Wow!  It’s so very hard to believe that the last school week of 2017 is here! So much learning has happened since September 🙂

Late Start this Wednesday Dec. 20. School begins at 9:35.

Spirit Friday this week is Pajama Day 🙂 If your child does not want to wear their pajamas, just wearing slippers and/or a robe is fine as well. We will be having a little last day of school for 2017 party near the end of the day.

Spelling words this week: screen, stripe, struck, sprain, spruce. Dolch words: your, blue, one, look, have.

We’re continuing our learning about point of view in stories for our reading strategy and continue writing our imaginative narratives for writer’s workshop. My hope is to have them be ready to write their final copy when we return in January.

We’re beginning the study of land forms in science and are finishing up our social studies unit so we are ready to begin a new one upon our return.

Math concludes this week as well so we are ready to begin the geometry unit when we come back.

I know the students will be very excited this week but please remind them, as I do, that we still have learning to do through Friday.

Thanks for your help and support and enjoy your time off!

Our class is going tomorrow, Thursday, first thing in the morning. If your child would like to shop, they can bring their money either today or tomorrow.

Our Music Concert is this Friday. It begins promptly at 2:30. The children have been working hard with Mrs. Bagnall and I look forward to their performance and I know you will too  🙂

Spelling words this week focus on the same diagraphs as last week but they are at the end of the word: each, which, match, dish, with. Dolch words: wish, wash, both, this, that.

Our reading strategy this week is focused on point of view–who is telling the story, how do you know? How do the characters show their feelings?

Writing then will focus on narrative or story writing. Each student will write their own story over the next two weeks.

Math will introduce the “break apart” strategy for addition and subtraction. This is just breaking a number up into it’s tens and ones to make addition/subtraction easier. Making change will be reviewed as well.

Science begins the study of Earth’s landforms.

Regions will be taught in social studies: our state, our country, our continent

Enjoy the week and stay warm 🙂

We have a new student, Hana, joining our classroom today from Salina. I’m sure she’ll make many new friends since we have so many welcoming and friendly students in our class.

Library books due Wednesday because we go to the library Thursday morning at 9:00 for book check out. If a book is not returned, a new one cannot be checked out.

Spirit Friday is Hat Day 🙂

This week’s spelling words focus on consonant diagraphs: ch, sh, wh, th.  chase, chill, sheep, think, while. Dolch words: she, then, thank, when, where

Our reading strategy continues with reading a non fiction text for details that support the main idea. Last week, we began reading about a girl named Rosina who is deaf. The main idea is that she is like us in many ways. We’re continuing reading for details this week.

For science and our writing, we continue reading and learning about places on Earth that water is found. Last week we read about oceans, lakes, rivers. This week we’ll learn about ponds and streams. If all goes well 🙂 we’ll be making some models using sand and water this week.

Math continues with money this week but the focus will be on making exact change. Using a number line for subtraction will also be taught–like open number line for addition. I am glad to see, that most students understand the open number line method. Those that don’t quite have it, I’ll work with. The “break apart” method meshes very nicely with this too. Great mental math strategies. Break apart is just breaking a number into it’s base 10 parts to make addition and subtraction easier.

Consequences of changing an environment will be discussed and looked at for social studies. I use a fiction community, Treeville, to see the positive and negative consequences of changes. I then talk about how what is now Fairlane Mall once was a huge wetland that was originally the front yard of Henry Ford’s home, Fairlane Mansion.

Enjoy your week!

Welcome Back! I hope everyone had an enjoyable few days off.

Full week ahead filled with more learning 🙂

This week’s spelling words focus on the long e sound spelling “ea”, “ee” and “y”(this is the sometimes y is a vowel rule). meat, mean, queen, beet, baby. The Dolch words are: three, sleep, please, eat, many.

We’re continuing our informational reading and writing. This week’s reading strategy will be reading for details while reading a non fiction text about a young girl who is deaf.

Writing and science will also be combined as we read and learn to take notes about places water is found on Earth and how Earth’s surface features are formed and change by water or landforms.

Social studies is focusing on reading and making maps. We’ll be finishing up our own basic map of Dearborn. The students are expressing a lot of interest in this. I’ve told them if they’d like to make their own map of their room, house, neighborhood that would be wonderful and they can bring it in to share with the class.

Spirit Friday is Mis Match Day 🙂  Time to wear fun mismatched clothes!

Enjoy the week!

No school Wednesday-Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope everyone enjoys this time with their family and friends. 

Opps! I forgot to write that tomorrow is pajama day. If your child doesn’t want to wear their pajamas they can wear slippers instead. Make sure to bring shoes to wear outside for recess 🙂

No spelling this week.

We’ll have our unit 3 math test today.

We’ll begin drawing a map of Dearborn using a title, symbols and a key for Social Studies.

We’ll continue with informational reading and writing and focusing today and tomorrow on the Native American, Squanto, who helped the Pilgrims after they arrived here in America.

Enjoy the week 🙂

This afternoon, we explored a website called Front Row. below is the web address and code to log in. The students should remember how to get on. Their user name is their first and last name then they type in the code below (without the word code)

                                           frontrowed.com 

code:  5h64wk

\https://hford.dearbornschools.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/115/2017/11/Read-at-Home-Plan-HFES.pdf

Late Start this Wednesday. School begins at 9:35

Our day to go to the PTA book fair is tomorrow, Tuesday. We’ll be going in the morning. If students forget their money they can go another day on their own.

Library books are due back by Wednesday because our book check out day is Thursday. Thank you for helping your child keep track of their books.

Spelling words this week focus on the long o sound: grow, low, goes, toe, soap. The Dolch words are: how, now, show, know, own

We are continuing our informational paragraph writing about properties of Matter. We’ll be writing the conclusion sentence then begin a new writing later this week.

Our reading strategy is also focused on informational reading. Last week we read about pumpkins looking for facts. This week and next, will be readings about Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Squanto. Answering questions from the readings in the focus.

We’re going to be looking at a map of Dearborn this week and each student will get their own copy. We’re looking for natural and human characteristics as well as the map key and symbols.

We are continuing adding coin combinations as well as reading and writing numbers using the base 10 method. We’ve started our math workshop rotations, and the students are doing very well with this.

In science, we’ll be once again discussing how we use water, why it’s important to not waste it and how water changes the surface of the Earth (erosion, landslides). This topic will be covered for the next few weeks.

Spirit Friday is Cultural Dress day.

Enjoy the week  and stay warm 🙂