October 17, 2011 NC State Fair Week

Mr. Peele won 2 blue ribbons at the NC State Fair for his show pigs! Go Pigs! We had a great time. Someone's pig decided to go the wrong way and went under my legs to get wherever he wanted to go! It was fun to see some of Neuse Charter School kids showing animals, as well!

The rest of this month will be an action packed month. Workdays on Friday the 21st and 24th, awards coming up on the 27th and the Booster Bash on the 28th.

The 5th grade has been reading The Secret Garden. It's great to see students so excited about a story. I love the book too! A garden is a wonderful place no matter what is grown there but to have a wall around it and have it be a secret is very special, indeed. Perhaps our students are like plants in a garden that are blossoming each day as they are watered with more and more knowledge and understanding.

A note about schedules- it is a big help to our students to have schedules written down . A suggestion is to have a small card and mark it at the top with the day of the week. A 3x5 card would be excellent. If there is a schedule change for that day, the student can mark it down in homeroom or one of the teachers would be glad to do it for them. They can then check the card throughout the day to see where they are going next. This helps with anxiety about schedules and keeps the students on track. Clear contact paper might be a help to keep it in tact.

Thank you and have an excellent week!

Mrs. Peele

It's NCS Bookfair Week and NC State Fair begins Thursday!

Come to the Fair! The NCS Bookfair and the NC State Fair!!!

Mr. Peele and I will be showing our pigs this Saturday at the Kelly Building at the NC State Fair!

Come and visit us - the shows will be at 8 am, 12:30, and 1:30 pm. Also, this year I have a painting in the art show at the fair .

The fifth grade has been studying weather, as you know. Yesterday some of my students and I found a great song about clouds on www.schooltube.com . It was a great way for them to learn the different types of clouds and remember them, most of all.

I found some beanbags in my closet at the start of school. They are great for so many things.

In Mrs. Vassar's class , I 've been using one as a microphone to pass to each student in my group.Only the student with the microphone gets to talk which cuts down on any interruptions.

In math, the beanbag is a great tool to learn math facts by throwing it back and forth and saying the math facts. In language arts, it is a great sequence tool, phonics tool, as it passes from student to student. I love beanbags.

Have a great week and don't forget to come to the NCS Bookfair and the NC State Fair!

Mrs. Peele

Homework Help!

Welcome to my blog:) I hope you all had a great weekend. I am concerned for students and parents that battle constantly with homework. Here are some suggestions to help you through the year:)

1. A clipboard in the backpack to clip extra papers for mom and dad or notices of any kind.

2. Check you child's agenda each night whether they like it or not.

3. Use color coded folders for each subject.

4. Check to make sure that the homework actually has been completed. Please do not just take your child's word for it, which I know sounds as if you are not trusting them, but you are just making sure it is completed properly in order for them to get a good grade and you both to have peace of mind.

5. Check the teachers' websites consistently as things change quickly as you all know. Go to www.neusecharterschool.org and click on teacher blogs and then on the corresponding teacher blog pages.


I hope these few things will help. If you are already doing them - give yourself an extra pat on the back ! Have a more peaceful week!
Mrs. Peele

9/11/11



Having stopped today to remember the victims of 9/11/01 and praying for those that need God's comfort and love because of it.

Our students all seem to be off to a great start this year at our new school.
In science, many students are studying weather. They have been writing weather words in cursive, breaking words into syllables, and matching words with their definitions. They watched a short video from scholastic on the weather cycle: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/studyjams/water_cycle/  I thought you would enjoy it too, even though they will have a test on it tomorrow, Monday.

In math, students are working hard in fourth grade on the different forms of numbers: short word form, expanded form, and standard form. I focus on what the teacher is teaching in the Standard Course of Study supported by work with memorization of basic facts, reading and understanding directions, and steps in problem solving and the students' individual goals, more specifically.

Mrs. Beaumont and I will be working "off campus", Tuesday, 9/13/2011.
Have a very good week!
Mrs. Peele

Assistive Technology

Did you know that your computer has some very helpful Assistive Technology built in to it?
You think you can't access it? I will show you how so that you can help yourself or your child.

1. At the bottom left corner of your screen click on the "start" circle (mine is blue with a flag inside).
2. Click on all programs.
3. Then look for Accessories and click on that.
4. Look for "Ease of Access" and click on that.
5. Click on the magnifier or screen keyboard, or narrator
whichever one is what will help you on the computer.

It's that simple! Have a great day -
Mrs. Peele

Welcome Back to Neuse Charter School!

Welcome back everyone to the new school year, 2011-2012!
I wish you all a very good year.
This summer I took a few short trips. This picture of me was
taken in Walterboro, South Carolina at their War Memorial.
I'm looking forward to seeing all of our students and hearing
about their summer adventures.

Please take a few minutes and look at some of the websites

I have posted.

Have a great first full week.

Mrs. Peele

May 10, 2011

With the energy level of our students at its peak, I have been creating some new lessons outside for some of my students. With the EOG 's in mind, we played a game with stickers to see which sticker in a line up of stickers was the "mode". It was pretty obvious but a great visual, I thought anyway. With a number on a group of about 8 cards, I lined the cards up on the ground. I asked the students to show me what they would do first if asked to find the median of the set of numbers. One of the students in the group remembered to arrange the numbers in order. Another student started turning over the cards from the outside in. Great! They were left with 2 cards in the middle and I asked, "What do you do now?" They were partly right and we proceeded to add the two together and divide by 2 to find the Median.

Another fun activity to find the "Main Idea" was to have two teams. We had two on each team.

I wispered the name of an object to the one student on each team. The other team member was the "artist". When I said "Go" the first team member told the artist shapes to draw on his paper

and where to put them but that is all he could say. I timed them for one minute and said "Stop".

The artist then had to guess what it was and whoever guessed their team got a point. We discussed the shapes representing details and how together they formed the "Main Idea" just like in a story.

I will be praying that all of our students do well on their EOG's. They have worked so hard to prepare for their tests.

Mrs. Peele