Our goal is to help students treasure their own strengths, interests, beliefs and accomplishments as well as appreciate these attributes in others. Today, students constructed Venn diagrams with a partner to identify similarities and differences between one another.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Gifts and Fascinations
Our goal is to help students treasure their own strengths, interests, beliefs and accomplishments as well as appreciate these attributes in others. Today, students constructed Venn diagrams with a partner to identify similarities and differences between one another.
The Three Questions
When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do? Ask your child about the moral lesson learned after listening to this simple yet profound picture book.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Question of the Day
Are we going to have homework?
Answer: YES! We will begin homework next week on Monday. Each student will receive a planner and begin to record assignments. Many are eager to begin homework and have asked so we thought we would let you know!
Answer: YES! We will begin homework next week on Monday. Each student will receive a planner and begin to record assignments. Many are eager to begin homework and have asked so we thought we would let you know!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
First Week of School!
A busy week!
We have been hard at work with many activities while learning about one another as we settle in to 5th grade! Below are some activities you can discuss with your child:
Class Dictionary
Artifact Sharing
My Dog Is As Smelly as Dirty Socks
I Am Poems
Read Aloud: The Fabled Fourth Graders from Aesop Elementary
Smart Cookies
Math
Venn Digarams - same and different
Directions Game
Reflections
We have been hard at work with many activities while learning about one another as we settle in to 5th grade! Below are some activities you can discuss with your child:
Class Dictionary
Artifact Sharing
My Dog Is As Smelly as Dirty Socks
I Am Poems
Read Aloud: The Fabled Fourth Graders from Aesop Elementary
Smart Cookies
Math
Venn Digarams - same and different
Directions Game
Reflections
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Welcome Letter
Welcome to 5th Grade!
In a few days, you will be starting 5th grade and your last year at Wickliffe! We are looking forward to the school year. We will be doing lots of fun projects and working hard, so we hope you’re ready!
We would like to let you know that you will have two teachers next year, but you are not in a job share classroom. Mrs. Slater and Mrs. McEvoy will be your teachers. We will both be teaching and learning together with you ~ all day, every day! We are very excited to be teaching together in the same classroom. Our classroom is room 211, around the corner from the top of the main stairs. We have both taught at Wickliffe for a long time.
To begin the school year, we would like you to bring some artifacts that represent you and that tell us something about yourself. If you are not sure what an artifact is, just bring some objects that tell something about you. There are two requirements for these artifacts. First, that each artifact fits into a sandwich size plastic bag. It could be a photograph, souvenir from somewhere you’ve been or an object that represents something you love or like to do - anything you can think of that will help us learn something about you. Please make sure these objects aren’t too large and also make sure it is something you can part with. Please don’t bring in a very special piece of jewelry, something very valuable to you or a special trinket from someone. We are going to use these for an art collage and they will get glue on them. We will talk about this more on the first day of school, but you can start thinking about your artifacts now.
We are looking forward to meeting you soon! It’s okay if you are a little nervous, we will be, too, but we are very excited to meet you and start the year! Enjoy the rest of the summer and we'll see you in a few days!
Get ready to have some fun and work hard! See you soon!
Love,
Mrs. McEvoy and Mrs. Slater
In a few days, you will be starting 5th grade and your last year at Wickliffe! We are looking forward to the school year. We will be doing lots of fun projects and working hard, so we hope you’re ready!
We would like to let you know that you will have two teachers next year, but you are not in a job share classroom. Mrs. Slater and Mrs. McEvoy will be your teachers. We will both be teaching and learning together with you ~ all day, every day! We are very excited to be teaching together in the same classroom. Our classroom is room 211, around the corner from the top of the main stairs. We have both taught at Wickliffe for a long time.
To begin the school year, we would like you to bring some artifacts that represent you and that tell us something about yourself. If you are not sure what an artifact is, just bring some objects that tell something about you. There are two requirements for these artifacts. First, that each artifact fits into a sandwich size plastic bag. It could be a photograph, souvenir from somewhere you’ve been or an object that represents something you love or like to do - anything you can think of that will help us learn something about you. Please make sure these objects aren’t too large and also make sure it is something you can part with. Please don’t bring in a very special piece of jewelry, something very valuable to you or a special trinket from someone. We are going to use these for an art collage and they will get glue on them. We will talk about this more on the first day of school, but you can start thinking about your artifacts now.
We are looking forward to meeting you soon! It’s okay if you are a little nervous, we will be, too, but we are very excited to meet you and start the year! Enjoy the rest of the summer and we'll see you in a few days!
Get ready to have some fun and work hard! See you soon!
Love,
Mrs. McEvoy and Mrs. Slater
Welcome Letter to Parents
Dear Parents,
Hello and welcome to the 2010-2011 school year and 5th grade for your child! We are excited to start the year. We look forward to getting to know the kids and hearing their ideas. We will share more information with you about our year at Parent Information Night on Wednesday, September 1st in the evening. In the interim, please read below for more information about your child's classroom.
We are excited to have increased opportunities for team teaching this year. This is a result of changes to grade level assignments for support staff at Wickliffe while continuing to provide more common planning time for grade level teams. Your child will have two teachers next year in the classroom, Shawna McEvoy and Tammy Slater. Combined, we have taught at Wickliffe for over 30 years. However, this is not a job share classroom. Our class will have 24 children and 2 teachers, all day.
When looking at a collaborative teaching model during the 2009-10 school year, staff met several times after school, reviewed current research, invited a teacher from a neighboring school district who works in a cooperative teaching model, and conducted a site visit to a school that teaches with two teachers in class all day. We have worked during the summer to plan and have become very excited and energized by the possibilities that having two teachers working together in a classroom will afford. We believe that working together in a collaborative manner, sharing the planning and delivery of services while expanding our professional expertise, will enrich learning opportunities for all students. We also believe this approach to staffing our classroom is consistent with our Ten Foundational Principles of Progressive Education, particularly the following principles: teacher and children using time and space in a flexible manner, respecting diversity among children and variation in development, value ongoing reflection and self-evaluation by children and adults and viewing our school as a center for teaching and learning of all ages.
One of our goals this year is to help each child discover his/her individual passions and strengths and how to develop those qualities. It is important to us to not only work hard but to build a classroom community that is caring and cooperative. These first weeks of school will be spent laying the foundation and establishing routines that will help each child be self-motivated, independent, responsible and kind.
We will begin our school year by doing some getting to know you games, community building activities and beginning routines. We’ll be writing, reading, doing word play and having some science fun the first week.
We will have a class blog this year. You can find "Tales from 211" at http://talesfrom211.blogspot.com/
In addition, you can contact us at:
Shawna McEvoy: smcevoy@uaschools.org
Tammy Slater: tslater@uaschools.org
We are looking forward to getting to know both you and your child and to a very productive, fun and hard-working year!
Shawna McEvoy and Tammy Slater
Hello and welcome to the 2010-2011 school year and 5th grade for your child! We are excited to start the year. We look forward to getting to know the kids and hearing their ideas. We will share more information with you about our year at Parent Information Night on Wednesday, September 1st in the evening. In the interim, please read below for more information about your child's classroom.
We are excited to have increased opportunities for team teaching this year. This is a result of changes to grade level assignments for support staff at Wickliffe while continuing to provide more common planning time for grade level teams. Your child will have two teachers next year in the classroom, Shawna McEvoy and Tammy Slater. Combined, we have taught at Wickliffe for over 30 years. However, this is not a job share classroom. Our class will have 24 children and 2 teachers, all day.
When looking at a collaborative teaching model during the 2009-10 school year, staff met several times after school, reviewed current research, invited a teacher from a neighboring school district who works in a cooperative teaching model, and conducted a site visit to a school that teaches with two teachers in class all day. We have worked during the summer to plan and have become very excited and energized by the possibilities that having two teachers working together in a classroom will afford. We believe that working together in a collaborative manner, sharing the planning and delivery of services while expanding our professional expertise, will enrich learning opportunities for all students. We also believe this approach to staffing our classroom is consistent with our Ten Foundational Principles of Progressive Education, particularly the following principles: teacher and children using time and space in a flexible manner, respecting diversity among children and variation in development, value ongoing reflection and self-evaluation by children and adults and viewing our school as a center for teaching and learning of all ages.
One of our goals this year is to help each child discover his/her individual passions and strengths and how to develop those qualities. It is important to us to not only work hard but to build a classroom community that is caring and cooperative. These first weeks of school will be spent laying the foundation and establishing routines that will help each child be self-motivated, independent, responsible and kind.
We will begin our school year by doing some getting to know you games, community building activities and beginning routines. We’ll be writing, reading, doing word play and having some science fun the first week.
We will have a class blog this year. You can find "Tales from 211" at http://talesfrom211.blogspot.com/
In addition, you can contact us at:
Shawna McEvoy: smcevoy@uaschools.org
Tammy Slater: tslater@uaschools.org
We are looking forward to getting to know both you and your child and to a very productive, fun and hard-working year!
Shawna McEvoy and Tammy Slater
What Mrs. McEvoy and Mrs. Slater believe:
1. There is always room for everyone - at meeting, in a work group, at lunch, even if you have to move to let someone in or tell someone else to let someone in. Always include everyone.
2. We are a caring community. We come in an assortment of shapes, sizes and colors. We all have special gifts and we all have things we need to work on together.
3. Life is not fair. That’s just the way it is - sometimes it is in your favor, sometimes not!
4. The same is boring—and so it might be reasonable to assume that everyone in the world could and should (and in our classroom WILL) be accepted for who they are.
5. There are people who talk with their mouths and people who talk with their hands and people who talk by pointing and people who tell us all we need to know with their bodies if we only listen well—We will talk to and listen to each other.
6. We all need to help one another and support one another. We all have things we are good at and things we need help with and we are here to help each other. None of us is alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
7. Our words have power. It is important to STOP and THINK about what words you say before you say them. Use words to help people, not hurt them.
8. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. Be gentle with others when they make mistakes and be gentle with yourself when you make a mistake. Remember the Golden Rule, Treat others as you want to be treated.
9. Honesty (even when it hurts) is always the best policy. If you are trying to be honest with someone about a difficult topic, be kind, but be honest.
10. Be respectful, be kind and be polite...all three will take you wherever you want to go, even if you are not treated that way.
Be positive. Smile, say hello, make eye contact! You will always feel better making someone smile than making someone hurt.
We are here to help you.
1. There is always room for everyone - at meeting, in a work group, at lunch, even if you have to move to let someone in or tell someone else to let someone in. Always include everyone.
2. We are a caring community. We come in an assortment of shapes, sizes and colors. We all have special gifts and we all have things we need to work on together.
3. Life is not fair. That’s just the way it is - sometimes it is in your favor, sometimes not!
4. The same is boring—and so it might be reasonable to assume that everyone in the world could and should (and in our classroom WILL) be accepted for who they are.
5. There are people who talk with their mouths and people who talk with their hands and people who talk by pointing and people who tell us all we need to know with their bodies if we only listen well—We will talk to and listen to each other.
6. We all need to help one another and support one another. We all have things we are good at and things we need help with and we are here to help each other. None of us is alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
7. Our words have power. It is important to STOP and THINK about what words you say before you say them. Use words to help people, not hurt them.
8. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. Be gentle with others when they make mistakes and be gentle with yourself when you make a mistake. Remember the Golden Rule, Treat others as you want to be treated.
9. Honesty (even when it hurts) is always the best policy. If you are trying to be honest with someone about a difficult topic, be kind, but be honest.
10. Be respectful, be kind and be polite...all three will take you wherever you want to go, even if you are not treated that way.
Be positive. Smile, say hello, make eye contact! You will always feel better making someone smile than making someone hurt.
We are here to help you.
Monday, August 9, 2010
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