It is hard to believe that the end of January is here already! I am amazed daily by the things that this group of students accomplishes and I look forward to many more celebrations. Last week I allowed the students to get a little more creative during our math time and try teaching the class (strategies that we have been practicing). I was amazed not only by their knowledge, but also their classroom management! It was so fun to hear them use our Whole Brain Teaching strategies with each other!
This week we will be having our first guys group recess meeting on Thursday! We will be practicing tying neckties, and participating in a few team building activities. It is my hope that through our fun meeting we can work on building leadership skills and new friendships. Our meeting will be taking place during second recess. If you have a son in our class, please send in a tie on Thursday. I will have a few extras also. I will be planning a girls group in a few weeks as well. If you have any questions, please let me know! Math: This week we will be continuing our work with addition and subtraction methods. Students will be focusing on being able to explain what the numbers are doing within these problems. Social Studies: We will be continuing our work with Michigan History. This week students will present their Native American projects. We will then move into reading and interpreting legends. Grammar: This week we will be working on identifying full sentences and correcting sentence fragments. Writing: This week we will be finishing our chapters and sprucing up our glossary on our non-fiction writing. Reading: We will be continuing our non-fiction unit this week. We will be working on identifying new vocabulary, and identifying text structure (comparison, cause and effect, sequence, and description). Reminders: PE - Tuesday & Friday Thursday - guys group (2:10) Thursday - Skating Party 6:30 Friday - No school for students
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Math: This week we will be focusing on how numbers work when we subtract numbers. We will be thinking about how we can explain our answers through proof drawings and words.
Social Studies: We will start the week by celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. We will learn about what he fought for and how we continue to honor those things today. We will then continue to work on our Michigan history unit by talking about the Three Fires (the main tribes of Michigan) and the early French explorers. Grammar: We will be working on subject verb agreement at the beginning of the week. We will be moving into writing full sentences. Writing: We will begin to draft our chapters this week in our draft booklets. We will be focusing on how non-fiction is organized and thinking of how to use headings to group like information. Reading: This week we will be working on identifying main idea. We will be specifically practicing the steps by reading our article twice, reading the title, re-reading the first and last paragraphs and identifying common words. We will be creating topic sentences based on the information that we gather from these articles. Reminders: PE - Mon & Thursday Parent club meeting canceled (1-20) Last weekLast week, though short, was filled with so much fun and learning! We had the social worker, Mrs.Y, come into our classroom to teach us about emotions, and helped us to understand how we all handle emotions differently. We looked at how our words can "wrinkle" a person's heart and how hard it is to undo that damage. Last week we were also celebrating Board Appreciation month so we took a moment to create something for Mr.Kapenga, our School Board secretary and former Park teacher. Please take a moment to visit this link to see what we created! UpdateLast week was a week of goal setting and new beginnings as we started our new year. I am so proud of this group and the things that they have accomplished so far this year. I know that the sky is the limit. I often joke with the kids that they are a group that is always, "knocking my socks off." I really mean it! With this group of third graders I am finding that when I set a goal for them, they tend to surpass it! They are great!
I will be out on Monday for a meeting about our upcoming state testing. I will be back Tuesday for the remainder of the week. Please take a look at what we have planned for this week. Math: This week we will be continuing to work on place value. We will be focusing this week on rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. Here is a good practice game! Social Studies: This week we will be working on Michigan history. We will be starting by looking at the different Native American tribes that lived here in Michigan. If you are interested in learning more or reviewing at home, please use this resource. Grammar: We will be completing our work on verbs this week. We will be focusing on being able to identify verbs in our reading, use them in sentences, and understanding tenses. Writing: This week begins our planning and nurturing phase of our writing. We will be creating a plan for our non-fiction pieces and working on developing the chapters. Reading: This week we will continue with our study of non-fiction. We will be working on paraphrasing information and identifying main idea. Reminders: * This week we do not have a current event due. Please watch agendas for the next one! * PE - wednesday * Last day for cans - Monday * Please send in library books! We missed library due to our snow day! * Green math sheet is coming home! Due Thursday I hope you all had a wonderful break with your families. I am so excited to begin 2015 with this awesome class!
As we roll into the new year, we will be continuing to stay focused and intentional with our work. The homework will be as follows (with small changes when needed): Reading: Read 20min. Math: Study facts Green math sheet (I will try to be more consistent with this. Passed out on Monday, due on Thursday). Spelling: Study words S.S./ Writing: Current Event (2 per month. I am hoping that this change will make this more manageable!) Please let me know if you and your family is becoming overwhelmed with the work load at all. I can help to figure out a way to lessen the load. Math: We will be starting our new math unit. This unit focuses on place value, rounding, and addition and subtraction. Social Studies: We will be beginning our Michigan History unit this week. We will start with studying what a historian is and practicing the craft by investigating Park for clues that tell us about the past. Grammar: This week we will be working on verb tenses. Writing: We will be starting our non-fiction writing unit this week. We will focusing on the planning portion of our writing this week. Reading: We will be working on our non-fiction reading unit. We will start this week by discussing how fiction and non-fiction are different, the elements of non-fiction, and how to paraphrase information that we gain. Reminders: Tuesday & Friday - PE Friday - library - please send books! This week (5th - 9th) CAN DRIVE! Send in those cans...we were so close last time! VIP CAFEOne of our fun events that took place shortly before break was our VIP Cafe. Students worked so hard to perfect their poems about their VIPs and prepare their gifts. Their hard work really paid off and the VIP cafe was a success! Thank you for all of your generous donations to help make this day perfect. Please take a moment to check out the pictures below. Holiday HopeOur Holiday Hope project was so wonderful and successful! We were able to provide so much for our adopted family. I know that Christmas morning was filled with wonder and new hope for that family! Below are some pictures from our wrapping party. The gifts looked wonderful as they were loaded up to be delivered! Thank you for all of your help and donations to make this project a success. Special PresentationsIn our last week of school we had two special presenters visit our classroom. During our Christmas Around the World unit we had a chance to have Mrs.Highland come and talk to us about Christmas traditions in Russia. The students were so engaged and asking great questions throughout the presentation. I even heard the question, "Do they have a king and queen in Russia or is their government like ours." (A little off topic, but a great question!!). Thank you, Mrs.Highland, for coming in to share with our class! Later in the week we had Jonah's aunt present to the class. She is an editor for a publishing company and was the perfect person for our budding authors to talk to. Students learned about how long it takes an author to publish a book and how many times an author rewrites a story before it is ready. This was such wonderful information for the kids to hear especially as we were wrapping up our argumentative essay! Thank you so much, Stephanie!
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