March 3, 2019

Hello Families,

First, I must apologize!  I always joke that my tech game is weak, and I realized that my last blog update was never shared!  I am so sorry - I promise we are still in Room 23 working hard everyday!  :-)  The multiple snow days really threw us off (and probably you at home as well!), and after completing a full 5 days last week, it feels good to be back into a routine!  

Global Play Day - Mini Sticks

It's March!!! As a basketball fan, this means March Madness (GO GREEN!)a

nd Spring!!! Hooray!  Another book fair is approaching (March 8-15) and also a school wide, coin war fundraiser to support Scarlet's Playground project. More details to follow.  :-)  We have almost made it through the cold and flu season!  I have the kids clean off desks everyday, and am close to out of wipes. 

***If you are able to donate some anti bacterial wipes, I would be very grateful!***

Curriculum Update:

Reading: We have been learning skills and strategies for reading information (non fiction) text, including understanding the main idea and supporting details in a book, and various text structures.
Writing:  After completing our persuasive writing papers, we used skills learned in reading to complete a research paper on Native American Indian tribes in MI - Potowatami, Ottawa, Chippewa.  The students completed a poster that included information on their assigned tribe, and they are now learning how to create a slide presentation using their Google accounts.  

Forts on Global Play Day!

Math:  Unit 5 was tested last week, and covered many different multiplication strategies.  Unit 6 has started and begins with a review of subtraction, quadrilaterals and number stories.  
Science:  We have started our unit of Water and Climate.  They have observed that water flows downhill on a slope and that it absorbs in some surfaces.  They used thermometers to read the temperatures of ice water and hot water, learning that about expanding and contracting. The will begin to observe the density of the different temperatures of water this week. 
Social Studies:  We concluded our economy unit and made short videos of a commercial for a business that the students made in a small group  The video are posted in our Google Classroom for your viewing pleasure.  :-)  

Thank you to those who have already sent in $12 for our upcoming field trip and Native American expert.  Please sent in your child's permission slip and money by this Friday.  

Have a wonderful week!  Stay warm, and as always, please email me anytime with questions or concerns you have.  :-)  

Global Play Day Dragon Party!

Welcome to 2019!

Dear Families,

Happy New Year!  I love the first couple of weeks back to school after break. The kids understand our classroom routines, are excited to see everyone,  and they come back ready to go! We will do big things in the next 6 months!  :-) 

Congratulations, again, to our 2019 Spelling Bee contestants.  Maya, Elana, Evan, Kaltan, Hannah, Kara, Ada, Annelise and Ashlyn practiced at home and participated in this year's "bee".  Annelise and Kara earned second and third place medals for all of third grade!  Way to go!

We started learning cursive letters!  My goal is for the kids to be able to read cursive and practice fine motor skills. They will learn to sign their name in cursive too!  I do not expect them to write papers in cursive.  There is a lot to learn before anyone is ready for that!  :-)

Curriculum Update:
Math: We completed Unit 4 which covered area and perimeter of rectangles and measuring. Unit 5 begins this week with fractions.  
SS: We have been learning about economics: goods, services, opportunity cost, human - natural - capital resources and more.  They will be designing a business this week and writing a commercial to advertise their products. 
Reading: We are studying informational text for the next few weeks.  Text features, main idea and details and summarizing are big work!  We will continue to practice learning those skills in addition to reading various non fiction text structures. 
Writing: We are writing persuasive opinion essays.  They include an introduction, 3 supporting paragraphs and a conclusion!  

I Ready - The students will be taking round 2 of the iready test in Reading and Math.  They will take the math portion this week and the Reading portion next week.  There is no studying that can be done for this test.  Kids are encourage to take their time and do their best, as they would on any assessment.  :-)  

The kids did GREAT on their first week of homework assignments!  The pictures are taken while they played the multiplication games created by students for an assignment.  :-) 

Have a wonderful week!