February

There are so many great themes for February- President's Day, Black History, Valentine's Day and more.

The 6th grade class is reading Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. This week I will be supporting themes in this book which is about two families living during the Holocaust in Denmark. We will work together to devise a plan to hide a family as if we were living during that period in history. We will study a map of Europe and locate Denmark and Sweden and more....this will encourage inferencing, new vocabulary, and drawing conclusions.

All of our students are working hard in all subjects.

The EC Department just had our second EC Continuous Improvement Plan meeting where we discussed
two activities for our plan from last year for various indicators. We discussed what is going well and what still needs improvement.

We hope you all have an excellent February. Please welcome our new High School EC Teacher:
Ms. Lili Moiroira. She is doing an excellent job and we are so excited to have her as part of our EC Team.

Thank you,
Mrs. Peele

January 2013

Happy New Year!

2013

Did you know that 15 % of students in America have learning disabilities? Check it out for yourself at www.ncld.org .

If you suspect that your child may have learning disabilities in reading, writing, or math check out their website for some important signs to watch for and information about evaluations.

The second quarter will be ending soon and we will be trying to get work finished for this nine weeks.

Students with IEP's will be continuing to work on reaching their goals, along with learning the Core Standard Curriculum.

I hope everyone has a  very good first month of 2013.

Mrs Peele

npeele@neusecharterschool.org

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

My 6th grade students spent last week reading and writing about "Robin Hood". After reading the story and answering comprehension questions, working on pronouns, and synonyms, they had a very productive Literature Circle. They each had a job to do- one person was the director, one person shared about the characters, and so on. They all joined in the discussion and shared many interesting thoughts about the story, theme, characters, main idea, and plot. As students begin to express themselves about a story openly, they find they really do have a lot to write about. This week this class will be creating power-point presentations to present to each other on Friday and the first of next week.

Mrs. Beaumont and I will be at an Exceptional Children's District meeting on Wednesday.

My elementary students have been working hard on math, reading, phonics,vocabulary, and main idea of a story.
One of my students read a book this week on the story of Little League Baseball. Mrs. Smith taught me a song to help students remember what to think about in order to formulate the Main Idea. I taught it to my student and it really helped that student to remember the different questions to ask himself- who, did what, where, when, why?

In math, the game of concentration is helping students remember math facts and fact families. I also use a bean-bag toss game to help students memorize facts, as well as just asking them orally to answer fact questions. Also google "grandprix multiplication" to have your students engage in a great game to learn facts.

Neuse Charter will be a busy place over the next two weeks, especially in the Exceptional Children's Department. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Have a very blessed and peaceful Christmas season and vacation and a very Happy New Year!

Mrs. Peele
npeele@neusecharterschool.org

Fall Back, Spring Ahead!

It's about time for Daylight Savings! I can't believe it.
This week my sixth grade reading and writing class will be mailing letters that they have written to
their pen-pals in Uganda. They worked very hard on the letters doing a first and final draft.
Using two different graphic-organizers, or diagrams, they also wrote a paragraph using a topic sentence and a conclusion. For a final draft, each student typed his or her paragraph.

One of my classes was studying the short "U" sound and read an interesting article about the Peanut Man in Raleigh who had served our country in World War II. You may have seen it in Our State Magazine. Students with disabilities need to learn to read where they are at but with age appropriate material. That is very challenging to a teacher but rewarding as when I heard one student tell other students about the article he read.

In math students are very busy learning math skills such as multiplication of one and two digit numbers, finding the Least Common Multiple, the Greatest Common Factor, time, money, and fractions. ( Not all the same grade :))

The CIPP team for the Exceptional Children's Department met for the first time this school year last Thursday. One parent, one student, an EC teacher, an EC teacher assistant, a general education teacher, a community representative, and the EC Director attended. We discussed the CIPP report that was sent in last spring, the results of that report sent to me by the state, and ways that we  can improve our program at Neuse Charter School. Thanks to all who attended.

I am having my students that come to me for classes, fill in a classroom management chart, a smiley face chart, each week. Each smiley face is worth 5 play dollars and they are given for the way the student enters the classroom and completion of tasks. At the end of each week each student is paid according to the number of smiley faces on his or her chart. A store of prizes is presented on Friday and each student can buy prizes with his or her "money". If you would like to donate to "our store" please feel free to send in small prizes- candy, erasers, mechanical pencils, pads of paper, pens, fun markers, etc.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Peele

Pressing On for Excellence !

What a beautiful weekend we just had! I even got to show a pig at the NC State Fair and won a third place ribbon!

The homework situation is improving. I have seen a red folder that is working! That is great news!
Please continue to make sure you as a parent check your student's agenda daily to make sure they are on track with assignments and if possible, their teachers' websites. Thank you parents!

Transitions for our students are difficult. I am going to start placing a sticker on the day one of my students has a change in his schedule with me until he gets used to it. Try this at home if your child has difficulty with a change in schedule. Place a schedule on the refrigerator and on the day you know there will be a change such as a friend coming over to visit or you need to go out to the store or to an appointment, place a star or sticker on that day and time. This helps everyone remember that there will be a change taking place at that time and you can all prepare for that ahead of time.

Please have your student use www.spellingcity.com or another helpful vocabulary/spelling website of your choice to help with sentences, vocabulary, writing practice, spelling and more.

Teacher workday- 10/22/12

Have a great week-
Mrs. Peele

Last Week of September

Dates to Remember:

• Tuesday, September 25: Severe Weather Practice
• Thursday, September 27: Picture Day!
• Teacher Workday- October 22nd

Our students are working very hard with a great positive attitude.
Parents, please check your children's teacher blogs for assignments and projects.

Homework Help:

• Check your child's agenda against your child's teacher blogs.
• Have your student place homework in a bright red folder marked HW before he/she goes to bed.
• Sign your child's agenda if applicable.
• Check on projects- mainly grades 4-11.
• Break a project up into sections per night for your child so that they are not overwhelmed.
• Keep project parts in a clear plastic scrapbooking box marked with the project's name.( Michael's has them with handles)
• It's okay to ask your child to see his/her homework whether they want to show it to you or not.
• Don't accept, "I don't have any" for an answer when you ask your child if they have any HW.
• Again, check out the teacher blog and/or email/call the teacher to make sure.

Incomplete Assignments:

• If your child has an incomplete on his/her progress report, give your child direction as to how to make it up.
• Check with the teacher as to how long he/she has to make it up.
• Write it down on your child's agenda and your family calendar when it is due as well as other assignments.

"Finishing is Better Than Starting"
Have a fabulous week!
Mrs. Peele

New Beginnings Lead to New Possibilities

New Beginnings Lead to New Possibilities

As we start out the 2012-2013 school year, I have already seen great potential in our students.

Not only academically but socially. I was leaving one of the buildings this morning and one student was carrying a bag for another student who needed help. After they got to class, another student in the class came to help as well. What a great start to the new school year! Students helping students!

Our speech classes will begin the week of August 27th, as well as the Occupational Therapy classes.

Mrs. Jernigan is our new Exceptional Children's teacher. Mrs. Beaumont and I welcome her and we hope you have a chance to meet her soon. She is also the elementary school's guidance counselor.

We are all excited about a new school year with amazing possibilities for our students!

Mrs. Peele

If you would like to email me- npeele@neusecharterschool.org