Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Week 3: August 17, 2015

I will typically send home Newsletters in Monday’s take-home folder. I apologize for the delay this week.

We are off to a great start with academics. Room 19 is full of eager students ready to learn. I appreciate your support in helping your learner get their homework done each night, signing Reading Logs, and assignment notebooks. There will be a change with reading logs starting next week that I will go over at Back to School Night this Thursday. I truly hope each of you can make it. The success of our students is in the collaboration, encouragement and support that we, as parent and teacher, have. It is imperative that your child knows both you and I will hold them accountable to be the best they can be each and every day! Thank you for sending them ready to learn each day and supporting what we do at Crooked Creek.  

This week’s learning:

   Reading: Building Reader’s
      We will continue to explore who we are as readers and build reading stamina. We have started Frindle as a class novel and are working through a Novel Assignment Packet together. We will do this again next month with a new novel, then students will be responsible for completing a Novel Assignment Packet each month on his/her own. While we are reading Frindle this month, students should still be reading his/her own novel. I am noticing many students reading graphic novels. Graphic novels cannot be used for the Novel Assignment Packet or reading log. I have addressed this several times in class; students must read a chapter book novel.
   Math
      We have been reviewing 4th grade skills of multiplying by multi-digit numbers and long division. Many students have already mastered these skills. If you have noticed, in your mathematician’s take-home folder, that he/she is struggling with these skills, please review nightly.
       Writing
      After brainstorming why writing is so important, we have been learning about the writing process. Students made writing spirals to show the writing cycle and we connected the writing to cycle to 6+1 Traits of Writing. As we continue to learn about writing students will gather ideas.
   Social Science: We are continuing our learning on environments as we roll out culture and Native Americans. Please help your inquirer prepare to present his/her Culture Bag. *See schedule for directions and presentation dates.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. 
srahrig@msdwt.k12.in.us
317-259-5478 ext. 12219



Respectfully,


Miss Sarah Rahrig

Monday, April 20, 2015

Week 33: April 20, 2015

Dear Room 19 Families,

To echo Mrs. Parquet
Dismissal changes: Please make sure you send a note with your child if there will be a dismissal change.  We will not accept ANY dismissal changes after 2.  Getting calls after this time causes too much confusion and makes for a messy situation.  Please plan ahead and send in notes and if you forget, please call before 2.  I appreciate you working with us on this situation.
Pickup-We require that all car riders to be picked up by 3:40.  Please use our carpool line.  We cannot watch children after that time as we do not have available personnel to monitor children.  Office personnel have responsibilities away from their desks and cannot be expected to babysit.  Please sign your children up for AYS if you are not always able to be here before 3:40.  I appreciate you working with us on these situations.
We’ve had a great two weeks back from break! There is a lot of testing the next four weeks, please read to the end.  
For many students, this is a critical time to show if they are ready for middle school both academically and socially. Last year 100% of my class passed Mathematics and only one student did not pass ELA. Your student has all the tools they need to be successful and every Math and ELA standard has been taught. I would strongly suggest getting a sixth grade workbook, or if your student is struggling a 5th grade workbook to help them prepare. They can be found at just about any bookstore, Lakeshore Learning in Nora Plaza, United Arts and Education in Casleton, and I’m sure many other places. (United Arts and Education has heaps of them!!!) If you aren’t sure about the workbook, save the receipt and have your learner check with me before starting.
       This time of year is busy with review, but there is also a lot of fun, too! Students will be working on their Novel Games, will start creating Math Arcade games in May, celebrate 5th Grade Experience at Eagle Creek, will be visiting Butler University, and today we had our Exhibition Kick-Off! More information will come home about all of these. With that being said, let’s look at what we are up to this week!   

Happenings this week:

  Friday: Freaky Friday-Twin Day $1
·      Midterms go home!!!

Our learning this week continues with:
Reading-Unit 6 Lesson 28
·      Skills: Fact and Opinion
·      Acuity Standards Review: THEME, POV, Inferencing
·      Fluency skill: Accuracy and Speed
·      New Novel Project Due Dates:
o  Game Directions Draft April 24th
o  Final Product May 8th
§    Game Box
§  Game Board
§  Pieces
§  Game Directions

Social Science- Exhibtion is going great! As your IB student what action they want to take to make a difference. During our Social Science time Mondays-Wednesdays and Fridays we will be doing exhibition work in our homeroom, meaning Room 19 students will stay with me. On Thursday we will divide up into our Exhibition Topic Groups to work.
·        Mrs. Nibrager-Children
·        Ms. Feezle-Education
·        Ms. Combs-Poverty
·        Mrs. Ouattara-Health
·        Miss Rahrig-Earth
We are also looking forward to doing more Science. Including the body system-which hopefully Dr. Brian Watters will be coming into share about, ecosystems with our trip to Butler, and a workshop on energy from IPL. This is really exciting because my fiancé will be helping teach this because he is studying electrical engineering and worked with IPL.

   Writing-Persuasive writings are complete and scores will be reflected in midterms. The next few weeks we will be doing a unit on Poetry, which promises to be a lot of fun! Students wrote their first poem about poems today!

   Math- Review of order of operations, writing expressions, and unit conversions. Again, I strongly encourage a workbook and ixl.


Assessments this Friday consist of:

    DMR/Skills Review Quiz
  DLR Quiz**New
·      Acuity Quiz
·      ISTEP a next wee through May 5th!!!
·      May 11th AIMS and STAR end of year benchmarks
·      Week of May 11th Math Facts end of year benchmarks

Online Resources for Students:
Username: Student ID #
Password: Last name

More students are passing out of Lexia! Congratulations to Silvio who competed level 18 over the weekend!

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful week!

srahrig@msdwt.k12.in.us

Monday, April 6, 2015

Week of: April 6, 2015

Dear Room 19 Families,

I hope everyone had a fantastic Spring Break! The weather was beautiful and so perfect for getting outside and playing! I spent a lot of time relaxing, playing with Oakley, wedding planning, and put an offer in on a house. It was super busy, but also a nice break! On Friday, I came in and planned for almost the rest of the school year. It is crazy to think we only have a little less than 8 weeks left. Room 19 students came in ready to learn today!
The next three weeks before ISTEP is mostly review. For many students, this is a critical time to show if they are ready for middle school both academically and socially. Last year 100% of my class passed Mathematics and only one student did not pass ELA. Your student has all the tools they need to be successful and every Math and ELA standard has been taught. I would strongly suggest getting a sixth grade workbook, or if your student is struggling a 5th grade workbook to help them prepare. They can be found at just about any bookstore, Lakeshore Learning in Nora Plaza, United Arts and Education in Caselton, and I’m sure many other places. (United Arts and Education has heaps of them!!!) If you aren’t sure about the workbook, save the receipt and have your learner check with me before starting.
       This time of year is busy with review, but there is also a lot of fun, too! Students will be working on their Novel Games, will start creating Math Arcade games in May, celebrate 5th Grade Experience at Eagle Creek, will be visiting Butler University, and today we had our Exhibition Kick-Off! More information will come home about all of these. With that being said, let’s look at what we are up to this week!   

Happenings this week:

  Wednesday: Wacky Hair Day $1 for Arts Partners
  Wednesday: Dad’s for Lunch
  Thursday: Open House 5:30-7:30
  Friday: Honors Program for grades 3-5 at 8:45am

Our learning this week continues with:
   Reading-Unit 6 New Journeys Magazine Reader J Skills: Text and Graphic Features             
                     Acuity Standards Review: Writing Standards-grammar
                     Fluency skill: Accuracy and Speed
                     New Novel Project Due Dates:
·      Game Box Design April 10th
·      Game Board Design April 17th
·      Pieces Design April 17th
·      Game Directions Draft April 24th
·      Final Product May 8th
·      Game Box
·      Game Board
·      Pieces
·      Game Directions

   Social Science- EXHIBITION!!!!! Students have been preparing for Exhibition in Media, but today we really kicked-off the unit in the gym with the whole 5th grade! We made up team chants, played games, and watched an exhibition video with every student in it created by Mrs. Ouattara. It was a blast! During our Social Science time Mondays-Wednesdays and Fridays we will be doing exhibition work in our homeroom, meaning Room 19 students will stay with me. On Thursday we will divide up into our Exhibition Topic Groups to work.
·        Mrs. Nibrager-Children
·        Ms. Feezle-Education
·        Ms. Combs-Poverty
·        Mrs. Ouattara-Health
·        Miss Rahrig-Earth
We are also looking forward to doing more Science. Including the body system-which hopefully Dr. Brian Watters will be coming into share about, ecosystems with our trip to Butler, and a workshop on energy from IPL. This is really exciting because my fiancé will be helping teach this because he is studying electrical engineering and worked with IPL.

   Writing-This week we are writing our conclusions for our persuasive. We will be revising and then editing. Next week we will be publishing and sharing! I am really excited to see the outcomes. Students have been working really hard to make change at Crooked Creek!

   Math- Review of area and volume this week. Finding area of a square is a fourth grade standard that many students are still struggling with. This is imperative to move on to find area of other polygons. Again, I strongly encourage a workbook.


Assessments this Friday consist of:

    DMR/Skills Review Quiz
  DLR Quiz**New


Online Resources for Students:
Username: Student ID #
Password: Last name

Way to go Diana, Dakota, and Matthew for getting on Lexia over break!

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful week!
srahrig@msdwt.k12.in.us