Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I want to say thank you to everyone who has sent in or pledge an item for our Mad Scientist Halloween Extravaganza. The students are really going to enjoy the activities that are planned. I wanted to send home a quick note about a really easy way to have the students get extra practice in almost any subject. Mobymax.com is a website that is used by the district that requires a login. Each student knows their login and password. Once they log in, they click on a subject and the program has them pick up where they left off. The practice is individually leveled and increases as the student practices and has success. If you do not have computer or internet access at home for practice and would like your student to get extra practice time, please let me know and we can arrange for a before or after school practice session. Ask your student to login in and show you how it works. They are free to try any subject as much as you would like. They even have a reading section where students can read their choice of books and unlock new books as they progress. Each practice session they have registers a score and I monitor their progress frequently. I encourage you to have your student practice reading, vocab and all three of the math practices at home. I will be able to show reports from this website during our conference, if the student is practicing frequently.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!

We are still looking for supplies for the Halloween Mad Scientist event or we will not be able to have it. The glue has been donated and a vegetable snack has also been pledged. If you plan on sending in something for the event, please go to the previous blog post and comment what you are bringing so everyone can see what has been pledged or sent in already.

Lastly, we are asking for camp permission slips to be sent in by tomorrow along with the $30 deposit if possible. If you are having reservations about sending your student for financial reasons, please contact myself or Mrs. Abou Arab and we will work with you. We would both love to see as many students attend as possible so please at least send in the permission slip if you are considering it or plan on speaking privately with one of us.

Thank you and have a wonderful week!

Mr. Hawkins

Happy Halloween!

We have a great week ahead of us. On Friday we in the morning and into the after noon we are going to have a going to be doing S.T.E.M. Halloween activities in the areas of math and science. The students will be doing many different hands on activities and to help make the event as fun as we can, we are in need of some items. Please comment on the post if you will be able to provide any of the supplies listed below.

List of needed items.

1. Pumpkin Towers- 2 boxes of toothpicks.
6 bags of candy pumpkins.

2. Frankenworms- 3 bags of gummy worms.
– 1 gallon of vinegar.
– 19 clear plastic cups
– baking soda

3. Halloween Slime- 19 bottles of glue.
– 1 package of food coloring.

4. Pumpkin decorating supplies

5. Munch time- 1 bag candy corn
1 bag small pretzel twists
2 bags of M&M’s
2 bags of Chex-Mix.

As for the rest of the week and our topics we are covering the following:

Math-We are finishing up Unit 2 and we will be wrapping it up with decimal multiplication, decimal place value on number lines and decimal story problems. Review and Unit test will be coming up as well.

Science-Forces and motion continue as students learn to combine and subtract forces as they head in different directions.

Writer’s Workshop-Students are finishing up their opinion pieces and their historical narratives. They are working very hard on writing about one of the homes from Greenfield Village. We will also be having a writing prompt practice and our daily journal writing will continue.

Spelling- This week we are focusing on diagraphs. A digraph is a single sound, or phoneme, which is represented by two letters. In digraphs, consonants join together to form a kind of consonant team, which makes a special sound. For instance, p andh combine to form ph, which makes the /f/ sound as in phonemic. Our words are:

abolish
graphic
southern
establish
although
geometry
range
maximum
mode
range

Reading- Students are continuing to work on their reading strategies and they are starting week two on their book club books.

Have a great week!

Mr. Hawkins

Hello Everyone! Happy Back to the Future Day!

I hope everyone is having a great week. We have a wonderful day in the classroom today and we accomplished a ton. Students are off and running in their reading groups during Daily 5. They are also working very hard on two pieces of writing right now. I resisted the urge to make our opinion writing piece about Michigan State or Michigan despite our fun and active morning discussions on the topic! They are writing on a different topic. They are also finishing up writing their historical narratives that I think are going to be very interesting. They have rubrics for each writing piece and will be self assessing their writing with me. I’m excited at how they are progressing. In math we students are working very hard on decimal place value. If you get a chance, ask them questions to help their thinking. Ask them to read decimals using the correct place value terminology. They are doing great on this even with it being a tough topic to work on.

I have started assembling a resource page for each unit on this blog for math. I am working on adding resources and games that can be played at home or during any times that students finish their work early. The link is posted on the right hand column of this page. Check out the Math Resources. Our next unit is geometry and there are some really fun games on the site that you can play with your child. If you find this helpful, or useful for extra practice at home, please let me know.

I am hoping once this unit is finished to have some parent volunteers to come in during Math Workshop and assist with some of the different stations the students rotate through. I explain each task before the rotation so even if you aren’t extremely comfortable with math, you will be helpful at answering questions at the station, while I am working with a small strategy group. There will be more on that coming soon, but I wanted to mention it because you need to have your background check completed with the office to volunteer in the room. If you are interested in this opportunity or others to come in and assist in the room, please complete the forms with the office so you are ready to go. I look forward to working with you soon!

Mr. Hawkins

Hello Everyone,

Signed camp sheets with the $30.00 deposit are due on Thursday, October 22nd. As of now we do not have enough students signed up to go. If we have not gotten the required 15 student minimum, we will not be able to go to camp. Please send these sheets in ASAP before Thursday, or camp will not happen this year.

Mr. Hawkins and Mrs. Abou-Arab

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. This week is a busy week in room 26. Here are our topics:

Spelling- We are working on long and short ‘u’ sounds. Students will be completing their regular Spelling homework. Please make sure that students are actually looking the words up and not just making up their own definitions. It is costing points to the students not following the directions. The words are:

disrupt, reluctant, substance, excuse, costume, method, magnitude, exchange, exploration, region

Math- Students are working on adding and subtracting decimals. They will be looking at money and non-money decimals. We are also looking at place value and using models to represent decimal problems.

Science- As we continue on our force and motion unit, students will be creating graphs that compare distance to slope. They will also be describing motion using a point of reference and speed details.

Writing- Students are working on their historical narratives, with a focus on sensory details. They are also going to begin writing their first opinion piece on the Chromebooks.

Reading-We are beginning reading groups this week with each group being assigned a chapter book and tasks to be completed during Daily 5. Each student will also continue working on their individual strategy.

Information on the upcoming Halloween Celebration will also be coming out soon. Please return the camp permission slips with the deposit! Have a great week!

Mr. Hawkins

Hello Everyone,

I have been getting lots of requests for items we could use in the classroom. I created a classroom wishlist that will keep track of the amount needed of each item. If you wanted to buy something for the classroom, check out the list here Wishlist for Room 26 . This list will be updated as new items are needed and as students request specific books to read during Daily 5. This is only for people who wish to purchase something, there is no obligation. Thank you as always for keep up with our room!

Mr. Hawkins

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I wanted to say congratulations to everyone who participated in the district run this afternoon. If anyone took pictures of their kids running today, please email or Class Dojo message them to me for the end of the year picture CD.

I also wanted to remind you that we have a Scholastic Book Order going on now. You can either send in completed order to class with a cash payment or you can order online by clicking on the following link: https://orders.scholastic.com/PB7L6

Have a great Sunday!

I hope everyone is starting the week off well!

I have an update from Mr. V. about the the Cipriano Run. The information is as follows:

”

Permissions slips have been sent home.  Only those I receive by Friday are eligible to race. ”

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Vigilante Directly.

Secondly, our first classroom book order is coming home tomorrow. If you wish to turn in your order to the school, only cash payments can be accepted. If you wish to use a credit card, make sure you enter our classroom code to ensure correct delivery. Our classroom code is PB7L6 . All purchases support our school and help earn books for our classroom library. All orders must be completed by November 6th.

Lastly, the bake goods and popcorn sale is on Thursday to earn money for our classroom. Please let me know if you are planning on donating a baked good to be brought in on Thursday for sale. We are still looking for volunteers to be here before school gets out to start popping the popcorn, bagging it, setting up baked goods and then selling as the kids come out. All of the earned profits come directly back to purchasing things for our classroom only. Please help out if you can. If you can donate, volunteer or both, please email me ASAP or send me a message through Class Dojo.

I look forward to a great week!

Mr. Hawkins

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. This week we have many things going on. First off, on Thursday we have our classroom bake sale so we are looking for people who can donate cupcakes or cookies to sell. We are also looking for volunteers to make popcorn and sell the donated baked goods. If you can send in a baked good or volunteer at the sale, near the end of the school day, please let me know.

Our upcoming week will cover:

Math: We are finishing up the first unit and will have a test on Friday. A study guide will be coming home as homework on Wed. and will show what we will covering on the test.

Science-We are finishing up Newton’s Laws of Motion

Writing-Students are finishing their personal narratives and publishing. They will be learning how to use a rubric to check their writing, as well as starting their historical fiction pieces. They will be using information they gathered from four pre-selected homes during the field trip last week, and will writing themselves into a story in the time period of that home. As them about sensory details!

Spelling- our pattern for the week is long and short ‘o’ sounds. Our spelling list is

blossom, compact, object, totally, program, prime, composite, cause, effect, cultural

The students have a half day on Friday.

Have a great week!