Announcements
Take Home Folders: There are lots of great items in take home folders including student work, family math letter, and a reading book. Also, please note:
1. Permission slip for our Crew Hike on Thursday, March 9th. Please sign and return by next Friday, Feb. 3rd.
2. QR Code and log-in instructions for Clever to access i-Ready lessons (both Reading and Math). This is totally optional but if your child would like to do some lessons or you are looking for a valuable & fun learning option for screen time, you have access to this at home.
*Please return reading books and permission slips with the Take Home Folders on Monday.
(repeated from last week)
Valentine's Day Card Exchange: Valentine's Day is less than a month away! At REMS, we do not celebrate with food or gifts, and everyone in our Crew will pass out valentines to everyone. They can be homemade or store-bought, and a list of first names can be found HERE. We cannot have students pass out candy or food. My suggestion is to begin having your child write out 2-3 names each day, rather than a large chunk right before. Your child should also bring a box to school on that day, approximately shoebox size with access to drop in valentines, and his or her name clearly displayed. What a great, authentic opportunity for writing and practicing handwriting! This is another experience that brings our crew close together. Please let me know if you have other questions!
*Please make a Valentine Card for your child's 4th grade buddy.
*Please note: do not send extra gifts, treats, or candies for buddies. There have been a lot of hurt feelings in the past from some buddies giving gifts and other not getting any- so we strongly ask that only cards are exchanged.
Cereal Box Donation: Ms. Sami's 4th grade crew is doing a cereal box challenge (here is a video from last year). They are asking for every family in the school to send in one full cereal box by February 15th. You are welcome to send these in any time on/before Wednesday. The goal is to beat last year's record of 245 cereal boxes! After the challenge, the cereal boxes will be donated to a local food bank.
Winter Hike - We will be going on a winter hike on Thursday, March 9th. I will send home Permission slips next week. We will need parent chaperones; please respond to this email if you are interested. So far, only 2 people has volunteered.
REMS Auction, Save the Date!
When - Saturday, March 4th at Cielo
Theme - 1920's, Speakeasy - Dressing up is fun and we hope you do! But if that's just not you, that's ok too!
Where - Cielo At Castle Pines
Time 6 - 10 pm
Step back into the Roaring 20s to an exclusive speakeasy for our Renaissance Community! We'll have hors d'oeuvres & signature drinks to enjoy while you bid on awesome items and experiences in the Silent & Live Auctions including Teacher Time, Crew Art, exclusive Travel Packages, theme baskets & more!
Enjoy this adults-only event to visit with other Renaissance parents and our teachers and staff. Childcare will be available, provided by RSS! Whether you're looking to cut a rug on the dance floor, take pictures at the photo booth, or take home one of our prize packages, there's something for everyone while we support our school!
Early Bird Tickets On Sale Now! Now through February 10th, individual tickets are $65 and couples tickets are just $85! For families and businesses that wish to sponsor our event, each level of sponsorship also includes event tickets for you and all your friends!
School Newsletter: Check out all the updates and announcements in this week's school newsletter. School Newsletter Link.Thanks for staying updated!
Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities:
-Teacher Helper Volunteers (at home projects- Thursday; in-classroom helper Friday morning; and iPad helper Friday afternoon)
Calendar
Friday 2/3: Community Reading 8:30-9am
Tues 2/14: Valentine's Card Exchange
Fri 2/17: No School; Teacher Professional Development
Mon 2/20: No School; Presidents' Day
Crew Highlights
Learning Update:
In writing, we have been working on personal narratives. We created a "Many Moments" planning page so that we could make a list people and places that we want to write about. Then students made small sketches next to each, so that they could remember the specific time, memory, or moment that they wanted to write about. It was especially powerful for our crew to rehearse (practice saying) their words with a partner before getting started.
*In Take Home Folders, students selected one piece of writing to share with you at home. Please ask "What do you want me to notice? What are you most proud of? What is something new that you tried? If you had more time, what would you add or change?"
In reading, we are wrapping up our unit on Technology at Home and School. We have read nonfiction, how-to, and fiction mentor texts with this unit. It has been heavy in its emphasis of summarizing and synthesizing. Here is how I define these:
*Summary- one or two sentences that tells what the story is about in your own words
*Synthesize- come what is happening in the story with what you know to understand more deeply
*Retell- retell all the parts of the text using as many words from the text as possible
*Pick one of these reading strategies to practice together after reading a book during your nightly reading.
In Phonics, we finished with Uu and moved on to Rr, as our focus letter. We have been doing more work with word families -at and -un, where students sorted words such as fat, sun, mat, run, fun, and bat. No new sight words were added this week.
*Please continue to review: play, with, has, he, she, big, and, & you.
In math, we finished Lesson 13 titled See Position and Shape. This focused on positional words such as next to, beside, in front on, behind, above, and below. Students have familiarity with these, but they require extra listening and paying attention to follow the directions of what is being asked. We did a variety of activities and honed listening skills to deepen knowledge and application of position words.
*Model using and asking your child to use position words in everyday language at home to add more specificity to language.
*Continue making connections to solid shapes at home. I notice that students are still a little tongue-tied with using the words cylindar, sphere, cone, and cube, as well as identify examples of them in the real world.
In Expedition, we had such a fun week! Our first simple machine to study was the inclined plane. I posed a challenge, and the crew had to think of how to solve it. The answer was moving a heavy box from the floor to my table with an inclined plane.
Students got to do some exploratory learning by making their own inclined planes using a variety of materials.
Then we watched a video that introduced the learning that a ramp is an inclined plane and the slope can be steep/gentle. Students were then challenged to build a 3 part inclined plane that had a down, up, and then down part- all of which a ball could be rolled down. Again- more fantastic exploratory learning!
Don't forget this catchy song that been stuck in our heads all week!
It was our last week of bike riding. An extra big thank you to Mr. Doug for making this bike riding unit happen- it is a Renaissance first!
*Check Seesaw for pictures of your child riding on Wednesday.
The ABCs of Crew has officially made it's debut by Ms. Erin in the library. We have our own copy for our classroom, and then a second copy will live in the library where it will be available for checkout. How exciting for our crew to see their words and illustrations published in a book!
Below is the information to order your own copy through Shutterfly. It is not a school fundraiser nor does it benefit the school; it is truly just an opportunity for you to buy your own copy- so no pressure from me! :)
Soft Cover book.
With 4th grade buddies, we played "Roll to 100." Partners took turns rolling the dice and marking off the chart. Kindies would practice reading the number. This was great practice for number recognition of higher numbers.
In Crew Skills, Ms. Monica shared the Pixar video of Piper to remind our crew of how we can all "persevere like Piper!"
*Ask your child what he/she wants to persevere on this next week.
Hooray for parachute day in music!
For more pictures of bike riding, expedition, community reading, music, and our week, please check out the following picture link.
This was our first full week back since Winter Break, and it is incredible to see all the learning and growth that our crew is making. Celebrating our kindie learners!
Warmly, Ms. Lauren
