Conference Scheduling

Conferences are coming up on October 13th and 14th.  Please schedule a conference time as soon as possible.  To schedule, go to bridgerelementary.weebly.com and select the Online Scheduler link.  On the scheduler page: 

1. Choose 'Bridger' from the drop down list and click "go."
2. Enter the school password (bears).
3. Enter your student's ID (it is their lunch number).
4. Verify your student's birth date.
5. A list of teachers will be displayed - check the box next to the name of each teacher you would like to meet with.  Ms. Navarro and I will be conducting conferences together, so you only need to schedule one conference to meet with both of us.
6. Select the conference time that works best for your schedule.
7. Once you have finished, confirm your appointment details and print your schedule.
8. WRITE DOWN YOUR CONFIRMATION NUMBER - YOU WILL NEED IT IF YOU NEED TO CANCEL YOUR APPOINTMENT.       

September 29 - October 3

There will be no school this Friday so that teachers may prepare for conferences (they are coming up fast!).  The school secretary will be opening up the online scheduler this week, so please make sure to check the school website (there is a link to the right) to schedule your conference.  DLI will be conducting conferences from 12:20-7:00 on Monday, October 13th, and Tuesday, October 14th.  We look forward to meeting with you and discussing your child's progress.
Here is what we will be working on in English this week:

• compound sentences with details
• counting up (when subtracting, start at the bottom number and "count up" to the top number to get the answer)
• class mission statement
• reading strategy: infer
• reading strategy: predict
• Good Touch/Bad Touch - Tues.-Thur. @ 1:50
• gravity
• reading reward on Thursday @ 145 (this is only for those students that met the reading goal of 380 minutes in October)

September 22 - 26

We have two school-wide goals this year: 1) that students will be at school on time every day, and 2) that students will read for twenty minutes each night from their take-home books.  Our expectation is that 85% of our students will meet these goals each week.  We have been doing a fantastic job meeting goal #1; we have exceeded 85% every week so far.  We are not doing so well with goal #2; only 12 DLI students (out of 50 total) met the goal this week.  If students are doing their homework reading, they are meeting the goal.  
We have purposely structured homework to not last more than half an hour.  Students should be spending twenty minutes reading their take-home books in Spanish and English, and then ten minutes on math.  If it is taking longer or your student is getting frustrated because the work is too difficult, please let us know.
Here is what we will be working on this week in English:

• making compound sentences
• counting on
• bridging (or branching) in math
• fluency strategy: choosing appropriate level text
• comprehension strategy: infer and support
• comprehension strategy: predict
• hearing screenings - Friday morning
• healthy eating assembly - Monday afternoon
• We have officially begun Power Hour (our reading instruction time), so if your child has been talking about going to another teacher for reading, that is why.  We have grouped the students by their needs according to our DIBELS testing, and each teacher is working on one area of need.  For example, I work with students that need to improve their accuracy, while students that are working on letter sounds go to Mrs. Webb, etc.  We will be monitoring their progress weekly and move them to different groups as necessary.

Here is what we will be working on this week in Spanish:

• bridging (or branching) in math
• ten bonds and doubles
• math terms: sum, counting on, doubles, number sentence, addends
• comparing and contrasting seasonal weather patterns
• culture: Hispanic Heritage month, El Salvador, Mexico, Chile, Guatemala, and Costa Rica 
• Language arts: closed syllables (atan, otros, buscan, isla, pasta, mas, alma, corte, gustan, sol, alto, barcos)
• reading vocabulary: atronauta (astronaut), gravedad (gravity), telescopio (telescope), experimentos (experiments), transbordador (rocket/spaceship)

September 15 - 19

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted.  Both of us were down sick all weekend, and we're still moving a bit slowly today!  We have a busy week ahead.
Here is what we will be working on in English this week:

• Vision screening on Monday
• Picture  day on Wednesday
• doubles and ten facts
• counting on
• adjectives - what are they?  How are they used?
• begin official Daily 5 reading instruction (some students may be going to other rooms in order to meet their specific needs)
• comprehension strategy: use prior knowledge
• accuracy strategy: use the picture
• paragraph writing
• science: germs

Here is what we will be working on in Spanish this week:

Friday is a short day.  School will be out at 12:00.

September 8 - 12

Much better homework response this week!  Thank you for your help and support at home!  Of all 50 students, 39 turned in their homework packet; that's a 78% completion rate.  Of the 39 that turned in their packet, 23 completed all four nights of reading take-home books.  
We have had several questions/concerns about the homework being too easy.  At this point, we have only been reviewing first grade material to make sure that everyone is ready to move on to second grade content.  There will be one more week of review (this week), and then we will be sending home second grade appropriate math.  If it still continues to be too easy, we can talk about what to do at that time.
One of our school-wide goals this year is that (as an entire school) we will read 2 million minutes.  We can easily accomplish this goal by reading 20 minutes per night for five nights each week.  This week, 12 students(52%) in the blue class and 11 students (41%) in the red class met the goal.  Students that meet their reading goal for the entire month will be invited to an award activity at the end of the month.

Here is what we will be working on in English this week:

• writing simple sentences (have a noun and a verb, begin with a capital letter, end with punctuation, and make sense)
• didn't get to adjectives last week, so that is still on the agenda for this week
• ten frames
• even and odd numbers
• the meaning of the equal sign - this may sound really basic, but at this point most students don't have a complete understanding of what it means, and that it can be used in many ways.
• comprehension strategy: cross-checking
• comprehension strategy: monitor and fix-up
• pronouns
• continuing to work on our stamina for Daily 5 routines and procedures (the red group made it a full 20 minutes last week during their read to self time!)
• goal for take-home book reading - 5 nights this week (100 minutes total)

Here is what we will be working on in Spanish this week:

• continue with composing and decomposing numbers (6-10)
• doubles
• math terms: sum, counting on, doubles, number sentence
• phonics: closed syllables
• comprehension: main idea
• vocabulary skill: position words
• fluency: accuracy and rate
• high frequency words: viaje, aprender, lleno, dormir, mientras, limpio
• social studies: healthy relationships

September 1 - September 5

Please remember that we will not have school on Monday in celebration of Labor Day. Almost everyone knows their lunch number!  And everyone came in from recess on time this week!  We are still having problems with students not bringing their homework folders to school each day. We also had a few hiccups with homework this week.  Only 40% of DLI students turned their homework packet in today, and only 40% met their reading goal for the week.  Those are very disappointing numbers.  The homework packet is always due on the last day of the week (usually it is Friday, but not always).  To meet their reading goal (read their take-home book for 20 minutes a night for five nights), they must read their book and then show me their signed book list in the morning.  When they show it to me, I check it off and put a tally by their name.  If they have five tallies at the end of the week, they have met their reading goal (during short weeks, they may have fewer tallies).  I hope this helps to clarify.  If you still have questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of us. Here is what we will be working on in the English side this week:

• take-home book reading goal = 80 minutes (4 nights of 20 minutes)
• art - we will finish our self-portraits on Tuesday morning
• making and identifying simple sentences: starts with a capital, ends with punctuation, makes sense, contains a noun and a verb
• adjectives - What are they?  How do I use them?
• creating a class mission statement - What do we want to accomplish this year?
• comprehension strategy: back-up and reread (didn't get to this last week!)
• comprehension strategy: cross-checking
• social studies: choices and consequences
• Daily 5: continuing to increase our stamina for reading to self, continuing to practice our word work routine, and introducing our procedure for buddy reading
• math talk about 10

Here is what we will be working on in the Spanish side this week:

• math: fact families
• math: working with 6 and 7(bonds, composing/decomposing, counting by, etc)
• social studies: choices and consequences
• using complete sentences when they speak in Spanish
• math picture talk with numbers (showing the students a picture and talking about the groups and configuration of objects in the picture)
• comprehension strategy: back-up and reread (didn't get to this last week!)
• listening to songs, trying to sing along, and following along with the words on the screen ( the songs are Mi Gallito, Pollito Amarillito, and Pin Pon)

August 25 - 29

The first two days of school have gone smoothly.  We only had only one child that did not bring their homework folder back to school (that's awesome!).  Thanks for making sure it got back to school!
Here is what we will be working on this week in the English side:

• Comprehension strategy: check for understanding
• Comprehension strategy: back-up and reread
• The three things  needed to make a sentence: a capital letter at the beginning, punctuation at the end, and a complete thought (a noun and a verb)
• Nouns, verbs, and adjectives
• Words Their Way test to determine their spelling levels for word work
• We will begin working on our Daily 5 routines - focus on read to self this week
• Math Talk about 5

Here is what we will be working on in the Spanish side:

• Social Studies: community (people in the school)
• Math: working with 5 (bonds, composing/decomposing, counting by, etc)
• listening to stories and songs
• Comprehension strategy: check for understanding
• Comprehension strategy: back-up and reread