At Fisher school, all classrooms will be using the clip chart system this year for behavior. A letter will be coming home in the Thursday folder. Please ask if you have any questions!
The students have made Fisher CATS expectation posters to demonstrate their understanding of what their job is at school. The hall by our classroom looks great!
In Mrs. Freiberg's class, "We All Fit Together!" We have a class puzzle with a piece representing each person. Cool, huh?!
Math began right away. We will be testing over the first unit in this second week of school already! All students received an online username and passcode that they can use to access the student textbook and unit lessons at home. Please let me know if you have trouble logging in and/or navigating the site. We will have math homework most nights. If your child does not understand something, please initial/ sign so that I know it was not just a lack of trying. I will be pre-testing for every unit as well as doing some re-teaching and re-testing after each unit. I try to send home letters at the beginning of each unit telling you what the units are about.
We also have started "Rocket Math" to learn our basic facts. Many students have done Rocket Math in the past. All students started in multiplication. We will be doing this every day so you should see their half sheets with 40 tested problems coming home daily. Students will study the current level they are on each day before taking the test. All 40 problems must be passed before moving on. The goal is to build automaticity in facts so that they know them as well as they know their own name. This picture shows how we will keep track of the levels kids have passed.
We start our morning off by hearing about current events in our nation and world through the website CNN Student News. It has been one of my favorite parts of the school day since learning about this resource. Feel free to check it out at http://www.cnn.com/studentnews
Something new this year to both the students and myself is our new reading curriculum. The program through the McGraw-Hill company is called Treasures. It is comprehensive and covers both reading and writing skills. I am looking forward to all this will offer us!
Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday we will get the opportunity to try a fruit or vegetable snack. All students are encouraged to try it but not required. This was started last year, and it has been interesting to see how many kids learn about a fruit/ vegetable they never knew existed and/ or discover that something they thought was gross actually doesn't taste too bad!
In Social Studies this year, we will start a unit on Iowa History and then continue into the regions of the United States: Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Mountain States, and West. We will look at the landforms, climate, natural resources, and economy of each region.
(The West region also includes Hawaii, Alaska, and the Mountain States.)
Science units will be interspersed with the Social Studies units. We will start with a short unit on the Scientific Process. We will learn about Earth Materials and the Earth, Sun, and Moon. We will study Nutrition as well as Sound and Light.
The following is our Specials Schedule. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately on PE days.
Day 1- PE
Day 2-Art
Day 3- Music
Day 4- No Special
Day 5- PE
Day 6- Media
Day 7- Music
Day 8- Art
Day 9- PE
Day 10- Guidance
Day 11- Music
Day 12- Book Check Out
HOMEWORK!! With exception to a couple days, students will have homework every day. They all received a planner on the first day of school to write their homework in. Please sign their planner at night to verify that their work was completed. This is also a place where you can write me notes. I realize that not all parents are home with their children in the evenings so if another adult or sibling needs to sign, that is perfectly fine. I know that families are very busy, so I try to limit homework to no more than half an hour each night.
One of the biggest things I am excited for this year is some technology we will be receiving soon! Last Spring, I applied for four iPod Touches through the website donorschoose.org. This summer, the project was fully funded! Over $1,000 was given and we will now this technology in our classroom! I am looking forward to all the ways we can use these for student achievement!
You can find important dates and events on the right side of my blog. You may contact me anytime at Fisher at 641-754-1030. I will respond to emails faster than phone messsages. My email address is afreiberg@marshalltown.k12.ia.us.
