News for the week

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Semester One Report Cards     Your child’s first semester report will be emailed to you on Friday, January 25. In Lake Orion we use standards-based grading, which means we score your child based on his or her progress towards “mastery” of a particular standard. A score of 4 indicates mastery; a score of 4 on an academic subject means that the end of the year expectation has been reached. A score of 3 means consistent progress toward the standard, a 2 indicates inconsistent progress, and a 1 signals an area of concern. As you would expect, we have not yet taught most academic standards to their full extent. For example, a math standard may include addition and subtraction to 20, but during this first semester we taught addition and subtraction to 10. Consequently, students are scored out of a possible 3, indicating that expected progress towards mastery. At this time, you should expect to see 3s for academic standards on which your child is doing well. A few academic areas that have been taught to mastery at this time are listed below, so that you know to look for 4s on those standards. Because behavioral skills have consistent expectations throughout the year, they are scored out of a possible 4; you should see 4s in the skills section if your child is meeting behavior expectations. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have questions or concerns about the report or your child’s progress. The report card is divided as follows:
• Reading     In this section, the current expectation is reading level F. Only students reading at the end of the year exit level expectation of J or above will see 4s in the reading section. The only exception for the standard “Manipulates spoken sounds and symbols” which has been scored out of 4 as it is expected that oral sounds are mastered at this time. We recently began exploring nonfiction texts but have not yet assessed these elements, so they are not scored at this time.
• Social Studies and Science   Our first two social studies units are complete and were scored out of a possible 4. The other unit that we addressed this semester, the public issue standard, will be revisited in the spring and is scored out of 3.  In science we have only completed the plant portion of the plants and animals unit, so that standard is also scored out of 3 and will be continued.
• Writing and Language   All standards in these sections are scored out of possible 3; all standards will be revisited and expanded upon.
• Math   In math this semester we completed only one standard to mastery, which was “understands and applies properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction.” That standard is scored out of 4; all others are scored out of a possible 3. Some students earned 4's if they were able to count AND write their numbers to 120. 
• Skills   These critically important areas were all scored out of a possible 4. 

• Our Valentine's Day Celebration will be Thursday, February 14th. Please consider donating items for our party https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D45ACAB2FABF85-valentines. The time is currently TBD. I will send out an email to parents who volunteered to run a center next week. Thank you! 

Important Dates:

• 1/21 - MLK Day, No School for Students
• 1/25 - Report cards sent out electronically via email, to parent 1, in PowerSchool at 4:00 p.m.
• 2/14 - Valentine's Day Celebration, time: TBD
• 2/15 - 1/2 day for students
• 2/18-2/19 Mid Winter Break - No School for Students

Learning This week:

• Writers will...
• research using photos to say more
• use craft moves learned in small moments
• editing step by step with a checklist
• have a final celebration
• Readers will...
• not let hard words get in their ways
• crash word parts together to solve
• check that the words they read look right and make sense
• learn new words as they read
• Mathematicians will...
• play 2 digit addition games
• complete unit 4 test
• practice adding 10's and 1's
• Scientists will...
• observe how parent animals help their babies survive
• learn about animal features that help them survive
• learn about adult vs. baby snails
• learn about adult vs. baby whales
• In phonics we will...
• bring new knowledge of words to learning snap words
• use snap words to help make and read other longer, trickier words
• make contraction with not