Weekly Update

 Hello Parents,

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a wonderful week! Things are rolling pretty quickly here at school as we are down to the wire with getting our units covered. Please see below for a few updates and important dates that are coming up!

Purple Up Day:

April is the month of the military child. Next Wednesday, April 17th, is "Purple Up Day", which honors our military connected students. If you would like to, please join us in wearing purple next Wednesday. 

MAP Testing:

Hard to believe that we are ready to take our final round of the MAP test for this year. I will be splitting each of the MAP tests into two parts to help the students remain focused and engaged. I planned to give half the test the first day and the other half the second day (roughly 30 mins a day). Please make sure your child comes to school each day with their computer charged and ready for the test. I do not have a charger for the students. 

MAP Reading- Thursday, April 18th and Friday, April 19th

MAP Math- Thursday, April 25th and Friday, April 26th

Sub Tuesday:

My son has some dental work that needs to be done on Tuesday, April 16th so I will be out. Since we are in crunch time, the sub will continue on with our lessons. Please remind your child to show the 3R’s and do their best work. My sub will be Mrs. Cohen. She has spent a lot of time in our room and is quite familiar with how things run so I have high hopes that it will be a great day in room 25!

SOL Pass:

On Monday I will show your child how to access the released SOL tests. I will give them a tracking sheet and will ask them to work on this at home 3 times a week as part of their homework. The direct link to this site is on my Schoology page (in the Math, VA Studies and ELA folders). 

Once they complete the practice, please make sure you check their score, note it on the tracking sheet and initial it. This will help assure the students that there is accountability and thus will do their best! 

If you haven’t had a chance to view the site, it's quite awesome! Your child has access to all the released tests back to 2001 in some cases. These are a perfect way to prepare for all 3 SOLs. The password to access them is husky. Please make sure you open the website and not attempt to do it while still in Schoology. It doesn’t always work that way. Your child will know how to do this

SOL Dates:

Hard to believe it but we are already prepping for the Spring SOLS! Here are the dates as of now! If anything changes, I will let you know! Again, please make sure your child comes to school with their computers fully charged!

Reading SOL- Tuesday, May 7th

VA Studies SOL- Thursday, May 16th

Math SOL- Friday, May 24th 

Book Fair:

The book fair is coming! We will preview the book fair next week and the students will be able to purchase books the week of April 22nd. Mrs. Wilkes and I will be working at the book fair on Family night Thursday, April 25th from 4:15-6:15pm! I hope to see some of you there!

Capstone Student:

Once again, I have been honored by being asked to mentor a Capstone Student from Freedom High School this spring. Ms. Shrikha Balaji is currently a senior at Freedom High School and will be shadowing me during the month of May. Ms. Balaji is excited to be a part of our classroom and for the opportunity to work with your children!

 Focus Areas for Next Week:

•  Reading: We continue talking about Historical Fiction. We will begin our book Number the Stars.

• Math:  We will work on our Fractions unit.

• Science: We will continue our unit on Plants and plant life cycles.

• VA Studies: We will continue Chapter 6- Building a New Nation. The test will be on Tuesday, April 23rd!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all the updates! I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing weekend!