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Here is your chance to have a say in which cover is selected for the yearbook!  Visit Mrs. Lucci's blog HERE to vote for your favorite choice!


 
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Another reminder to hurry and order your all-color, student-created memory book before the Feb 1 deadline!  Checks payable to "INDIAN TRAIL"--NOT PTO

Misplaced your order form?  No worries!  Just send $25/yearbook in any envelope with your child's name before February 1.  Please note checks should be made out to "Indian Trail" and not the PTO.

Remember, this is your first and only opportunity to order--yearbooks were NOT part of the online PTO ordering process so no one pre-paid before school started. If you do not bring in a check now, you will not receive a yearbook!

 
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ARE YOU COMING?  See who's coming from our class by COMMENTING on this post!

The Indian Trail Family  Skating Night is 
Wednesday, January 23 from 6:00-8:00 p.m.  

We will have a Teacher Skate Raffle again this year.   Last year the raffle raised $233.00!   New this year will be a Teacher Lunch Raffle.  Kids can purchase raffle tickets to eat their lunch with a teacher one designated day.  

We hope you will SKATE on over to this exciting event!
For COMPLETE information, click HERE.


 

Click HERE to access MONDAY's Satellite Learning Assignment:  Martin Luther King, Jr.

 
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Please check back for weekend Satellite Learning Assignments to be posted.  I promise they will be FUN (but also educational), and will help prepare your child for our activities next week.  I will send an email and blog post when they are ready to be accessed by your child.

Our Astro-Cadets are LOVING the Satellite Learning Assignments, and we have seen POSITIVE IMPACT proving that participating in these activities at your Satellite Learning Station (your home) is improving our ability to complete activities, projects, and group work at school!  

THANK YOU for jumping in and participating in this learning extension at home!!  These activities are set up to PREP students for the day/week to come.  Building this background knowledge at home means we can spend more time on small group and 1:1 instruction, hands-on activities, and applying our learning......rather than listening to me lecturing on a lesson or watching an educational video clip as a whole class.  Time is PRECIOUS during our day, and Satellite Learning Assignments mean our Astro-Cadets come prepared and excited for the next day's learning activities.  

Students come to class prepared and confident (even if they need assistance, because they have built schema by completing the task before we complete an activity or I re-teach it).  Based on their responses to questions posed and self-evaluations (how well did you understand the video and activities) on each assignment, I come into the day knowing which students have mastered the skill (and need challenging extension work), which students need some help (to reinforce the skill and boost confidence), and which students would benefit from 1:1 or small group reteaching on each particular skill.  Receiving student responses the day before we begin activities means I come to school knowing EXACTLY how to serve each student for different lessons throughout the week and we can hit the ground running!

This is MEANINGFUL "homework" that allows for true differentiation in class to meet the needs of every child as well as promotes responsibility and independent learning/practice at home.  Satellite Learning Stations take our learning "to infinity.....and beyond!" (...the classroom to your home)

 

PLEASE read to find out about our exciting learning adventures this week!  Fill out the comment form below with your child for 5 extra DOJO points!!!

MATH:
  • standard measurement units
  • metric measurement units
  • capacity
  • temperature
  • time
  • perimeter and area

SCIENCE:  FORCES & MOTION
  • Currently we are at the beginning of our "INVENTIONS & ENGINEERING" science unit. 
  • Our literature studies and writing (starting next week) will also tie into this unit. 
  • Forces & motion (including gravity) are our current focus.  
  • Academic Science Vocabulary: force, motion, push, pull, friction, gravity, speed, position, relative position, magnetism, work
  • Next week we will use this knowledge to learn about SIMPLE MACHINES.
  • Building on our forces, motion, and simple machine studies, we will begin our own engineering adventures by researching, building, and advertising our OWN INVENTIONS!  These inventions will be much-needed items for our future SPACE COLONY!
  • More to come on the Mission 125 engineering explorations and invention fair!!!  Stay tuned!

    Earn 5 DOJO points for your FEEDBACK!!!!

LITERACY:
  • Comprehension:  Our whole-class read-aloud is currently Magic Treehouse:  Monday With a Mad Genius.  It focuses on adventures with one of the greatest artists and inventors of all time--Leonardo DaVinci.  
  • Comprehension Carousel:
                       1)  What is the author TELLING us (on  
                             the pages, directly)?  
                       2)  Find interesting or difficult words       
                            (vocabulary) in the text.  
                       3)  What does the author want us to 
                            UNDERSTAND (NOT directly in the 
                            text, we must find evidence in the  
                            text and INFER meaning)?
                       4) Does the author play with  
                            FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE and how 
                           does that enhance the text 
                           (adjectives, vivid verbs, similes, 
                             metaphors, repeated catch-
                             phrases, etc.)
  • Accuracy:  Does it look right, sound right, and make sense?  Do I need to "flip" the vowel sound or "chunk" the word?
  • Fluency:  Matching our voices to the words describing feelings and voice in the text (whispered, shouted, angrily, excitedly, etc.)
  • Expanding Vocabulary:  using context clues and schema to infer meanings of unknown words; checking our inferred meanings in the dictionary
  • INVENTION-Themed Differentiated Book Clubs:  Starting next week, students will be in small group book clubs.  Each book club will center around the topic of inventions and inventors (to tie in with our science unit), but will be different books based on goals and strategies appropriate for each group of students in the book clubs. We will be practicing our book club jobs and continually examining and answering the 4 "comprehension carousel" questions listed above.

GRAMMAR:
  • adjectives (juicy describing words)
  • vivid verbs (using synonyms to turn boring action verbs into VIVID verbs)

WRITING:
  • 6 Traits-WORD CHOICE & VOICE:  Using figurative language to enhance our writing like real authors ((adjectives, vivid verbs, similes,  metaphors, repeated catch-phrases, onomatopoeia)
  • Our current writing project is:  "If I Lived in a Snow Globe"
 
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Congratulations, Indian Trail!!   Through your generosity, we as a school community have collected $1,348.85 for Kids Who Care this week!!!   The students of Indian Trail have acted as a team, not competitively or for rewards, to help others in need.

This amount will do great things for the students in Staten Island as they go forward this school year.  It will provide many necessary supplies to help them be successful.

Thank you so much for giving so generously and working so hard.  Today is an amazing day to be an Indian Trail Tiger! You have truly shown that you are...KIDS WHO CARE!!

 

Kick off iRead 2013 with NEW BOOKS from 
Scholastic Book Clubs!!  Orders are due 1/21/13.



Teacher Recommended Books from January Flyers:

 
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We have an exciting leadership opportunity with our Kindergarten buddies!  The 100th day of school is coming up on February 8th.  Miss Weinstein and Mrs. Petlak have been brainstorming what we could do together for this special day.  We decided that our 3rd grade students will have the opportunity to VOLUNTEER to be on the 100th day planning committee for our buddies. 


IF your child decides to volunteer for this leadership team, they must COMMIT to planning with Mrs. Petlak and Miss Weinstein each day during recess between now and 2/8/13.  During that time, they will be working to create games, activities, and crafts that we will participate in with our buddies on the 100th day of school.  Please SIGN UP below if you and your child understand the commitment and your child would like to be a part of our committee!  THANK YOU!

    100th Day Planning Committee Sign-Up:

 
Wear your IT Tigers apparel as we come together as a school community for the final day of Kids Who Care donations.  We’ll all be anxiously awaiting the grand total announcement at the end of the day.  Don't have any official IT spirit wear?  Just wear blue, white and orange to sport your Tiger Pride!

Don’t forget to attend the Kids Who Care Family breakfast at 8am!   Join us in the lunchroom for hot chocolate, coffee, juice, and bagels.  Suggested donations are $1-2 per item, but we encourage you to give any amount that will help us reach our $3,000 fundraisinggoal.

Our total so far is .....  $578.24.