An English Language Learner’s Word of the Day: rigorous

Function: adjective
Comparative and superlative forms: more rigorous; most rigorous
Meanings: 1 : very strict and demanding

Rigorous is a great adjective to describe our new math program--Everyday Math. Some of your children are having trouble bridging the gap from our old program to the new one. This program demands a lot of critical thinking. If your child is having trouble, you may want to spend extra time working with them at home or have a tutor work with them. I am already differentiating and trying to fill holes as best I can, but this may be something we need to work on together to have success.

The math tests were sent home on Friday to be signed. I hope you saw them.

National Honor Society is organizing IA’s Annual Christmas Food Drive. We would like the IA community to have an opportunity to show our great appreciation for everything that the IA janitorial staff does to keep our campus beautiful, safe, and well maintained. NHS is asking for your help in collecting non-perishable food to present to the janitors before our Christmas holidays. Please encourage your child to bring any donations to their classroom before December 16^th. We appreciate your support and help as we try to make this year’s food drive a great success!

The CLO office will be hosting a holiday bazaar at InterAmerican Academy on December 5^th from 11-4 PM. All Consulate employees and their families, as well as the school staff and students’ families and friends are invited to attend!

Please note that all attendees will need to show a photo ID to enter the grounds. Obviously, this does not hold true for children.

Please note that those attending the bazaar will only be able to enter through the second gate (not the main entrance by Puerto Azul #3, but the other gate.) Please make sure that everyone is aware of this, since many of the school’s students will be taking SAT’s and cannot be disturbed.

Listening Grade

As of today, students are receiving a listening grade for the sentence dictation section of their spelling test. We're really working hard on this as a skill.

MAP TEST CHANGE!!!

The dates for our MAP test have changed. We will have our tests on Thursday, December 10th, Monday, December 14th, and Tuesday, December 15th. It is important that your child attends school on these dates so we can have an accurate measure of progress.
Thanks!

MAP tests coming soon!

We'll have our second round of MAP testing starting December 3rd. We have testing on December 3rd, December 8th, and December 10th. It will be interesting to see if there is improvement.

Food Drive Starting: Let's Be Super Generous!

Hello everyone!

NJHS is starting their annual Christmas Food Drive for the janitorial staff. We would like to have a class competition to see which class can bring in the most non-perishable food. We will be going by items per student to determine which class will be the victors!

This is a great way to show the janitorial staff how much the IA community appreciates all that they do for the school. Please encourage your students to bring in non-perishable goods to show their appreciation. Teachers can bring in goods as well to count towards their class total.

Boxes for the food will be brought in for the student donations on Monday of next week. I'm also sending out an announcement for next week's newsflash.

We are going to be giving the food to the janitorial staff on December 19th. We will be holding the drive until December 17th.

NJHS and NHS would really appreciate your support.

The winning class will be awarded a pizza party!

Thanks,
Danielle Richert

A message from the Yearbook Sponsor

Both class and individual pictures will be taken in the morning and outdoors on November 25th, so we can use our beautiful campus for the background, and perfect, not “right in your eyes”, sunlight. We took two photo tests outside and they both look lovely. The Yearbook crew has the best intentions to make you look glorious, but if your children are in a grumpy mood about having your pictures taken, we just can’t make any promises or miracles. So, “smile, although your heart is aching” and inspire your students to feel confident, relaxed and happy as well. If you guys come to the photo session with a “I am gorgeous and I love to have my picture taken” attitude, I am sure you will look just like movie starsJ

Are we selling the pictures?

Yes, we are selling the pictures for the parents, in order to offset the expense of hiring a professional photographer. I will send a letter home to the parents on Wednesday.

The students should be wearing school uniform and they should bring a brush or a comb. If they have PE classes, they should still bring the white shirt in their backpacks.

Swim Unit Starts Next Week

Dear Parent/Guardian:

This is a reminder that your daughter/son will be commencing 3 weeks of swimming lessons during their P.E. classes. Swim lessons will begin the week of November 23. Please make a note of this so students do not miss their swim class. Also, please send us a note if your son/daughter can not swim on any of these days.

Swim classes will be held for three weeks:
(November 23 to Dec. 11)

Students will require the following:

 Bathing suit
 Towel
 Bathing cap for students with long hair
 Footwear- rubber thongs/sandals or gym shoes
 Gym Bag or plastic bag to keep wet clothes after swim


We also recommend the following:

 Sun block be applied before coming to school
 Swimming goggles be worn

Please contact Ray Domingo or David Richert if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you.

Seeing Stars??

If you notice stars on the math journal pages, they are marking problems and/or pages that are assessing particular skills in math.

Science Switch

Since we can't seem to get the sun to shine, we're going to do the Solar Energy Unit at the end of the school year and begin the Food and Nutrition Unit now. It's a fun unit with laboratory testing of fats, Vitamin C., acids, etc. Our culminating project will be lunches that are balanced according to a formula of carbohydrates, fats, etc.

Reading Response Letter for Guided Reading

This assignment is very important and is for a test grade.
Students are to write a response letter to their guided reading book.
The first draft is due Monday.
The final draft is due Tuesday.
I suggest they type the letter so it is easy to make changes.

This letter is more involved than previous letters. It has three parts:
1. Identify main ideas and important details and interpret the meaning of the book.
2. Make connections between the characters and other texts, experiences, issues or events in the community and the world.
3. Examine the author's ideas, writing skills, and techniques in order to evaluate the selection.

The students have a full rubric, but here is the rubric for the three parts in order to get a 3:

Section 1:
The responsetells what the selection is about (main ideas) with details about plot, setting and characters.
Section 2:
The response:
•shows an understanding of what the author indirectly or subtly states about the characters.
•draws conclusions about events and characters and predicts future events based on some evidence from the characters.
•makes connections between the characters and the reader’s experiences.
•relates the characters and events contained in a characters to other texts, movies, television, music, etc. with some explanation.
•relates the characters to things happening in the community or world at large, using some examples.
Section 3:
The response:
•identifies the author’s purpose and provides some explanation of the techniques the author uses to accomplish that purpose.
•provides a basic explanation of how character, plot, and setting contribute to the effectiveness of the selection.
•uses some evidence from the text to evaluate the author’s skill and the selection’s theme(s).

Dear Parents,

The students are going to start having homework assignments on our school Voice Threads account. It is a safe online program. In order for them to complete their homework, they need to set up an account. In order to set up an account they need to have an e-mail account if they don't already have one.

Would you please help your child set up an e-mail account of your choice before next Monday, so they can create their Voice Threads accounts in the computer lab using their e-mail accounts. Don't try to set up the Voice Threads account, as we need to be sure to set up an educational account through the school where the children are protected.

Thanks,
Sue

Speaker in the class yesterday!

Catalina's mom, Magdalena Del Pino, spoke to us this morning about the bathing suits she developed in Chile. She was the first person to develop suits that protect you from the sun in Chile. It was fascinating, from her search for certified material, designing the suits and t-shirts, and opening a shot. The idea is to change the culture of how people think about going in the sun. She'd like to do the same thing in Ecuador. Thanks so much for her presentation.
I would love for any of you to come in and share about your jobs and/or your passions. It's a way to open the student's eyes to new interests.

Thanksgiving Musicians

Mrs. Morris would like you to remember to send in your permission slips for your child to perform at the Thanksgiving dinner. She really needs to know ho many students she will have performing. So far we've received 4 responses. Thank you for those.

Dear Anonymous

To the person who has been asking me questions in the comment section:
Would you please send me an e-mail at sstevens@interamerican.edu.ec, and I will be happy to answer your questions. When you comment, I don't know who you are and I would prefer to answer you privately rather than publicly.
Thanks.

Chicken Pox P.S.

If your child is in 5th grade and was in school last week then they were exposed to chicken pox. Probably it will stop here as most of our students are inoculated against chicken pox and it is rare that someone gets chicken pox when they are inoculated.

Chicken Pox

One of the students in 5th grade has chicken pox even though she had the innoculations. Since Chicken Pox is contagious for two days before the rash occurs, please keep an eye out for the symptoms of chicken pox.

Here's somc information on Chicken Pox according to Nemours Clinic. http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/skin/chicken_pox.html#

Chickenpox causes a red, itchy rash on the skin that usually appears first on the abdomen or back and face, and then spreads to almost everywhere else on the body, including the scalp, mouth, nose, ears, and genitals.

The rash begins as multiple small, red bumps that look like pimples or insect bites. They develop into thin-walled blisters filled with clear fluid, which becomes cloudy. The blister wall breaks, leaving open sores, which finally crust over to become dry, brown scabs.

Chickenpox blisters are usually less than a quarter of an inch wide, have a reddish base, and appear in bouts over 2 to 4 days. The rash may be more extensive or severe in kids who have skin disorders such as eczema.

Some kids have a fever, abdominal pain, sore throat, headache, or a vague sick feeling a day or 2 before the rash appears. These symptoms may last for a few days, and fever stays in the range of 100°–102° Fahrenheit (37.7°–38.8° Celsius), though in rare cases may be higher. Younger kids often have milder symptoms and fewer blisters than older children or adults.

Sign of the Beaver Reading Letter

Please write a letter in your reading notebook about Sign of the Beaver. Please include answers to the following questions with text evidence to support your opinions.

• What did Matt learn from Attean?
• What did Attean learn from Matt?
• Who gained more from the friendship?
• Whose land is it???
  

Spelling Words

Students have new daily homework of studying their personal list of spelling words each night. We brainstormed a lot of study methods:

• Look, say, and spell the word out loud.
• Think spelling the word over and over.
• Get someone to test you on the word.
• Trace and write the word over and over.
• Draw a picture to help you remember.