Questions
Hello T&L Parent Community,
We hope this update finds you well.
Here are some questions you asked during Welcome Back night as well as some additional questions that have surfaced in the last week.
What if my child doesn't finish a book a week?
Right now, we are emphasizing the homework habit of reading 30 minutes each night. We are working with students at school to determine how many pages they read in 30 minutes. The end goal is to read one book per week, but we will spend a lot of time helping students reach that future goal. So the instruction and expectation now is that students must read 30 minutes a night.
What about birthday celebrations?
Should your child want to celebrate his/her birthday with food, that's great! We welcome food celebrations. Your child will need to bring in 42 treats (one for each student member of our community). With this in mind, when we review birthday celebrations with students we are going to emphasize small and manageable. Also, you can imagine that 42 full-size cupcakes over the course of the year is a bit much. We will also invite students to consider salty and/or healthy options.
Where will students eat lunch?
Students are eating in 2 rooms. Each room has 21 students and one teacher. One set of students eats in Thunder and the other set of students eats in the Lab.
How will fourth and fifth graders be distributed between cohorts?
Well, it depends. Sometimes the fourth and fifth graders will work separately. Other times the groups will be in halves like for lunch. When that happens we have about 8 fifth graders and about 13 fourth graders per group. In the cohorts students are divided into three groups. We work to make sure there is a balance between groups. So the 16 fifth graders would be divided as equally as possible between three groups, and the 26 fourth graders would also be divided as equally as possible.
For some math units fourth and fifth graders will be separated from each other. There are other moments when fourth and fifth graders are separate during the year, but these are momentary and flexible groups like the rest of our groupings.
When will the whole Thunder and Lightning community be in one room and for how long?
The community will be together for morning meetings, read aloud, mini lessons, and closing meetings. Our morning meetings are 30 minutes. This is where we greet each other, go over our schedule, and especially now we are introducing and reviewing procedures. Read aloud times vary, students are learning the habit of active listening while enjoying sharing a story. Mini lessons occur before math and STEAM and last 5-10 minutes. The themes of these lessons are then reiterated when students are in the their small teaching teams of 14. The closing meeting is about 10 to 15 minutes long.
For PE how many cohorts will be together?
Students attend PE in one cohort. This means that 14 students are going to PE together.
We hope this update finds you well.
Here are some questions you asked during Welcome Back night as well as some additional questions that have surfaced in the last week.
What if my child doesn't finish a book a week?
Right now, we are emphasizing the homework habit of reading 30 minutes each night. We are working with students at school to determine how many pages they read in 30 minutes. The end goal is to read one book per week, but we will spend a lot of time helping students reach that future goal. So the instruction and expectation now is that students must read 30 minutes a night.
What about birthday celebrations?
Should your child want to celebrate his/her birthday with food, that's great! We welcome food celebrations. Your child will need to bring in 42 treats (one for each student member of our community). With this in mind, when we review birthday celebrations with students we are going to emphasize small and manageable. Also, you can imagine that 42 full-size cupcakes over the course of the year is a bit much. We will also invite students to consider salty and/or healthy options.
Where will students eat lunch?
Students are eating in 2 rooms. Each room has 21 students and one teacher. One set of students eats in Thunder and the other set of students eats in the Lab.
How will fourth and fifth graders be distributed between cohorts?
Well, it depends. Sometimes the fourth and fifth graders will work separately. Other times the groups will be in halves like for lunch. When that happens we have about 8 fifth graders and about 13 fourth graders per group. In the cohorts students are divided into three groups. We work to make sure there is a balance between groups. So the 16 fifth graders would be divided as equally as possible between three groups, and the 26 fourth graders would also be divided as equally as possible.
For some math units fourth and fifth graders will be separated from each other. There are other moments when fourth and fifth graders are separate during the year, but these are momentary and flexible groups like the rest of our groupings.
When will the whole Thunder and Lightning community be in one room and for how long?
The community will be together for morning meetings, read aloud, mini lessons, and closing meetings. Our morning meetings are 30 minutes. This is where we greet each other, go over our schedule, and especially now we are introducing and reviewing procedures. Read aloud times vary, students are learning the habit of active listening while enjoying sharing a story. Mini lessons occur before math and STEAM and last 5-10 minutes. The themes of these lessons are then reiterated when students are in the their small teaching teams of 14. The closing meeting is about 10 to 15 minutes long.
For PE how many cohorts will be together?
Students attend PE in one cohort. This means that 14 students are going to PE together.
