Technology Time

During the summer, we have access to desktop computers and iPads just like we do during the school year.  We like to allow the students opportunities to use different applications for learning, especially as a station during small group and one-on-one instruction.  You might want to use these applications at home during the summer before the school year begins.  Enjoy! 

Pattern Shapes
http://www.mathlearningcenter.org/blog/pattern-shapes-app

Thinking Blocks
http://www.thinkingblocks.com/

Kakooma
http://gregtangmath.com/kakooma

Summer reading in full swing!

It is such fun to see our students so excited about the books they are reading!  They are even sneaking their reading on the bus!

Don't forget to fill out the St. Louis County Library Summer Reading registration form so that your child can earn prizes for the minutes they are reading inside and outside of school.  They will be able to choose their books they win at Glenridge from our fantastic librarian, Jude Hagene.  Thank you for all you are doing with your readers at home, too!  Every minute counts! 

Reading with Hercules

 You may have heard about how we recognize the students who are following our "rules for rockin'": do your best and do the right thing even when no one is watching.  Each time an adult wants to recognize a student, they write the student's name on a star.  These stars decorate the walls of the gym where we meet for our assemblies.  For each star earned, students get their name put into a bucket.  During assemblies, we draw two students to choose a book to keep and two students to read with Mrs. Ketzer's baby hedgehog, Hercules.  Reading with Hercules is different for each student.  Sometimes students like to hold him in a pouch; some students are more comfortable sitting next to him.  Either way, it is good for Hercules to meet people and learn about how nice they can be which helps him get over his shyness.  It is fun to see the students react to our little prickly friend.

  

Secrets of Success: Setting Goals

We kicked off our second week with an assembly today focused on the importance of setting goals for ourselves.  Setting a goal gives us a target to work towards and guides our energy on the track we want to follow.  How can we become rockstars unless we make a decision to and set goals?

We got a pep-talk to be awesome from our favorite, Kid President:

Then we made goals for ourselves for the academy.  Some examples shared this morning included: learning all my multiplication facts, reading for one hour a night, and read 30 minutes a day.  We will revisit this goals in our assembly at the end of the week.  Ask your child about their goal today and help them work toward it. 

And, of course, we had to dance:

How long can you stand on one foot?

In today's assembly, we discussed the importance of building stamina.  We began by challenging ourselves to stand on one foot (without hopping or leaning on a friend!) for as long as we could.  After timing one try, we tried again.  Most of us discovered that we were able to hang in longer the second time.  Then we discussed what stamina means: the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort.  Just like we can improve our ability to stand on one foot for a longer duration, we can build our reading and math stamina by practicing and trying harder each time.  This is so important to our success as students! 

To celebrate building our reading stamina, we are facilitating the participation of all of our students in the St. Louis County Public Library Summer Reading program.  Our librarian, Jude Hagene, shared with all of the students during the assembly that this summer the students can earn one point for each minute they read.  As the children accumulate points, they can accumulate prizes.  Mrs. Hagene is going to aid the students in tracking this electronically in the library during our program this summer!  She will also be the person to help each child choose a book from a list of amazing titles once s/he reaches 720 points earned.  Earning points also allows students to be entered in raffles for tickets and coupons for all kinds of places, from sporting events to museums.  You can help by encouraging your children to read at home and helping them track the minutes they read.  Research shows that the best way to increase reading achievement is by reading just-right books.  After visiting the library with their class this week and working with their teachers, our students are on their way!

If you haven't returned the summer reading program registration form to school with your child, no worries.  We are including new forms in this week's newsletter, which will be mailed to your home.  The newsletter will provide you with more specific details about your child's time at Elementary Summer Academy this past week from your child's teachers.   Thank you for a fantastic first week!  

The Three Questions

Today our friends in the English Language class read one of my favorite books with our counselor, Mr. Henderson.  He spent time with the class reading The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth. 

After reading the story, the students made foldables telling three parts of Nikolai's journey.  I was so impressed by their work.  Check it out all the fun below, and if you haven't read The Three Questions, consider checking it out from the library.  It is a beautifully illustrated book with an equally beautiful story about the importance to our connections with one another.

  

Math In Action

With each day that passes, our routines become smoother.  Today I happened across the fourth grade class working on math, specifically multiplication.  Our math instruction is planned to continue the Math In Focus curriculum from the school year, while zooming in on student needs for particular skills and strategies. 

One of the most important ways we can teach math to students is to use the progression of "Concrete, Pictorial, and Abstract" during instruction.  Concrete refers to using hands-on manipulatives to demonstrate strategies.  Pictorial means making a representation on paper of the math in picture form.  When you get to the abstract stage, you are taking the same information from your concrete and pictorial representations and assigning numbers (or, in the case of algebra, letters) in a number sentence to the math.

This is exactly what I saw in action today as fourth graders were working on multiplication.  They used foam chips to make arrays of multiplication sentences, then they drew a picture of their arrays, and then completed the number sentence.

Building Arrays

Here is the chart they made to use as a guide in the classroom.

The fourth graders are also playing math games each day, as are our other grade levels.  Maybe ask your child about the math games s/he is playing in class and try it out at home?  What a fun way to practice our math skills!