Tuesday, March 31, 2009

weekly update

By popular vote, the children did not want to wear our usual white shirts for the field trip tomorrow to the Houston Arboretum. Instead, they voted to wear red! Thanks to Renea and Anne for volunteering the use of their rolling coolers.

Be sure to check backpacks for Tuesday folders. Not much in there...I was swamped with Science Fair (our class AND Maggie), testing and getting report card grades turned in! FYI...report cards go home tomorrow.

You will also see that the Stanford scores have arrived. I thought they were pretty good but they are down from last year. All schools in all subjects in all grade levels went down...something about the norms. A letter was supposed to go out, but didn't. You can direct your questions to the office. :-)

I put a 100's chart in the red folders for help with homework. They can be a very useful tool...we use them all the time!

I administered the "high frequency word" test Monday. It is part of our promotion standards and children must pass to go on to 2nd grade. I don't tell parents this in the beginning of the year (because it would freak them out!) but I don't teach the sight words. This concept is introduced in kindergarten and I feel a better way to learn them in 1st grade is within our day integrated in all subject areas. One year I taught summer school to a bunch of kids that didn't know their sight words. I drilled them every day until they knew them perfectly. I found out the hard way...they knew them by sight on flashcards but not within text in a book! :-(

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