March 11 - 15Dear Parents & Students!
I hope you have fully adjusted from the time change. I am excited that it will be light out a little longer and that spring is right around the corner. Topics this week: Reading AND Writing: I will (hopefully) complete administering the BAS assessment to all students by the end of the week. This is done one on one with the teacher. Thanks so much for continuing to support your child's love of reading by getting them a copy of the book they chose to read for book club. These books are on their individual reading levels. Some students are starting to complete their books and will be working on answering comprehension questions based on what they read. We will also be reviewing non-fiction text structures (description, compare & contrast, cause & effect, chronological order, and problem & solution), non fiction text features (graph, bold print, illustration, photograph, map, glossary, index, etc.), and perspective based on a non fiction text (firsthand and secondhand account.) We will have a test on these concepts on Wednesday. Remember, there are notes in your child's binder, on our Google Classroom, on our class website, and on the grade level ELA website. In writing, we have completed the informational essay and have started the Non Fiction project. Students will continue to write the topics they chose for their informational essay, however, they will incorporate the five text structures and text features. They will also have to identify which perspective they wrote the majority of their project in (first or secondhand account.) You can find the beginning phases of their project on Google Classroom. Grammar: We are still learning about affixes. We will be complete learning about the affixes "chron" and "graph/gram" this week. The students have done a great job identifying these root words in their reading and also defining words that consist of these roots. We will have short quiz on these roots as well as words from their last two Words Their Way spelling sorts on Friday. Reminders:
That's all for now! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns by emailing me directly at [email protected]. Have a wonderful week! Jenn Shaffer Dolvin Elementary School E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://mrsjennshaffer.weebly.com Twitter: @mrsjennshaffer March 4 - 8Dear Parents & Students!
Topics this week: Reading AND Language Arts: We will continue working on taking the BAS assessment and this is done one on one with the teacher. Thanks so much for continuing to support your child's love of reading by getting them a copy of the book they chose to read for book club. These books are on their individual reading levels. Some students are starting to complete their books and will be working on answering comprehension questions based on what they read. We will also be continuing to learn about non-fiction text structures (description, compare & contrast, cause & effect, chronological order, and problem & solution). We are reading aloud Fantastic Failures and through this read aloud students have been able to identify a variety of text structures. We have currently read about Oprah Winfrey, J.K. Rowling, and Nelson Mandela. For our essays, we have completed the Fulton County Write Score assessment. We have also completed all of our lessons on how to write an informational essay (intro, body, and conclusion). We will continue to review as students finish their informational essays on their chosen topic. We will then move into writing about our informational topics using the five text structures. You can find notes and info on our website as well as Google Classroom. Students will also continue to work on the informational essays for their magazine. Grammar: We are still learning about affixes. We will continue learning about the affixes "chron" and "graph." Take notice of when you use words with these affixes at home. Reminders:
Week of February 25Dear Parents & Students!
Wow! Last week flew by with such a short week! Super excited to jump into learning this week. Topics this week: Reading AND Writing: I am so amazed at how fast students absorbed their books for book club this nine weeks. So many groups were so excited about their books that they read them even faster than our goals! Many groups are chosing to ready another book in the series, if they chose a book that has a sequel. The next couple of weeks we will be also working on taking the BAS assessment and this is done one on one with the teacher. Thanks so much for continuing to support your child's love of reading by getting them a copy of the book they chose to read for book club. These books are on their individual reading levels. Last week students learned about the non-fiction text structures (description, compare & contrast, cause & effect, chronological order, and problem & solution). At the end of each lesson we did a Kahoot to review each days text structure. I have also been reading aloud a book titled Fantastic Failures and through this read aloud students have been able to identify a variety of text structures. We have currently read about J.K. Rowling, Oprah Winfrey, and Nelson Mandella. Students will have an assessment on text features on Friday. For our essays, we have completed all of our lessons on how to write an informational essay (intro, body, and conclusion). We will continue to review but now that we have done these lessons students will work on their Write Score essays on informational writing for Fulton County this week. This is a Fulton County assessment. You can find notes and info on our website as well as Google Classroom. Students will also continue to work on the informational essays for their magazine after we finish Write Score. Grammar: We are learning about affixes. We will continue to talk about the affix "chron/chrono" and begin learning about the affix "graph." Take notices of when you use words with these affix at home. Reminders:
That's all for now! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns by emailing me directly at [email protected]. Have a wonderful week! Jenn Shaffer Dolvin Elementary School E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://mrsjennshaffer.weebly.com Twitter: @mrsjennshaffer Dear Parents,
Students will soon begin a series of lessons on the recorder during their General Music class. This unit of study is an excellent introduction to the basic concepts, symbols and terminology involved in learning music. The course of study is designed to provide a “Hands-On” experience for playing an instrument. Your child will be using the recorders during each music class throughout the unit. You have two options with the recorders. First, you may choose to purchase a recorder for your son or daughter. They can be purchased at most music stores for under $10.00. In the event that you are unable to purchase a recorder, the Music Department also has a few used recorders that can be loaned to students for the music class period only. Please email the music department if you are in need. I encourage the purchasing of recorders so that students can take them home after the music class and can practice as desired. Thank you for your encouragement and interest in our music program. We will begin recorder study Monday, February 25th. OUR CLASS HAS MUSIC ON FRIDAYS THOUGH so by March 1. Music stores around the North Point Area are Music and Arts and Ken Stanton Music. You may also wish to purchase through Amazon: click here, or West Music: click here. Here is a neck strap if your child wishes to purchase one or make one using yarn or ribbon as we often move and play in class. Thanks! Ms. Endicott Week of February 18 - 22Dear Parents & Students!
I hope you had a great LONG weekend! I know in our house we had a lot of play dates, movie watching, and tried our best to stay dry and warm. Topics this week: Reading AND Writing: We are continuing to create goals, read uninterruptedly in class, and answer questions with our book club books! Thank you so much for supporting your child's love of reading by talking with them about their book selection. For the next couple of weeks we will be also working on taking the BAS assessment one on one with the teacher. Last week students learned about non-fiction text structures (description, compare & contrast, cause & effect, chronological order, and problem & solution). At the end of each lesson we did a Kahoot to review each days text structure. I have also been reading aloud a book titled Fantastic Failures and through this read aloud students have been able to identify a variety of text structures. We have currently read about J.K. Rowling, Oprah Winfrey, and Nelson Mandella. Early next week students will have an assessment on text structures and text features. For our essays, we have completed writing our introductions and have started writing our body paragraphs. We will have time to work on these essays this week and we will also learn how to write a conclusion for an informational essay. Next week students will work on their Write Score essays on informational writing for Fulton County. This is a Fulton County assessment. Grammar: We are learning about affixes. Since we are focusing on text structures in reading (and one of the text structures is chronological order) we will continue to talk about the affix "chron/chrono." Take notices of when you use words with this affix at home. Reminders:
That's all for now! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns by emailing me directly at [email protected]. Have a wonderful week! Jenn Shaffer Dolvin Elementary School E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://mrsjennshaffer.weebly.com Twitter: @mrsjennshaffer Lunch Bunch Important Announcement!!!Dear Fourth Grade Parents,
January’s lunch bunch appears to have caused a large amount of sign up confusion. Therefore, the PTA is requesting that you PLEASE sign up your student on the NEW attached sign up link, if you would like your student to participate in the March Lunch Bunch. This NEW Signup Genius is for the final fourth grade Lunch Bunch with PM teacher and the deadline is this Friday, February 15th by 8am. Fourth Grade STUDENT’S MARCH LUNCH BUNCH Sign up link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a054ca9a62ea4fd0-4thgrade1 For the sake of student participation during book club, we ask that parents help hold their student(s) accountable and request that every student MUST read the book in order to remain in the classroom for March Lunch Bunch Book Club. Parent Volunteer sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a054ca9a62ea4fd0-4thgrade *** For all Parent Volunteers, Please make sure that your Fulton County School Volunteer training is complete and up-to-date prior 48 hours prior to lunch bunch. Thank you for your support and participation in Lunch Bunch! Dolvin PTA February 11 - 15Dear Parents,
I hope you had a great weekend-- an extra long weekend coming up! Remember there is no school this Friday, next Monday, and next Tuesday (Dolvin RFF Day). Topics this week: Reading AND Writing: We are continuing to create goals, read uninterruptedly in class, and answer questions with our book club books! Thank you so much for supporting your child's love of reading by talking with them about their book selection. Last week we reviewed non fiction text features. We went on a "hunt" to find text features such as the table of contents, index, glossary, bold words, graphs, tables, etc. We also analyzed these text features and discussed the author's purpose in putting these features in a non-fiction text. For our essays, we have narrowed down our topics and taken notes on how to write an introduction. Students will complete their own introductions and begin taking notes on their three ideas that will be their body paragraphs this week. Language Arts: We will review prior knowledge about synonyms and antonyms. We will also work on using context clues when coming across unknown vocabulary words. Finally, we will begin touch on Greek and Latin affixes (prefixes and suffixes). We will start with the affix CHRON since it means time and we are learning about the chronological order text structure. Reminders:
That's all for now! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns by emailing me directly at [email protected]. Have a wonderful week! Jenn Shaffer Dolvin Elementary School E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://mrsjennshaffer.weebly.com Twitter: @mrsjennshaffer Week of February 4 - 8Dear Parents,
I hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed watching the Super Bowl! The Patriots win another one... Topics this week: Reading AND Writing: We are continuing to create goals, read uninterruptedly in class, and answer questions with our book club books! Thank you so much for supporting your child's love of reading by talking with them about their book selection. Last week I had the opportunity to meet with the students and ask what THEY wanted to learn and accomplish in our informational reading and writing unit. We looked at the reading and writing standards and they came up with a magazine project that we will begin the early stages of this week. Students will have the opportunity to choose their magazine project topic. The project will include an informational essay about their topic and then use the non fiction text features and structures in mini articles about their topic. We will begin narrowing down our topics and writing an introduction for our essays this week. We will also be comparing informational reading to fiction reading and analyze text features in a non fiction text. Lanuage Arts: This week we will review relative pronouns and adverbs. We will also be talking about correlative conjunctions (ACC). We will have a quiz this week on these topics. As we read an informational text, we will also review synonyms and antonyms and use context clues when coming across unknown vocabulary words. Reminders:
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns by emailing me directly at [email protected]. Have a wonderful week & stay warm! Jenn Shaffer Dolvin Elementary School E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://mrsjennshaffer.weebly.com Twitter: @mrsjennshaffer January 28 - February 1Dear Parents,
Happy "Snow Day!" I hope you are all enjoying your day off and hopefully we will see you back at school tomorrow! I was at a training yesterday and I can't believe we are out today! Topics this week: Reading: We are continuing to create goals, read uninterruptedly in class, and answer questions with our book club books! Thank you so much for supporting your child's love of reading by talking with them about their book selection. We will be starting our Informational Reading unit this week. We are starting this unit off by asking students what they already know about informational reading and what they hope to accomplish this unit. Our goal is to personalize learning by co-planning the unit with the kids. Writing: We will also be starting informational writing. We will start by learning how organize our ideas and then write a good informational introduction paragraph. This week we will review synonyms and antonyms as we dig into reading informational texts. **Since I was at a training on Monday and we have no school today, please have your child hold off on homework until we are all back together again.** Reminders:
That's all for now! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns by emailing me directly at [email protected]. Have a wonderful week & stay warm! Jenn Shaffer Dolvin Elementary School E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://mrsjennshaffer.weebly.com Twitter: @mrsjennshaffer Week of January 21 - 25Dear Parents,
I hope you all enjoyed the LONG weekend. Here is one of my favorite Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes: "The time is always right to do what is right." My hope and dream is to make a positive impact on your child. If that means that they learn to love reading, they learn how to improve their writing, or even how to be a little kinder, then they are growing in a positive way! Remember, if you ever need any extra assistance, please feel free to reach out to me by email. Topics this week: Reading: We are continuing to create goals, read uninterruptedly in class, and answer questions with our book club books! Thank you so much for supporting your child's love of reading by talking with them about their book selection. This week we will be reviewing comparing themes, topics, and pattern of events in pieces of literature, specifically myths. We will also review how to determine the allusions behind myths. We have discussed what it means to open up Pandora's Box, what it means to work on a Herculean Task, what our Achilles Heel might be, going on a long Odysseus journey, how some people have the Midas/Golden Touch, and what a Trojan Horse is referring to when used in literature. I will hand out a review to the students this week and they have notes in the reading tab of their binders. We will have a test on this material on Friday. Writing: We will be reviewing their two Write Score Opinion Essays. Write Score has given each student feedback on their essays and students will take the time to compare their two essays, make corrections, and reflect on how they can improve. Next week we will begin Information writing. We will continuing learning about relative pronouns and relative adverbs in grammar this week. A practice homework assignment is being sent home as homework this week! Reminders:
That's all for now! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns by emailing me directly at [email protected]. Have a wonderful week! Jenn Shaffer Dolvin Elementary School E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://mrsjennshaffer.weebly.com Twitter: @mrsjennshaffer |
Mrs. ShafferMy name is Jennifer Shaffer. I have been teaching for 16 years now. I have taught a variety of different grades and levels. I graduated from the University of Alabama with my undergraduate degree. While there I did my student teaching abroad in Australia. After college I loved learning so much that I continued my studies at Piedmont College where I got my Master in Early Childhood Education and my Specialist in Teaching and Learning. I have taught at a variety of schools around Georgia and have had many experiences to observe in unique classrooms. In 2008 I went with the Japanese Consulate to Japan to study their educational system and culture through the International Educators to Japan (IEJ). Weekly E-mail/BlogArchives
May 2019
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