Today we enjoyed hot cocoa, pancakes, and The Polar Express in our pajamas! Thank you so much to Mrs. Reda, Mrs. Salem, Mrs. Fawaz, Mrs. Mattieson (Halie’s Grandma!), and Mrs. Hamie for helping us out and making breakfast!

Yesterday, Logan’s grandma joined us and brought a fun snowman ornament for us to paint and decorate! The kids did a great job and the ornaments turned out so cute. Thank you to Mrs. Cravens for coming in 🙂

I hope everyone has a wonderful, restful holiday break!! Here are a few photos from our past couple days.

Hi everyone!

Important update- due to scheduling conflicts, including an assembly, we will now be having our Holiday Party on FRIDAY, December 21 from 9:00 to 10:45. Everything else is still the same- pancake breakfast and children are welcome to wear their pajamas! I hope this does not inconvenience anyone. Thank you for your understanding!

Just as a reminder, our class will be shopping at the Holiday Boutique tomorrow. All items are $2. Students may shop for parents, grandparents, siblings, pets, etc. 🙂 They received a note last week with more details.

Good morning!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I have added a few photos from last week to the end of this post, showing the Mini Mayflowers we made as a STEM activity, and showing off our students of the month, Sareen and Gabriel. 🙂

We are finishing up Module 2 in math and will take our Module 2 assessment tomorrow. Students have a review they should have brought home yesterday, and today as well. Our next unit focuses on multiplication, so please continue to practice basic multiplication facts at home with your child.

We are just finishing up our first reading group books and getting ready to start something new! I am excited because our next group books are related to our social studies unit, and we will be studying the Underground Railroad.

Our focus in writing is learning how to write a good opinion piece, using evidence and reasons. The first writing prompt we are working with is “Should cell phones be allowed in school?”

In spelling, we are focusing on prefixes this week, specifically the prefix ‘mis.’ Words are:
Mislead
Misunderstood
Misspell
Mistreat
Misuse
Misconception
Misbehave
Misheard
Misplace
Miscalculate
Prefix
Measurement
Liter
Meter
Gram

Have a wonderful week!

The student leadership teams at DHS, EFHS and FHS are working jointly to fight hunger again. Howard Elementary is joining in to support to fight hunger locally via the Battle Against Hunger in order to help assist these student leadership teams. This year all cans and money raised will support Zaman International and Amity. Our collective goal is 30,000 cans and $7500. The Battle Against Hunger will begin on Monday the 12th of November and end Friday the 16th of November. We are kicking off this Battle with a Turkey Trot at Ford Field on Saturday, see the attached Flyers for more information.

Battling-Hunger-Flyer

Happy Monday!
It is hard to believe we are already a week into the second card marking and a week away from Thanksgiving!

Math tests are scored and graded from the end of module 1 assessment. I am holding on to the test scores until I meet with parents at conferences. If I already met with you last week, I will return the test as soon as I go over the way the points were allocated with the students. Overall, I was very pleased with the scores! This is our first module assessment using the Eureka Math program, and there is definitely a LOT of reading and word problems involved. Our next unit, Module 2, will cover metric measurement, but still involve many word problems. It is important for students to try their best when doing these problems at home- use our strategies such as drawing a tape diagram, writing a sentence, underlining key words, etc.

Another great thing to do would be to practice multiplication facts at home! We have started timed tests here at school with a graph in our math notebooks to track student progress. When we get into Module 3, the focus will be on long division, and long multiplication, and it will really help if students have their basic facts memorized.

Reading: I sent home a November calendar hoping to keep students more accountable for their reading. They should record the number of minutes they read each day, as well as the title of the book they are reading. I am also sending home an additional list of resources at conferences. If students practice with these resources at home, have them jot down the date they used each resource on their calendar, too.

Spelling for the week:
Scare
Gear
Compare
Hear
Stair
Airfare
Snare
Rear
Spare
Yearly
Fear
Beard
Appear
Area
Cheer
Tear
Mere
Spear
Lair
Career

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns!

Here is the link for the social studies review if students would like to play at home:

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/7187a2ad-65a4-4012-aea6-da6dce7decee

To play, you will need 2 devices. One person can click on the link above and start the game from their device, while the other person can log on to kahoot.it and type in the game code from the link.

The students are very good at navigating the site and how to play! 🙂

Students also have a paper copy with answers of the review. Test will be tomorrow!

The Halloween parade will be tomorrow at 1:40. We will be having our celebration in the classroom before that, starting around 12, as we have a special after the parade. You are welcome to attend! Students do not need to bring a lunch.

Hi everyone, happy Friday!

I wanted to let everyone know we will be taking our first social studies test next Wednesday, October 31. We will take the test first thing in the morning to get it out of the way in preparation for the Halloween party and parade later that afternoon. Today, students will begin working on their social studies review in class, and you can also access the Unit 2 Social Studies Student book under the links on my blog.

For this test, students should focus on:
-Map skills (knowing north, east, south, and west, as well as northwest, southwest, southeast, and northeast)
-Understanding special purpose maps (elevation maps, population density maps)
-Identifying major landforms such as the Rocky Mountains, Appalachian Mountains, and Mississippi River
-Knowing what makes a region unique (landforms, climate, jobs, etc.)

We decided taking the test Wednesday morning would be best, as that way students do not have to worry about studying on Halloween night, and because next Friday is a half day (also the last day of the first card marking).

In addition, please note that our Halloween party will be next Wednesday at 12:00 PM (note the change from 11:30 AM). No need to send students with a lunch, as Mrs. Reda has generously offered to pick up pizza and drinks for our class from the money everyone sent in. Thank you all! Our Halloween parade will be at 1:40 PM on the Howard track. All are welcome!

Good morning!

This week in math, we are working on the addition and subtraction algorithms. Students should work on drawing tape diagrams and writing their answers in complete sentences for any homework questions that are word problems.

In social studies, we are learning about the five United States regions. Students received an optional project assignment they may do for extra credit. Please let me know if you have any questions about that project! It is not required, but many of the students are excited to give it a try.

Writing- we are working on writing a personal narrative about a hero. We are also working on making inferences as our reading strategy this week.

Please see the attached flyer about our pumpkin raffle. Howard teachers and staff will be decorating pumpkins, and raffle tickets will be sold for $1 each Wednesday and Thursday during lunch if students are interested in winning a pumpkin. If your child wins, the pumpkin will need to be picked up Thursday or Friday after school. 🙂 Pumkin Raffle Flyer

Spelling for the week:
1. serpent
2. sternly
3. swirl
4. blurred
5. purpose
6. curve
7. carpenter
8. turnip
9. twirl
10. curler
11. Upper Peninsula
12. Dearborn
13. Michigan
14. United States
15. plains

Have a great day!

Picture Day is tomorrow, October 18.

Students do not have gym until 2:35, so we will be done taking our pictures by then. 🙂 Thanks!