Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Super Stars!


5h Grade DEBATE at Olinca

Students who wish to participate in the DEBATE taking place on Nov. 22nd at the Olinca, must pass the mini, "pre-debate" tomorrow with Azul. You must come prepared tomorrow, Thursday Sept. 27th, with your investigation of "pro's and con's" of the topic, The Use of Smart Phones and Mobile Devices is Beneficial to Social Behavior and Interaction.

Please visit the Homework section to see exactly what you need to do and bring tomorrow.

Only students who do investigation on the topic and bring their list of pro's and con's will participate tomorrow and be considered for the DEBATE.


Friday, September 21, 2012

Just wanted to say...

http://www.oyepictures.com/pictures/thank-you/

I really enjoyed everything: the decorations, the surprise, the fabulous chocolate cake and cool candle, the beautiful card, the gift in the envelope... but most of all, the best part was seeing everybody there together to celebrate with me!


So, thank you from the bottom of my heart.


You made my day.


Sincerely,


Dani

No Classes Next Friday, Sept. 28th

Just a reminder that there are no classes next Friday, Sept. 28th.

No Grammar Assessment this week, just Spelling

Because of the short week (Sept. 24th - 27th) we will only be having a Spelling Assessment, but not a Grammar one.


Important: Change in Raz-kids policy

The Raz-kids policies are changing:

Instead of doing 90 minutes per week, we will now have to read a minimum of 2 books per week with a score of 90% or better on the quiz on the first try in order to receive a 10 grade in the Reading homework. If you get less than a 90% on the quiz you will be graded accordingly.

Please remember: two books "per week" means that students have from Friday afternoon until next Thursday evening to finish the two books and complete the quiz. This is a total of 7 days to complete this assignment.

Should you have any questions about this new policy, please do not hesitate to email me: dmelgoza@peterson.edu.mx

Thank you

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

No Spelling or Grammar Assessment this week..

Because of MAP testing and the short week, there will be no Spelling or Grammar Assessment this week. We are only reviewing all the Spelling words in class and doing Grammar worksheets for homework.

TICKETS

Today I passed out 5 tickets per student worth 2 points each. They are here to encourage an English-Only speaking environment in the classroom. Every Monday each student will get 5 tickets (total worth of 10 points to start off the week). If your child is speaking Spanish, he/she will begin to lose tickets. On Friday's I will check to see how many tickets each student has. If they have 10 or more, it is a "10" grade in Oral English for that week. Anything lower and the grade lowers as well. For ex., 3 tickets is equivalent to 6 points which is equivalent to a "6" in their Oral English grade. Every two weeks I will be having a Ticket Sale where students can buy "class passes" for privileges in the classroom. If they buy a "homework pass", they don't have to do the homework that day, but they are responsible to complete it later.

Tickets are allowed inside backpacks, but are not allowed to be stored at home. Your student must bring their tickets to school every day in order for the ticket system to work.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Dani

Friday, September 14, 2012

MAP Testing

This week we will start MAP testing. You cannot study for MAP tests, but you can make sure you come to school and are present so you can do your very best.

Good luck!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

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Use of dictionaries and on-line translators for homework..

Please know that it is 100% OK for students to use Spanish/English dictionaries, or on-line translators for anything they do in the homework. They have their dictionaries here at school as well to use during classwork (except during assessments, of course).

The use of dictionaries is a totally acceptable and encouraged practice, so please by all means use them.

One terrific on-line English/Spanish dictionary is: wordreference.com

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Spelling assessment now on Thursdays - Grammar assessment now on Fridays

Due to scheduling, we will now do our Spelling assessments on Thursdays and the Grammar assessments on Fridays.

You should be studying your Spelling words everyday, but please be ready for the assessment on Thursdays now.

The Grammar assessment will be on Fridays and you should be familiar with the concepts we are learning that week. For example, this week we are doing Dependent and Independent clauses. You must know what they are and how to identify them in a sentence for the Grammar assessment. Take the quiz listed in the Homework section of this blog under Thursday's homework and see if you're ready...