Room 303 News 09-18-18

Weekly Updates and Reminders: 

• The final FAPEs (FineArts and P.E.) schedule is listed above.
• 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.  
• Thank you to those families that attended curriculum night.  We had approximately 14 families out of 28 attend.  This was not as big as turn out in years past; however, we hope you all received the curriculum night information that was sent home the next day.  Should you have any questions, please feel free to email us. 
• Happy Birthday to Bailey Cockfield on August 27.  There are no September birthdays.
  
  

Math:

These past few weeks we accomplished our routine such as starting math workshop with checking homework together and asking questions to further understand the math skills practiced.  This is an important part of our day, for students begin to take ownership of their learning by looking at their homework responses to the answer key and understanding their mistake or asking questions if they cannot figure out why their answer is different.  Students also enjoyed receiving all their math tools such as rulers, calculators, and measuring tapes.  Students will complete a Beginning of the Year Assessment this week.  I will use the information to form small group instruction so that we can begin Math Workshop in the next few weeks.

Social Studies:

We will begin the unit, Michigan Government this week.  I will only teach Social Studies once a week while we have our Science kit.  Once the Science Kit goes back and we are waiting for the next kit, we will then switch our focus to Social Studies 4-5 days a week until the new kits arrive, which is usually a few weeks.  I believe this focuses our instruction and the students are not feeling as overwhelmed with subjects.

Science:

Students were so anxious to begin their hands-on experiments in groups of four.  They are natural scientists at heart!  We discussed what makes a great science team and all agreed it will take patience, collaboration, close observations, and respectful discussions.  Our focus this week was how water reacts to different surfaces.
        
We began the unit by doing a Visible Thinking Routine called, Chalk Talk.  This activity is a silent activity that provides all students the opportunity to reflect on what they know, and then share their thinking and wonderings while connecting to the thoughts of their classmates.  It was a great first week learning Science!

                

Word Study/Grammar:
This week in grammar, we are focusing on ending consonants and pronouns.  Their grammar packet is always due on Friday.


Writing: 

This week we started Writer’s Workshop. I gave the students an on-demand writing assessment to see what skills they have as writers.  We also began talking about some people, places, and things that are important to us and the students decorated the covers of their writer's notebooks to reflect that.  Next, we will be starting to think about ideas for our personal narrative writing pieces.

Reading: 

We started our first reading unit by looking at the Big Ideas.  We did this through the read aloud The Book of Gold.  
 
Ask your child to tell you all about it.  This unit, we will be talking all about how readers don’t just read books, but they build a reading LIFE.  We are working on our book selections and building our stamina to read for longer periods of time. We are off to a great start in reading and writing.  The students should have completed their first reading homework assignment last night.  They are due tomorrow.  We will start daily reading logs next week.

Welcome to Room 303! 09-04-18

WELCOME BACK!
We believe communication between school and home is one of the keys to success for your child.  Each week we will update our classroom blog.  Our blog will communicate what students are learning in class, important dates, along with pictures of the students!  

Just a few important reminders and notes as we will this school year.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Wed., Sept. 5th 7:15-8:15PM Curriculum Night! Please join us as we discuss what your child will be learning this year in 3rd grade.  It is a very informative night and we hope to see you there!  (This is for parents only!)

Mon., Sept. 10th NO SCHOOL
Tues., Sept. 18th 1/2 day of school
Wed., Sept. 19th NO SCHOOL
Tues., Sept. 25th Picture Day


CLASSROOM PROCEDURES:

School Supplies

    Hopefully you have received the third grade school supply list.  If you did not or misplaced it, please let us know. 

Snack

  Each day, we will have one snack in the afternoon.  Please make these snacks nutritional, such as crackers, granola bars, fruit, vegetables, muffins, dry cereal, bagels, etc.  Please do not send in candy, chips, etc.  POP TOP water bottles are welcomed but it must stay in your child’s backpack. We ask that only “pop top” bottles are brought in as they don’t spill as easily.  We have a drinking fountain in the room as well.

Birthdays  

  Birthdays are special days.  We would like to make your child’s birthday a meaningful one. As a class, we will sing and celebrate with your child and they will have special privileges and jobs throughout the day (line leader, etc.).  Your child may bring in a birthday treat to celebrate with the class; we have 28 students in our classroom.  We look forward to celebrating your child’s special day! At the end of the year, we will do something special to honor our Summer Birthdays.

Lunch Procedure   

  It is important that your child knows if he or she is purchasing or bringing a lunch from home each day. If you send lunch money to school with your child, please put it in a baggie or envelope (clearly labeled with your child's name) in your child’s daily folder and we will be sure to send it to the lunchroom.  If you would like to pre-pay for your child’s lunches for the month, please feel free to send in the money or check (payable to Walled Lake Schools) at the beginning of each month, we will turn it into the lunchroom. You also have the opportunity to pay online as well. 

FAPES (Music, Art and Physical Education) Schedule

This District is still in the process finalizing our FAPEs schedule and we will share this with you as soon as we know.

Conferences/Parent Communications   

   A report card will be available online three times throughout the school year.  Be sure you are all set up on Family Access as all report cards are sent electronically!  We would like to meet with every parent during parent-teacher conferences to discuss your child’s progress and goals.  These conferences will be on Thursday, December 13th. You will be able to sign up for a time electronically as the date approaches.  Additionally, please do not hesitate to contact us, if you feel that we need to discuss any matters concerning your child throughout the year. 

  

   We will keep you very informed of what we are learning in the classroom.  This year we will be utilizing this blog for all of our communication.  We will also be using REMIND 101, which will be discussed during Curriculum Night.  

Daily Folder/Assignment Notebook

  We have provided each student with a daily folder.  This folder is the key to daily parent/teacher communication.  This folder will go home with your child every night with homework on one side and notes/graded papers on the other side.  Please take a look each night at the contents in this folder and empty it nightly. Please have your child bring this folder each morning.  If you have any notes or messages for us, please put them into the folder. Part of our morning routine will be for your child to empty the contents in their folder (homework, notes, etc.)

  Each student is also given an assignment notebook to help them reflect upon their school day, what they learned, and what homework they have for the next day.  We will fill these out as a class at the end of each school day.  We ask that you sign your child’s assignment notebook each evening.  Every morning we will stamp/sticker your child’s notebook when it has been signed by a parent.  These are a great tool to help the students with organization and responsibility.

Behavior Expectations

  We believe that high expectations yield high results. Our school has embraced Conscious Discipline as our school-wide behavior plan.  This program focuses on teaching appropriate behaviors and working together with students on conflict resolution when problems do arise.  This plan will be embedded in our everyday language within the classroom and the students will learn many lifelong tools in dealing with others.  If students are having a difficult time making good choices, we have a reflection sheet that will be sent home in their Daily folder explaining what occurred in class (or on the playground).  We ask that you please read through this with your child, talk about it, and then sign it and return it to school the next day.

Homework

  We require that all students read for at least 20 minutes each night.  They will also often have a math home link which will reinforce the concept that was taught that day.  There will not be homework on the weekends. Check your child’s planner each evening to see what assignments they have due the next day. 

Family and Friends Board

We are asking each child to bring in a picture of their family and/or someone special in their life to school.  Starting a new school year with new teachers and unfamiliar faces can sometimes be scary and these pictures often bring comfort.  

    The key to a successful year is open communication.  Please do not hesitate to contact us throughout the year with your questions or concerns.  We ask that all emails regarding any questions or concerns be sent to both teachers and we will respond promptly.  Thank you for your cooperation and support.  We are really looking forward to a great school year.

  

  Mrs. Carley Dunphey

  carleydunphey@wlcsd.org

  Mrs. Therese Woolworth    

 theresewoolworth@wlcsd.org

06/01/18 Room 303 News

Weekly Updates and Reminders:

• Wow!  We sure have been busy these past two weeks.  We wanted to THANK YOU all for all of your support and donations for Pioneer Day.  The students had an incredible day and we couldn't have done it without you!
•  Also THANK YOU to all of our Parent Chaperones that joined us for our trip to Greenfield Village.  It was definitely a HOT day but we were so fortunate the rain held off and we were all able to have a great time.
• Field Day was a lot of fun!  Again, we had a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed all of the fun activities.  I'm sure the kiddos were tired on Friday night!
• The kids are having fun "Ending our Year with a BANG!"  Each balloon has a student's name inside and each day we pop one and celebrate that special student for the day.  The kiddos are so excited each morning to pop a balloon! They get to choose their seat for the day, pick out a piece of candy, and we all sign a poster telling them what we love about them.  It's been such a fun way to end a great school year!

Math:

Students will be taking the Unit 7 Math Assessment on Tuesday, June 5th.  A study guide and key has been emailed to you if you'd like your child to review at home as well.  In Unit 8, students will deepen and apply their understanding of multiplication, division, measurement and attributes of shapes.  

Social Studies:
We have begun our final unit of social studies, Michigan government.  We will focus on the purpose of government as it relates to Michigan citizens.  Our unit began with an fictional island of Westerly wherein the residents had no laws or local institutions to maintain the common good of it's citizens.  Students identified possible problems Westerly residents encountered daily and decided that state laws were necessary for the common good of all people.


Science:

Students gathered in their science groups to look closely at crayfish structures and record their observations in their Science notebooks.  Our discussion afterwards focused on the function of each unique structure.  Students will be observing the crayfish behavior over the next few weeks and will map where the crayfish spend time within their habitat.  Through readings, observations and videos, students will learn about adaptations of organisms in different environments, including different kinds of group and social behaviors.

Word Study and Grammar:
We will be continuing to work on grammar these last two weeks of school. Below are the final skills we will be focusing on:

Reading:
In reading, we continue to focus on Mysteries.  The students are enjoying the different mysteries they are reading.  They have been working on comprehension and showing their understanding of the text through a variety of text maps.  This has been done with their Book Club as well as with their reading partner.  We will continue to focus on Mysteries these last couple weeks of school.

Writing:

The students are working on writing their own Fairy Tale adaptations.  They have already chosen the "classic Fairy Tale" that they wanted to adapt.  They then worked on the details that they wanted to change while still keeping elements from the original story.  They have really enjoyed this writing unit.  This week we will finish our drafting and begin to publish and add illustrations to our writing.