Students enjoyed mining for minerals and rocks with Diamond Del last week!
Hi, families!
State House permission form: The permission form went home in last week's communication folder. Please complete the front and back sides. It's due by January 31. Our trip is scheduled for Monday, February 11. Chaperones are not needed for this trip, due to the number limit on our tours.
Timed multiplication quizzes: In order to increase students' fluency in multiplication, they will start having timed mixed multiplication quizzes the week of February 4. It's important students continue practicing their facts at home!
Valentines Day: Several students have asked about Valentines Day at school. They're welcome to bring in Valentines Day cards, but please keep in mind our healthy snack policy. As students fill out Valentines, please do not have them fill out the "To" section. This will allow us time to pass them out in a more efficient manner. We have 19 students.
January 29: Mrs. West will not be at school January 29. If you need to get in touch with your child, please call the office.
PTO presentation: Students will be singing Monday, January 28. Students may be dropped off in the music room at 5:45. They are asked to wear jeans and a white shirt. They're also welcome to bring sunglasses to wear during one of the songs.
PTO songs: Please check out these links, so students can continue practicing their songs for our PTO presentation!
Carolina in My Mind
Carolina in the Morning
My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains
Looking ahead to next week: As historians, students will begin learning about the causes of the American Revolution. As mathematicians, they will continue learning about fractions, but they'll start studying them on a number line. We will be using the Engage New York curriculum for this unit, so please see the family letter below. As readers, the children will be comparing and contrasting texts. As writers, they will learn about prepositions and dive into an opinion unit for writing.
Thank you again for all of your support!
Mastery Connect reminder: Please check out Dr. Hill's message below from last week's "The Beacon" -
A key to effective instruction involves using ongoing formative assessment data to gauge students’ progress and guide classroom instruction. In an effort to most effectively assess students’ mastery of the South Carolina College and Career Readiness Standards, several schools in Richland School District Two have been utilizing an assessment tool called MasteryConnect. MasteryConnect empowers teachers with a method to monitor student performance and access a bank of assessment questions aligned with grade level standards and rigor expectations. We are excited that our Bookman Road teachers in grades 2-5 now have access to this resource!
What is MasteryConnect?
MasteryConnect is an online teacher tool and student assessment platform. It allows teachers to efficiently and effectively determine what your child knows and doesn’t know based on standards. Students can take a variety of different assessments and get results instantly. The results are displayed by standard, so while students will still get an overall percentage on any assessment taken, the focus is on the mastery level of each standard. In most cases this is displayed by 3 colors red (remediation), yellow (near mastery), and green (mastery). These colors help teachers, students, parents, and leaders know exactly where your child is on the learning continuum and respond to that data. Based on this information, teachers are able to make adjustments to their lessons as it may be appropriate. Data may suggest that the teacher is ready to continue as planned, the teacher may need to re-teach the lesson, or the teacher may need to group students and differentiate instruction based on individual student needs.
What is Mastery Learning?
Mastery Learning refers to teaching in alignment with our South Carolina standards and providing feedback during the learning so that students can “master” a specific skill and/or concept. Teachers therefore, are able to assess not just using long end-of-unit tests, but also short, quick daily assessments so that students get more immediate feedback, and more learning can take place.
We are continuing to expand our resources to better “light the way” in academics. We are excited to have access to this resource and are anticipating greater levels of student engagement and academic success!
