Week 2 of Parent Conferences

Greetings from Room 10,

This week I met with each of your children in small groups.  In our guided reading groups, which consist of four leveled readers, we are focusing on reading fluency.  Readers’ theatre is our focus.  It’s both challenging and fun.

In writing, I taught the children about three different types of leads:  descriptive, action and dialogue.  Subsequently, they revised their leads and shared them with their classmates and Mrs. Bonacquist.  On Friday they typed their “Special Place” essays in the computer lab.  Next Friday, my hope is that their pieces will be published.  I plan to begin the historical fiction unit this week.  We are all excited about beginning a new writing piece.

On Thursday, I will be giving the children a crayfish vocabulary quiz.  They will also learn to take notes based on a crayfish power point I have created.  I will give them an outline, and they will be expected to take notes.  This is certainly good practice for the Middle School

Wednesday is a half-day.  The children will be released from school at 11:45 for parent-teacher conferences.  I have already sent home reminders about your scheduled conference day/time.  I am looking forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress.  I very much enjoyed the conferences I had with nine families last week.

I am excited to be working with several young ladies from our class to sell bracelets Friday evening at the Harvest Dance.  Proceeds from their sales will go benefit breast cancer.  The bracelets, which the girls are making, will be sold for $1 or $2 each.  They are also planning to sell them at the school store in the very near future.

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful day!                                               Lester Betor

It's Parent-Teacher Conference Time!!!

Greetings from Room 10, 

            I am pleased to report that I noticed some improvement in student transitions last week.  Overall, they did a much better job.  They still tend to be a tad chatty.  However, with occasional reminders, they were able to move from one subject to another without me having to raise my voice to get their attention.

            As you all probably remember, this Thursday is a half-day for the children.  I will be conducting the first round of parent-teacher conferences throughout the afternoon.  I will send home conference reminders tomorrow afternoon.  I look forward with meeting with you all.  As you know, we will not have a report card to reference.  Instead, I will provide you with a copy of the initial AimsWeb reports for both reading and math. 

            Beginning this week, we will be hosting a College of St. Rose graduate student.   Ms. Cassuci is a literacy intern who will be working with your children during our literacy blocks.  She will be working in small groups initially, and will eventually conduct full-class lessons.  She is one of many literacy interns in our building this semester.

            In writing, the children will be working on their special place piece this week.  Our focus will be revising their “leads/hooks.”  I will introduce three styles or types of leads and my goal will be for the children to use one of these styles to begin their special place essay.  Next week we will begin our long-awaited historical fiction unit.  I have been doing a lot of research on this genre, and I look forward to working with the children to write amazing historical fiction pieces.

            Last week we began Literacy Stations and this week I will begin to work with the children in guided reading groups.  Our focus for this week will be reading fluency using readers’ theatre scripts.

            Have a nice week, and I will see a third of you on Thursday!

                                                                        Lester Betor and class

Enemy Pie

Dear Parents of Room 10,

            Transitioning during instruction and specials has been challenging for the children this week.  Moving from one subject to another without talking hasn’t been easy for them.  However, we will continue to practice and I will continue to have high expectations for behavior.  Please take the opportunity to chat with your child about appropriate classroom behavior.

            In writing our focus has moved to “Specials!”  The children have drafted their first essay based on a special person in their lives.  They will also be writing about a special place and special object.  These exercises are a good way to start as they give the children an opportunity to write about people, places and things they know a lot about.

            This week I began to determine the children’s reading levels using Fountas & Pinnell, the district-approved reading assessment.  As I have mentioned previously, each assessment takes between 20-30 minutes.  I have to say that, while I was working one-on-one with some students, the remainder of the class did a beautiful job working independently.

            In the crayfish unit this week, the children will be conducting experiments related to stimuli.  Some of the kids have enjoyed taking them out of their aquarium to play with them.  Others still haven’t quite warmed up to them.  Either way, the experiments continue.  This past week we played our first crayfish vocabulary game.  It’s a cross between Jeopardy and Family Feud.  They did well.  You should encourage the children to study their crayfish vocabulary throughout the week.  A quiz will be coming in a week or so.

            We met with our “Fluency Friends” on Thursday to work on reading fluency.  This is our focus for the school year.  The children have enjoyed working on reading fluency in our classroom with Readers’ Theatre and in Mrs. Bacher’s room with her 2^nd graders.

            I am including a few pictures of the children as they listened to Mrs. Bonacquist read the story, Enemy Pie.  It’s always nice having Mrs. Bonacquist stop-by and read to the kids.  They are very attentive and engaged.

             This coming week in celebration of Farm to You Fest, the children will be enjoying a vegetable taste testing, compliments of Zoe’s mom.  Be sure to ask them what they enjoyed the most!

                                                                            Kind Regards, Lester B. and Class

It's all about CRAYFISH...

Greetings from Room 10!
     I am attaching some photographs of the children with their crayfish.  Today our focus was inherited and acquired traits of crayfish.  We also chatted about our inherited and acquired traits, as well.  We rolled tongues, bent fingers, looked at dimples and checked out our ear lobes.  Afterwards, the kids used Shelley's nail polish to color-code their crayfish.  We are in the process of naming them as well.  Lots of learning and lots of fun!

     As I have already shared with the kids, I am going to be attending a writing workshop tomorrow with my 3rd,4th and 5th grade colleagues.  Therefore, there will be a substitute teacher in for me (as well as the other 5th grade teachers).  Spelling homework Wednesday night is spelling sentences.  In addition to writing 5th grade level sentences, they must also underline or highlight each word.  I have also asked them to skip lines between sentences and write their name ON the top line.
     This afternoon, we had our first Betor's Bulls-Eye project presentation.  It was an amazing web page.  October 31st is our target date for everyone's first Betor's Bulls-Eye project.  The children may choose any book they have read to base their project on, and may choose form any project category. 
     Have a great rest-of-the-week!
                                                                                        Lester B. and Class
    

An Amazing Second Week of School

Dear Parents of Room 10,

Our year together is off to a great start.  I have been really impressed by how well your children have settled into our routine.  Overall, it has been a very smooth transition into fifth grade; probably one of the best I have experienced since beginning my teaching career.  In many ways, it’s like we have been together for a long time.  Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with me.

It was a pleasure having the opportunity to meet those of you who were able to come to Open House last night.  I love talking about my educational philosophy, and I am always anxious to share information about our program.  Fifth grade is an awesome grade to teach from both a curricular and developmental standpoint.  I am honored to have the chance to work with your children this year.

On Friday the children had their first opportunity to hold the crayfish.  Not everyone was interested in picking them up, but others couldn’t get enough of them.  We had one pinching, but no tears.  We have completed the first few lessons of our crayfish unit, and the children seem to be very engaged and interested.  We have learned about treating them humanely as well as how their new home in our classroom will be quite different from their home in a pond or stream.

Also on Friday morning, Mrs. Bonacquist had a great conversation with the children.  They seemed to enjoy chatting with their Principal about the responsibilities of being a 5^th grader.  They were very intuitive and impressed both of us with their thoughts.  Mrs. Bonacquist also read a book to our class called Enemy Pie.  Be sure to ask your child about the meaning of the title.  She also took the opportunity to chat with the children about the Lip Sync.  Be sure to ask your child about this interesting conversation.

Wednesday was our first day of DARE with Detective Whiteley.  It’s a terrific program and the kids were really into it!  Detective Whiteley will be with us for nine more weeks, and the lessons will culminate with our DARE Graduation.  The children will also write a DARE essay which you will have the opportunity to hear.  I will invite all of you in for lunch to hear the essays.  Details about the luncheon and the Graduation will be coming within the next month or so.

We are still running through the preliminary reading lessons that will set the stage for our year in reading workshop.  I hope to begin testing each student to determine his or her reading level early this week.  It will take several weeks to complete, as each test generally takes between 20-30 minutes.           Lester Betor and class