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.