Thank you to everyone for my special holiday gift! You all were so sweet and generous. I am very blessed to work with such a great group of parents. Most importantly, thanks for always working with me as we decide what is best for your child! A special visit from Claire's grandma and our holiday party! Thanks to everyone - it was great!
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Enjoy these pictures from our last STEM Challenge - Creating Earth Dwellings that need to withstand water and wind weathering/erosion. It is such a fun time of year to be in an elementary school. The children are soooooo excited (whew) and there are lots of special, fun activities occurring. The Sharing Through the Seasons presentations have all been wonderful so far. I love hearing the students read with their expressions and they love passing out their souvenirs. Today we also had fun with our book buddies. Ask your child about the K sharing their latest STEM Challenge and how the retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff went. We also had a great visit from Susan B. Anthony. She involved a lot of the students with parts and was entertaining and informative. And we can't leave out math with parents this morning. What a fun way to learn! REMINDERS; TUESDAY, 20th : 1.Tacky sweater day! 2. RAD day - Students may bring a sleeping bag, pillow, small stuffed animal, books, and magazines. THE BEST WAY TO CARRY THESE IS IN A LARGE, STRONG TRASH BAG. There won't be time at the end of the day for me to reroll the sleeping bags into those tight, little bags and typically the students can't. 3. Auction Day - Make sure to send in that item(s) by then, thanks! WEDNESDAY, 21st - PJ DAY - they may bring slippers to wear inside, but need to wear tennis shoes to school. That sums up next week! So have a Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year a wonderful time with your family. We certainly had a week full of engaging learning! First, history "came alive" with our visit from Paul Revere on Wednesday. Ask your child if they can remember the mistake Henry W. Longfellow made in his famous poem. (Paul said, "The Regulars are coming...not the Bristish are coming"). But more importantly ask them why Paul Revere is an American Hero. Science also "came alive" on our STEM day Thursday. Students used their knowledge of weathering and erosion to build an Earth Dwelling that could withstand wind(hair dryer) and water (water through the strainer). Find out what their group used to make their dwelling and how it stood up to the elements. Math also "came alive" on Thursday when Mrs. Dean came in with the laptop cart and students got to write code. This Saturday is the National Day of Coding and Tritt celebrated by having students use their math skills to develop code. Students can also do this at home on the free website code.org.
REMINDERS: - Some book reports are due this week. I can't wait for the students to read and share their souvenirs. - Tuesday, Dec. 20 is our 1/2 RAD day - students may bring in a sleeping bag, small stuffed animal, pillow and books! THE EASIEST WAY FOR THEM TO CARRY THIS IS TO PUT IT ALL ( except the books) IN A LARGE HEAVY DUTY TRASH BAG. -Tuesday, the 20th is also our next auction. You may send in the item(s) anytime. - Wednesday, the 21st is a school PJ day and Polar Express Day in third grade. Send your child in some comfy, school appropriate pjs. Slippers are great, too, but they will still need shoes for the playground. NEXT WEEK: Reading - We will take the Reading Inventory in the computer lab on Monday, work on words with prefixes and suffixes and listen to wonderful book reports! Writing - Students will finish an informative paragraph they are writing. Math - We will begin working on solving 2-step word problems in all 4 operations, take the Math Inventory in the computer lab, and have Math with Parents on Friday. Social Studies - After finishing a study on Frederick Douglas we will meet Susan B. Anthony and talk about how they are both American Heroes. Have a great weekend! We had a great week and it felt wonderful to be back! Thanks again for all of your kind words and encouragement. Learning about the different features of nonfiction gives me the opportunity to share lots of fun informational books with the class showing them that nonfiction is fun. Ask your child about the Ice Man! Also see if they can explain to you how captions, close ups, maps, italics, diagrams, tables, graphs, and cutaways help them understand what they are reading in nonfiction. On Thursday we had fun using the IPad cart to review the different features. Each student had an IPad and using the nonfiction books in their book buckets they took pictures of at least 4 different types of features. Then they loaded them into the app PicWall and labeled them. After everyone finished we used our Apple TV and Flick, so that each student could "flick" their project to the activboard to share with the class. Thanks for all of the successful fund raisers that enable us to have such awesome technology to use.
REMINDERS: - Even as the season gets busy please make sure your child READS 5 nights a week at least 20 min. a night AND then sign his/her planner. Thanks! -Each child should be practicing the read aloud for the Dec. book report. Your child's sheet had his/her individual due date at the bottom. - This Thurs., Dec. 8 from 8:15-11 is another STEM visit day and you are invited to come watch STEM in action. A sign up genius link was sent our last week if you are interested. THIS WEEK: Reading - We will continue to study nonfiction features and have fun reading more informational books. Writing - Now that we've studied and practiced how to write an interesting paragraph writer's workshop is focusing on writing a 3-5 paragraph report. As a class and with partners students are writing a report about Paul Revere. I've modeled and they've practiced writing the 2 most important facts from a chapter, putting them into a graphic organizer, and then turning them into interesting sentences. This week we'll focus on transition words and the conclusion. Social Studies -Paul Revere is making a special appearance and Frederick Douglas will be introduced. Science/STEM - During our STEM day students will create earth dwellings that can stand up to water and wind erosion. I'll try to remember to take some pictures to post! Math - As you've noticed with the homework students are learning how to examine word problems and solve them. This week we'll continue doing that, practice the 6s table, and work with missing variables. Hope you have a great week! |
AuthorMrs. Amy Benson Archives
December 2018
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