Welcome! Thank you for attending!
Our class home page: http://web4j1.lane.edu/~siporin
Email: siporin@4j.lane.edu

Our Co-Room Parents: Trista Neuman (Berkeley's mother) & Kelli Caniano (Chloe's mother).
Thanks in advance for stepping up to the plate! They may be in touch with you this year.

Ace Driver System (Behavior Management System)
• Green card: student is on task!
• Yellow card: Warning! You're not following one of our class rules. Get your act together!
• Red card: Uh-OH! ticket. Call home and explain what rule your not following. Community service.
• Purple card: Major infraction of school rules. School Referal. Family interview to find out what's going on & how we can help the student be successful. Community service.

Everyday is a new day. I record color at end of each day and turn it back to green for the next day.
• Three "yellows" in a week = a "red".
• Four "reds" ("Uh-Oh"'s in 30 days = Rule School with Mrs. Kruska.

Homework:
• Weekly assignment sheets will be sent home on Mondays. I’ll update the web if there are changes to the plan.

• Please sign the front of the assignment sheet on Monday after reviewing what we’ll be working on that week. I check those signatures on Tuesday mornings, and students get a "Pawsitive" for being responsible.

• Students should bring their Homework Folder home each night and complete whatever portion of homework works into their schedule. I will mark if the assignments should not be worked on until we do them in class. I will also mark them if certain groups do not need to complete certain pages.

• I encourage you to correct & review their homework with them. Just be sure to sign the homework & note “Corrected”.

• Homework shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes a night on average. If a child reaches their frustration level, it’s time to stop. Write me a note & I’ll determine what they need to be successful.

• Brain Biology 101: Building a Healthy Foundation: A brain compatible environment is one we feel safe in & can learn, grow, & enjoy.Please let me know if a significant event is happening that your child might be focused on.

• Lifeskills, Lifelong Guidelines / Steps to Respect / Class Meetings / PBS (Positive Behavior Support)

• Multiple Intelligences - What's your child's prefered learning style? How can they show what they know?

• Australia: a safe place to be when you need a little time to collect yourself.

• Our art gallery's message: We all see things differently; let’s appreciate our unique perspective on things..Curriculum: Integrated Thematic Units with Focus Questions each term.

• Major themes this year: Interaction, Systems, Power, Community and Change ---- Metacognitive Thinking!

• Math: Investigations, The Problem-Solver Kit, & challenge math packets
Our math curriculum is very constructivist oriented; students need to become proficient at explaining their strategy to solve a given problem. Ask them, "How did you solve that? What was your strategy? How can you prove that in a different way?"

• Reading: MacGraw Hill - Treasures, Junior Great Books, Reading Counts, Fluency First, Read Naturally, Mosaic of Thought / Stephanie Harvey, Fountas & Pinnell, DIBELS & 6 Min. Solutions for monitoring fluency,

• Language Arts: Writer's Workshop (Lucy Calkins curriculum), reflective journals, 5 modes of writing - descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive, and creative. Writing Traits: Ideas & Content, Organization, and Conventions. Speaking & listening skills. Super Sentences. Grammar. Spelling. Cursive. Classroom meetings.

• Science: Fall: Nutrition, Red Ribbon Week (Tobacco focus), Nature of Science. Winter: Electricity. Spring: Plant Growth & Development. We’ll do other science demonstrations as time allows.

• Social Studies: History Alive, Civil Rights Movement, Geography (50 states song, continents & oceans, Zip Zap Map). Biographies / Wax Museum, Endangered Animals
We do a major research project in the winter & spring around biographies and Endangered animals. We do a field trip to the Portland Zoo in mid-April to kick off our unit. Plan to join us if you can!

• Technology: Keyboarding. Word-processing. Blogging. Keynote. Inspiration. Guided internet research. Students will learn how to log onto the school’s file server where they will be able to access their files from OS X school computers. Palm Pilots if we can get new batteries!

My Gradebook Online:
• Available starting October from our web page. Class word: b111 Password: 6 digit birthday (ie. 051195 ) Email me a new password that is more personal and secure. Use it to see what assignments have or have not been turned in, how they scored on an assignment, any assignment details, and student notes I may have made. There are too few grades entered to get a reliable overall grade yet. PLEASE IGNORE THE CATEGORY OR OVERALL GRADE until there are 10+ grades in a certain category.

TAG Information
• I used to be a TAG coordinator at another school & attended many trainings & have many resources available. Although there are two testing windows during the school year, we prefer to wait until after the 3rd grade year when we have more data collected from their state tests. There's no rush; however, it's a nice piece to have before they leave for middle school.

• I differentiate as much as I can possibly manage in all areas. Reading materials are differentiated. Sometimes we do literature circles with different level books. I have challenge packets that go with certain novels. I have independent packets for certain genres of novels. Students should be reading books in their lexile range most of the time. In math, I have a variety of challenge math packets that may either supplement or supplant the regular math curriculum. Other options: Problem of the Week. Extensions to the Investigations Math - students will be encouraged to make the problem more challenging - use bigger numbers; more complex project. I have a volume of challenge math materials students can request. Other "variety" packets for vocabulary, logic, independent research, and more are available upon request.

TAG Resources for Parents (see the other handout on the table as well):
• The Gifted Kids Survival Guide: Judy Galbraith (I have this in our class library)
• Cricket Magazine - stories, jokes, contests, art, poetry...
• 3-2- 1 Contact magazine - a great science magazine published by The Children's Television Workshop
• Cobblestone - a history magazine
• Odyssey: A Magazine of Astronomy & Outer Space
• Free Spirit catalog - a great resource for TAG materials at http://www.freespirit.com
• Susan Kovalik & Associates (website) is another great resource for TAG materials & character development: http://www.kovalik.com/suggested.htm (I got The Lifeskills from her at a 3 day workshop)

Other Great Resources:
• Multnomah County Library Homework Center: http://www.multcolib.org/homework - great for research projects
• 30 day free Inspiration software: http://www.inspiration.com/home.cfm - concept mapping software - great!
• 4J Home page: http://www.4j.lane.edu Click on the tab for parents. It has a list of kid- safe search engines, resources, and tools for students (OSLIS, Yahooligans) Bookmark for future research projects
• Seven Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It; Susan Zimmerman and Chryse Hutchins is available in our library on the adult shelf. Fantastic book!

Schedule
• School day 7:55 - 2:10 / Wednesdays: Early release at 1:00 p.m.
• Doors open at 7:30a.m. Students may go to the gym, library,tech lab,primary playground, or breakfast. Music will be available 2 days a week.
• Library: Fridays at 10:30
• P.E. Wednesdays and Fridays 10:00 - 10:30
• Music Mondays and Tuesdays 10:30 - 11:00
• Technology Lab Tuesdays 10:00 - 10:30 Thursdays 10:30 - 11:00
• Japanese Class Thursdays 10:00 - 10:30

Fridays: spelling test, Homework Packtets due.

Snacks Students are encouraged to bring a HEALTHY snack to eat before morning recess. They may bring a water bottle for their desk. No candy or candy like foods (high sugar content), pop or other sugar water.

Birthdays: We have a very busy schedule; if families would like to contribute a book to our class library on their child's birthday, I'll put a special sticker in the front of the book in their honor.

We are a team! I need you to support our academic and disciplinary efforts. Communicate with your child each day about their school day, and what they’re learning. Please call or email about any concerns, thoughts, ideas, or questions. Probably one of the BEST and most IMPORTANT things you can do with your child is to READ TO THEM, and WITH THEM. Share your own reading strategies. Volunteering is also much needed and appreciated when possible. Schedule a regular time or just drop in; I can always use some help.

I am very excited about this school year and working with your children! We have so much to do; it’s going to be fantastic!

Respectfully,
Julia Siporin