Newsletter informing parents of the upcoming activities of the unit

1. BACK TO The Elite Academy
West Roswell, GA
SCHOOL! Newsletter Date
Volume 1, Issue 1
Ms Pressley’s Classroom Newsletter
Welcome Back! What is Project Based
My Name is Venus Pressley and I am your
student’s third grade teacher. I am here to
Learning?
assist and make sure that your students’ Project Based Learning is used to bring out the
experience this year is exciting and
concept of meaningful learning in the
worthwhile! If you need to reach me you can
contact me via email at classroom. It is the use of projects both group
mspressley@schools.edu or if you need and individualized to help students gain
immediate assistance I can be reached at experience and deepen learning. Project Based
(770) 553-2145 ext 234. I look forward to Learning can be the use of technology, group
having an awe-inspiring year with you and projects, or role-playing just to name a few. It
your student! is anything that makes learning active in the
classroom. One of the most effective ways to
retain information is to make the information
relevant to one’s own life. Project based
learning does exactly that.
Benefits of PBL include:
1. Learning to work with others.
2. Gain Critical Thinking, Problem Solving,
and Communication Skills.
3. It’s allows students to take a different
approach when learning new information
which may be more effective.
Role of Parents and Students
For the monetary values portion of the unit, Students are given a job and a salary.
Students are to buy things they need which is marked with prices around the
classroom. They are to keep up with how much money they have left after each
purchase. Students will pretend they are at a store. Some students will be cashiers
and others will be customers. They will buy items with monopoly money and have to
give the appropriate amount of money to one another with the given bills and coins
they have. For the fractions portion of the unit Students are broke into groups and
given Candy (Hersey bar, and skittles) and are asked to evenly distribute it among
the group and write the fraction. Afterwards we will use construction paper and
scissors to make fraction strips to compare fractions. All supplies will be provided
by teacher. At Home parents should work with students on their homework
assignments which will help students to fully gain understanding of the material.
Students will be graded on how well they perform during the PBL activity.

2. Ms. Pressley’s Classroom Newsletter Page 2
This Week’s Assignments This Week’s Highlights
This week in Math we are beginning a unit . Standard 1
titled “Making numbers count”! We jump Math (2009) 7.) Use coins to make change up to
into discussing money and its value then $1.00.
we will participate in a project based • Determining the monetary value of a set of
learning activity which will allow the unlike coins and bills up to $20
students the opportunity to test out their • Using coins and bills to make change up to
knowledge on monetary values. After we $20.00
finish our segment on monetary values, we
will jump into fractions and the importance Objective 1
in everyday life. We will discuss how Students will be able to add and subtract using
fractions are used for common everyday monetary values.
purposes and learn about equivalent
fractions. The week will end with us doing a Objective 2
group exercise testing the student’s Students will be able to determine monetary
understanding of fractions. My role will be values of unlike bills and coins.
facilitator. I will make sure that the
students have everything they need and Standard 2
that they are actually grasping the concept. 6.) Demonstrate equivalent fractions using
concrete objects or pictorial representations.
Reminders to Students Objective 1:
Students will write a fraction using a
Essential Question:
manipulative.
How will learning how to determine
monetary values and fractions affect my Objective 2:
everyday life? Students will recognize equivalent fractions.
Students will find equal fractions to known
Unit Question: fractions
How can being able to determine values
of money help me in my everyday life?
How will be able to recognize fractions
Welcome Back Students!
help me in my everyday life?
Content Question:
Why are fractions important?
How can bills and coins have the same
monetary values?
What is the difference between monetary .
value and numerical value?
Upcoming Events
First PTA Meeting
Tuesday, September 6, 7:30 P.M.