Hey There!
I sure hope your summer is going well! The weather has been pretty good so the kids have been doing a lot of riding, swimming and sadly room cleaning!
The other day, I went shopping for a gazebo/canopy thing. I went into Target, then had an anxiety attack! The summer stuff was almost all gone and in its place were . . .School supplies! Golly! What a horrible thing to do! The kids panicked! “Mom, is it almost time for school?”
Anyway, I decided that I should look for the notebooks I think will help for next year.
Some, well, a few of the students do really well with the organization of the binders. However, there are several of us who end up with a clogged binder, bent or lost papers and a very messy desk. If you know a student tht has a messy desk or unorganized binder I would prefer that that student have a 4 or 5 subject notebook. BUT,
not just and 5 subject notbook. One that is sturdy enough to last for a while.
They are called Mead Advance. The one I bought has a cloth cover just over the spiral metal and has a vinyl cover. The dividers inside are heavyish plastic. I think the 4 subject notebook is about 8 bucks. But it is cheaper than buying 5 smaller quality notebooks and folders.
so Basically the school supply list for my class looks like this.
v1 Pencil box
v1 Scissors. Good ones. probably not a purple pair your child knows why
v3 Sturdy pencil sharpeners. at least 3 they tend to disintegrate from use and abuse.
vMead Advance Notebook label the dividers in the order. Writing, Reading, Math, Social Studies.
v1 regular spiral notebook for Science v1 box of sandwich baggies or one package of Gallon baggies
vTiconderoga pencils. The cheap ones break in the sharpener or do not tend to sharpen well.
optional
Personal dry erase board. like the kind you can get for a locker. about 8 inches by 12. or a dry erase type clipboard. some ofthe kids really like to use the clipboard a lot. So a personal one that double as a dry erase surface would be nice.
For Table Supply Drawers (not for personal use)
1 Box of Kleenex or one package of at least 6 of those little personal packages of kleenex.
Fine point dry erase markers
1 not-too-cheap glue stick
Optional
scotch tape in a plastic dispenser 1 package brass brads
1 cm grid paper black felt tip pens Not sharpes. for art
Regular colormarkers for class supply 1 Not-too-cheap paintbrush
1 crayola water color tray 1 bottle of glue
1 black flair fine point felt tip pen. not sharpie. 1 hole punch
I prefer for organizational reasons, that most of the students do not have binders. They tend to clog up the desks. and are bulky in their backpacks. Each subject time, I ask the kids to get out their Subject notebook. At the end, I ask them to place the papers in their subject folder. “Bring your reading notebook and a pencil to the carpet.” “Okay, place these math papers in your math folders for tomorrow and get your science notebook out.”
Okay, This year coming up we are going to do some fractions catch up. We will be putting decimals and fractions in order, changing decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals. Adding and subtracting and simplifying fractions.
This will be more fun after we really work on our multiplication and division facts. So, hit those math games websites. Build lots of things with wood, cloth or recipes that use fractions. .
We will start with a review of X5 which is X10 and half it. Like 10X8=80 so 5 X 8=40. So work on double and halves.
Science will bring us further into the scientific method, energy transformations, variables and life science. Scienctists record everything in their notebooks so neatness is very important.
Reading, this year we will continue the grat progress from last year. Trying to strtch us into new genres and a lot of reading about our colonies and the Revolutionary War. Some economics like taxes and needs and wants. Of course the school will be assessing fluency about 140 words per minute. I do think that the kind need to understand what they read and have some time to think about what he or she just read. So, do not drill them too hard on fluency. I would rather have them LOVE to read, than just read fast.
I hope to be building 3-D maps and lots of colonial art. as well as more History Pockets
We will do some personal narratives, poetry anthologies, scientific writing and venture just a little into the persuasive writing. Most of the wrting will be blended into the Science and Social Studies part of the day.
SPELLING Please visit some internet spelling game sites or play some word games at home. I have a big vocabulary emphasis coming up. I notice that our kids greatest area of struggle is VOCABULARY AND SPELLING! Their vocabulary will impact their future success unless we focus on improving it. So please help me out by exposing them to and making sure they know wha the words we use mean.
Some words for the rest of the summer, we worked on these before school released for summer, see if they are still remembered
coax lempowerlenableldemonstratel acoax lcoaxl acoax lcoaxl acoax lcoaxl a
and some new words
ascendladvancelclimate lnegotiateladjust ladaptlassistlassemblelinstalllventurelflow
Practice these word patterns and make certain your child knows the meaning
sure lpressurelassurelcultureladventurelmeasurelpleasurelpicture lendurellurelcurelinjurelpurelcurelmaturelsecurelgesturellecturelcapture
I just went to a website to get more . . .you can’t beleive how many words have -ure endings! Wordnavigator.com
Hey! Prizes for kids who know the menaings, and how to spell these. Also for students who have longer lits of words containing ure. Gotta’ know the meanings too!
WASL results will come in Late August or September. This year’s math was a little different. There were more multiple choice. I was a little disappointed in that because students tend to see multiple choice and just ‘pick’ an answer rather than going through the problem solving process we have been working so hard on. Also, our math standards were improved last year, but the kids were tested on the old standards. So, I was trying to both prepare them for 5th grade new standards while meeting the needs of the old standards for the WASL. Normally, I love the WASL. But with a new Superintendent of Public Instruction(Randy Dorn) at the state level and the math standards improvement(not Randy Dorn), I am unsure about the results. Usually, I am confident that more than 85% of my kids passed in math and over 90% in Reading.
For you and your child, celebrate and successes. Use any other results to encourage your child to work for more organization, effort and to take more educational risks! The more we try and fail, the better our chances of success!
If the scores are less than desirable for your child, then there will not be much difference in your life, but a littlwe more paperwork for me. I already have specific educational plans for all the kids, so i would love to talk about them with you if you would like.
I am Really Ready to Go! »« School’s OUT!(side)
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