Mrs. Drzayich's Class: Week 20

Another really great week, albeit a very sick week. Yesterday we had FOUR kids absent because of illnesses! Make sure your kids are getting all they need to stay healthy and watch for fevers, watery eyes, runny noses, excessive coughing, etc. Our wonderful new Mrs. Krissy has become my official sanitizer and we are trying to make sure things are wiped down so it doesn't spread any further.

This is what our week looked like:

Be Cool. In Superhero Social Skills we practiced four great steps that help us stay calm during frustrating or nerve-wracking moments. We will be continuing this unit for one more week--it's such a critical skill for our students and I want to make sure that they have as much practice with this skill as they can possibly get. Check out one of our role plays:

Get real. We're continuing our unit on informational texts. To those two fourth graders (you know who you are)--don't forget that your book report is due in two weeks! Keep reading!
If anyone is looking for a way to help their kids read more books at their levels, make sure to check out our online reading program, RAZ Kids. It combines our class favorite--technology--with my class favorite--reading. We use it daily at school, so they should be familiar with how to use it. For more information, click on the tab above.

Making money. Week 3 in our economy unit for social studies and they are on a role! We talked about banks and saving money and how we can also use checks and credit cards to pay for things. Today in art, students came up with a good (one of our vocabulary words, as opposed to a service) that they could make at school and sell to other students in the classroom for tokens. Next week we will make these goods and they will be sold as a part of our Friday class store. Let me tell you, these kids really knew their market--they have come up with some ideas that I know their classmates won't be able to resist! Next week will bring this fun buying and selling, as well as our culminating project for our economy unit...

Steve James. Today we had an unexpected assembly--a performer named Steve James came and sang many great interactive songs with the entire school. I was very impressed with his ability to captivate so many students all at once. It was helped our class practice many social skills--he told jokes, asked questions, gave them parts in the song to sing, etc.

Jump on it. In P.E. we're continuing our jumping unit. Coach Mike and his aides have set up a great obstacle course all around the gym that requires students to do big and little two-footed jumps. We've seen a lot of improvement in our class.

SEPs. Yes, they are here again! S.E.P.s will be held on Tuesday, February 4th, and Thursday, February 6th. Sign ups have begun and can be accessed through the Forbes Elementary webpage. There we will discuss the most recent DRA scores (I'm almost finished with them--just 4 left!) as well as any other progress or areas of concern that I/you/we have. If you have recently or will soon have an IEP meeting with me, there is not as much of a need for you to attend S.E.P.s. If you choose not to sign up for an appointment, please text me or email me so I know that it's a conscious choice and not a mistake. Also: despite what any Forbes emails or flyers may say, we will keep to our regular schedule (9:15-3:30) on both SEP days. This is because of bus schedules that we can't change. Please don't bring your child to school with the A track on those days--there is a good chance that the small group teachers won't be here yet.

Lastly, another BIG thanks to the parents that keep sending us supplies, including snacks. Our students love working for your donations and I love seeing students beam with pride when they hand me their contribution to our classroom.

Homework Heros: