9/29/2017 Room 303 News

Weekly Updates and Reminders: 

• KUDOS to you for your partnership in your child's learning!  We won an extra recess for having the highest number of parents attend Curriculum Night!  Thank you! 
• 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.
• Math homework is checked in class together each day.  This time is spent reteaching (if necessary) and more importantly, a time for students to take ownership of their learning by asking questions if they have an incorrect answer on their homework.
• 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.  New donation sheets were sent home today with your child.  There are some really fun prizes offered too!
  
• "CHEWS" Wixom PTA!  Please consider joining the Wixom PTA.  Your membership doesn't require any commitment.  These funds help our school so much!  Our class is trying to get 100% participation. 
  
  
  
• Thank you for sending in the delicious apples!  The students had so much fun making homemade apple sauce.
  
  

Math:
The MATH Facts Log is a helpful tool to keep track of your child's learning at home.  This Log will be sent home each Friday, together with a practice sheet.  Please have your child return it every Friday!  I would recommend a minimum of 10 minutes each night studying facts, concentrating on the set, (i.e., X2 or -4) your child is at.  There are many ways to study such as simply writing them out over and over, flash cards, websites, apps., etc.  Let me know if you need more ideas to help your child study at home.  This week we also logged into the ChromeBooks and practiced our facts online.  Math Magician is an excellent and fun website!  Check it out with your child! 

Social Studies:
We have completed the booklet, Where in the World is Wixom Elementary!  I will grade these over the weekend.  However, many students did not know their complete address.  Please practice writing this at home.  For example:

Stacy Smith
1234 Country Road
Anywhere, MI 48123

 Science:

Science is more than a body of knowledge. How well you think is often more important than how much you know. In addition to the science content framework, every experiment provides opportunities for students to engage in and understand science practices, and many experiments explore issues related to engineering practices and the use of natural resources. 

• Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for      engineering);

• Developing and using models;

• Planning and carrying out investigations; 

• Analyzing and interpreting data;

• Using mathematics, and computational thinking; 

• Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering); 

• Engaging in argument from evidence; and 

• Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.

This week the students explored the properties of water using a cause and effect approach, such as: 

What is the cause-and-effect relationship between the size of a water dome and the speed at which it moves? [Larger water domes move down slopes faster.]

What is the cause-and-effect relationship between the slope of a surface and the speed at which a water dome moves? [The steeper the slope, the faster a water dome moves.]

Writing: 

We continue to work on our small moment stories during Writer's Workshop.  Last week, the students spent a lot of time writing about a variety of topics.  This week we focused our writing down to one small moment they were excited to publish.  We have been working on exciting leads for our stories and how to add details.  To add details, we have been talking about the importance of rehearsing your story over and over to pull out more of those important details.

Reading: 

We have also been busy in reading.  We continue to work on strategies to make sure we are reading with our mind tuned-in!  We spent a lot of time this week talking about making predictions when we read.  We talked about making smart and specific predictions instead of weak and wild predictions.  We are using our story Stone Fox to model many of these important comprehension strategies and then the students are also trying them out in their independent reading time.  I am still finishing up reading assessments but hope to have them completed next week so that we can start guided reading and book clubs.