Week 26

Thank you to everyone for their well wishes during my recent bout of food poisoning. It was tough to leave the kids but the receiving teachers report that they were "adorable"! They were incredibly sweet and understanding throughout the morning and I was so touched by their concern.
I'll be out on Friday ( due to a workshop at Teacher's College) so Green behavior reports went out for the girls today.

Thanks for coming to Parent Teacher Conferences and sharing your thoughts with me. There were some common threads in the conversations regarding the upcoming tests so here is some information we may all find helpful:

• The ELA Test willl take place in early May with the Math test following the next week. Please check the blog's calendar for the exact dates.
• The ELA test will be three days long. The first day will be 70 minutes with seven to eight different reading passages and 43 multiple choice questions. Day 2 will be start with a listening passage. After I have read a story out loud (twice), students will have 30 minutes to answer 5 multiple choice questions, 3 short response questions about the story, along with 3-5 questions about grammar. The last day will include two passages on a similar topic, with 4 short response questions and an essay response. This portion will last 60 minutes.
• While we have been getting ready for this all year, there are some things that can be done at home to help your child. The first is to keep reading. This test is long and stamina will play a huge part in your child's success. Help your child read for a sustained amount of time and remind them that they can take brief thinking breaks where they can review about and think the information in their heads. Our current non fiction work lends itself to this as students should read sections of a book (usually a couple of pages) and stop to jot about their reading. If possible, you might consider having your child read for longer than the 45 minute minimum of the reading log.
• It's also important for your child to read fiction books in this time so the skills in those units are being practiced. While we work on non fiction in class, please encourage your child to read fiction books during the weekend or when they are done with their nonfiction texts during the weekday. The class is aware that they should read both types of texts and each child has picked nonfiction and fiction books for their weekly reading.

These are merely suggestions and please do not feel any pressure to make changes to your regular routine if they are not feasible.  If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. Next weeks' post will contain more information about the math test.

For this upcoming week, please note:

• The School Survey went home last Friday. It was in a green envelope. Please fill it out and return it to the school.
• If you have not already done so, please send in the admission and permission slip for the Wyckoff Farmhouse. For those of you who have already done so, your child will receive change, if needed, on Monday. Thank you for your patience as I locate the necessary quarters.
• In reponse to our poll question: If a pie had eight pieces and five were eaten, the fraction of the pie left is three eighth. Everyone who voted was correct... hurray!

Have a great sunny weekend!