The Weekly Newsletter
Community Changes
Now that we have completed the first nine weeks of school, we have decided to make a small change in how often we interact with students. About halfway through the first nine weeks, we felt that we were not seeing students enough, so we added the mandatory Tuesday meeting. After further discussion we have decided to make all of the open meetings mandatory. We will be giving lessons during that time and the schedule will remain the same, with the exception of when we have other things scheduled such as MAP testing, conferences, etc. Therefore, this week we will have mandatory open meetings on Thursday and Friday due to MAP testing for first and second year students which is discussed below. Below is a reminder of the meeting schedule:
8:45-9:05 First Year Students
9:05-9:25 Second Year students
9:25-9:45 Third Year Students
Writing Assignments
There will be no writing assigned this Wednesday. Please take this week to finish up any of your past due assignments for informative/explanatory writing. Next week we begin opinion writing!
MAP Testing
1st and 2nd year students will begin taking MAP reading and math assessments from home on Monday and Tuesday, unless your child is participating in the hybrid school option. Students who are attending school in person are testing at school. In order to ensure that you and your child are ready, please read the following information and links below to ensure that you have a successful testing experience. Please see the schedule below. **No journal writing on Monday and Tuesday for students who are taking MAP assessments!
**Use this link to test your child’s device to see if it is compatible with the test**
https://teach.mapnwea.org/impl/maptraining/DeviceReadiness/story_html5.html
**Use this link to practice the MAP test and learn about the tools**
https://studentresources.nwea.org/app/gradetwoplus/gradeTwoPlus.html
On the day your student tests, have them log into itsLearning and log into the Morning Meeting Zoom.
Next, they will click on MAP Test in the black toolbar at the top of itsLearning.
We will supply the Session Name and Session login via the chat in the Zoom meeting. We ask that you write it down in case you need it again during the test session.
During testing you child will need to have their camera on, but they will remain muted, unless we ask them to mute. If they have any issues with the test, such as the wheel is turning, or if they need to use the restroom, etc. they will need to raise their hand and we will ask them to unmute so that we can assist them.
Please have an adult with the student or nearby, during the test session in case of tech issues.
Opinion Writing Pre-Assessment-3rd Year Students
3rd year students will be taking the opinion writing pre-test from home on Wednesday at 10 am on our Morning Meeting Zoom. Families of the students who are testing have received an email with instructions on how to access our Writing Scrimmage Google Classroom. 3rd year students should have paper and a pencil to write a rough draft of their opinion writing piece before typing it up on the document.
Conferences
Can you believe it’s conference time?! We have set aside two days, Monday, October 26 and Wednesday, October 28, to meet with families via the Morning Meeting Zoom. We will be sharing your student’s conference report via Transparent Classroom before the conference and we ask that you review the conference carefully, and come to our meeting with any questions or comments that you may have. Please sign up for a slot via this Signup Genius that we have created. You may enter the Zoom a few minutes early and we will let you in as soon as we can. The Zoom link is in the sign up as well, for your convenience. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4faaaa23a0f58-fall4
Medical Questionnaire
If you have not already done so, please fill out this medical questionnaire so that Nurse Chris can have it on file for your child. It is important that the school has up to date records for each child.
Science Club
A parent has so graciously offered to host an OPTIONAL weekly science club which will be focused on a turtle that has been adopted for our class! The club will meet every Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. via a link posted in the "Announcements" section in The Learning Community course on the itsLearning platform. It's name is Ruck and here is some information about it!
The club was so much fun last week and the children seemed to love it! We have a virtual field trip in the works, so keep an eye out for that information!
About Ruck
Species: Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii)
Age: Juvenile
Sex: Unknown
Arrival: May 27, 2020
Weight: 2.05 kg / 4.52 lbs
Found: Cumberland Island, GA
Rescued by: Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Why Ruck is here: Ruck arrived to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center after being attacked by a predator. The predator took a large chunk out of Ruck's neck; we estimated that about 30% of the neck was missing upon arrival. Ruck had lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion. A healthier patient was used as Ruck's donor. Ruck still has a long way to go before recovering, but we are hopeful he/she will be released back to the wild someday.
Book Character Pumpkin Patch
Book It!
Dates to Remember
10/19/2020-----MAP Testing (1st and 2nd Year Students)
10/20/2020----- MAP Testing (1st and 2nd Year Students)
10/21/2020----Opinion Writing Pre-Assessment (3rd Year Students)
10/22/2020------Fall Festival Parade 5-6:30pm
11/11/2020-------Veteran's Day (No School!)
11/23-11/27-----Thanksgiving Break
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