Welcome back, everyone! I'm so excited to reconnect with the class today. This will be our first week giving a hybrid schedule a go. Please check your emails for a whole-school schedule from Ms. Jennifer, as well as an Upper El-specific schedule from me.
This week, we will start our new year together by updating our goals from the beginning of the school year, as well as updating and annotating our portfolios. We'll be sharing these with you at our February conferences. We'll also do some midyear check-ins beginning this week, including a historical fiction reading assessment and an on-demand narrative.
The class will select their next literature circle book, and our genre study will be mystery! They'll practice letter-writing format by responding to their pen-pals, and next week, we'll begin writing memoirs. We will start our next Social Studies unit on government, and may even create our own class government or "micronation" in the weeks ahead!
Prior to break, your child was asked to bring home their writing folder (containing their pen-pal letters) and their word study notebook. To help support your child during our back-and-forth between school and home, please consider getting them a backpack for their items. Additionally, when picking them up at the end of the day, please ask if they have remembered all of their materials to be brought home. We aren't a homework school, so this process will be new to most! Lastly, please help your child develop a system for keeping track of their materials while at home. Perhaps they keep items in the backpack when not in use, or their notebooks and books remain in a designated location. Your support with their class materials will help us to seamlessly continue our learning, whether we're in school or are at home.
Check out what we were up to the week before Winter Break!