Dear Penguin Families,
It is hard to believe that we are already halfway done with
the first quarter of school.
During the first few weeks of school we have spent time getting
acquainted, establishing our Penguin community, and learning the ropes of middle
school. The kids are doing a great
job and it is a pleasure to be with them every day.
At this time, please check your child’s grade on
Powerschool. Please try not to
focus on the letter grades for each individual assignment. Learning is a process and kids should be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. Once in a while a small assignment might have a low grade, but that will not greatly impact the overall grade. We hope that monitoring your child's progress on Powerschool will help you to support him/her.
In Math, we are just finishing up our first unit of study on
algebraic expressions and equations.
Students have already taken two quizzes as we have progressed through
the unit. Quizzes are used to
assess student understanding and to help inform me of their strengths and
weaknesses so that I may adjust instruction accordingly. In the interest of maximizing learning,
students are required to reflect on and revise all quiz errors. They earn additional points for all
correct and complete revisions. We started the chapter test today and will
finish on Monday. Tests are
designed to assess student understanding at the completion of a unit. They are always in a multiple-choice
format, but students must show their mathematical thinking by showing their
work. Tests are not revisable.
Grades for this test will be posted on Powerschool by midweek. Our next unit of study will be
integers. You can help your child
by pointing out examples of negative numbers in real life.
In Social Studies, we are currently working on our large
world maps. The kids are busy
drawing their continents. Next
they will draw in their islands and then they will take the maps home for
completion. This will be their
homework for a couple of weeks.
When we finish with the globes at school, we will begin our study of
early humans and the agricultural revolution, which led to the dawn of
civilizations.
In Language Arts we are writing in multiple genres, writing each and every day, and becoming great writers. This week we will be writing memoirs. FYI - Language Arts individual assignments are posted in English for both Reading and English classes. Therefore, your child's Reading grade will be the same as his/her grade in English.
The San Jose Area Writing Project is offering a Youth Writing Program for students from 4th to 10th grades four Saturdays this school year. This is a great program for our young Penguin writers. It's led by elementary through college level teachers at San Jose State University. I highly recommend it and it's only $5 per class. Click on the link below for more information.
Thank you for visiting our blog. Please leave a comment below and we will reward your child with Penguin Points.
