Monday, May 29, 2017

Hi Families,

It’s a busy time of year!  This week, the kids are excited to present their Artist Wax Museum on Thursday, June 1, from 10:30-11:30. Students will be practicing their short speeches at school, but please check in with your child at home to be assured that their speech is memorized. In addition, please support your child in putting together a dress-up style costume for the wax museum.

We will also be having our final math test this week, on Friday. The focus is solving story problems using multiplication and division strategies. I will send home some practice problems on Tuesday, but feel free to make up your own.

The AR test deadline is June 1st (not set by me), so encourage your child to finish their books, if possible, and to plan on taking the AR test by that day. Your kids have had several reminders throughout this term, as well as personal check-ins regarding their AR goals.

Permission slips and money are also due for out End-of-the-Year Celebration, and we still need 1-2 more drivers. You may drive if all your volunteer paperwork is in order in the office. Also, make sure that insurance information and CDL are up-to-date.

Finally, it’s been a great pleasure to work with your kids this year. If I don’t see you personally, please know that I have had an interesting and fun year, and have appreciated all the support you have given to your kids, and the greater Rio del Mar Elementary community.

All the best,

Carroll Mayer

Monday, May 15, 2017

HI All,

Thank you so much for all the special gifts and acknowledgements for Teacher's Day and my birthday! It was a fun week, capped off by Mother's Day. I hope you all enjoyed a special time with your family as well.

This week we expect to complete the state testing. Many kids will be done tomorrow, and others will finish up on Wednesday or Thursday.

When we're not testing, the kids have begun a short research project on a famous artist. I'm pretty flexible about their artist choice, and they can research using websites, as well as books I have in the class.  They will be writing a "first person" speech that is 8-10 sentences long, and then saying their speech during a Wax Museum. The speech has to be short, because they will repeat it many times as various students from other classes come to listen to them talk. We will be in the cafeteria on June 1, from 10:30-11:30 if you'd like to attend. As homework, kids need to memorize and practice their speech, think of a beginning pose, and put together a dress-up style costume to represent their artist.

Some kids are also bringing home a note attached to their weekly homework Choice Board notifying you that they have not completed their Social Studies Hyperdoc. Please discuss this with your child, and encourage them to work on this assignment at home. (This work is web-based, so let me know if your child needs hard copies of the work due to technology problems.)

Finally, I am sending home the Geometry test. Kids will have the option of retaking portions of the test if they are unhappy with their outcome. Please be sure to clearly mark those portions that were unsatisfactory and have your child return with the original test. Also, please have your child review the problem areas prior to taking a new test version.  I will only give retakes on parts of the test to kids who have returned their original. We will do the retake next Monday.

Have a great week!
Carroll Mayer