WELCOME TO THE

PARENTS' CORNER

Come here to find information about the happenings within our class! 

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Classroom Rules/Expectations: We follow the 7 Habits.

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Excused Absences: students must bring a signed note from home.

Dismissal/Transportation Changes: student must bring a note for approval in the front office.

TAG -
  If you have any questions about the TAG program, please contact Melinda Sawyer (sawyer@fultonschools.org) or Jennifer Erikson (erikson@fultonschools.org).

Shakerag Teacher Professional Training Days – No School

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9/25/2017 Updates:

 

In reading we discussed elements of a plot. Students learned a fun song and hand motions to remember the different parts of a plot. Ask your child to show you the plot rap they learned in class.

 

In writing we discussed leads, body paragraphs and transitions. Students have been working hard on their seed ideas and are either writing the rough drafts or starting on them.

 

Grammar was all about components of a complete sentence. We discussed run-on and sentence fragments.

 

 

Picture Day: Picture Day has been rescheduled for Wednesday, October 4. Cady Studios will be taking our individual portraits (not class) for the yearbook. You can pre-order your portraits today at cadystudios.com/cadykids. If you have any questions at all, please contact Cady Kids’ Customer Experience Team at 800.547.6237

 

Sports/activities schedules: This one is random, but if your child plays on a sports team or does some other kind of activity, I would love to have their schedule. No promises, but I try to make it out to some of the kids’ games/activities and cheer them on. Feel free to email me their schedule. If they play any games or do activities in Gwinnett, it is especially convenient. I live in Lawrenceville. Thanks!

 

Reading Log: I have had some questions regarding the genre challenge reading log, mostly concerning length of books. My answer: if possible, all books should be chapter books. The purpose behind this reading log is to read different genres and build reading stamina.

 

Upcoming Skills/Content:

 

Reading: Plot review, Reading Quiz: Thursday 9/28 (Plot, Character traits, Setting)

 

Grammar: Capitalization and Punctuation. Grammar Quiz: Friday 9/29 (Kinds of sentences, subject predicate, Fragments and run-on sentences)

 

Writing: Endings, rough draft, peer review and final draft. Writing post assessment: 9/29 (Small moment narrative).  On Friday (9/29), your child will take the "on demand" personal narrative writing assessment. We have been working very hard on the writing process these first two months, so I have high expectations. This is not really an assessment where students need to study at home. They should be prepared as long as they have been paying attention, working hard in class, use the checklist I provide, and work hard the day of the assessment.

 

 

9/8/2017 Class Updates:

Irma: Please make sure you monitor the Fulton County Schools website (fultonschools.org) and local news stations for updates regarding the weather. Things will probably change over the weekend, so stay informed!

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Picture Day: Fall picture day is Tuesday, September 12th.

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Autumn Weather: As the weather begins to cool, please make sure your child has appropriate clothing. We will go outside for recess, even if it is cold. 

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Upcoming Skills/Content:

Reading: Setting and plot

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Writing: Small moment personal narrative unit continued. Leads and transitions. 

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Grammar: Fragments and run-ons continued. 

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Weekly HW: Please make sure your child is keeping up with weekly writing homework and his/her reading log.

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9/1/2017 Class Updates:

- NO SCHOOL: No school Monday (9/4) and Tuesday (9/5). Monday is Labor Day and Tuesday is a professional development day for Shakerag staff.

 

- Reading Test Next Week: Students wrote this in their agendas earlier in the week, but in case you did not see, we will be having our first summative assessment (test) next week. I am leaning towards giving it on Thursday or Friday, since Wednesday will be the first day of our short week. 

 

- Content/Skills on the Test: Identifying implicit and explicit information, making inferences using text evidence, using context clues to identify unknown words, and identifying internal and external character traits using implicit and explicit evidence from the text.

 

- How to Study:
               - Students are welcome to bring home their 3-subject notebooks to help study. Inside, you will find their notes (Reading Conventions section) and the classwork they have been working on (Daily 5 section).
               
               - I have assigned lessons pertaining to the test content on Moby Max. Students should log into Moby Max and go to Reading Skills Literature to work on these lessons for practice.

Next Week:

Reading: Review content and skills that will be on the test; test Friday

Grammar: Fragments and run-ons continued. 

Writing: Personal narrative unit; attention-grabbing leads

Health: We have begun a student-led health unit on safety. Students will work on this during morning work and I/E block.

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8/28/2017 Class Updates:

Class Updates:

- Weekly Homework: Keep an eye out for our weekly homework to begin this week for both reading and writing. As a reminder, this will be students' primary homework, however, they may also have other homework sporadically throughout the year.

 

- Reading: Character traits
A quiz can be expected sometime this week. It will most likely include implicit vs. explicit information, using context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words, and possibly a few questions on character traits. 

 

- Grammar: Continue subjects and predicates (complete, simple, and compound); fragments and run-on sentences

 

- Writing: Continue personal narrative writing unit; choose a seed idea, determine characters and scenes, and possibly begin developing strong leads. 

 

- No school: September 4th (Labor Day) and 5th (teacher work/professional development day)

 

- Curriculum Night Slides: I have attached my Curriculum Night Slideshow as a PDF. It covers most things at surface level, so if you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to email and ask.

 

- TAG: TAG begins this week. If your child is in TAG, please make sure they have all supplies requested and know who their teacher is. 

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8/18/2017 Class Updates: 

It has been another fantastic week of learning! This week, we have been learning about the difference between implicit information and explicit information. Ask your kids to show you the implicit/explicit rap and motions  we learned to help remember!

We began our writing unit on personal narrative "small moment" writing. We learned the difference between a storyteller and a reporter. This year, we want to become strong storytellers.

In grammar, we had a refresher on types of sentences (declarative, imperative, exclamatory, interrogative).

 

Class Updates/Upcoming Content & Skills:

 

Reading - Using context clues to determine meaning of unknown words

 

Writing - Personal narrative writing; choosing our seed idea and beginning the writing process

 

Grammar - Subjects & Predicates; run-on sentences and fragments

 

Solar Eclipse - As you already know, Georgia will be very close to full totality for Monday's solar eclipse. Please remember that, as a school, we will remain indoors for this event and will watch it live online. However, if you decide to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event with your family, it will be excused. It will be helpful to send in a written note for the front office to easily excuse the absence. Please be safe and enjoy this event! : )

 

Volunteer registration (from Karen James in the front office) - Visitors will need to sign-in at the front desk with a state issued photo ID to receive a printed visitor/volunteer badge throughout the day. If you have completed the Volunteer Registration in 2016-2017, you DO NOT have to renew this year.  The district is working on a two calendar year rotation.  Volunteers from last year will still be good until June 30, 2018.  (If you are unsure if you have completed the volunteer process, please contact Karen James in the front office.) After June 30, 2018, everyone must complete the registration again.  To keep in compliance with State Law and best practices, for the 2017-2018 school year, we will require that all persons interested in volunteering in the Fulton County School district register (if you did not do so last year) by completing the online volunteer registration/application process.  The registration process can be found on the FCS district website under Community/Partners & Volunteers.  Applicants should be prepared to spend about 10-15 minutes for the training and application process.  In accordance with state law, all volunteers must be current with the Child Abuse Reporting Protocol Training before being allowed to volunteer in our schools.  It is very important that volunteers enter their full legal name as it appears on their government issued ID (please do not use nicknames or “goes by” names on the application).  All applicants must wait 24-48 hours after applying for application processing and approval.  If you have not completed the registration process, you will not be allowed to volunteer!

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