Hello,
We won't be having a big party to end the week. We will do some fun activities at the end of the day, however. Please don't bring any sweets in for these activities. Our class policy on sweets and snacks hasn't changed. I'm asking you to get permission before showing up with a couple dozen cupcakes or treats. I felt badly that I had to send a little one home with a box of cookies to bring back home last week, but I need to put my foot down. We have varying diets in the class, and I don't think that it is fair to put them on the spot, every time someone brings in some homemade goodies.
We're working on a little review and a little symmetry this week in math. Just a little break from fractions before we jump back into them in January.
We shared writing topics today. Quite a change from this time last year. What is your child writing about?
Tiger beat Arctic Hare today by one vote. Every vote counts! The Tiger made the finals for the second year in a row. We'll see if it can top the winner of tomorrow's Sumatran Rhino - Fennec Fox match up. Some took today's loss hard. It is nice to see them put their heart into their work, just sad when it doesn't pay off.
Thanks for reading,
Mr. Shea
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Monday, December 14, 2015
Long time, no blog
Hello,
No basketball tonight, so I'm here welcoming any blog readers back. Sorry for the disappearance. It is a tough time from mid November to mid December.
We have been approved to go on a March field trip to the Challenger Center in Bangor. They have a great website, if you'd like to google it and check it out. I think the kids can tell that I am really psyched up to go. We have some prep work to do for it and we've already started with some communication activities. Ask your child what we have done so far to work on clear, concise directions, both written and oral. Part of the communication puzzle is also listening and reading carefully. That has also been part of our work.
We have been conducting daily elections on this year's class World Wildlife symbolic adoption. Tomorrow we will decide between the Fennec Fox and the Narwhal. That winner will join the Tiger, the Arctic Hare and the Sumatran Rhino in the the final four. We learned a lot about the Crocodile and the Emerald Hummingbird today, so it was sad to see them go.
We've been learning cribbage in class these past three weeks. I hope you've played either cribbage or 99 recently. These games are the ticket to faster and more accurate addition. We could use another cribbage board or two in the classroom if you have an old one lying around that doesn't get much use. I thought we might do a little tourney at some point this year.
I have pleased with the adding and subtracting of fractions lately. We're getting the hang of it. I'm not really looking forward to fraction multiplication and division coming up so soon. We may need a fraction break first. I'll see what I can do.
Homework club and Guitar club are both a green light this week. No hoop for me until the 26th.
Thanks for reading. I'll try again tomorrow!
Mr. Shea
No basketball tonight, so I'm here welcoming any blog readers back. Sorry for the disappearance. It is a tough time from mid November to mid December.
We have been approved to go on a March field trip to the Challenger Center in Bangor. They have a great website, if you'd like to google it and check it out. I think the kids can tell that I am really psyched up to go. We have some prep work to do for it and we've already started with some communication activities. Ask your child what we have done so far to work on clear, concise directions, both written and oral. Part of the communication puzzle is also listening and reading carefully. That has also been part of our work.
We have been conducting daily elections on this year's class World Wildlife symbolic adoption. Tomorrow we will decide between the Fennec Fox and the Narwhal. That winner will join the Tiger, the Arctic Hare and the Sumatran Rhino in the the final four. We learned a lot about the Crocodile and the Emerald Hummingbird today, so it was sad to see them go.
We've been learning cribbage in class these past three weeks. I hope you've played either cribbage or 99 recently. These games are the ticket to faster and more accurate addition. We could use another cribbage board or two in the classroom if you have an old one lying around that doesn't get much use. I thought we might do a little tourney at some point this year.
I have pleased with the adding and subtracting of fractions lately. We're getting the hang of it. I'm not really looking forward to fraction multiplication and division coming up so soon. We may need a fraction break first. I'll see what I can do.
Homework club and Guitar club are both a green light this week. No hoop for me until the 26th.
Thanks for reading. I'll try again tomorrow!
Mr. Shea
Monday, November 16, 2015
No Guitar Club
Hello,
Our Superintendent has called for a full staff meeting tomorrow after school meaning that guitar club will have to cancelled. Next Tuesday is an early release, bringing our cancellations to three in a row. Please keep practicing. We will get back on track as soon as we can.
There will be no homework club on Thursday this week either due to Bowdoin basketball.
Next week is Thanksgiving. We will be having an early (1:00) release day on Tuesday. Wednesday is a no school day for kids and is set aside for conferences. I've written in about 40 possible time slots for meetings over the next two and a half weeks. Let me know if none of those work for you and we can figure something out.
I've cut and paste the directions for signing up for conferences. You can also circle times on the sheet that went home today, but the online sign up is easier and quicker for me.
Thank you.
I'm sorry for the brief or nonexistent posts lately. These November weeks of report cards, conferences, basketball, meetings and regular classes are the busiest of the year.
I look forward to meeting with you all soon.
Our Superintendent has called for a full staff meeting tomorrow after school meaning that guitar club will have to cancelled. Next Tuesday is an early release, bringing our cancellations to three in a row. Please keep practicing. We will get back on track as soon as we can.
There will be no homework club on Thursday this week either due to Bowdoin basketball.
Next week is Thanksgiving. We will be having an early (1:00) release day on Tuesday. Wednesday is a no school day for kids and is set aside for conferences. I've written in about 40 possible time slots for meetings over the next two and a half weeks. Let me know if none of those work for you and we can figure something out.
I've cut and paste the directions for signing up for conferences. You can also circle times on the sheet that went home today, but the online sign up is easier and quicker for me.
Thank you.
I'm sorry for the brief or nonexistent posts lately. These November weeks of report cards, conferences, basketball, meetings and regular classes are the busiest of the year.
I look forward to meeting with you all soon.
Dear Parent,
You are invited to sign up for Parent / Teacher Conference with Mr. Shea.
DATE: November 23, November 24, November 25, November 30, December 1 and December 2.
PLACE: Room 120.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: End of day 2 days before each conference day
You are invited to sign up for Parent / Teacher Conference with Mr. Shea.
DATE: November 23, November 24, November 25, November 30, December 1 and December 2.
PLACE: Room 120.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: End of day 2 days before each conference day
To pick a time slot, enter this link in your internet browser:
www.ptcfast.com/reg1
At that link, you will be asked for your Entry Code, where you should
enter P6L182450
enter P6L182450
If you do not have internet access, please send me a note with requested times .
Please let me know if none of the open times work for you. I look forward to our meeting. Thank you.
Best Regards,
Mr. Shea
Mr. Shea
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Conference sign up
Dear Parent,
You are invited to sign up for Parent / Teacher Conference with Mr. Shea.
DATE: November 23, November 24, November 25, November 30, December 1 and December 2.
PLACE: Room 120.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: End of day 2 days before each conference day
You are invited to sign up for Parent / Teacher Conference with Mr. Shea.
DATE: November 23, November 24, November 25, November 30, December 1 and December 2.
PLACE: Room 120.
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: End of day 2 days before each conference day
To pick a time slot, enter this link in your internet browser:
www.ptcfast.com/reg1
At that link, you will be asked for your Entry Code, where you should
enter P6L182450
enter P6L182450
If you do not have internet access, please send me a note with requested times .
Please let me know if none of the open times work for you. I look forward to our meeting. Thank you.
Best Regards,
Mr. Shea
Mr. Shea
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Homework club tomorrow
Hello,
My apologies for last night's math homework. I assigned questions 1-5 the night before and they were a lot easier than the next four questions. This morning, I quickly went over how the program wants them to be solved, but I didn't dwell on them too much because those are not questions that match our current math abilities. I'm sorry that I hadn't done them before hand. I thought that they would be similar to the first half of that extra practice section of the book. Thank you to the parents who emailed me. Thank you to all of you who tried to work with your kids to solve them.
Late practice tomorrow, so homework club is still on. I hope to see most of the class after school.
Most of the class finished our Lewis and Clark hallway maps today. Some have some extra work to do at home. You'll get to see those during conferences. I need to write up that sign up schedule soon.
Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea
My apologies for last night's math homework. I assigned questions 1-5 the night before and they were a lot easier than the next four questions. This morning, I quickly went over how the program wants them to be solved, but I didn't dwell on them too much because those are not questions that match our current math abilities. I'm sorry that I hadn't done them before hand. I thought that they would be similar to the first half of that extra practice section of the book. Thank you to the parents who emailed me. Thank you to all of you who tried to work with your kids to solve them.
Late practice tomorrow, so homework club is still on. I hope to see most of the class after school.
Most of the class finished our Lewis and Clark hallway maps today. Some have some extra work to do at home. You'll get to see those during conferences. I need to write up that sign up schedule soon.
Thanks for reading.
Mr. Shea
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Late practices
Hello,
We will have homework club this Thursday due to a basketball practice schedule change.
We just finished up with guitar club, but this has to be quick for me to make it to Bowdoin by 6:00.
Ask your child about their mapping of the HBS River, just like Lewis and Clark. They took notes yesterday, but are back in the capital of the classroom today where they have to covert their notes to a map of the hallway river. We may have a few scale issues, but overall their notes looked sound.
We are entering the fraction zone in math. We have started in class, but the homeworks will remain word problem centered for a while.
I hope everyone gets a chance to go vote. Our class voted yes on one, campaign reform. We voted no on two and three. Three was the only decisive outcome at 19-2. I gave the argument on both sides of each issue, but I think seeing how much I pay in taxes, (I projected my paystub on the white board), might have been the swaying argument for no new spending.
Have a great night.
Mr. Shea
We will have homework club this Thursday due to a basketball practice schedule change.
We just finished up with guitar club, but this has to be quick for me to make it to Bowdoin by 6:00.
Ask your child about their mapping of the HBS River, just like Lewis and Clark. They took notes yesterday, but are back in the capital of the classroom today where they have to covert their notes to a map of the hallway river. We may have a few scale issues, but overall their notes looked sound.
We are entering the fraction zone in math. We have started in class, but the homeworks will remain word problem centered for a while.
I hope everyone gets a chance to go vote. Our class voted yes on one, campaign reform. We voted no on two and three. Three was the only decisive outcome at 19-2. I gave the argument on both sides of each issue, but I think seeing how much I pay in taxes, (I projected my paystub on the white board), might have been the swaying argument for no new spending.
Have a great night.
Mr. Shea
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Math test today, Field trip tomorrow
Hello,
The math test went okay. We struggled with the word problems, which were very difficult. I don't think anyone should panic. Math In Focus tests are scored on a 25 point scale. The last two problems on each test are considered "stretch" questions. The point is to give kids a chance to show if they can stretch what they have learned and apply it in a unique situation. Most of these type questions have not been practiced. Essentially, that means anyone scoring a 20 has learned everything that we have taught. You shouldn't take your child's score and convert it to a score out of 100. For example, someone scoring a 21 out of 25, shouldn't be a seen as a 84 out of 100. A 21 should not be equated to what we used to think of as a "C" grade.
These tests will come home tomorrow. They were graded and passed back so we could go over them this afternoon. I didn't have time to input the scores in my grade book so I needed to collect them at the end of the day. Make sure to take a look at how your child did and please contact me with any questions or concerns.
We started a light-hearted read aloud today. I thought I would go back to an old favorite of mine: Soup by Robert Newton Peck. It is a funny story of a farm boy and his best friend growing up in rural Vermont. We had finished Because of Mr. Terupt last week, and then I read the first few chapters of Chains by Laurie Halse Andersen. I wanted to get them started on that great book to see if I could get a few takers. It is one of my favorite historical fictions. My goal is always to get them to grab that reading baton.
Field trip tomorrow at 10:30. I hope many of you can make it. I can already smell Danny's from here.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
The math test went okay. We struggled with the word problems, which were very difficult. I don't think anyone should panic. Math In Focus tests are scored on a 25 point scale. The last two problems on each test are considered "stretch" questions. The point is to give kids a chance to show if they can stretch what they have learned and apply it in a unique situation. Most of these type questions have not been practiced. Essentially, that means anyone scoring a 20 has learned everything that we have taught. You shouldn't take your child's score and convert it to a score out of 100. For example, someone scoring a 21 out of 25, shouldn't be a seen as a 84 out of 100. A 21 should not be equated to what we used to think of as a "C" grade.
These tests will come home tomorrow. They were graded and passed back so we could go over them this afternoon. I didn't have time to input the scores in my grade book so I needed to collect them at the end of the day. Make sure to take a look at how your child did and please contact me with any questions or concerns.
We started a light-hearted read aloud today. I thought I would go back to an old favorite of mine: Soup by Robert Newton Peck. It is a funny story of a farm boy and his best friend growing up in rural Vermont. We had finished Because of Mr. Terupt last week, and then I read the first few chapters of Chains by Laurie Halse Andersen. I wanted to get them started on that great book to see if I could get a few takers. It is one of my favorite historical fictions. My goal is always to get them to grab that reading baton.
Field trip tomorrow at 10:30. I hope many of you can make it. I can already smell Danny's from here.
Have a good night.
Mr. Shea
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