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.