Newsletter Oct.16-18; Oct.23-27

Dear parents,

This newsletter contains information of the next two weeks since next week is a short week.

We are going to talk about implementing Mandarin Only Timeline on Monday, October 23. I will do a craft with the students to help them understand that in order to help their Mandarin grow, they need to speak Mandarin, read in Mandarin and write in Mandarin. Therefore, they should try their best to talk in Mandarin only in the classroom begins with Monday, October 23. I will use a reward system to encourage Mandarin output. I will also teach them some strategies like act out, draw pictures or describe the things by the words they know to communicate!

Information and Reminders:
No homework for the week of October 16-18

October 19-20: teacher CEA convention, no school

Up in Lights: Evie Allen October 23-27
Please finish and send your child’s package the week before your child’s special week. During your child’s special week, it is a wonderful opportunity to have lunch with your child, bring in pets, and or share special talents your family members may have been blessed with. Just inform me ahead of time what is your plan.

Grandparents Day: Friday, Nov. 3 Here is the school map and invitation.

November 8 and 9: No P.M. bus; No hot lunch

November Birthday Celebrations:
Harper Lubbers Friday, Nov.17
Ellie Lamer Monday, Nov.20
Greta Geurink Tuesday, Nov.21

From the Immersion Coordinator
Should we be concerned about the MAPS test being offered in English when our immersion students have had limited exposure to English? 
Our students in 3rd grade and above have begun MAPS testing this week. While this test is fully in English, the results will still be valuable for individual and programatic data. Research has consistently displayed that standardized testing is still reliable regardless of the difference in language of testing and language of instruction. However, we do interpret the results of our immersion students through the lens of immersion; there are certain areas where we would expect our immersion students to be lower (for example–spelling) for certain grade levels. Conversely, there are also areas where we would expect them to be higher. The intent of these tests are to show individual student growth over time. It will also give us valuable information from which to compare our various programs at school. Offer your children an encouraging word as they anticipate these assessments and remind them to be confident as they approach the English…we know the skills transfer between languages and we are confident in our immersion students’ adaptability! 

Curriculum

Language Arts
Daily 5
We learned about another component of Daily 5 called Word Work. Students have mandatory word practice to finish. After that, they have eight choices to choose from to practice their word work. They are rainbow words, magnetic doodles, shaving cream, corn starch, play dough, whiteboard, laminated squares for characters and window screen.

Writers’ Workshop:
We will continue our first unit called “Oral language: Building a Talking Community”. This coming week, we will tell stories by using drawing. The goal of this unit is to invite children to tell stories about themselves and things they know and can do.

Math
Relate objects and numbers 6-10

Science
We will introduce a new unit about motions. We will talk about motion on the playground.

Bible
Joseph the dreamer; Joseph, Slave and Prisoner; Joseph and two dreams; Joseph becomes a ruler; Joseph is reunited with his family.

We will learn about the fruits of the sprit throughout the year. For the month of October, we will learn about the fruit of joy.

Social Studies
We will continue the Project Based Learning (PBL) unit of making a map for grandparents’ day. This week, we will learn about position words and walk around the school by using a map to highlight the places we often go to for specials and lunch.

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