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.

Room 303 News 10-12-18

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.  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.  
• Have you signed up for REMIND 101, our classroom text notifications yet?  This is a quick and easy way for us to send you simple reminders.  Please text to this number 81010 then text this message:  @24gg24

FUNKY FALL FUN WALK/COLOR RUN
Students really enjoyed our school's Funky Fall Fun Run!  We want to thank all the families who helped our PTA raise money for our school! We hope you enjoy looking at the pictures below!  Just look at those smiles!  

OUTDOOR FUN!  We couldn't resist the beautiful sunny days we have had lately and took the students outside to play before it becomes too cold!  We believe in fostering our students' overall well being and it is important that we observe them during play.  We not only enjoy being outside with our students but we are also looking at how they play, who they play with, and how they solve problems so that we can support their growth.  They are all such a nice group of kids!  

Math:

Last week I sent home a note with regard to the weekly multiplication test your child will be taking starting next Friday!  In the meantime, please begin having your child study their times tables every night as part of their homework routine!  We will also be studying the facts in school by doing various activities such as artwork, games, songs, videos, and good old studying such as writing them out several times!  Below are some pictures of the students making Multiplication Monsters!  The students rolled two die to find out the factors.  Once multiplied, the product dictated how many eyes, horns, legs, fangs, and arms to draw on their monster.  Once the students drew their monster, they had GREAT fun water coloring!  I absolutely love to incorporate art into learning and I think the students would say the same!

 Lastly, I was so pleased with the students' scores on the Unit 1 math assessment!  They ALL did so well!  Thank you for helping your child study for the unit assessment.  

Social Studies:
In Social Studies, we are learning about what the word republic means and how it relates to government.  Students defined republic by using a Visual Thinking Routine called, Color, Symbol, Image.  We will be finishing these on Friday and I will hang those out in the hallway for all of Wixom to admire!  :) 

Science:

Students were presented with an engineering challenge to design and construct simple waterwheels to learn about the power of moving water.  They used water to power their waterwheels to lift and pull objects.  After the challenge, students discussed which features were necessary to make the waterwheel work and what function each part of they system served.  We also compared how a real waterwheel and their model were alike and different. 
 
Word Study/Grammar:

Next week in grammar, we will be focusing on "beginning 2-letter blends with R and Adverbs."  Their grammar packet is always due on Friday.

Writing: 

We have been working hard on our Personal Narrative Stories.  We have been working on writing an exciting LEAD as well as reading mentor texts to learn some writing tricks from other authors.  We read a cute story called Jabari Jumps and took some notes on the Author's Craft that was in that story.  Ask your child to tell you about the POWER of THREE and ONOMATOPOEIA! The students are working hard to add these great tricks into their own writing to bring it to life for the reader!

Reading:

We have been working hard on Unit 1: "Building A Reading Life."  We have moved into Bend II of the unit where we are focusing on Comprehension and the importance of reading with our minds tuned in!  We have also started reading the story Stone Fox.  We are using this class read aloud to practice many of the Comprehension strategies we are learning about and then the students practice the strategy during their independent reading time. 

The students also have begun working with their reading partners.  The students will work in these partnerships to talk about texts and share ideas and feedback with one another.  Here are a few partnerships sharing their reading logs with each other and talking about patterns and goals they have as readers.