Newsletter Mayberry-McFarland Weekly News

for the week of March 19, 2018

Due Dates / Upcoming Events:

Monday, March 26: weekly reading logs due

Tuesday, March 27: No homelink due

Wednesday, March 28: early release day

Thursday, March 29: No homelink due

Friday, March 30: No SpellingCity this week

Monday, April 2 : weekly logs are due / March Reading Calendars are due

Special Announcements:

MEAs are starting on Monday. Tests are given each morning staring at 9:00 and on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons after lunch. Due to the testing schedule students will not have any math homework or Spelling City assignments this week.

On Friday, March 30th, all GMS 4-5 students will be participating in the Habitat for Humanity walk in the afternoon. Please remind your student to dress for the weather on Friday, including comfortable footwear. The walk is a 1-mile circuit in Cumberland Center.  Additional information is posted in the GMS ⅘ newsletter.

Mrs. Mayberry has submitted a grant proposal for various items to enhance a Maker Space for students in both classrooms. If you would like to read about the grant and possibly donate to the funding please click here.

Academic Updates

Writing Workshop

For the first few days this week, we worked on introduction paragraphs for our literary essays.  First, we focused on writing a lead sentence that makes a connection between the story and real life.  Then, we included a one-sentence summary of the story. For example, “Many of us have felt lonely at one point or another in our lives.  ‘Spaghetti’ is a story about a boy named Gabriel who is lonely and then finds company.” The introduction paragraph must also have the three supporting idea sentences and a meaningful ending sentence.  Our next step will be to write the three supporting idea paragraphs.

    On Friday, we completed a practice MEA Writing & Language test.  The kids recognized some of the skills from our past MUG Shots and IXL-LA work we’ve done this year (phew!).

Reading Workshop

Students practiced working in partnerships this week.  We watched a minute or two of a video showing a productive partnership meeting, and students noted what behaviors the girls displayed to make it work well.  Then, students did a shared reading with a partner. Next, they completed a vocabulary response independently. When they shared with their partners, they emulated the work the girls had done on the video.  Soon, we will combine partnerships into book clubs to include shared and independent reading, independent written responses, and conversations within the clubs.

    We also did a practice MEA Reading test, complete with sample student responses and a rubric that explained the reasons for the scores.

Math

In math this week we started unit 6 in the Everyday Math program. This unit focuses heavily on division of large numbers, number stories and measuring angles. In the first few lessons students were introduced to the partial quotients algorithm for division. Overall they picked up this new skill quickly and I heard comments like, “This is fun!” “Can we do more?” These moments truly make my teacher heart sing with joy!

Theme

This week most students finished their famous scientist project. You can view their projects in the case outside my classroom when you come in for your parent conference over the next few weeks.