CA Regions Maps

Students used their knowledge of California’s four main regions, as well as famous landmarks to create their own treasure maps. Maps included labels for landmarks such as Yosemite National Park, Redwood National Park, Mt. Shasta, Mt. Whitney, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, San Diego, Irvine, Los Angeles, Death Valley, Joshua Tree National Park, the Pacific Ocean, etc.

Students also drew in a compass rose with the cardinal and intermediate directions (north, south, east, west, NW, NE, SW, SE), and a treasure hunting trail throughout all of the regions and famous landmarks.

Art with Mrs. Haynes

Meet Mrs. Haynes. She is our talented art teacher. We are so lucky to have art instruction for our students. They will have twelve lessons throughout the school year.

Lesson #1: Squiggle Art: The beauty of an “oops”

Lesson #2: Puzzle Piece Collage

Lesson #3: Overlapping Objects

Join the PTA!

UPDATE: August 19th: If you haven’t joined the PTA yet, please consider joining and donating. Our class is hoping to be the top placement for the grade level to earn an ice cream party! Our PTA President this year is Mrs. Morales— who is amazing, and even helps to lead our third graders with small groups every week! Please check the www.woodburypta.org website for more information.

The PTA Website is a great way to stay connected with all of the exciting things that are taking place at our school!  On the website, there will be a main information page, calendar of events, and other important information/documents pertaining to the PTA. The exciting part is that when you register, you will be able to buy spirit wear, make your pledge & membership donations, sign up for volunteer opportunities for each event, and will be sent our monthly newsletters or emails directly from the website. It is a one stop shop!  So don't wait, register today!

PTA-Logo.jpg

Vistors' Badges

Woodbury Elementary loves its parent volunteers and campus guests, but we really love and value the safety of our children a great deal. The children are our number one priority. Please be sure to sign in at the front office and wear your visitor's badge whenever you come on campus as a parent volunteer or a classroom visitor. All visitors must have their driver's license scanned into the front office's Raptor system the first time, and then visitors will sign in and out at the front office computers every time after. 

Thank you for your cooperation and support. 

BrainPop and BrainPopJr.

BrainPop and BrainPopJr. is an educational website with over 1,000 animated videos made for grades K-12. All Woodbury students have individual BrainPop and BrainPopJr. accounts. Occasionally, assignments will be posted on BrainPop for classwork or homework.

  1. Visit www.brainpop.com or www.jr.brainpop.com

  2. Click on the Login button.

  3. Enter Username (33lastnamefirstname)

  4. Enter password: type the letters “wo” in front of your 9-digit student ID number

  5. Enter the Class Code: fax5228
    This will connect your student account to Mrs. Dyer’s class account.

Sign Up for Conferences Online

Goal Setting Conferences for Mrs. Dyer's class will take place on Saturday, August 24th and Monday, August 26th. Conferences will be conducted virtually over Zoom (unless families specifically request and confirm to meet in person).

I am making Saturday conference slots available to help accommodate our parents who work full-time and cannot easily step away for a mid-day / mid-week meeting (please be aware that this is only an accommodation that I happen to offer; it is not an accommodation that the whole school or other teachers might be able to offer if you have children in other grade levels). 

We will discuss your child's strengths and areas of focus, and together, create a plan for your child's success. Please choose the time that works best for you and click on "Sign Up."

PLEASE be on time to your assigned date/time. Missing your conference slot or arriving late can impact the rest of the day's schedule for other families, and it is very difficult to reschedule. 

Type in your child's first and last name in the "My Child's Name" slot.

Please sign up online for your preferred date and time. Conferences are about twenty minutes. 

 

Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset

Woodbury Elementary and IUSD is committed to teaching students to maintain a "growth mindset." What is a growth mindset? It means that someone believes they can learn or grow to be good at something or to get better at something through practice, repetition, and hard work. Someone who believes in having a fixed mindset believes that people are only born with as much ability or intelligence as they could possibly have, and that they cannot get better at something. 

In the classroom, we want the children to fail occasionally. Making mistakes is a natural and NECESSARY part of learning. As their teacher, I want my students to know that I make plenty of mistakes all the time-- but that's because we're all human. And it's okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them! I maintain a growth mindset because I know that with dedicated time and effort, I can learn many new things and grow in many different abilities. The children should be encouraged to feel and believe that they can learn and grow too. They need to believe in a growth mindset. 

Tips for promoting a growth mindset in kids (adapted from Sarah McKay; yourbrainhealth.com):

  1. Help children understand that the brain works like a muscle. It can only grow through hard work, determination, and lots and lots of practice.

  2. Praise the process and not always the outcome. It's effort, hard work, and practice that allow children to achieve their true potential.

  3. Don't always focus on the outcome or results, whether it is good or bad.

  4. Embrace failures and mistakes. Children sometimes learn the most when they fail. Let them know that mistakes are a big part of the learning process. There is nothing like the feeling of struggling through a very difficult problem, only to finally break through and solve it! The harder the problem, the more satisfying it is to find the solution.

  5. Encourage participation and collaborative group learning. Children learn best when they are immersed in a topic and are allowed to discuss and advance with their peers.

  6. Encourage competency-based learning. Get kids excited about subject matter by explaining why it is important and how it will help them in the future. The goal should never be to get the "correct" answer, but to understand the topic at a fundamental, deep level, and to want to learn more.

Xtra Math

XtraMath is a web program designed to help kids master their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. Students will be encouraged to practice their math facts frequently at home in order to know all multiplication and division math facts with automaticity (within 3 seconds) by the end of the school year. The sooner the kids master their math facts, the sooner and more comfortable they will be with solving complex math problems in class and during homework.

All families were provided a parent letter with an enrollment code for their child. Students should log in to XtraMath at home to practice. We will also log in and use the program in class.

The program begins with a placement assessment. Once placement is done, each day a student signs into XtraMath they start off with a two minute Progress Quiz to check what progress they’ve made. Students do not take more than one progress quiz a day. The mastery score and fluency matrix reflect this progress.

XtraMath sessions are short — about 10 minutes or less — and are ideally intended to be done once a day. A typical session consists of a few quiz and practice activities, each lasting about two minutes.

View this Family Intro Guide to set up your child’s Xtra Math account.

  1. Go to: www.xtramath.org

  2. Enter “ericadyer@iusd.org” as the Teacher Email

  3. Enter the 4-digit pin number provided by Mrs. Dyer

***Note: If your child already has an account from their 2nd grade teacher, the program/enrollment code should merge your child’s account into our third grade class if you are logging in with the same email address as when you first registered.

Students will use XtraMath to practice math facts for homework at least twice a week (T/TH). Your child can always use the resource more frequently at home to level up faster. Students will take math facts fluency assessments generally every Friday in this order: 10s, 5s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 3s, 6s, 9s, 7s

ST Math

Woodbury Elementary has a math intervention program called ST Math. This engaging computer-based program is a fun way for children to practice and solidify their math skills. All Woodbury students have accounts set up for this new program already, and students will have access to JiJi Math both at school and at home. For use at home, please see the attachment below for detailed instructions.

Student Login Information (for first time login). ***Important: If your child doesn't remember his/her picture password, he/she will need to click on the rectangle with the two horizontal lines (like an equal (=) sign) and use their username/password combination. Then the program will take them through a picture password training session first. If your child DOES know their picture password, he/she can just click in their picture password to log in. 

Username: student computer login (i.e. 30smithjohn)
Password: 9-digit student ID number

Watch the video below to learn how to log in.

The program begins with a math placement assessment. It will start off very easy (matching puzzle pieces together), and progress to more difficult levels to measure students' math skills. Students should continue through the initial math placement until it is complete. Afterwards, the program will automatically monitor the child's progress and adjust levels accordingly.

FAQ:

Is ST Math available for use on an iPad or Tablet?

Yes. If you are a school, school district or homeschool family that has purchased ST Math, you may access the software on touch-enabled devices. Technical requirements can be found here.

Do I have to download software?

The program is online and there’s no need to download any software. However, a high-speed Internet connection is required for each device running ST Math. See the Technical Requirements.

Is there a mobile app for ST Math Homeschool users?

Yes! Subscribers can use the ST Math app for Android tablets, Chromebooks, iPads, and Kindles. For more information and to download the app, go to ST Math Tech Requirements.

 

Newsela

Newsela is an online resource that provides great non-fiction informational text articles for students to read. These articles expose the students to real-life current events. The articles are adaptable by Lexile (reading) levels and even offer writing assignments and comprehension quizzes! 

Every student has a free account using their @iusd.org usernames. Their passwords are their student ID numbers. Our class code is:

Sign up instructions:

  1. Go to https://newsela.com/quickjoin/#/R4BKVZ

  2. Quick start instructions