Friday, October 18, 2019

Team Aurora has a new blog post!

Hello Team!
We had a busy week on Team Aurora. Student Led Parent Conferences are happening. We have three more days next week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There are some slots left. Check last week's blog for the link to signup genius.

Even though The Bridge Home - Global Read Aloud, and general reading 20-40 pages per day in our chosen books continues...we are switching our main focus in LA to writing. On Thursday we had a writing retreat in the library with a focus on coming up with two strong true story small moment story drafts. This assignment will be checked on Monday, so have it done (one paragraph to one page in journal is expectation.)  We will work for two strong weeks to learn the ins and outs of story writing and produce a final draft for Friday, November 1 (tentative date...we'll see where we are on the 30th.)

Remember, students are expected to read every day at home (20 PAGES of a regular novel.... graphic novels and listening, plan about 20 minutes.) Students should have 4-6 novels completed at this point. Read on friends.

In math we continue with our ratio and fraction work. YAY new unit! We, as a math team have begun to look over many different formative assessments that will help us to target specific math instruction that your child may need, during our menu/seminar time. Students have been studying 3-5 math facts on notecards throughout the past month. This week we will reassess their fluency with these. Please check in with your child about these flashcards and ways you can continue this practice at home on the daily. This is much appreciated!

SCIENCE! Aurorians have been amazing at understanding the layers of the Earth. We will begin to look at plate tectonics and theories of how the Earth works. Students have been amazing scientists and asking complex questions that spark great discussions. They are great at inquiry!

If you cannot make it in for conferences, feel free to contact us by email. We can send home the binder (if you promise to return it) and give you a synopsis by email.

Upcoming homework:
Reading of course
layers of the Earth science project complete by 10/23
2-4-2 in math due Friday 10-25
word study due Friday 10-25
seesaw post due by Friday 10-25
flash draft (complete draft) of true story due by Friday 10-25

Lest this sound like an overwhelming amount of homework - most of this is finished in class. Some of us have study hall Tuesdays and Thursdays (non-band chorus kids) and we have seminar time. Some of us may only have reading for homework.

Enjoy your weekend.