Here is a note from our lovely room parents:
Hi everyone, We are your room parents for this year! This year we will have a whole school directory posted on the Parent Educator Resource site, along with classroom specific rosters distributed via e-mail. We are using google forms to create these rosters. This will help us plan field trips & events. Would you please follow the links to help us fill out the directories? Core 2 (Robin) MT Cohort Core 2 (Robin) TF Cohort Let us know if you have any questions or would like to help volunteer! Best, Melanie (Gianna & Abram T/F) Lachmi (Carina T/F) [email protected] Shawn Olson (M/TH) [email protected] Happy First Week of School!
Both Monday and Tuesday were wonderful! We had great days full of getting to know each other, the classroom, and the class routines. I chose to have the days run pretty similar to our usual schedule so that students can get used to what our days here in Core 2 are going to look like. Students shared what they did over summer with their classmates and did a get to know you activity where they learned a little bit about their classmates. We read “Amelia Bedelia’s First Day of School” and talked about making connections with literature. We did a number talk where I put the number 9 on the board, and we thought of as many ways as possible to get to 9 (for ex. 4+5, 20-11, 3x3). During this number talk we started building our ways of being in math; listening and sharing ideas, taking think time, talking through our ideas. We also had some interesting conversations about number lines and skip counting. In the afternoon we started Writer’s Workshop. I used the first day to do a narrative pre assessment where I asked them to write a story that was true, and did not give them any instruction besides that. I will use this as a base line to help me guide our writing lessons, and also to judge what sort of growth is taking place over the narrative writing unit. They will be using specific booklets for Writer’s Workshop (they are 3 pages of paper stapled together with various amounts of space for writing and drawing). If you would like to use the same booklets at home, please just pop in before or after school and I can give them to you J They had their first day of Art, with Mr. Mason (Monday) or Cordula (Tuesday). We practiced Mindfulness and had Open Choice. We also had a few times during the day where we sang “Down by the Bay” a great song for practicing rhyming. On Thursday and Friday I am going to begin doing some reading/ writing assessments in order to get more info about where they are at as readers and writers. We will also begin doing word problems and hopefully (fingers crossed) get logged into ST math. In writing, we are going to start immersing ourselves in both what a narrative is and how to track our progress through the writing process (think, plan, sketch/label, write, revise, edit). I am hoping to use this unit to help kids be able to understand where they are at in the writing process and build in strategies for each step of the writing process. I will be getting you information on our project in the next week or two, and we will have some time to talk about it at PEC 1. A few things… The davincik8.org is a great resource! You can find all sorts of good stuff including an up to date calendar, curriculum info, and the handbook. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, you should! Are you wanting to connect with other families? Be on the lookout for a family directory link in the next week or two! And lastly, thank you so much for all of your generous donations of supplies for our classroom! You guys are awesome! Have a great week getting back into homeschooling, and don’t forget to be kind to yourselves, the first week can be hard. Dear Core 2 Families,
Well, we are almost there…the first day of school! I cannot wait to see all of your kiddos next Monday or Tuesday! I will be giving you a fair amount of info this year through email/ blog, in order to free up our Work Journal Meeting/ PEC time for workshops. Because of this I am going to ask that you read the next few emails from me carefully and reach out with any questions so that I can make sure you have the info you need to feel successful going into this new school year. Important Beginning of the Year Info:
Morning Meeting (9:15-9:30) Reading (9:30-10:30) Body Break (10:30-10:45) Math (10:45-11:35) Lunch (11:35-12:20) Writer’s Workshop* (12:20-1:00) Art/ Project Time (1:00-1:55) Body Break (1:55-2:10) Mindfulness (2:10-2:20) Project Time (2:20-3:00) Clean up/ Closing Meeting (3:00-3:15) *Please note that students will not be switching classes for Writer’s Workshop, they will be staying in our class to have Writer’s Workshop with me.
Thank you for making it through that long list of information! I will be sending out more emails with the Work Journal/ Math Info/ Project Plan and anticipated science and social studies content for the year. Sorry to bombard you, and please reach out with any questions that you have, I know this is a lot to take in via email. This is going to be an awesome year! Robin Hello Lovely Core 2 Families!
I hope this email finds you still deep in the middle of summertime and enjoying the long beautiful days! I had a great summer, full of hanging with family, playing with my puppy Scout, and snorkeling, but I am super happy to be back at DVIA planning and scheming for the new school year! I cannot wait to see all of you in 2 weeks, I miss getting to spend my days with such a great group of students and parents. Here are a few important things to get us started: Core 2 Get Together I wanted to reach out and let you know about a fun Core 2 get together that Patrick and I are planning for next week. We are excited to take some time to have fun together and connect before the start of the school year! Thursday August 11th, 10:30am-12:00pm Wilderness Park (1102 Camino Real, Redondo Beach, CA 90277) We are just going to meet at 10:30am, hang out together, and play in the park. Please feel free to bring snacks or a picnic for your family, and siblings are welcome. Admission is free. We look forward to seeing you! Please let me know if you have any questions. First Day of School Meeting Any families that are new to DVIA, or new to my class (incoming 1st graders), are invited to meet with me after class on the first day of school so that I can go over a few things and answer any questions that you might have. We will meet in my space from 3:20- 4:15. If there are any returning families that feel like you need a Work Journal refresher, or have questions about classroom policies, please feel free to join us but you do not have to. I will be sending a few very important emails over the next few days, please read them carefully! Thanks and please reach out with any questions! Robin Hi Core 2 families,
I cannot believe that we are so close to the end of the year! POLs are just around the corner, and I wanted to let you know the plan and the schedule. Please use this link to sign up for a time slot: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d48a8a729abfe3-spring1 POL plan- Spring 2016 We will be presenting POLs in class between May 23rd and May 27th . Presentations of Learning are a chance for students to reflect on the ways they have grown this school year, and to share their learning with a small audience. I have decided to have you (the parent educators) work on creating half of the POL with your student. I would like for you to begin helping them create their homeschool portion of their POL on May 2nd. You and your students will have two weeks to complete the homeschool portion. I will ask you to have the students bring in their homeschool portion of their POL to class on May 16th and 17th so that we can spend the week practicing. The part of the POL that needs to be completed at home is for each student to share 2 academic areas that they feel they have grown in this year, along with an artifact or visual in each area that they can use to demonstrate this growth. The three buckets to choose from, and examples of artifacts/ visuals that they could present are: Reading: -A book that they would have struggled with at the beginning of the year, but can read and enjoy now - A book that they can use to demonstrate a new skill (reading with expression/ using the table of contents and glossary) -A project that they did that was based on a book -A collage that they made about their favorite character in a book Writing: -A research report -A poem -Blog entry - A journal where they reference an entry from the beginning of the year and a recent entry - Spelling word list Math: -A word problem that they can explain how to solve - A math strategy that they have recently mastered (using friendly tens, number lines, doubling etc.) - A math game that shows off a strategy or skill that they have improved in this year ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Remember that they only need to pick two areas (for example, a student might feel that they have grown in the areas of Math and and writing). Then they figure out what artifacts/ visuals might best demonstrate these two areas (for example, a tricky subtraction word problem that they worked to figure out during homeschooling to demonstrate strength in math, and a list of sight words that they have worked to master in spelling) After they have picked the two areas, and the two artifacts, then you and the student work together to brainstorm what they are going to share with the group. In the past I have had students use script outlines, and then memorize the speech. This year, I would like for students to just speak about the artifacts/ visuals that they bring with them. If your child feels that they would do better with a written script, then please feel free to create one with them, but I think for the most part, trying to remember exactly what they wrote is too difficult and distracting. *** A good alternative is to have the child make index cards with key words/ phrases/ pictures to help them remember what they want to share about each artifact. Areas that they need to cover for each subject: (Please make sure to practice these with your student, they should not show up with just the artifact, but rather an idea of what they will be talking about for each artifact) 1. What the subject is that they feel is a strength/ challenge (for example, reading) 2. A description/ demonstration of the artifact/ visual (for example, a description of the book they brought in, and reading a page or two of the book) 3. How it shows their strength/ challenge (“Two weeks ago I finished this book. It is the 7th book that I have read in this series. I feel that I have grown in my ability to read and visualize the story. It makes the stories so much fun when I can picture all of the action in my head!”) I am looking forward to seeing what you and your child come up with! Please let me know if you have any questions. I am hoping that doing this reflecting and planning with your child is an illuminating experience, and I am happy to support you in any way that I can! POL Timeline: May 2-13 Parents help students prepare two areas of academic growth May 2-13 Robin helps students prepare a Habit of Heart and Mind artifact, and project artifact in class May 16/ 17 Students bring in two artifacts from home and a plan for how they will share each artifact May 16- 20 Students practice whole POL (all 4 areas) in class May 23rd –May 27th Students present POLs Hi Core 2 families,
I wanted to reach out and let you know about our new project. We spent the last week and a half finishing up some loose ends on the transportation project (fyi, all students should have brought home their reflection journal and their transportation report by now) and are beginning the final project of the year! For this last project I wanted to try to do a project that would naturally draw in a lot of math. The students have done so much wonderful work in math this year, and I wanted to see if we could use those skills a bit more in our project based learning. The Shop Project is one where we will be creating and selling products in small groups. Please take a look at the project overview under the "Projects" tab to get a more detailed picture. I am hoping for a ton of math and a ton of collaboration! We also will be covering some basic economic principals and ideas. We already had a very interesting conversation about budgets this morning :) One thing that would really help your student feel successful in this project is to review the basics of both coin and paper money. Make sure that they understand the value for each type of money and how they relate. If you are needing some guidance, please reach out. Thanks! Robin Hello my fellow rockers!
I was so proud and inspired by all of your kiddos at Exhibition! Each and every one of them worked hard to contribute to the creation of the LA Transportation Rock Opera. I loved listening to them over the last few months as they wrote and practiced the lyrics to the songs. It was a learning experience for all of us to figure out how to create a backdrop and props. They worked hard in small groups to write several drafts of the narration, and to figure out what was going to happen on stage during the songs. I love working with your kids, and the creation of this project was especially close to my heart! Thank you for all of your support at home, and your lovely audience presence on Monday and Tuesday- it was truly a blast! We have been working hard during this project to write individual transportation reports. Due to our focus on the performance over the last few weeks, we still have a bit of work to do. We will be working hard over the next few class days to finish them up. We also have been keeping a “Rock Opera Reflection Journal” where each student has a chance to reflect on their experience after important events like, “playing with a drummer for the first time,” and “creating artwork for the backdrop.” Both the report and the reflection journal will be coming home in the week or two after Spring Break. Please make sure to celebrate these accomplishments with kiddos, as they did not get a chance to share them during Exhibition. (I will send out an email the day that I send them home). I will have more information about our next project after Spring Break. I hope that you and your family have a wonderful break! Robin |
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February 2017
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