We The People

September 17 is Constitution Day. Schools are required by law to present lessons on the significance and history of Constitution Day. Students learned today that the Constitution was debated and written over 4 months during the summer of 1787. On September 17, 1787, 39 men signed this important document that laid the foundation for our democracy. Today, we made Constitution Day bracelets out of pony beads and will learn more about this important day on Monday with Scholastic News.

We started a new math series today called “GOMath”. This new series is aligned with the newly adopted national Common Core Standards. The focus and learning skills from Chapter 1 are addition and subtraction within 1,000. Look for a Parent Letter in your child’s Fighting Bees Folder on Monday that tells how you can work with your child at home and tells more about what kind of thinking and learning they are doing in the classroom.

Your child took two weekly assessments today in reading and spelling. You can look for the results of these assessments each Monday in your child’s folder. The assessments are scored with a percentage and then the corresponding letter grade. Even though report cards in third grade use the 1, 2, or 3 numeric score, the letter grade and percentage gives you and your child an idea of what kind of grade they might receive in 4th grade. Third grade is a transition year between letter grades and the numeric score. If you have questions, please stop in, call, or send an email.

Your child took several assessments this week in math and reading. In reading, the DIBELS and DAZE assessments were given on Thursday. AIMSweb, a math assessment of computation, application and concepts, was given on Wednesday. Results of these important assessments will be shared at fall conferences in October. These assessments are given three times a year and are data that show the amount of progress your child is making in their learning. DIBELS is a reading fluency screening. Fluency refers to a student's speed, smoothness, and ease of oral reading. To help develop and improve on oral reading fluency we paired up with Mrs. Minsky’s first grade class. We met our First Grade Buddies today and spent about 20 minutes practicing oral reading.