10/29/2017 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.
• 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.
• Happy Halloween!  Tuesday, October 31st will be a half day of school.  The outdoor Halloween Parade will be from 10:45-11:00am and our classroom party will be from 11:00-11:45am.  Dismissal will be at 12:04 (for apple pickup and Prime Time) and 12:09pm (for bus riders).  Students are to bring their costume to school with them and we will be getting dressed around 10:15am. 

Math:

We are in full swing with our math workshop!  The students really enjoy this routine and making independent choices.  After our math lesson and independent work, students have an opportunity to play a math game to reinforce learning, a challenge problem to solve, or use versa-tiles, a self checking “ mathematical game”.  While students are working on their independent choices, this provides time for me to work with students one on one or in a small group. During this time, the students are really staying on task and enjoying learning!  

Social Studies:

This week in Social Studies, we had a guest reader that just so happened to read, “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss which was part of my lesson for this week.  "The Lorax" is a fable which has become an environmentalist classic and a wonderful introduction to environmental awareness.  

The story of “The Lorax” teaches children the consequences when humans modify our environment by using excess natural resources.  Our learning continued with a discussion about how humans modify and adapt to our environment and the pros and cons associated with those choices.

  Science:

This week we went outside to collect some natural materials. It was a beautiful fall day!  Students ran all around the playground area searching for the perfect materials to test.   Our focus question was, “What happens outdoors when rain falls on natural materials?”  Students then conducted a group experiment and dropped water on the objects they found and recorded their observations into a T-Chart labeled, “absorb” or “repel”.  I used this opportunity to discuss the use of models (using a dropper to simulate rain) to learn about the natural world. We also discussed the limitations of using models such as the amount of rain and the duration of falling rain.

This Week in Word Study and Grammar:

 Writing: 

This past week we began digging deeper into Personal Narrative writing.  The students finished publishing their first writing piece and are now taking everything they learned to publish a second piece.  I have been impressed with how they are applying many of the strategies we learned earlier in the school year. 

Reading: 

We began a new unit in reading this past week where we will be learning all about getting to know the characters as friends.  We have started the read aloud Because of Winn Dixie.  I will be using this text to model many of the minilessons and strategies we are learning in this Character Study unit.  We will also be reading other read alouds and thinking carefully about how the characters think and act adds to our understanding of the story.  We will also be starting Book Clubs, Comprehension Focus groups, and Guided Reading this week.  Students continue to fill out their reading log every time they read to look for patterns and see how they can continue to grow as a reader.