Sunday, September 28, 2014

Another Busy Week!

     These weeks are sure flying by!  It does not seem possible that we are almost through September!  Students will be making their first presentations to their classmates this next week on what they have found out about the impacts of festivals.  They have been working on this for awhile and we are excited to see what they come up with.  They will then move on to creating an advertisement for the Blueberry Festival and also writing a letter to the Blueberry Board about what they have found out and what their thoughts are on our current festival.  We can't wait to see what their thoughts after their research.
    On Friday, we were visited by more than twenty people from a school corporation in Iowa.  They were here to check out all of our PBL/New Tech schools to see what we are doing and to talk to the students and the facilitators.  Our students were very willing to talk to them when they came into the classrooms.  (This group does not lack on the willingness to talk at anytime!)  The group was very impressed with out students.
     On another positive note, we received a message from one of our speakers from two weeks ago that was very encouraging.  He said that he really appreciated our students, their behavior, their questions and their enthusiasm.  He could not believe that they were only in fifth grade.  We have had our bumps with starting a new school year with a new group but it was so nice to hear that someone outside of the school thinks that these kids are doing good things.  We shared this with the students this past week and we hope it encourages them as much as it does the four facilitators.
      We are working on long division in math and it is so hard to divide if you do not know your math facts.  Students who have not "passed" their facts assessments will be bringing home sets of flash cards.  Please encourage them to practice them as much as possible.  We are hand testing them to see if they truly know them and they are not counting on their fingers quickly.  If we can get them to know their facts automatically it will make math later so much easier.  Thanks for any help you can give.
     The ACT Aspire tests that were supposed to happen last week did not really happen.  We were able to give one of the tests before the suspended testing due to technical issues.  We will do one part this week as a trial of the system and then we will finish it the week after.  The students were very patient with this issue and we do appreciate that.
    Don't forget that students are to be ready each night for 30 mins and recording it on their reading calendars.  Also, Achieve 3000 needs to be completed each week.  Have a great week!

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Another Week in the Books!

   Well, this was a crazy week for sure!  Mrs. Dennie and Mrs. VanDerWeele presented in Indianapolis on Monday at the Indiana Middle Level Association conference about PBL.  They had a great turn out and when they were done they were able to go to some different workshops and learn some new things to bring back to Riverside.  Mrs. Dennie also went to a math conference on Thursday about our new math standards.  There is a lot of new things on the horizon for all of our students!
     The students continued to work on their projects and most are getting to the next step and getting ready to present what they have found out about the impacts of festivals on a community.  We are excited to see what they come up with.  Some of the groups are moving a long faster than others but we are all working on the skill of collaboration and getting along with different people.  This is quite a skill to learn and we work on it daily.
      In math for the next few weeks we are working on multiplication and division of larger numbers.  This is some thing that students were introduced to last year but is a skill they really need to know how to tackle this year.  We will work on this all year!  Students who do not have their facts memorized will be bringing home flash cards to work on those facts that are hard for them.  Please help them with this at home.
      Keep your students reading at home nightly and help them remember to complete their Achieve 3000 each week.  We don't want to send them to Catch up Cafe for not completing this.  After four Catch up Cafe's they get a detention per our school  policy.  We don't want this to happen.
     This week we will be taking the ACT Aspire test on Tuesday-Friday.  This is a test that is replacing the old Acuity Test and will help us prepare our students for the new ISTEP in the Spring.  This is new to all of us so we are not sure what to expect.  Our weekly homework sheet may be different if we run into problems with our time schedule.  Thanks for being flexible.
      Have a great week!







Sunday, September 14, 2014

An Full Week in the Books!

   Well, we made it through a full week of school.  I think it is our second one of the year.  This week was a busy week with three days of speakers for our current project.  The students are getting a lot of great information on how a large event impacts a community.  The speakers have been very complimentary of our students and their questions and the way that they behaved.  It is always nice to hear what people from our community have to say about our students.
     On Monday, we went to the sixth grade PBL team to listen to their presentations and be "Critical  Friends" before their final presentations on Tuesday to parents.  This was a great learning experience for our students.  They were able to see what the sixth graders are doing and get some good ideas along the way.
     On Tuesday, Charlotte Tyree and Ryan Wolfe came in to talk to the students about the Blueberry parking and bathroom/water sales.  They gave a lot of great information.  On Wednesday, Sherry Martin from the Blueberry office and her husband came in to give us information on the festival history and the business end of the festival.  On Thursday, Mr. Jon Pairitz and Mr. Patrick Curran, from the famous Blueberry Doughnuts came in to discuss their operation.  They told about all of the work before and during the festival and how they manage their product.  All of the speakers were well received by our students.  Lots of good information given!  We can't wait to see where the students take what they have learned.
    In science, this past week the students were to go outside and look at the sun and the weather did not cooperate.  Hopefully, this week the sun decides to cooperate!  We tried to look at some of the positions of the sun while simulating it in the classroom!  Indiana weather does not always help us out!
     In math, we continued to work on decimals.  We took a common assessment on Friday and will be moving on to multiplication of whole numbers.  Students who are struggling with their basic facts have been working on those skills in math intense and hopefully at home.
     In humanities, we continue working on writing skills.  Students learned this week about 911 and we hope that they came home and talked about this with you.  The students continue to work each week on Achieve 3000.  This is something that will be continuous all year long.  Any help you can give at home is greatly appreciated.
    Have a great week!






















Sunday, September 7, 2014

A Long, Short Week

   Wow, this was a short week but a busy one!   The kids were in a bit of a Blueberry overload on Tuesday!  They were a little tired and so were we! 
     The students have been working on comparing and contrasting different festivals around the United States.  We worked on questions that we will ask our speakers this week.  Most of the students are working hard and doing a nice job.  We loved seeing those that were done with their part of the task helping their teammates with items they were struggling with.  They are doing a nice job of helping their classmates not doing their work.  We have been stressing to them the difference.  We are excited to see what they all come up with for their final product.
     We have been working on decimals in math class, comparing and rounding them has been our first task.  This week we will work on adding and subtracting them and estimating. Please have your students check their Echo account for math and make sure they are turning in their homework.  There is an Agency grade given for homework and we have had some students not getting this done.  They need to make sure they are doing their best every day with their math.  They will have homework a lot of the time in math.  It will not be a lot but there will be some and it is so important that they work on it.  This week we will be starting a math fact homework log that will be going home with any student who did not get at least a 90% on the fact assessment.  These students are asked to practice their facts in some for on M-Th.  Students who have their facts memorized have an easier time with the higher level math skills.  Any help you can give at home would be appreciated.  
     This week was the first week we are grading Achieve 3000.  Students have to have 2 Achieve Articles done each week with a 75% average.  This is a great program and we have see wonderful growth in the past.  We hope that this year we see the same thing.  We appreciate any encouragement you can give at home. 
     We hope you have had a great weekend and are ready for a full week!  As always, please let us know if there is anything we can do to help! 







Monday, September 1, 2014

Blueberry Week 2014

      This was a short, fast week for students.  The students are definitely excited to be off of school for four days and they were full of energy for the four days here at school.
     We have begun investigating different festivals around the country and are learning about what impacts large events have on communities.  We will be having speakers in to talk to us about our "big event" The Blueberry Festival in the next few weeks.  We hope that the students are able to see the positive and negative impacts that big events have on communities.  This project is one we have done the past few years and it is fun to see how it evolves with the different classes. 
     We had our first common assessment in math and the students did a nice job.  Those not getting an 80% will get remediation and have a re-test next week.  This is the process we will use to make sure they are understanding the math concepts.
    Make sure your student is reading nightly.  We have an expectation of 30 mins per night.  We do not give a lot of homework so this is should not be hard for them to do.  Students have a reading calendar that they are to fill in each month.  This is for a grade each month in Language Arts.  We are working with the students to make sure they understand the Achieve 3000 requirements for each week.  We are all here to help them if they have problems or concerns dealing with this program.  We have see great growth in reading for students who complete the requirements each week. 
   On Thursday afternoon we went outside and watched as Mrs. Hirschy, Mr. Brooke, Mrs. C. Dennie and Mrs. Dove completed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  It was fun and for a great cause!  Mrs. C. Dennie's mother passed away four years ago from ALS and the money that was raised this past week by the staff will go the the ALS Guardian Angel foundation that helped her family when her mother was ill. 
    We hope you have a great Labor Day/Blueberry weekend. 
 
 
    Here are some photos from the past week.