Dismissal will be at 12:30. It is also picture retake day.  If you did not like your child's pictures from the first take, please return the entire package and his/her picture can be retaken.

Congratulations to Natalie Campbell and Sam Metzinger who are our Student Council representatives.!!

Kleimon's Commentary

Our Civil War Interact is fabulous as we write poems containing similes, metaphors, personification, and other figurative language.  We're planning a celebration to share!  It's 1864 in our classroom, and the South is winning by a small margin. Meanwhile, on Monday, we'll have our Field Dressing Station simulation.  Students may bring props for our afternoon activity - PLEASE DO NOT COME TO SCHOOL DRESSED AS AN INJURED SOLDIER!!! 

Next graded Math assignment is Monday, October 19th, page 121.  Please continue to work on those multiplication facts.  Next week we begin decimal multiplication.

Thanks again for the new books in our classroom library donated by Ben, Joel, Miles, Connor, Jackson, Emily, Aidan and Julianna.

Be sure to read tomorrow's Parent Journal at the conclusion of our Civil War Education Day.

Report cards come home Friday, October 16th.