Room303 News 11/30/18

Weekly Updates and Reminders: 

• Daily folders (black) and gray 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.  This is a great way to start a conversation about learning if you review it with your child each evening.
• Please always email BOTH teachers if you have any questions or concerns.  
• There is a half-day of school on Thursday, December 13 due to Parent/Teacher Conferences.  You may now sign up for a time slot on Skyward.  Please let us know if you have any issues signing up for a time.  Report cards will be posted to Skyward on Wednesday, December 12 at 4pm. 
• Happy December birthdays to Marissa (1) and Mihal (22).
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•  Mark your Calendars for our Polar Express Day on Friday, December 21. 
 

Math:
We are almost at the end of Unit 3.  We will begin reviewing next week and have our test on Thursday.  Below are pictures of the students working with their Math Teams.  Students were given a basket of geometric shapes that they had to count and graph. After they collected the data and graphed the numbers, they brainstormed different questions and answers that could be derived from their graphs.  They really had a great time working within their Teams.

   

Social Studies:
  This past week we defined the word, Geography by using a Visible Thinking Routine called, Think, Puzzle, Explore.  Students first wrote what they thought they knew about the topic.  Next, I gave them a bit more information and they wrote some more.  After a lengthy discussion, they continued the routine by expressing what questions they have about the topic now that they understood what it meant.  They were highly engaged and as a teacher, this was super exciting to begin a new unit with so much enthusiasm!  We will study the Geography of Michigan by themes:  Movement, Region, Location, Human/Environment Interaction, and Place.

Science:
Our next science unit will be Motion & Matter.  We should be receiving our new kits on December 3rd.  Below is a summary of the unit's focus:

"Motion and Matter provides grade 3 students with experiences around physical sciences core ideas dealing with forces and interactions, matter and its interactions, and with engineering design. The anchor phenomenon for the first three investigations is motion. Magnetism and gravity are the phenomena investigated as students look for patterns of motion to predict future motion. The guiding question is what causes objects to move? Students work with magnets and paper clips, wheel-and-axle systems, paper air twirlers, and rotating tops. Students use their knowledge of science to enter the engineering design process and through the process refine their science understanding.

In the fourth investigation, students move from energy to matter. They build on the science concepts of matter and its interactions developed in grade 2 using new tools to quantify observations. Students use metric tools to produce data on mass and volume to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of the phenomena of conservation of mass. The guiding question is how can we use tools to measure the mass of materials in mixtures?

Throughout the Motion and Matter Module, students engage in science and engineering practices to collect data to answer questions, and to define problems in order to develop solutions. Students reflect on their own use of these practices and find out about how others use these practices in science and engineering careers." - www.fossweb.com/

Word Study/Grammar:

Next week for grammar we will be on Week Thirteen.  The students will be learning about short vowels, combining sentences, and sensory words.

Writing:   
This past week, we started Unit 2 where we will be focusing on Informational Writing.  We have talked about the difference between narrative and informational writing.  We also talked about topics that we know a lot about to begin to narrow down what each student wants to focus on for their informational book.  Once the students have selected their topic, we have begun talking about what the big ideas (headings) would be under that topic.  The students are excited to begin writing!

Reading:

We have started Unit 2 where we are focusing on Character Studies.  We read aloud The Can Man and examined the characters, vocabulary, author's purpose, and theme.  We are also reading aloud the story Because of Winn Dixie and learning how to follow a character throughout the story looking for patterns in the things they say and do.  We use these patterns to form theories and ideas about the character.  The students are also reading their own chapter books and having book club discussions focusing on these same ideas.  They are having a lot of fun with this unit so far!

Room 303 News: 11/21/2018

1. Weekly Updates and Reminders: 

• Reminder:  There is NO SCHOOL tomorrow or Friday for Thanksgiving Break.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
• Daily folders (black) and gray 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.  This is a great way to start a conversation about learning if you review it with your child each evening.
• Please always email BOTH teachers if you have any questions or concerns.  
• We do not have any November birthdays in Room 303. 
• We were so sad to say farewell to Shonacie.  We had a little goodbye celebration for her, complete with cake and a movie.  She will be missed in Room 303 but she promised to keep in touch!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

SNOW FUN!

When our work is done, it's time for an extra recess!  Thursday are long afternoons and it's always nice to stay focused earlier on so that we can enjoy the great outdoors together in the late afternoon!  The students really enjoyed playing in the little bit of snow we received last week!  Look at those rosy cheeks!  

Math:
We have been learning different strategies to subtract which has really expanded our thinking as it relates to number sense/concepts.  

During Math Workshop, after students have completed their independent work, they have several math choices to practice math skills.  The students love this independent choice!  They work alone or with a partner.  One new choice is, GINGERBREAD MATH!  This is a fun game to practice our multiplication facts.  

Social Studies:
 We have just completed our learning about Michigan's Government.  I will be sending home the student's scores next week.  Our next unit will focus on Michigan's Geography.  
"In this unit students use a geographic lens to explore the State of Michigan. The unit focuses around the five major themes of geography: movement, region, human/environment interaction, location and place.  While studying the theme of location, students use cardinal directions and identify various ways to describe the relative location of Michigan. When studying the theme of place, students use maps and instructional technology to identify significant human and physical characteristics of Michigan. Through literature, maps, informational text and other resources, students also explore the concept of human/environment interaction. They learn about Michigan’s natural resources and how people have modified and adapted to Michigan’s environment.  As students study the theme of movement, an emphasis is placed on the Great Lakes. Using the St. Lawrence Seaway, students explore how people, goods, jobs and ideas move into and out of Michigan. Students also apply the concept of region to their study of Michigan.  "  -WLCSD

Science:
Our next science unit will be Motion & Matter.  We should be receiving our new kits on December 3rd.  Below is a summary of the unit's focus:

"Motion and Matter provides grade 3 students with experiences around physical sciences core ideas dealing with forces and interactions, matter and its interactions, and with engineering design. The anchor phenomenon for the first three investigations is motion. Magnetism and gravity are the phenomena investigated as students look for patterns of motion to predict future motion. The guiding question is what causes objects to move? Students work with magnets and paper clips, wheel-and-axle systems, paper air twirlers, and rotating tops. Students use their knowledge of science to enter the engineering design process and through the process refine their science understanding.

In the fourth investigation, students move from energy to matter. They build on the science concepts of matter and its interactions developed in grade 2 using new tools to quantify observations. Students use metric tools to produce data on mass and volume to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of the phenomena of conservation of mass. The guiding question is how can we use tools to measure the mass of materials in mixtures?

Throughout the Motion and Matter Module, students engage in science and engineering practices to collect data to answer questions, and to define problems in order to develop solutions. Students reflect on their own use of these practices and find out about how others use these practices in science and engineering careers." - www.fossweb.com/

Word Study/Grammar:

Next week for grammar we will be on Week Twelve.  The students will be learning about silent consonants and subject/object in a sentence.

Writing:   
The students have finished publishing both their Personal Narrative and their Halloween story.  They really enjoyed the story writing and applying the many skills and strategies we learned about.  For our next writing unit, we will be moving into Informational Writing.  The students will be examining topics they are interested in and work to become experts and then share their knowledge with others in the form of an informational book.  We will learn all about text features, text structures, and much more!  This will be a fun and exciting writing unit for the students.

Reading:

We have completed Unit 1 where we learned all about "Building a Reading Life."  This past week, we launched our next unit where we will be focusing on Character Studies.  We read the story Maurice the Unbeastly and talked about character traits and viewing a story from different character's perspectives.  We did a Thinking Routine where the students had to examine the story from three different character's perspectives- Maurice, Maurice's parents, and the Academy's Head Master.  The students had some really great conversations about these different points of view.  In this next unit, we will be talking a lot about getting to know a character as a friend, following a character across a story, and comparing and contrasting characters across books.

In reading, we have also started working in our Thinking Teams.  These teams are a great way for the students to really engage in deep discussions about the books we are reading.  It is so important for students to be able to write about their thinking but before that they need to be able to have conversations about their thinking. These teams help the students to make sense of the text and see things from a different viewpoint as they hear varying opinions from other team members.

Room 303 News 11-02-18

1. Weekly Updates and Reminders: 

• Reminder:  There is NO SCHOOL on Tuesday, November 6.
• Daily folders (black) and gray 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.  We will be starting the daily reading logs next week.
• 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.  This is a great way to start a conversation about learning if you review it with your child each evening.
• Please always email BOTH teachers if you have any questions or concerns.  
• We do not have any November birthdays in Room 303.
• Thank you to the wonderful parents who helped to make our Classroom Halloween Party a huge success.  The students had a great time!  We appreciate you! 
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Math:
 Reminder 

Each day we begin Math by checking the previous day's homework.  It is an opportunity for me to reteach, for students to ask clarifying questions and make corrections on their homework.  Students are asked to write CHECKED on the top of the homework so that you know we reviewed the homework together.  I do this for one very good reason.  I believe collecting all the homework and reviewing all the homework alone is not beneficial to my students.  Checking it together allows me to provide instant feedback as well as observing who still needs support - in that way, I am able to gather a small group of students for reteaching that day.  Once you see we have checked it together, you may remove it from their daily folder.

Social Studies:
The focus for this week's learning is: What is the purpose of the Michigan Constitution?  We will explore this focus concentrating on the following BIG ideas:

• A constitution is a written plan of government;
• The Michigan Constitution describes what the state government can do and what it cannot do;
• The Michigan Constitution describes rights people have such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion;
• The Michigan Constitution separates power among three branches of government; and
• The Michigan Constitution limits the power of the state.

  

Science:

Students worked within their small science groups to investigate how water drains through soil to understand why water doesn't stand in pools every time it rains and how this phenomenon replenishes the groundwater.  In this particular experiment students compared what happens when water is poured through two different earth materials, soil and gravel.  Students poured equal amounts of water through equal masses of soil and gravel then measured the amount of water that drained through and compared the results using a balance.  Indeed it was messy but students certainly learned quite a bit this day!  I am very proud of how they are working together and working like real scientists!  

Word Study/Grammar:

This week in grammar, we will be focusing on beginning digraphs, subjects and predicates, and context clues.  Their grammar packet is always due on Friday.  

Writing:   
The students are finishing up our final writing of our personal narrative.  I have been conferencing with students to prepare them for writing their final drafts.  These will include illustrations, cover page, etc.  The students have been doing a nice job applying the many writing strategies we have learned and they will be excited to share their stories with you.  

This week, we also took a little break to write a fun Halloween Roll-A-Story.  Ask your child to tell you all about it.  They had some very creative stories!

Reading:

We are just about at the end of Unit 1 where we have learned all about what it takes to Build a Reading Life.  This past week we have been focusing on specific strategies that readers need to use when they come to tricky words or phrases in the text.  We also talked a lot about what it means to read with GRIT- the willingness to persevere even when something is hard.  I am proud of their hard work and progress in reading.

Room 303 News 10-22-18

1. Weekly Updates and Reminders: 

• Daily folders (black) and gray 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.  We will be starting the daily reading logs next week.
• 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.  This is a great way to start a conversation about learning if you review it with your child each evening.
• Please always email BOTH teachers if you have any questions or concerns.  

Mark your calendars for our Halloween Parade at 10:30a.m. and our Halloween party from 11a.m. to noon on Wednesday, October 31st.  This is also a half day of school!

 
Math:
We had our first fact fluency test this past Friday.  Please look in your child's black daily folder to see which multiplication table they should be studying this week.  As part of your child's homework routine, they should be studying their facts each night and record such work on the sheet pictured below.  Please sign and return each Thursday!  We continue to build our understanding of multiplication in class.  Below are pictures of the students playing Array Bingo. 

Social Studies:

This past week our learning focused on: How does state government differ from local government?  We looked at laws some Michigan communities have with regard to animals and discussed the importance of communities making laws that directly affect people in their community.   Our learning continued with comparing state and local laws such as laws about fences, drivers' licenses, fishing on the Great Lakes, garage sales and wearing motorcycle helmets.  We determined who should make these laws?  Local or state government?  After our learning, students paired up with a friend to talk about their understanding.

  

Science:
The scientific method is well underway as we begin our experiment on evaporation!  Students will be watching a video to explain the Scientific Method and we will go through each step with an evaporation experiment wherein we are looking at how the surface area affects evaporation rate.
 
This past week we also began talking about the water cycle.  Students made cootie catcher to practice understanding each stage of the cycle.  They loved this activity.  I am keeping the cootie catchers at school for students to use with their science teams them over the next week.



Word Study/Grammar:

This week in grammar, we will be focusing on "beginning three-letter blends, articles, and homonyms"  Their grammar packet is always due on Friday.  We grade these packets over the weekend.  It is usually always sent back with your child on Mondays.  Many students have been leaving parts of their packet blank or not doing quality work and will be asked to fix or complete it and return it to school on Tuesday.

Writing:  We continue to work on our personal narrative stories.  The students are working to add more detail and craft into their stories by continuing to read great books by other authors.  Last week, we learned from the book Fireflies how to add SIMILES into our stories and other figurative language to bring our stories to life!  We also have added to our list of IDIOMS that we can use in our writing. 

Reading:

We continue to focus on Comprehension Strategies while we are reading.  Last week, we worked on writing a good summary.  We talked about only writing the BIG IDEAS from the beginning, middle, and end.  We will continue to work on summaries as well as other comprehension strategies.

We also continue to work on building our stamina during independent reading.  The students are doing a nice job of recording their reading in their reading logs.  They are also getting better at their written responses - writing about their thinking.