9/15/2017 Room 303 News

Weekly Updates and Reminders: 

• Daily folders and red reading folders are to go to and from school each day.  Reading logs are to be filled out at home to log their 20 minutes of nightly reading.
• Assignment Notebooks (planners) are to be signed or initialed every evening by a parent.  Thank you for taking the time to check your child's planner.
• Please always email BOTH teachers if you have any questions or concerns.  
• Our Funky Fall Fund Walk is on Friday, October 6.  This is our school's only fundraiser- we hope that you will consider collecting pledges online or simply by paper.  Our class is in third place right now but we are hoping to be the class with the most donations!
• There is no school on Thursday, September 21.

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO CURRICULUM NIGHT.  WE HAD A GREAT TURN-OUT AND ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT THE SCHOOL YEAR AHEAD! THE STUDENTS LOVED MAKING THEIR LITTLE SELF PORTRAITS TO GREET YOU AS YOU CAME IN THE ROOM!

Math:

This week in math we accomplished our routine such as starting math workshop with checking homework together and asking questions to further understand the math skills practiced.  This is an important part of our day, for students begin to take ownership of their learning.  Students also enjoyed receiving all their math tools such as rulers, calculators, and measuring tapes.  Students took a Beginning of the Year Assessment.  I will use the information to form small group instruction so that we can begin Math Workshop next week.

Social Studies:

In Social Studies, we have began our first unit:  The Geography of Michigan.  Students were engaged in learning through authentic literature to support the idea of where we live, as well as what makes Michigan a unique region...the Great Lakes Region! 

Science:

Students were so anxious to begin their hands-on experiments in groups of four.  They are natural scientists at heart!  We discussed what makes a great science team and all agreed it will take patience, collaboration, close observations, and respectful discussions.  Our focus this week was how water reacts to different surfaces.  It was a great first week learning Science!

Writing: 

This week we started Writer’s Workshop.  We talked about what a good third grade writer’s notebook should look like.  The students talked about some people, places, and things that are important to them and decorated their covers to reflect that.  We also started making of list and generating some ideas to begin our first small moments of the year.

Reading: 

We also started Reader’s Workshop this week.  We have been talking about how readers don’t just read books, but they build a reading LIFE.  We have been working on filling out our daily reading logs correctly at home and at school and building our stamina to read for longer periods of time. We are off to a great start in reading and writing.