Hi Homeroom Teachers,
To accommodate families for parent-teacher conferences this year, your specials team is hosting two Open House events for families to briefly learn about their kids’ specials rotation/curriculum. Attached is a PDF letter and schedule for the two nights. Primary grades are Monday November 9th, 2015 4:00pm-7:00pm, and Intermediate grades are Monday November 16th, 2015 4:00pm-7:00pm. Please include this information either in your classroom weekly newsletters, and/or your classroom blogs. Thanks for supporting us and ensuring that families are informed of these nights! Please direct questions to any of us. Thanks again!! J Kind Regards, Erin Lea-Dougherty Art Education, K-5th Grade Westerly Creek Elementary School [email protected] |W: 720-424-3220|C: 720-468-1393 Go to classroom.google.com. Sign in with his dps ID number (for example: [email protected]) where it asks for email address. Then, he sign in again only using ID number as user name and the 8 digit birthday for the password. All students know their ID and password.
Thanks!! Great work happening in 4th Grade:
Math- This week in math our learning goals are comparing numbers and rounding multidigit whole numbers. Next week our focus will be on multidigit addition and subtraction. Many of these skills are previous taught, but we review them in depth as well as use these past learned skills to refresh our mathematical minds. At home to work on these skills, you can have your student estimate total cost of a shopping trip by rounding all prices to a friendly number. Science- This week in science we are continuing our ecosystem unit. In this unit we will be learning how all parts of an ecosystem work together to be successful. In our classrooms we will be observing many ecosystems including: pond ecosystems, Triops, and a reptile. We will be observing changes within ecosystems and interactions within an ecosystem. Literacy- This week in literacy we have been reinforcing close reading skills (reread, annotate, and summarize), using the book Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. Kids did a great job analyzing and annotating “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Furthermore, we have begun reviewing the sound cards for the Orton Gillingham skills block. We are a few chapters into The Watson's go to Birmingham-1963 and the kids are loving it. Ask your child to explain one main character and/or a favorite part and why. We are continuing to master the rituals and routines of 4th grade. Last week, we greeted each other using language from Spain and this week we are on to France! Ask your child to share how to say good morning in French and Spanish. Au Revoir! Reminders!!!!! Picture Day is September 16, 2015 Sign up for Choir if you are interested- See past blog post for more info! Introducing: Personal Success Factors at WCE!
Westerly Creek is one of 20 schools participating in the DPS Pilot of Personal Success Factors for the 2015-16 school year. This program specifically and intentionally teaches students 7 primary character strengths: grit, optimism, self control, social/emotional intelligence, gratitude, curiosity, and zest. Over the course of the year we will be digging in to each of these as a school and defining what they look like in our community. Our foundational work this month has been centered on growth mindset. Growth mindset is the outlook named by Carol Dweck that children can do anything they put their minds to with resilience and effort. Many classrooms have embraced "The Power of Yet"- where students might not be able to do something today but with practice and persistence, they will soon! Ask your child about what he/she has been discussing during their classroom morning meetings. There is an abundance of resources to share but here are some places to start if you want to learn more- Carol Dweck discussing growth v. fixed mindset https://youtu.be/MTsF2TaEaJA "How Can I Promote a Growth Mindset" http://imaginationsoup.net/2014/09/help-child-unmotivated-growth-fixed-mindset/#_a5y_p=2451627 Character Labs (the foundation for the PSF Program) https://characterlab.org/ Westerly Creek is excited to share more as the year progresses! . The BOOK IT committee has a few updates we’d like to share with you and we’d love your help – as usual – passing this info along to your kids and parents. Deadline extended: This afternoon we’re dropping off a flyer to include in tomorrow’s Thursday folders announcing an extension to the BOOK IT deadline. Kids now have until Friday, September 18 to read and raise money. On Friday, we need ALL participants to return their pledge forms (and any money they’ll collected) to you and we need you to take those to the front office. Attached is a copy of that form in case you have a student who has misplaced it. Teacher rewards: Have you been reading and raising money this summer too?? Don’t forget we encouraged teachers to participate and have prizes for our top readers and fundraisers from the staff as well! I look forward to getting your pledge form on Sept 18 as well! BOOK IT Celebration: Just a reminder that we’re planning our BOOK IT celebration for Friday, October 2. Erin Starzyk is the committee member leading the planning for this fun day. I know it will disrupt your usual schedule, but we’re excited to celebrate the reading success of our kids! Stay tuned for a detailed plan for the day! Student sponsorships: We have a plan in place to allow our community to “sponsor” students who’ve worked really hard and read a TON over the summer, but who might not be able to raise the funds needed to get them to our highest level of celebration. If you have a student you’d like to recommend for sponsorship, please let me know and we’ll work with our community to recognize their reading efforts and celebrate their success! Thanks again for all your help with BOOK IT this year. It’s an evolving program – we’re trying some new things – so please let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Thanks, Liz Please see the below information about possible GT testing. |
4th Grade teamClick below to contact us. |