Welcome to my class blog!
First let me thank you for donating the copy paper, boxes of tissues, and for sending in $5.00 so we can purchase things like the homework folders for our students. You're awesome!
Another school year has begun and I'm looking forward to a great year with this energetic group of sixth graders. Right now students are taking some pretests to show how they solve two and three digit computation problems as well as solve problems with Greatest Common Factors (GCF) and Least Common Multiplies (LCM). I think it is important to pretest students so I have a better understanding of what they know before I teach a particular unit. If a child meets the standard on the pretest, I need to find them something different to learn. If a child does not meet the standard on the pretest, then I will continue on with the unit I intended on teaching.
Students have also started setting up Rocket Math folders and will begin this daily activity, this week. Some parents may be familiar with this program and some may not. In a nutshell, Rocket Math is a way for students to practice and learn basic math facts. Some students may start with multiplication (through x12) and some may start with division. Students practice daily and work at their own pace. The goal for every student is to know their facts, multiplication and division, with automaticity. This isn't homework. It is a program we will use in class as our daily warm-up until Thanksgiving break. For more specific information about Rocket Math you can click on this link.
Speaking of homework! I usually assign nightly homework on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The homework should take between 15-25 minutes each night and is due the next day. Homework may come in the form of a worksheet, packet pages, or a page to be done out of a text book. It won't look the same every night so it will be important for students to use their homework agenda, or check the homework webpage. I rarely assign weekend homework. The only time I have assigned homework over the weekend was to students who did not meet the standard on an end of unit assessment and needed to study more before they took a re-take. If your child consistently takes longer to complete their math homework, or struggles and is frequently frustrated, PLEASE let me know. The intent of homework is to practice what we are learning or have learned, not to create anxiety or tears. I understand that some kids may need their homework modified so, again, please let me know so I can help.
I hope these blog posts help. Let me know by taking the survey to the right or by checking one of the boxes below. I welcome conversations.
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