Mrs. Suskind’s “Week at a Glance”
(9-13-10)
Thank You
• A big thank you goes out to everyone who came out on Parents’ Night, especially our room parent, Eleanor Williamson, who facilitated all of the volunteer efforts.
• Another big thank-you goes out to Channy Franko for bringing in scrumptious cupcakes in celebration of Jack’s birthday!
From the Teacher’s Desk
• SIGNED PAPERS: Every Monday your son will bring home a packet of graded papers. Please review the papers with your son, sign the cover sheet, and return the ENTIRE packet by WEDNESDAY.
• GRADED HOMEWORK: Graded homework is sent home each week in the graded paper packet. Homework is assessed with a check plus (super A work), check (satisfactory B work), or check minus (does not demonstrate effort and/or understanding C- work).
• FLAG DUTY: This marking period our class is responsible for raising and lowering the flag. Jack Franko and Jack Feiler took up the charge this week, and Hunter Fuller and Dane Halle will take over responsibility next week.
• RECLYING: The recycling tournament is on again this year. Please bring in your WASHED OUT and CRUSHED aluminum cans in a PLATIC TRASH BAG. Each boy will then record his running total on an electronic spreadsheet housed in the shared folder. For our class to be eligible for the competition, each boy must bring in cans (any number) at least once during the year. To date, our class has already collected and recorded over 400 cans!
• LEADERSHIP: On Thursday, Dr. Limburg announced our Fall, Winter and Spring Chapel Team members. Many of the boys in our class were selected for this valuable, leadership opportunity and will serve our school and the larger Richmond community throughout the school year. This afternoon, we held Missionary and Student Council Representative Elections. Once again, the boys were thoughtful in their selections and gracious as the results were announced.
• MOVE OVER SHAKESPEARE: Each year Nancy Young and Linda DiLucente collect poetry from our K-5 students and bring the strongest pieces together to create the publication: Move Over Shakespeare. Most weeks for homework, the boys will be asked to write a poem in preparation for this publication. Monthly, I will ask the boys to submit electronically their best poetry for consideration.
• WORD STUDY: This week the boys began small group, word study instruction, but they were not assessed on their given words. Starting next week, the boys will be given a new list of words on Mondays, they will explore these words during the week, and on Fridays their mastery of the words and features will be assessed.
• SCHOLATIC BOOK ORDERS: Scholastic Book orders are due Wednesday, September 15th. This is of course completely OPTIONAL. All orders are submitted electronically. If your son has misplace the book catalogue, he can still easily order books using the following step:
o Go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
o On the parent webpage, click “don’t have a User Name and Password”
o Register your own (you select) username and password
o When prompted: enter the one time, class activation code = GRG6H
o You only have to go through this process the FIRST time you order
o The books are then shipped to me and I hand them out to your son at school
• BLOOD ON THE RIVER: Next week, we will wrap up our whole class, novel study of Blood on the River. The boys will have a short chapter quiz on Tuesday and then a WHOLE BOOK quiz on Friday. Throughout the week, the boys will also be creating a journal in the voice of the main character, Samuel Collier, in which they recount major events in the story. The completed journal will be due on 9-21-10.
A Look Ahead
• Monday, September 13th = Spanish Flash Cards Due
• Wednesday, September 15th = Scholastic Book Orders Due
• Wednesday, September 15th = Blood on the River Quiz (chapters 22-24)
• Thursday, September 16th = Spanish Quiz
• Wednesday, September 15th = Blood on the River WHOLE BOOK Quiz (chapters 1-27)
• Tuesday, September 21st = Blood on the River PROJECT DUE (the boys will be writing a journal as if they were the main character – Samuel Collier
Mrs. Suskind’s “Week at a Glance”
(9-3-10)Thank You
• A big thank you goes out to Eleanor Williamson for being kind enough to serve as our Room Parent this school year!
• Another big thank-you goes out to all of the boys in this class for making it such a successful first week of school. We have an amazing class!
From the Teacher’s Desk
• E-NEWSLETTER: Each Friday I will send an electronic newsletter (Week at a Glance) via email that recaps our weeks’ happenings, highlights classroom activities, and lists upcoming events. This week we have spent a great deal of time learning procedures, familiarizing ourselves with a new schedule, and getting to know each other.
• SUMMER READING: This week we revisited our summer reading book, My Side of the Mountain, and in small groups the boys illustrated the main characters, shared favorite scenes, and rewrote alterative endings.
• SUMMER PACKETS: Overall, the boys did an excellent job on their Summer Packets. Summer Packets with an attached rubric will be returned on Tuesday.
• SIGNED PAPERS: Every Monday your son will bring home a packet of graded papers. Please review the papers with your son, sign the cover sheet, and return the ENTIRE packet by WEDNESDAY.
• PINK SLIPS: This week we had a moratorium on Pink Slips. Starting next week, if your son does not do his homework or if he does not complete it to the best of his ability, he will receive a Pink Slip and will be asked to complete or redo his homework during recess.
• PAPER HEADINGS: Each boys is required to properly HEAD all papers the following way: Assignment Title in the top left corner, Name and Number in the top right corner, and Date underneath the name in the top right corner.
• FLAG DUTY: Each Marking Period our class will take the responsibility for one of the following fifth grade duties: Flag Duty, Kindergarten-second grade attendance, Computer Cart, and Chapel Readers. This marking period we are responsible for raising and lowering the flag. This week Jack Edwards and Conor Crook took up the charge. On Tuesday, Mr. Menges will give the boys a detailed demonstration on Flag etiquette.
• RECLYING: The recycling tournament is on again this year. Please bring in your WASHED OUT and CRUSHED aluminum cans in a PLATIC TRASH BAG. Each boy will then record his running total on an electronic spreadsheet housed in the shared folder.
• LEADERSHIP: Leadership was a primary topic of conversation this week. Each boy was challenged to think about how he can serve his community - whether it be as a Student Council or Literacy Society Leader, Chapel Team member, or simply a kind soul helping a kindergartener get out of the car and find his way to his new classroom. We have six elected leaders in our class this year! Way to go boys! That is quite a healthy showing! We will hold Missionary and SCA Class Representative elections next Friday.
• BLOOD ON THE RIVER: Yesterday we started a whole class study of the historical fiction book Blood on the River. This book ties in nicely with our study of Jamestown.
• MATH GROUPS: Today I told each boy individually the name of his new math teacher. We will begin Math on Tuesday. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. You are also welcome to contact your son’s math teacher directly.
• WORD STUDY: Yesterday I administered a developmental spelling inventory to the boys. This assessment gives me some information about your son’s current spelling knowledge. We will start word study instruction on Tuesday. During word study time, I will work with small groups of students on specific spelling features. These groups are quite flexible and will evolve over the school year.
A Look Ahead
• Monday, September 6th = School closed
• Tuesday, September 7th = Parents’ Night (6:30)
• Wednesday, September 8th = Chapel Team applications due
• Friday, September 10th = Current Events with Mr. Menges
