Kestrel

Chronicles
~October 21st 25th~ Mon. 21st -Art Tues. 22nd In & About States/Regions Project Teambuilding Weds. 23rd -Art Thurs. 24th GOAL SETTING CONFERENCES Fri. 25th GOAL SETTING CONFERENCES

HOMEWORK

Math: Homework if nightly assignment not finished! Retake due the 25th! Writing: Imagery Practice DUE at CONFERENCE
1. Please schedule your goal-setting conference with the front office, if you havent done so. Students are part of the conference and should attend too! 2. NO SCHOOL 10/24 & 10/25-goal setting conferences 3. Final Poetry Anthology Due November 6th. 4. 1st Coffee House Poetry Night on November

VOLUNTEERS Upcoming Events:

Kestrel Update: Tuesday was a productive and creative Out and About to the public library, where we created poetry by lining up book titles. Its called Found Book Spine Poetry. Check out their creations soon on the library bulletin board in the childrens section! On Thursday, the Kestrels visited their kinder buddies at the ELC to teach them about making self-to-text connections when reading. Each Kestrel created a sticker for their buddy, with the prompt, My book is like my life, and then encouraged making connections during their visit. Give your Kestrel a high-five and a hug because each and every one engaged completely with their buddy.

LiteracyWriting with Rachel: In Writers Workshop this week, poets tried their hands at two poem forms- color poems which focus on using metaphors and sensory details, and alliteration poems that had students practice this literary device. Writers were also asked to reflect on learning and experiences at ODS through poetry for homework (due Monday, the 21 st). Writers received their I am from drafts back with feedback, and were given time to work on them in class. On Thursday, writers received their Poetry Anthology Assignment. This is the final project for the poetry unit. You can find the handout on the Kestrel website, along with last weeks and this weeks writing homework. Writing homework this week is practice creating imagery rich writing. This will support revisions of final poems for the anthology. This week, writers will spend most of their time preparing for goal setting. At conferences, youll get to see the writing goals for the year, as well as how well meet those goals. Everyone gets a part of that conversation: teacher, student and family. I look forward to seeing you there!
Ask your child these things: What poems will you include in your anthology? Be the appreciative audience: Explore these things:

Listen to your child share the poetry Discuss what makes a poem a poem. he or she is writing.

Reading: This week, readers will focus on preparing for goal setting conferences. The Kestrels will receive teacher set, Get Better Goals for the year and how I will help them reach the goals. Readers will also reflect and choose ways they will work to meet the goals. We will share all this with you at conferences, where youll have input. Later in the week, readers will work on completing Iqbal chapters and responses. Well also have spelling tests for words introduced last week. There is no spelling homework this week. Some students have not turned in last weeks spelling homework. Check in with your Kestrel about homework. Well also check in during conferences.
Ask your child these things: Be the appreciative audience: Explore these things:

Have you ever done anything you did Listen to your reader share about Discuss this: What rights should not believe you could successfully do? the last chapters of Iqbal. children have? What happened? What is a right?

Project WorkThis week, Kestrels will be neck-deep in creating their states/region presentations. Having completed the required research, the region groups will reconvene to create the five- day itinerary, including a map and photo album. Ill teach the groups techies how to create a Glog (a multimedia, web-based presentation poster), then theyll teach their group members. The group members will work together to include the required information about each of the regions states in an informative, creative and interesting way. Besides presenting to the Kestrel class, the work will also be shared with the Merlin class to teach them about the regions and states. In return, the Merlin class will share brochures about the worlds continents.
Ask your child these things: What is your role in the group? How does that work? Be the appreciative audience: Listen to your child share about the facts learned during research. Explore these things: Plan a real or imaginary trip around the USA and create a itinerary of where you would go.

5th and 6th Grade Math:

A lot happened in 5th and 6th grade math! First, we reviewed our first unit test. Scores caught a lot of students by surprise. Hopefully, it was a case of the first test jitters. Many have retakes they need to do on their own time: at home (no help or calculators!) or during break or before school (Monday-Thursday.) (5 th graders will be getting their retakes on Monday.) We also kicked off the Perseverance Project, which is a collaboration with Pacific University students. Basically, with the help of the Pacific students I hope to see students build perseverance so they gain comfort and confidence with the discomfort of learning new mathematical skills or solving challenging problems. Also, we want students to view their math ability as something they have the power to change. I hear way too often, I am not good at math. I hope to hear to soon hear, I am working hard at getting better at math! Goal setting conferences seem like the perfect opportunity to kick-start that attitude. 6th graders then reviewed 2 methods of multi-digit multiplication and 5 th graders looked at how multi-digit multiplication can become easier when breaking it into something times 10. I will get to meet with all families during goal setting conferences. Youll get to see your students current math level, the goals for the year and then how well meet those goals. Everyone gets a part of that conversation: teacher, student and family! Look forward to seeing

you all later this week!

Ask your student these things: 5th Grade: How can you easily solve 20x8? 6th Grade: Do you prefer the lattice method or the bow-tie method (partial product?) Be the appreciative audience: See if your 5th grader can explain if the U.S. will ever adopt the metric system? Watch how your 6th grader solves multi-digit multiplication? Explore these things: Try to understand WHY the lattice method, the partial product method and the algorithm all work to solving multi-digit multiplication.