March is Here!

    Well, I hope that the crazy weather we saw last week counts as March coming in like a lion.  I am ready for it to go out like a lamb.  Last week we saw some great progress on our Revolutionary War Play,  The official date of our play is going to be Thursday, April 3rd and our evening performance will be a 6:30.  This counts for their music grade as well as we are tying it all together.  (Our team did not do a Christmas program so we worked with Mrs. Briles to tie both the play and a music program in together.  We will have a dress rehearsal during the day for the other Riverside Students as well.
    Another important date is our night at the Silver Hawks for those students who participated in that reading program.  Our date is May 10th and the game starts at 7:05.  Students who participated will receive a slip with a phone number to call to reserve tickets to the game.  The student ticket is free and other family members can purchase tickets at this time as well.  This is only for the date of May 10th.  Transportation to the game is not provided.  We would love to see lots of families up at the game.  It is always fun to see our students outside of the school setting.
     We will be taking the first part of the ISTEP test starting on Monday.  We will be testing on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of this week.  We will be testing each morning until about 10:00 am.  Please make sure your student is here at school and on time so that they can test in their classroom setting.
     On Wednesday, we will be having Junior Achievement for the Day!  (This day was scheduled way before we missed 10 days of school this winter !) This is a new program and we are very excited to be having community partners come in and help us with this day.  Students will be going through the Junior Achievement program for their grade level throughout that morning.  Each classroom has two community members who have been trained and will be leading these hands-on activities. 
     Achieve 3000 and Riverside READS is still going strong!  Please encourage your students to be working on these weekly.
    We here at Riverside work hard and we also like to have some fun.  Last Thursday we had an ISTEP pep rally and we had a visit from Captain ISTEP and his side kick Test Buster!  It was a lot of fun!  On Friday, we had a Relay For Life kick off!  The sixth grade is doing this project for the rest of the school year.  They have invited the fifth grade to join in on some of the activities they are planning.  Former PHS student and cancer survivor Eric Day spoke to the students as well as the Marshall County Relay for Life director.  After that we had a cutest couple contest with some teacher pairs.  This was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed it.  This week students will be able to vote for the "cutest" couple with their change in jars outside of the office.  All money collected will go toward the schools donation to Relay for Life.
     Have a great week!

Here are some photos from this fun week!  

Last Week of February

    Well, we made it through February!  It has been a crazy month but we think Spring is just around the corner.  We have been working hard on our latest projects.  This week each group did a run through in front of the team and we discussed how we can make each better and what props or scenery is needed.  We were so impressed with what the students have so far.  We cannot wait for you to all come and see what these students have created themselves.  We are looking at the first Thursday after Spring Break as our performance date.  We are just waiting on approval for this date.  As soon as we know for sure we will let you know.  

     We are getting geared up for the first round of ISTEP which will begin on Monday, March 10th.  This is the applied skills part and the students will be answering questions in Language Arts and Social Studies online but they will have to type their answers.  This part is not multiple choice.  We have been practicing this with them all year and we hope that they all do their very best on this part of the test.  The math portion in on paper and they are to show their work and explain their thinking.  This is also something we have been working on and we hope that they are ready to show the people grading their tests that they are ready and know what they need to do.  Please help us by making sure your child has a good night sleep and has a good breakfast before the testing days.  

     We are working on volume and surface area in math and science.  In humanities we have been reading a book "Daughters of Liberty" and working on verb tenses.  We also are three weeks away from the end of this grading period and students need to make sure they are working on their Riverside Reads.  

     Have a great week! 

 Discussing Symmetry

 Finding Volume

Crazy Week!

     Well, that was a crazy week of weather...snow, rain, fog, flood, ice and what else!  We are grateful that we only missed one day of school.  We are all feeling like the kids are out of sink with all of the days missed and the delays.  We have been talking to them about good choices and getting back in to a good routine.  This winter has been hard on all of us we know!  Please remind your children to not forget that they have quite a bit of school left and we have to get our things done! 
     A highlight of this week was our trip over to PHS on a sunny, nice day last week!  It was a great time and the PHS students worked with our groups and they all enjoyed themselves.  The students really did a nice job listening to Ms. Faulstich and were all very attentive.  This was a great partnership and we are hoping they can come to Riverside next week to help us some more.  The students scripts are coming along nicely and we are excited about the results. 
     This week we continued to work on sinking and floating in science.  We worked on perimeter and area in math as well.  We also continued our work with writing and American Revolution in humanities.  It was a busy week!  Please help students remember to be working on their Riverside Reads, reading calendars and their weekly Achieve 3000.
     Have a great week!

Science class

 Photos of our trip to PHS

Positive Thinking Did it!!!

     Well, it took us six weeks but we finally completed an entire week of school with no delays or cancellations!  I know it was a little bit of a shock to the kids (and our) systems to go every day on time!  (I think the positive Blog title last week helped!)  We are so glad that we made it and we were really able to see how our new schedule is working and we think that this was a good change!  We are all working hard on our current project and we are working hard getting ready to take the ISTEP.  We have moved back the start of our test to Monday, March 10th with a practice test on Friday, March 7th.  We will be testing on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday March 10-13.  On Wednesday of that week we are having Junior Achievement for the day.  This was something that Riverside has been working on for months. It will be a nice break during this first round of testing. 
     It looks like, pending school board approval, that we will be making up our days on Good Friday and then tacking on the final three days onto the end of the year.  Considering how much we have missed it does not seem that bad to have three days at the end!  (Positive thinking again!)  We are planning, (weather pending again) to finally walk to PHS on this Wednesday, February 19.  This is rescheduled from February 5th.  We are excited to work with the advanced acting class and see how they can help us on our scenes. We are planning for our Revolutionary play to be after Spring Break.  We will be sending our specific details soon. 
     This week we continued to work with geometry in math class.  In science we continued to work with floating and sinking.  In Humanities, we are working on learning more about important events necessary for our play and we are working very hard on our reading, writing and discussing skills. 
    Remember to encourage your child to complete their weekly Achieve 3000 and their Riverside Reads!  Encouragement from home is always helpful!  Have a great week! 

Isn't it Beautiful Outside?

    Since last week's title to the blog did not help us with our weather, I thought I would be positive about this endless (wonderful) snow.  We are sure hoping that this week we will have school for all five days. 
     We obviously did not get to walk to PHS last week since we were not in school and the weather was unkind.  So, sometime the week of February 17-21 we will be walking over to work with the PHS acting class.  We had a visit from Ms. Faulstitch and a few students last week and it was wonderful.  She held all of our attention and she involved our learners into what she was talking about.  She had volunteers work with her students and it was a lot of fun.  I think it lit the fire under our kids and they are ready to get rolling on this play. 
     We have been working on geometry in math class and will continue through this grading period.  We have also started a new daily math review and those papers you will be seeing in the Monday folder for awhile.  It was requested that we send those home so parents could see what we are working on and if their child is struggling.  If you see that your child's daily math review has some blanks encourage them to work on these problems.  We work on them in class and go over them but not everyone gets them all done and they are encouraged to review them at home.  This is a great way to get everyone ready for ISTEP. 
     It looks like we will be pushing back to start date for ISTEP due to this extreme winter and our days off.  When things are finalized we will let you know those dates for sure.  Students will be taking all of the ISTEP online this year except the Applied Skills math portion (so they can show their work).  Students will be writing online so we have been working with digital journals to keep them typing and practicing. 
     In science we have started a new unit of inquiry called Floating and Sinking.  This is a fun unit and we will be doing these inquiry based activities two days a week for this quarter.  In humanities we continue to work on our knowledge of the American Revolution.  We also continue to work on our reading and writing skills daily. 
     On Friday, February 14th Echo is getting a bit of a face lift.  Here is a link to the information we received on this from New Tech.  Some of this may not apply to you parents but we thought it would be nice to give you a heads up on what is happening. 
     Have a great week and enjoy this beautiful snow! 

A few shots of our American Revolution student lead lessons.

 A visit from PHS students and Mrs. Faulstitch

 Student demonstrating knowledge of geometry terms

Is Winter Over Yet?

     Well, we are wondering if this winter will ever end!  We are ready for a normal schedule and we know the kids are as well!  Last week, at the start of second semester we started a new schedule and we have been able to use it fully for three out of ten days.  For those three days we like what we see.  We have put true Humanities back into the big room and Mr. Hunter and Mr. Premetz are working on language arts and social studies skills together.  They are working on skills that we need for our project and for the ISTEP!  Mrs. VanDerWeele is now in a small room during the first part of the day and two days a week she is working on science standards and the other three days she is doing math intense.  Mrs. Dennie is still working on math topics and Mrs. VanDerWeele is working on extending and reteaching topics.  The students have been wonderful with the change and with all of the delays.  We appreciate their flexibility as we try to find the best fit for our facilitators and learners.
     Students gave mini-presentations last week on their American Revolution topic.  They are definitely getting more comfortable speaking in front of their peers.  We want them to learn that they do not need to read word for word their information from slides.  We have been stressing that their visual aides should just add to their presentation.  The more they practice the better they will get.  We are very happy with how far most have come.  We are excited to see what they come up with for the play that we are all putting together.
    As you know from the permission slip we are planning on walking to PHS on Wednesday to work with the advanced acting class.  This is all weather permitting if it is too bad for us to walk we will reschedule and try to go sometime in the next week.  We will let you know if we have to change the date but no other permission slip will be necessary.  We are excited to pair with PHS for this project. 
     With the start of a new semester a new Riverside Reads needs to be completed.  Please encourage your child to read and complete this requirement.  We will be participating in a few other reading incentive programs.  Here are the links for information on the I Love to Read challenge English and Spanish.  Also, Achieve 3000 is still a weekly requirement of at least 2 articles at 75% or higher.  We appreciate all that you parents do to help our learners with their reading. 
      We are expecting the school board to approve the use on next Friday, February 7th and February 17th as a make up days.  We have been informed that the waiver for the first two days we missed in early January have been approved.  We are waiting on hearing from the state on possibly of moving the ISTEP back due to all of this weather.  We will try and keep you all informed of more make up days when we find out about them.  This has been the craziest winter we can remember. 
     Have a great week and stay warm.  We are hoping for a full week!