January 2014 Heath Extended Day 4-6 Newsletter “ A much appreciated thank you for the holiday gifts, treats and warm holiday wishes. We are so grateful for your generosity, kindness and thoughtfulness. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2014!” -Malaina and Kevin Student Goals Students’ yearly goals have played a major role in shaping the daily activities and curriculum in 4-6. For example, the great amount of cooking opportunities the students have during monthly family dinners, is a way teachers can help students achieve student goals that involve cooking. Providing daily outdoor play and/or open gym time is a way for teachers to help students achieve athletic goals. Charts have been created for students that have specific goals so he/she can keep track of his/her progress throughout the year. The upcoming months will be dedicated to themed based units based on student goals. Units will include: Paris, U.S. landmarks, Art techniques, U.S. states. Wish Days Wish days are special days where students pick from of list of “special” activities or create their own “special” activity. Wish days are a fun way for students to have ownership of a days activity. Students have really looked forward to their wish day in the past and know that wish days are a big hit among the students. Once each student has picked his/her wish day, a wish day calendar will be created allowing your child to know when his/her wish day occur. If your student is out on his/her scheduled wish day, we will reschedule it. Wish days will be spread out throughout the next couple of months. Homework and computer use Homework time is from 2:35-3:35pm Monday-Thursday and 1:45-2:35pm on Fridays. We have assigned seats and the children are responsible for taking out the appropriate assignments and begin working independently. Our team is here to give assistance, encourage good time management and remind the children of appropriate behavior. We are very proud of how well the children do and wanted to share this news with you. After a considerable amount of observation on the use of computers during homework time, a new sign in/sign out policy has been put into place to keep track of students’ computer use to be sure time on computers is efficient so that all students have time to start or complete their work. 4-6 students have four computers to share throughout the day. We are finding that students will do many days worth of homework in one sitting, which gives other students very little or no time to use computers. Our observations also include children spending 20 minutes on changing fonts, playing games or looking up assignments rather than doing the actual assignment. We are asking students to do any paper homework first before computer homework. This allows computer use to be staggered throughout homework time. We also recommend students to only do computer homework that is due the next day so that more students have time to use computers. With the new computer sign in/sign out policy, students must note the time they begin computer use, the website being used/homework assignment and the time they are finished. If you have any questions or concerns with computer use, please feel free to speak with a 4-6 teacher or Noelle. No School Monday, January 20th Wish List Laptop computers with word and wireless internet access Headphones (5) Lysol Wipes Rainbow Loom Bands
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