Week of 12-18-17

I can’t believe it is our last week before the break already! We will have our class party on Friday in the afternoon. If you would like to sign up to donate something please visit https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0F44ADAD2EAAF94-holiday. We will have two STEAM projects in the afternoon as part of our celebration. If any families/students would like to share what holiday their families celebrate or their traditions, have your student let me know. Other than the party time slot, we will be having a regular week full of all of our normal work. When we get back from break the students will be taking their winter official NWEA so it is important that they stay on track and working even over break.

This week:

Spelling: Both grades- words with /in/ and /ain/-muffin, bargain, certain, pumpkin, fountain, basin, again, captain, dolphin, curtain

content words: push, pull, migration, immigration, movement

Science-3rd- Mrs. Parana

4th-We will be looking at the next section about waves and incorporate reading informational text heavily

Math-3rd- They will be spending time creating multiplication problems from arrays and picture models

4th-They are being introduced to decimals and to how to start adding them. We will start with tenths and down to ten thousandths.

Writing-3rd and 4th-We are working on adjectives and verbs by writing winter acrostic poems.

Social Studies– 3rd-Mrs. Parana

4th-We are continuing on our unit about immigration push and pull factors and looking at the specific ways people interact with their environments.

Daily 5: We will continue with our strategy groups as usual and we will be focusing as a class on cause and effect and transitional words.

Have a great week!

 

 

Week of 12-11-17

December seems to be flying by already! We are in our final big push to see growth before the students come back and take their mid-year official NWEA which is important for anyone below grade level on the first test. Please make sure 30 minutes of reading is happening every night. Unit 3 math tests came home yesterday along with a bunch of other work. We are going to start implementing Class Dojo portfolios where students will snap a picture of their work with one of the iPads and it will be added to a portfolio that only you and I can see. That way you are not missing any work that does not get brought home. Hopefully, we can get this up and running by the end of the week.

This week

Spelling

3rd-https://quizlet.com/_44xwxe

4th- https://quizlet.com/_4689uh

Math- We are starting unit 4 in both grades. Third grade is really focusing on multiplication and 4th grade is focusing on place value

Science- We are finishing up our unit on different types of waves and should have a study guide and test early next week

Social Study-We are looking at how people interact with the environment when they immigrate to a new location

Writing-We have started working on a informational writing on an inventor

Daily 5- We are focusing on figuring out character traits for the characters in the book and finding text evidence that proves it.

Have a great week!

Week of 12-4-17

I can’t believe that today is the first full day of December already! We are now using the phone app Shoparoo to fundraise for the building. All you do is download the app, create your account that says you are fundraising for Nowlin Elementary and start taking pictures of any store/restaurant receipts. The company gets money from the stores for giving them shopping information such as “A male in his 30’s purchased this item” and they are able to pass that funding onto us. So simply by scanning any receipt, you are earning money for the building. We were on the waiting list for this company for over a year because it is such an easy way to fundraise and most schools all want the limited number of spots. If we do not take pictures of enough receipts, they will replace our school and we go back to the waiting list. If you have a smartphone, please try to participate in this activity to help us earn money without having to sell items! Thank you in advance. We already have a few of parents using the app so thank you!

This week:

Math: Both grades are finishing up their units and will getting study guides to study for their test. The study guides should be sent home tonight and the students will have their test on Wednesday. Please go over the study guides with your students because this unit covers multiple topics and lots of application questions.

Spelling: 3rd-We are looking at the /ow/ chunk in words- glow, flow, blow, snow, know, throw, crow, willow, grow, pillow, multiplication, division, product, trade, multiplication

4th Grade- Review of previous chunks in words- compass, latitude, longitude, distributive, certain, compatible, population, money, deposit, withdrawal, millimeters, centimeters, grams, measurement, milligrams

Science- 3rd- Mrs Parana

4th-We are examining sound and light waves this week and how the transfer energy. We are going to be creating models of waves that showcase how the energy moves in a wave.

Daily 5-Both groups- We are focusing on texture features in informational writing and how to use them. Students tend to skip headings, subheadings, and captions. We are working on using these features especially because the captions often contain important information about the photographs and the headings help us locate important information faster. This will help as they get into textbooks in middle school so they do not have to read whole chapters but instead can find exactly what they are looking for using text features.

Writing-Both grades are starting to research an inventor for an informational writing piece. We will be creating headings in and a table of contents for our two text features that must be included. Your student will have their inventor today so if you want to help your student learn more about that person, feel free to spend some time reading about them.

Social Studies- We have been looking at the push and pull factors of immigration. We will not start looking at how this change in population can impact the environment and communities involved.

If you haven’t already, please take this survey to give school information on how parents feel about students biking and walking to school. It is important for future ideas and plans to know your thoughts. Just click the link and fill it out. https://www.saferoutesdata.org/surveyformparent.cfm?key=6683354

Keep an eye out for our Holiday Party Sign Up Genius. We will be getting our plans out soon for the celebration we will be having on our last day before break. If you have ideas about things you would like to see happen, please send me a Dojo message. I won’t be able to fit them all in but I always love hearing your fresh ideas. We will be having a used but “like new” book swap again this year so all students can leave with a new book to read over break. Start thinking about a book your family has finished reading that you would like to donate to someone else in exchange for a different book of your students choosing.

Have a great week!

 

Week of 11-27-2018

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are back and running at full speed. The students are working on their requirement of being at 50% in their grade level mission on Khan Academy by our Christmas break. Your student can log in at home by using the same login as they do to get on the computers on the websites “Login with Google”, if they are behind or you want them to have extra practice on every skill for their grade level. It is great at filling their gaps with previous content as well. The login is 200__@dearbornschools.org and password is their birthday mmddyyyy. If you have questions, please let me know.

Our week:

Spelling: 

3rd-https://quizlet.com/_4332tz

4th-https://quizlet.com/_434g6p

Math:

3rd-We are working on measuring to the nearest half inch and plotting on a line plot. We will be measuring to calculate areas and perimeters. Students are starting on mastering their multiplication tables.

4th-We are working on factors of numbers and multiples. If your student hasn’t memorized the multiplication tables, this will be exceptionally hard. They need to continue to practice their multiplication facts or many things this year will be very hard for them. They can use flash cards, Mobymax Fact Fluency or Khan Academy-Multiplication.

Writing: We are finishing up our opinion writing on whether or not we should continue use of plastic bags with their environmental consequences. These are due on Friday and the students will start work on learning about using text features in writing their next piece which is a research project for an informational writing. They will be selecting an inventor to research and write about.

Daily 5: We are working on synonyms, antonyms and text features of informational text. All of our book clubs are continuing to meet and work on our daily assignments. Students should be reading for 30 minutes each night minimally.

Science:

3rd-Mrs. Parana

4th- We are looking at different types of waves and students are learning the difference between amplitude and wavelength.

Social Studies:

3rd-Mrs. Parana

4th- We are looking at the push and pull factors of immigration to the United States and what interactions people have in geography.

 

Congrats to Ayden, Draco, and Zachary for their hard work over break and their top placement in the Mobymax schoolwide “reading foundations” Thanksgiving contest. They had the top three scores for practice over the weekend. I appreciate everyone’s hard work and was proud to see three students from this class in the top three! Everyone have a great week.

 

 

Week of 11-17-17

This week is going to be busy. We are going to see Seussical the Musical tomorrow during the day. We will also be sending home permission slips to see the movie Wonder which goes along with a book study we have been doing. We are still collecting cans for the Gleaner’s food drive so please keep sending them down to the room. This is an important time to help teach our kids to help others.  Lastly, the BoxTop App has a deal on it currently where if you buy 5 Lysol products and scan your receipt you will get $10 dollars donated to the school. I completed all 4 of my tries by purchasing Lysol wipes for the classroom from the Dollar Tree and then including the wipes in the picture of the receipt to prove they are Lysol. I have the wipes for my classroom and $40 will now be given to the school. It is a win/win and I highly encourage you to help the school by doing this! Thank you!

This week:

Spelling-3-music, basic, honor, tiger, olive, cabin, habit, behind, rewind, alive, ruler, width, measure, inch, meter

4th-voucher, stretcher, bleacher, catcher, butcher, teacher, sketcher, rancher, researcher, preacher, square number, factor, pair, prime number, parentheses, composite number

Math- 3rd- The students are struggling with addition and subtraction so we are still working on making sure they have a solid foundation before we move onto harder skills. 4th grade is struggling with adding and subtracting within a million.

Social Studies-We are going to start looking at our own families and how we ended up in Dearborn, Michigan.

Science. We are finishing collisions and will we be starting our next unit.

Daily 5-We are still working on pulling evidence from the text to support constructed responses.

Have a great week!

Week of 11-6-17

This week we have many things going on. The students have no school tomorrow because of the election. Mrs. Parana is taking the girls to the firehouse and parent-teacher conferences start on Thursday. If you haven’t already signed up, please do so today on the Dojo link or a slot will be assigned to you. Our classroom bakesale is on Friday and we are looking for snack donations and parents who are able to pop popcorn, set up the table and sell at the end of the day Friday. If you are able to do any of these things, please let me know ASAP. Thanks in advance for helping raise money for classroom supplies.

This week:

Spelling: 3rd-button, rabbit, soccer, tunnel, better, letter, kitten, cotton, dinner, happen, better, fiction, predict, character, author, traits

4th: serpent, sternly, swirl, blurred, purpose, curve, carpenter, turnip, twirl, curler, Upper Peninsula, Dearborn, Michigan, United States, plains

Math: 3rd Grade-We are focusing on area models and introducing multiplication through area models

4th Grade- We are still working on factoring and multiples

Science-3rd- Mrs. Parana

4th Grade- Newtons laws of motion and transfer of energy in a collision

Writing-Students are working on restating the question in the form of a constructed response. This will be an expectation for all questions for the rest of the year and beyond.

Social Studies- 3rd- Mrs. Parana

4th-Immigration push and pull factors

Daily 5- We are working on going back to the text to find specific answers and close reading skills like highlighting important information and annotating the margins of a text.

We are still collecting BoxTops and Coke caps so keep sending them in. We are currently in the lead for the Sept./Oct. contest but we are waiting for the final count tally! We are also collecting canned food for Gleaners Food Bank until November 20th. The winning class will win a $5 gift card from Yogurtopia for each student! I hope we can get some great donations for people in need!

Have a great week.

 

Week of 10-30-17

I can’t believe Halloween will be here tomorrow. The year is already flying by. Our first marking period ends on Friday as well. It was great to see everyone on Friday at Fall Fest. We had a great turnout and the kids have all said they had a great time. Thanks for all of your donations as well. Tomorrow will be our Halloween party. If you would like to sign up for something, please click here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0F44ADAD2EAAF94-halloween . 

Permission slips went home on Friday for our field trip to see Seussical the Musical. Please send those in by Wednesday. The cost is $5.00. If you are unable to pay the $5.00, please contact me privately so we can figure something out. The 3rd grade also has the firehouse field trip on 11-9-17. If those permission slips haven’t been turned in yet, please turn them in ASAP. There is no cost for that field trip.

Our week:

Spelling:

3rd-brother, purple, whisper, father, teacher, heading, topic, nonfiction, fact details, grandmother, summer, mother, sister, grandfather

4th-lecture, seizure, leisure, moisture, puncture, measure, mixture, sculpture, rupture, assure, place value,  tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands

Math: Both grades are starting new units this week.

3rd-We will be working on measuring to the nearest 1/2 inch. We will be talking about measuring tools in math and how you know which tool is the correct tool to use. We will also be starting to introduce multiplication. Students will be looking at multiplication as repeated addition to grasp the concept.

4th-Students will be reviewing multiplication and different strategies they can use. We will start looking at problems that are 1 digit times 2 digits. We will also be looking at place value and making sure we understand what each place value is worth. We will be learning two new math games for this unit and both can be played at home with a deck of playing cards.

Writing-We are finishing our opinion writing which will be on this report card. We will be starting to discuss constructed responses next and the students will be focusing on restating the question and finding text evidence to support their response. We will be writing multiple constructed responses over the next two weeks.

Social Studies-

3rd-Mrs. Parana

4th-Students will be examining push and pull factors of immigration in the early 1900’s

Science-

3rd-Mrs. Parana

4th-We will finish looking at series and parallel circuits. The students will have a test closer to the end of the week but a study guide will come home first.

Daily 5-Book clubs will continue this week. We will be working on pulling text evidence from a reading to help the students with their writing. We will be looking at text and students will have to locate text that gives them the answer for specific questions.

Have a great week.

 

Halloween Party and Fall Fest Reminder

Happy Friday! Halloween is quickly approaching. We will be watching a G-rated Halloween movie after we do a Halloween craft. I have already purchased the craft and drinks have already been donated. The snacks and other needed items for the party can be found and signed up here:https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0F44ADAD2EAAF94-halloween

Tonight is Fall Fest from 6:00-8:00. I hope to see everyone at the school for the fun. Costumes are optional for Fall Fest. Bring the flyer that your students brought home last week for their free 4tickets. If your student can’t find the sheet for the tickets, please tell them at the door that it was lost and they will receive the free tickets once. Extra tickets can also be purchased. I will see you there!

Week of 10-23-17

Hello everyone, I hope your weekend was relaxing. This week is Fall Fest on Friday. A sheet should be coming home. We are looking for volunteers to set up and work the event so if you are interested in volunteering for a shift, send an email to ptanowlin@dearbornschools.org and let the PTA know. They would really appreciate the help! The US Government provides a free national park pass to all 4th grade students. I have registered for these and will be sending one home with each 4th grader. It is good for the year so you can get out and enjoy some of the beautiful parks offered in our State or beyond.

Spelling:

3rd grade: Practice words at https://quizlet.com/_3wv11s

Words: chip, shell, bath, shin, three, reasons, conclusion, because, believe, chop, ship, shop, thin, chin, think

4th Grade: Practice words at https://quizlet.com/_3wv27m

Homework: Put the words in ABC order and turn in by Thursday or Sign your student’s planner that they practiced the words at the link above for at least 20 minutes.

Words: redeem, relieve, even, equal, scene, cedar, between, precede, beneath, believe, environment, habitat, characteristic, adaptation, survival

Math- Both grades are working on extended addition and subtraction problems. We will be introducing the three forms of every number and there will a study guide and test towards the end of the week.

Science- 3rd-Mrs. Parana

4th-We are working on electrical circuits and creating different types of circuits

Writing-We are starting to learn about using evidence to support a claim for opinion writing. This will be our unit for the next few weeks

Daily 5-Daily book clubs are continuing with students having 30 minutes of reading EVERY night. This is extremely important. We are working on both fluency and comprehension so have them read to you so you can listen to their rate of reading and if they are pausing at ending marks. Then ask them questions about what they read.

Social Studies: We are starting unit 2 which focuses on how human interaction with the environment and each other play different roles in our country. The 3rd grade is with Mrs. Paranas Class.

Keep sending in Coke Caps and BoxTops as the contest is continuing through the rest of the month. Many of the classes are close to first place, including ours! Keep up the great work.

Week of 10/16/2017

I hope everyone had a great weekend. The skating party was a huge success and I hope you enjoyed yourself if you were able to attend. This week we have a regular week moving ahead with our curriculum.

Spelling:3rd- https://quizlet.com/_3vki6l

4th: https://quizlet.com/_3vk7i7

Math: The students are struggling with addition and subtraction of triple digit numbers. We are working on it very hard in class but any help at home would help boost their skills.

Science: 4th- We are working on building circuits and 3rd grade is working on flight and motion.

Social studies: We are going be looking at different cultures around the USA.

Writing: We are starting to plan and writing our spooky  Halloween stories that will be hanging in the hallway.

Daily 5- Book clubs will continue as we start working on tips to improve fluency.

Have a great week!