Friday, October 26, 2012

Next Week Oct. 29-Nov. 2

Our New President is Matt Inman.
Our Vice President is Allen James.

We are looking forward to a great week with Halloween in the middle.

In Reading we are starting Unit 2.  This unit will focus on Non-fiction and Science Stories.
 We will be working on the following skills:
  • Summerization
  • Sequence
  • Drawing Conclusions
  • Main Idea and Details
  • Author's Purpose
  • Fact and Opinion
  • Analysing Text Structure
  • Description of what is observed
In Socials Studies We will continue to work on Colonial Times that leads into the Revolutionary Time Period of the United States.

In Language Arts we will be working on Persuasive writing, grammar skills, and editing.


In Math We are in Unit 5 Geometry:
  • Finding the area and perimeter of triangles and quadrilaterals.
  • Naming regular polygons.
  • Number of and locations of lines of symmetry in polygons
  • Classifying Quadrilaterals by looking at attributes including:
    • number of sides
    • length of sides
  • Use a protractor and measure angles
  • Define if an angle is acute, obtuse, or right angle

We are looking forward to a great month of November. See you at conferences.

School with a big heart - Goskagit.com: All Access: breast cancer, students, pink, mount vernon,

School with a big heart - Goskagit.com: All Access: breast cancer, students, pink, mount vernon,: MOUNT VERNON — Leaving puffy jackets on the asphalt — and at least one Justin Bieber backpack — Lincoln Elementary School students Thursday sh…

Monday, October 22, 2012

New From Mrs. Johnston's Class

This week Shawn was elected Class President. His message to the class is to "have a good week."

We have a new high school helper named Tony. He will be with us every other day. Tony is a Junior in High School at M.V.H.S..  He wants to be a teacher when he grows up. This is a great opportunity for students to get a taste of what teaching is like.

Changes to Homework this week:
This week there is no Spelling List due to the Reading Unit 1 Test. We have a review week. If you need to retake a spelling test that you did not do well on, please study and retake at your recess.


Wednesday:

Final Draft of "Lincoln in the Dark"
Be ready to read it in the dark by  flashlight. I will provide the flashlight.

Thursday:

  • Wear Pink Day -We are supporting Breast Cancer Awareness at our school on Thrilling Thursday. 
  • Auditions and Interviews for the I Can Fly Production will be held in the Auditorium on Thursday 1:45-3:10 PM. 
  • Skate Night (Costumes optional. $3 for regular skates 6-8 PM
Friday -Picture Day

Have a great week.




Thursday, October 11, 2012

President Grace C. Reign Has Come to an End

This past week Grace has been our Reigning Class President. She has ruled well. She was fair and just.
She proposed a debate over what the consequences to late work should be. There were many suggestions. Everyone present was given the opportunity to speak. A vote was held once  the consequences were narrowed down to the following:

Votes        Consequences
3              A Step for the person that would effect the behavior grade but no consequence in the "Star for the
                       Day" for the Class.
15           A summary written in cursive at your recess with 5 sentences about the subject in which you were
                       late. This would not include RAH and signatures.
3              Both of the above.

As you can see the second consequence was the majority vote. We will start imposing this next week. All homework is given to the students on the last day of the previous week.

Grace ended her ruling days with a new election for next week's president. Our next week's President will be Isaac and a Vice President will be Shawn. (We decided that someone could be Vice President so that if a president was ill someone would be there in his or her place. The Vice President could be elected as President in the future. The Vice President this week was not appointed by the president but was within one votes of the class president choice.) Good luck Isaac and Shawn.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Week 5 Summary



Dear Parents and Guardians:

This week we ended with "Inside Out Day". Wow! That explains this week in a nut shell. We started this week with Two Days of Mr. Sparks a full time Sub. He told stories instead of following my plans that I created for a different sub.. I was at a mandated district Grammar Training. On Wednesday we took the MAPS Reading Test. Well let' say we started to take the MAPS reading test. It took until Friday to finish for some kids due to the start and stop times that were imposed. We use the growth from the Spring to Spring Scores; so this will not count towards their progress. Many students dropped over Summer Break. This is important to note with your child. It is important to have your child read over the summer. The summer reading program at the Public Library helps me help my own children stay motivated to read.

We ended the week with a new student. He is from Arizona. He is a great addition to our class. He is very kind and willing to help. 

As a class we discussed what would help us be more successful in class. We also picked new jobs for October.

We created a new job of " Class President". The person will be elected weekly by his or her peers in a class election.  

The rules:

  1. You could only vote once
  2. You could not vote for yourself
  3. You could only be voted in one term (Term= 1 Week)
  4. You needed to recognize the class with a thank you symbol, another idea that values your own abilities and strengths, or an acceptance speech for the class.
  5. You would be in charge of "Steps" in the class if directed by the teacher. 
  6. You would be a fair President and not just chose those you like. 
  7. You would be able to ask clarifying questions of the class as a whole and to excuse kids to recess early that were listening, participating, and paying attention in class.
With all these in mind the class Democratic Vote was tallied fairly by sixth graders and myself.

The vote went to Grace. She has chosen to address her "population of citizens" with a thank you speech. May she rule well for one week.

In other news of the class:
While some kids were still MAP testing, we were graciously taught by Aiden on Friday. We learned how to use Google Docs and Google Presentation. We realize, that as a parent, you may chose not to give your child a Google account. But we wanted your children to know that if they wished to have an account and you allowed them, it is a great way to create and save documents to open elsewhere in the world on Google. Aiden showed how to create an account, his documents, and presentation tools. He has been able to use and create a mini start to a whole class document. Thank you, Aiden, for taking a large role in our Technology Education.

In even other news: 

Mrs. Johnston has misspoken Isaac's name again, and again and again...
The contest is over and Isaac won for the class. The soda or treats that were "food" products were a choice for the class due to the fact that I have really misspoke Isaac's name and called him Eli (His brother's name). He named his treat of choice "Crush Soda"  as a "What can I possibly make it up to you?" Reward.

I created a Crush Soda Trophy to Isaac due to the fact that I called him, "ELI!" too many times to count.

Public Service Announcement:
 I want you all to know that I value each and everyone of your children. I know that each individual is special for their own abilities and strengths. I believe all kids can learn!  In so saying,  I know that many of you do not wish your children to eat junk food. I have and will bring fresh fruit, veggies, and other healthy treats or non-edible treats and rewards into class. If you have anything that you have cleaned out of your bedrooms, closets, etc. for our reward box or you would like to buy items to help; please donate to the celebrations in our class. We try to do drawings weekly. There are non-edible prizes each and every time. Your child can partake as you wish. I clearly explained for them to take the soda home, if they had the soda as a choice, and not drink it until you allowed.

Once again this was a once in a life time (or Year) event that I will not repeat as a treat.

Birthdays are sometimes celebrated in the classrooms. We had one last week and this week. If you wish for your child to have a healthier treat than what is provided by the birthday family at that time, please feel free to create a snack box for your child to pull from at that time. We have had that before with students that have food allergies and wish to have a different approved choice. I hope this helps so that we can keep celebrating in our class.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Gracie Johnston