With a new year comes new curriculum. I am always excited to begin the Whale Unit with my students. Over the years I have learned so much about these amazing creatures, and I love sharing my knowledge with the kids. We will get started immediately with a whale pre-test and a KWL activity.If you are interested in coming in and helping out, we will be doing a "whale-to-scale" project which requires lots of parental support. Look for details in the next couple of weeks.
Ocean Book Clubs begin this week as well. All of the books have an ocean as its setting. I have already selected book groups for the children. They will be reading either The Cay, Kensuke's Kingdom, Stranded or The Music of Dolphins. In addition to reading assignments, the children will be responsible for entries in their reading response journals. Ask your child to see the assignment sheet which identifies both the assigned pages and response journal entries.
For the next several weeks, we will be focusing on new vocabulary. In addition spelling each night, the children will be responsible for knowing the definition of each of their spelling words. I have outlined their nightly responsibilities on a salmon-colored sheet. Ask your child to see it when he/she comes home Monday night. There will be the same assignments each week for five weeks. The vocabulary unit will culminate in a 50-word spelling test and vocabulary test. If individual modifications need to be made, rest assured that I will chat with your child about them.
Play rehearsal begins on Tuesday, January 5th. As a reminder, ALL LINES must be memorized by Tuesday, with no exceptions. I consider this first rehearsal to be a "test" to make sure all of the children have their lines memorized so we can focus on projection, characterization and blocking.
Act 3: 7:45am - 9:10am
Act 2: 3:20pm - 5:00pm
Act 1: 5:30pm - 7:00pm
The DARE essays are due Wednesday, January 6th and the third Betor's Bulls-Eye project is due Friday, January 8th. I hope you have included the DARE Graduation to your calendar. It will begin at 9:45am on Friday, January 15th in the bleacher-side of the gymnasium.
My fifth grade colleagues and I will be selling 50-50 raffle tickets at the Applebee's breakfast on Saturday morning, January 23rd; 1 for $1, 3 for $2 and an arm's length for $5. The prize for the last several years has averaged about $200 for the winner!!
I am thrilled to be sharing all of these events with your children! Looking forward to seeing you soon. Happy 2016!!
Lester B.
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