11/19/2017 Room 303 News

Weekly Updates and Reminders:

• NO SCHOOL:  Nov. 23rd AND Nov. 24th!  We hope you have a great Thanksgiving Break! 
• 
• Please always email BOTH teachers if you have any questions or concerns.
• 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.
• If your child has one of these images stapled to their daily planner, it is just our way to quickly communicate to you that your child needs a specific winter item for recess.  On Mondays students do go outside for one hour.  As temperatures get colder, they will need winter gear to stay warm and enjoy recess with their friends.
  

Math:

  As a reminder, please make sure your child is studying their specific multiplication set every night!  You can find out what set your child should be studying by checking the top right corner of the actual quiz sent home on Fridays.  Make it part of your child's nightly routine!  

Here is a website, I am sure your child may enjoy visiting to practice multiplication facts!
https://www.mathplayground.com/index_multiplication_division.html

Also, here are some recommended apps for iPads and/or iPhones

http://www.smartappsforkids.com/multiplication/

 Lastly, we have three students who are FACT MASTERS, which means they have mastered all their multiplication and division facts on the weekly fact fluency quizzes!  These students will now be challenged to have a mixed quiz of multiplication and divisions facts each Friday and will try to beat their own time each week!

Social Studies:
We have finished our studies of Unit 1.  Students will be taking the unit assessment on Wednesday.  On Monday and Tuesday we will review the content and I will send home the study guide on Monday, so that your child can study Monday and Tuesday night.  They are already well prepared but it will be helpful to review the study guide at home as well.  

This week students were thoroughly engaged as we discussed how water flows from the Great Lakes into the Atlantic Ocean.  I showed the students a 3 part youtube.com series of the Caldecott Honor Book, Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling Calncy Holling.  The students were very excited to learn that these videos were based upon a real book and I knew I had them (every teacher's dream)! So, I pulled out a stack of the actual book and many students wanted to take the book home to read today!  This was not required and I believe all but four students brought the book home tonight!  Your child can keep the book at home until after winter break.  Please return the book no later than January 5, 2018!  

Science:
Oh my!  Students enjoy Science!  

I certainly hope they are telling you all about our experiments!  This week students had the opportunity to make a thermometer using a small glass bottle, a piece of plastic pipe, a rubber stopper and colored room temperature water.  Students placed their thermometers into hot water and observed how water expands as it is heated.  Then they placed their thermometers into cold water and observed how water contracts as it is cooled.  After our investigation, students recorded their finding into their science notebooks.  Next, students gathered into two groups and shared their written observations with the group.  Such oral discourse helps students process and organize what they learned.  In addition, listening and evaluating their classmates' understanding not only sharpens their reasoning skills but allows the student to question and/or confirm their own understanding.  After each student shared, the students were then encouraged to revise and edit their own writing based on the groups' discussion.  

This Week in Word Study and Grammar:
Because this coming week is so short, we will be working on the same grammar packet for this week and the week after we return from Thanksgiving Break (November 27).  Our focus will be...

 Writing:
This coming week we are going to be focusing on making some final changes to our personal narrative writing to make it our very best!  This will include reading it carefully to see if there are parts we need to take out, or parts where we need to add more detail.  We will also focus on writing with our senses to really make our "writing come alive" for our readers.  Lastly, we will be working from our editing and revising checklists as our final step before publishing.  The students have worked so hard on these stories can't wait to share their finished pieces.

Reading: 

This week we will continue to focus on following our characters through a story, taking a journey with them along all the hills, valleys, twists, and turns.  We are almost done with our chapter book read aloud Because of Winn Dixie. The students have loved following the character Opal and learning about her by the things she says, thinks, and does.  We have also been analyzing character traits, learning new vocabulary and having literature discussions with our other read aloud titles Maurice the Unbeastly and More Than Anything Else.  The students have also practiced these skills independently in their book clubs and small reading groups.