December 6, 2019

Parents,

Today your child took the i-station assessment in class.  The entire assessment was taken on the chromebook and took about 30 minutes for each student to finish.  If you have any questions about the assessment I am happy to meet with you before our next track out.  I am not sure yet when the scores from the assessment will go home but I will post on my blog when I know.

I hope you all have a safe and happy Winter break.  I will be sending home a math project next that will be due mid January.  I wanted to be sure to give the students plenty of time to work on it and also allow time after we return in case you will be traveling and unavailable to work on it over the break.  My hope is that it might keep them busy over the break if you are looking for something to do.  I will send home the copy of the assignment in their Wednesday folder next week but I am also posting it below this note.  It will be easier to use the links from this page rather than typing in the link from the paper.

Thank you so much,

Anne Simmons


Parents,

Thank you to all the parents that scheduled a conference this fall.  If there is anyone who missed the sign up and would like to meet with me please send me an email and I will do my best to accommodate your schedule.

Dates to Remember:

11/27-11/29  No School for Thanksgiving Holiday

12/3 & 12/4  IOWA Testing (for students who qualify)

12/18  Positivity Project Awards  (Look for invites coming soon if your child is nominated)

12/23-1/1 Winter Holiday Break

2nd quarter:

Math

Multiplication Timed Quizzes

After Thanksgiving we will begin taking timed multiplication quizzes twice a week.  The purpose of these quizzes are to motivate the students to practice their multiplication facts nightly.  Here are a few points regarding the quizzes:

We will take them every Tuesday and Thursday

- Quizzes will be graded THAT DAY or the NEXT and sent home immediately

- Your child will have one minute to complete 22 problems on one fact.  A "passing" score is at least 20/22. Once your child passes one fact, they move on to the next one.

- Third graders are required to be able to fluently state the facts 0-10 by the END of the year.

- We take the quizzes in the following order:  0s & 1s (together), 10, 5, 2, 4, 8, 3, 6, 9, 7, 11, 12

- If your child has extenuating circumstances that will not allow them to pass the quizzes in one minute, then I will allow them extra time.  This is something I do on an as needed basis.

- These quizzes are not part of your child's grades, they are purely a motivation to practice

- So how can you help your child be successful with multiplication?  Practice, practice, practice. - - Please invest in some flash cards (the Dollar Tree is my favorite place to pick them up), or have your child create them on index cards, create quizzes for your child.  If you "google" multiplication games you will find a plethora of online resources as well.  

Please remember that multiplication is the most important skill that I want your child to leave my classroom mastering this year.  It is the focus of this quarter, but beginning in third quarter we are applying the skill rather than practicing it.  

Solar System

We are in the middle of our unit on the solar system.  Our test will be before we break for the Winter Holiday.  We will have quizzes along the way to help them practice their skills.

Reading
This quarter we will be working on our reading and writing skills in Narrative writing and Informational writing.  We will continue to use the Painted Essay Template for our informational pieces and assessing on standards that address focus statements, main ideas, supporting details and figuring out unfamiliar vocabulary.

We will begin assessing the reading levels soon using the new system of i-station.  It is new to all of us this year and you may have seen some information in the Brassfield Bulletin about it.  We begin assessing soon after Thanksgiving.

Here is the post from the Bulletin-

Istation - Parents and Families of Students in Grades K-3 North Carolina has selected Istation as the state’s reading assessment beginning with the 2019-20 school year. Istation helps to identify students’ abilities in phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Wake County Public Schools will begin using this assessment for the middle of the year benchmarking period which occurs in December for year round schools and January for traditional calendar schools. Brassfield parents will receive information in Wednesday folders this week.  Included in the information will be directions on how to access the parent portal as well as Ipractice, which allows students to choose activities at home that will help build early foundational reading skills. To learn more about the Istation School to Home Connection, please visit: https://www.istation.com/NorthCarolina/Home.