Mrs.
Kaiser’s News
October 9, 2015
Dear Parents,
This week we were blessed to have Mary
Winder as a guest speaker for our unit on the
Haudenosaunee people. She came and showed us
real feather headdresses for her people (they
are different than those of the Plains Indians
that most people think of) and she helped kids to
design their own. The boys headdress is called a
“gustowe” and the girls is simply a crown. She
taught us how to greet each other in Oneida as
well. She plans to come back next week to
make fans and teach students to sing a hymn in
Oneida.
I have been working with students to help
them understand that when they fail to turn in
an assignment, it adds a zero to their grade
which makes their grade come down. I have
many who understand and care and some who will
need to face the hard reality of low grades. At
the same time, I want to keep the focus on the
importance of learning, rather than grades, so as
you talk to your young person, please emphasize
that the low grades are (hopefully) just a
measurement of the learning. Students received
a grade report for everything I have graded to
this point. Please ask them for it and let me
know if you have questions. If you or they are
unhappy with their grades, the solution is simple-
turn in quality work and watch the grades go up.
I do not give letter grades for second graders so
we have to hold them accountable in other ways!
There is no school this Monday so enjoy
the long weekend with your young person.
Sabbath blessings!
Spelling Words:
Red group (Patric, Afia, Avier): sled, fret,
dress, trot, plot, drop, cross, frog, slob, slot,
club, slug, plum, drum, truck, snub
Yellow group (Agape, Egan, Sunay, Rebecca,
Prisca): next, vest, web, west, when, sweep,
week, clean, heat, leaf, weak, wheat, speech,
greed, least, been
Green group (Benjamin, Brian, Isaiah, Jessica,
Kanay, Kayla): cutting, stopping, humming,
begging, grinning, jogging, moving, living,
coming, taking, having, adding, spelling,
chewing, talking, pushing, working
Light-Skill for Next Week
Organization- To keep things neat and in order
so I can be more efficient.
(We’re sticking with this one for another
week!)
Concepts and Skills for This Week
- What are the parts of a paragraph and how
to plan and write one.
- More elements of Haudenosaunee life
Memory Verse
Then God said, “Let the water under the sky
be gathered together so the dry land will
appear.” And it happened. God named the dry
land “earth.” He named the water that was
gathered together “seas.” God saw that this
was good. Genesis 1:9-10