Room 303 News 03/25/19

Weekly Updates and Reminders:

• Join us on Tuesday, March 26th from 2:30-3:30 for our Cultures of Thinking Celebration.  You are not required to stay the entire hour, but just come by and take a look at our our learning in our classroom and throughout our school!  
  
   
• The Wixom Book Fair is all next week.  The students will be able to preview the Book Fair as well as have some time to shop.
• The second trimester ended on Friday, March 15.  Report cards will be posted on Skyward on this Wednesday, March 27.
• Friday, March 29th is our last day of school before SPRING BREAK!  School will resume on Monday, April 8.
• MARCH IS READING MONTH!  Students are to read for AT LEAST 30 minutes each evening and write it on their log.  Please tally their minutes and send these logs to school every Monday for the month of March.  We have been fortunate to have a couple of very special guest readers in our classroom.  Mayor Ziegler of Wixom and State Representative Ryan Berman both read to our class last week.
  
  
  
  

MATH
 Hands-on exploration of shape attributes!  .
SOCIAL STUDIES
Thank you to all our volunteers for their time and energy :) attending our field trip to the Capitol and Michigan Historical Museum!  We had a terrific day of learning and fun!  



SCIENCE
Students took their Motion and Matter Assessment. Look for their grades to come home this week.  

 Word Study/Grammar:

This week for grammar we are on Week Twenty-five.  The students are learning all about R-controlled vowels (-ar and -or), abbreviations, and future tense.

Writing:   

We continue to work on Opinion Writing. The students have been working hard on developing STRONG reasons and examples to support their opinion.  We have also been working on using transition words to move from one idea to the next.  We are using the Opinion Writing Rubric to closely evaluate our own writing and the writing of our peers.
   

We also did a Circle of Viewpoints with the story I Wanna New Room. In this story we examined how the boy using PERSUASION to get what he wanted.

 

 

Reading:

We continue to learn about informational text. We have been learning about important skills that readers need to do BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER reading non-fiction texts.  We have also been learning about how to figure out tricky words in non-fiction.

Two students have finished their Reading Challenge!  We will be celebrating with a pizza and slurpee lunch!  Way to go Lucas and Marissa! :)

Room 303 News 3-12-2019

Weekly Updates and Reminders:

• UPCOMING FIELD TRIP permission slips and money DUE.  We will be spending the day on Monday, March 18th in Lansing.
• Our PTA is hosting another Family Skate Night at Bonaventure Skating Rink on Wednesday, March 13th.
• Friday, March 22nd will be a half-day of school.
• Friday, March 29th is our last day of school before SPRING BREAK!  School will resume on Monday, April 8.
• The second trimester ends this Friday, March 15.  Report cards will be posted on Skyward on Wednesday, March 27.
• MARCH IS READING MONTH!  Students are to read for AT LEAST 30 minutes each evening and write it on their log.  Please tally their minutes and send these logs to school every Monday for the month of March.

MATH
Students just took the Unit 5 assessment.  We will review the test on Monday and their results will be sent home.  Unit 6 students will compare different strategies to solving the same problem and reflect on which strategy is more efficient and appropriate.  Students will also learn how to model multi-step number stories with one or more equations and represent the unknown quantities with letters.  Students will also be introduced to the order of operations and learn how parentheses function as grouping symbols that affect the order of operations.
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SOCIAL STUDIES
We had great fun making a huge slice of pizza to enhance our learning about how Michigan's agriculture supplies many of the ingredients needed to make pizza, due in part to our state's unique geography and different types of climate.  Our learning also included how we produce, distribute and consume goods and services.  Look for this ART work outside our classroom!

SCIENCE
This week students determined the mass of a volume of vinegar and baking soda before mixing them.  They observed bubbling and fizzing, evidence that a new material- carbon dioxide gas- formed.  The new material is evidence that a chemical reaction occurred.  Students determined that the mass of the mixture after bubbling stops is less than the mass of the original materials.  This change in mass pushes students to infer that carbon dioxide has mass, which went into the air.


 Word Study/Grammar:

This week for grammar we are on Week Twenty-three.  The students are learning all about the Sound of Y and forming past-tense by adding -ed.

Writing:   

We have started Opinion Writing.  The students have been learning about the difference between a fact and an opinion.  We have also started making a list of our favorites to form our opinion.  We are also talking a lot about the importance of including reasons and examples.

 

Reading:

Last week we started Unit 3 in Reading where we are focusing on Non-fiction reading.  So far this year, our reading units have really been focused on fictional reading and character studies.  We will now be focusing on the very important skills that are needed when reading informational texts. 

We are also examining non-fiction articles, learning how to take notes, and write a summary including only the main ideas and details.  Ask your child to tell you about the article Extinct:  Famous Animals that are No More.We closely examined this article and then completed a written summary as a class.

Room 303 News: 03-01-19

Weekly Updates and Reminders:

• UPCOMING FIELD TRIP!  We are going to our State Capitol Building and Michigan Museum in Lansing, MI on Monday, March 18th.  Please send back the signed permission slips and money by Monday, March 11th. 

• Please mark your calendars:  Variety Show will take place on our Wixom Elementary stage on Friday, March 8th at 6:30 pm. Also, our PTA is hosting another Family Skate Night at Bonaventure Skating Rink on Wednesday, March 13th. We look forward to seeing lots of our families at both of these events.  






• Friday, March 22nd is a half day for students.  Dismissal at 12:09. 
• Friday, March 29th is our last day of school before SPRING BREAK!  

MATH
 We have been using several mathematical concepts and transferring such knowledge to a new mathematical situation.  In teaching, we call this a transfer of knowledge and it is our goal when students can naturally do this on their own. 
Below are a few pictures that relate to our doubling/multiplication strategy to find an area of a rectangle.  

Often times, parents will ask, Why do you teach it like that!?  and I believe the Mathematical Practices below really helps to explain the learning goals that mold our teaching method as well as the why behind your child's learning!  

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT

WEEKLY FACT FLUENCY TESTS

In addition to our curriculum, I have given the students a timed weekly fact fluency test each Friday since October.  To date, I am super proud to share that the majority of our students are secure in knowing ALL their facts up through 10.  

BRAVO, 3rd GRADERS😍

I have encouraged the students to study their multiplication tables at home, as well as practice in the classroom through work, games and online practice.  At this time, we WILL NO LONGER BE taking the weekly fact fluency tests because the majority of students are already fluent.  If your child is NOT SECURE, I will send home a note indicating what table they are still working on and it will be your responsibility at home to work with your child from this point on.  Indeed, our math lessons will continue to incorporate multiplication as well games to keep children fluent; however, I cannot express enough how important it is for your child to know their facts fluently by now.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We had great fun making a huge slice of pizza to enhance our learning about how Michigan's agriculture supplies many of the ingredients needed to make pizza, due in part to our state's unique geography and different types of climate.  Our learning also included how we produce, distribute and consume goods and services.  Look for this ART work outside our classroom!

SCIENCE
Students investigated a new type of system...the twirly bird! :)  Students first designed a standard model looking closely at the pattern of motion.  Then added a variable such as shortening the wings, adding more weight, adding additional wings, and shortening the wings' length in order to change the outcome.  They had great fun designing, testing, and redesigning their TWIRLY BIRDS!  

 Word Study/Grammar:

This week for grammar we are on Week Twenty-two.  The students are learning all about "ou" and "ow" words and irregular verbs.

Writing:   

The students have been working all year on writing a good paragraph.  To share what each of them did over their mid-winter break, the students wrote about their week in a 5-paragraph writing piece where they explained in detail the three highlights of their week.  Each writing piece included an introduction, 3 paragraphs describing their three main events, and a conclusion paragraph.  I am using this task to really see how the students are doing with writing a solid paragraph independently.  

We are also still finishing up our informational mini-books.  We will be starting our new writing unit next week where we will be focusing on Opinion and Persuasive Writing.  This is a fun and exciting unit for the students!  We will be also reading aloud some fun texts that really model good persuasive writing, including I Wanna Iguana and My Brother Dan is Delicious.

Reading:

Next week we will be starting unit 3 in Reading where we will be focusing on Non-fiction reading.  So far this year, our reading units have really been focused on fictional reading and character studies.  We will now be focusing on the very important skills that are needed when reading informational texts.