Highlights from Week 14!

Only one more week until winter break! I cannot believe how fast the first trimester of school has gone by and it is almost 2014! Seeing that it is the holiday season, we are celebrating with some fun activities and treats during the last week before break. We will be decorating gingerbread houses and making hot chocolate in our classroom among other activities. Thank you to families who have helped to bring some of the supplies for our gingerbread houses - you can see the finished product when students take them home next week :)

Next week will be our first week to welcome Mrs. Froberg officially to our classroom as our student teacher. She will join us every day next week to get to know students and help out in our room. In January, she will come once a week (every Thursday) until March, and then finish the year off with us full-time. We are all very excited to welcome her and have an additional teacher in our classroom! Mrs. Froberg will be sending out an introductory letter next week so you can learn more about her soon.

Highlights:
-This is our last week writing our last narrative piece, and January will be the start of a new non-fiction writing unit! It will support our non-fiction reading unit as well as our Genius Hour research that will be happening in the next few weeks.
-Next Friday, we will have our unit test on multiplication/division. We will be working on the study guide early in the week, and students will be able to take it home so parents can get a chance to see what will be expected on the test. Please continue to help your child practice their multiplication facts so that the longer multiplication/division problems can be solved more easily/fluently.
-We are building our reading stamina in non-fiction. We learned a few strategies such as marking up a text, how to read text features and identify them. If you can, please show your child all the different non-fiction text that are all around them (menus, brochures, newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, how-to manuals, etc).
-Most students have decided on their Genuis Hour topics! Please talk to your child about their chosen topic and how you might be able to support them in the research process.

*Apologies for not having pictures this week, but it just flew by! Many pictures to come in the next post :)

Highlights from Week 13!

We have launched our classroom economy system this week! Students are so excited and motivated to learn about how it all works. We opened up our bank accounts, earned our first paycheck (after applying for our jobs, of course), earned bonuses, some owed fines, and deposited our money into the accounts today. If you are curious of how the whole system works, please check your child's Star Binder under the "Economy" tab. You will find the bank logs, bonuses/fines list, how to pay rent for your desk, and their student wallets. Check out this website for more details on the entire system and where the idea originated: www.myclassroomeconomy.org.

Today, we also began "Genius Hour" - which is an hour every Friday that we will spend on individual students' passion projects. We began this morning by watching this video by Kid President:


I then introduced the idea of "Genius Hour" by showing this video:


Students were able to generate some ideas of different passions they have and how they can create a project from those ideas. By next Friday, students will have to come up with their project question, and we will soon begin the research for their projects!

Highlights:
-We had our realistic fiction writing celebration this week with some pumpkin scones and tea! Our next short writing unit will be on any narrative genre. Students have been asking to write fairy tales and fantasy stories, so the next couple of weeks will be spent on those narratives before we begin our non-fiction unit in January.
-In math, some students started on the multiplication unit, and some students started on a long division unit. Today, I sent home login information and passwords so that families and students can log into the math curriculum page at home. This will have all of the units and lessons that I am teaching in class. Students should have their usernames and passwords memorized!
-Monday, we will begin our non-fiction reading unit! Students presented their character posters this week and got to share about their learning throughout the book club. Check out some of the pictures of book club groups working on their posters together!

-Last but not least, please check your e-mails for a Volunteer Spot invitation. We will be making our annual Gingerbread Houses during the last week of school and we are in need of some candy to decorate the houses with! Please help if you can :) Have a great weekend!

Highlights from Week 12!

Happy Thanksgiving!! I wanted to say a sincere thank you to all the families who came out to parent-teacher conferences. It was so nice to see all of you and touch base on the progress of your child. This year, as you know, we had student-led conferences and it was such a powerful experience for me to watch each student take ownership of their learning! We prepared a lot for it, and the work paid off! Even for students who felt nervous at the beginning ended the conference confidently and I was so proud of each of them. I would love to get some feedback on how the experience was for you and your child - you can even leave a comment at the end of this post! :)

We had our Thanksgiving Potluck on Thursday, and it was so much fun! THANK YOU to families who were able to contribute to the potluck - the food was delicious! Friday, we went on a field trip to the Washington Park Arboretum. It was a cold, but sunny day and it was nice to get out and explore around the park. I have attached a couple pictures from the field trip at the end of this post.

Highlights:
-Almost everyone is finished with publishing their realistic fiction story. Many were able to take home their published copy in their conference folder, but for those continuing, the story will come home next week. Our next writing unit will be: non-fiction.
-We also wrapped up our Multiplication & Division unit in math and took our test on Thursday. The tests were graded and passed back - please look over it with your child. On Monday, we will take a pre-test on the next math unit: Multiplication for some and other will begin a Division unit.
-In reading, we are finishing up our book clubs and working on a Character Poster as a group. Groups will present their posters to the class and discussing their learning about the characters and their struggles.
-In addition to the book clubs for our reading time, we will begin our book clubs for the Global Reading Challenge. If you are curious about the 4th grade reading challenge, please check out this website to find out more information.
-Students have been really excited about beginning our Classroom Economy. A letter will come home the Monday we get back to school. It will explain how the economy will work, and many students who were in my class previously will know all about it. For those of you interested in how it works, please check out this website: www.myclassroomeconomy.org. I model my class economy system from this site, and it will give all the details.
-Last but not least: an exciting update! Starting in January, we will have a new student teacher joining our classroom! Ms. Froberg will come once a week for the first couple months and transition into a full-time role in the spring. Please welcome her to our class community when you see her around :)

In honor of Thanksgiving, I want to thank you all for reading this blog and for keeping up-to-date on your child's classroom events. It really makes a difference - Happy Thanksgiving!

Highlights from Week 11!

We have just 1 week left until our fall conferences begin! I sent out a reminder form with the schedule and a confirmation sheet that parents can return back to school. Please make sure that you return this form and mark your calendar for the exact time. As you can see from the schedule, most conferences are back to back, so it is very important that families are on time to the meeting. Students are required to come to the meeting because they will be leading the entire conference! We have been writing invitations to families about what to expect and next week will be spent practicing and role-playing how the conference will go. 

Another event that is coming up next week is our field trip on Friday (11/22) to the Washington Park Arboretum. I am still missing many field trip forms so please return those with $6 as soon as possible. I am also in need of a couple more chaperones (we have 2 so far). If you are available next Friday, please consider joining us! It will be a good time :)  

Highlights:

-Students have started to publish their final draft of their realistic fiction story. We are hoping to get these finished in time for students to share at the conference.

-Our Multiplication/Division math unit test will be given on Thursday, 11/21. I am emphasizing showing work for full credit on the math test. When reviewing the study guide and other math work (which will be sent home on Monday or Tuesday), please reiterate this with your child!

-Because we finished up our science unit on plants and will take a field trip to the arboretum, we are taking a month break from science and focus more on map skills. We will be make maps of Washington State and begin our learning about our history. The next science unit will be Sound beginning in January.

-We are finishing up our first round of Book Clubs in reading. We will get into another group based on the Global Reading Challenge books that students choose. Our 4th graders at Leschi compete annually in the GRC and more information about this will come closer to January/February. Our 3rd graders will also read in book clubs and will compete on a smaller scale. It is our first year at Leschi implementing the GRC for 3rd graders. 

-Please check your emails for a special event that may be coming up next week - I need parent help through VolunteerSpot!

-Last week, we went to join the writing celebration in our Buddy Class (Room 206). Students were able to participate in the gallery walk and read the Kindergarten/1st graders' published writing. Here are some pictures from that event:

Highlights from Week 9 &10!

With all of the festivities from the previous week, I am combining the updates from the past two weeks into one post! I cannot believe it is already November! The weeks are flying by... which brings me to my first reminder to families about wearing coats to schools. Our new school policy is that most days, we will be sending students out for rainy day recess. PLEASE make sure that your child is wearing a coat with a hood - if you do not have one, please talk to me and I will help to provide a raincoat for your child to wear. I always tell me students, "We live in Seattle... it rains! You must wear a coat on rainy days!" Which leads into my next reminder: students are getting colds and many are sick. If your child is too sick to come to school, please keep them home. It is in the best interest of the child and for other students if your child takes the time to rest and get better!

In other news, our class is preparing for conferences that are coming up! This year, students will be required to come with families to the conferences and they will lead the discussions. I will send out more detail in the coming weeks, but please sign up if you have not done so. Next week, I will send out reminders of times that families have signed up for.

Highlights:
-Last week, we made apple sauce in the classroom and wrote "how-to" steps on making apple sauce. We used a Crock Pot, so it was really simple and delicious! If you would like to make it at home, here is the link: Sarah's Apple Sauce.
-We continued writing our realistic fiction story drafts and many have started the revision process.
-Our math unit will end next week! The unit math test will be given on the following week before school gets out. I am emphasizing students showing work in all of their math probelms. Parents can help by also reiterating this point at home with homework.
-We started our Ice Cream Sundae Challenge for learning our multplication facts!
-In our Book Clubs, we are learning the different roles each member: predictor, summarizer, questioner, and wordsmith. Students get a chance to have each job and the discussions are centered around these roles.
-Last week, we also went to Peppi's Park to plant in the woods with our little buddies from Room 206. It was such a lovely time and I want to thank parents who came out to help and lead the small groups! :)
-Here are some of the pictures from the events from the past two weeks!

Highlights from Week 8!

I apologize for being a couple days late on our weekly update! Last week, we began lots of new units and routines. Here are some of the following highlights from the week (as well as an update about the field trip to the Center for Wooden Boats)!

Highlights:
-We began our realistic fiction writing unit and spent the week brainstorming and prewriting. We developed our characters, their personalities and stuggles throughout the story.
-In science, we continued observing our plants after we used our bee sticks to pollinate them - we will look for the pods that will develop over the next several days.
-We are well into our math unit on Multiplication and Division: we also started working on problem solving in math with word problems!
-Book Clubs have started! Students met in their groups and discussed the group norms: rules that will be followed by each member. Students are taking the responsibility of reading together, compromising, and having a deep book discussion.
-Here are the overdue pictures from our field trip!

Highlights from Week 7!

We just got back from our field trip to the Center for Wooden Boats and it was a blast! Thank you to the chaperones who came with us and helped paddle in our boats - it was so helpful and exciting to have you join us. I will update again with pictures in a few days along with some students posts about our trip. We also just had our Open House last night and had a great turnout! Thank you to all of the families who came and got to see all the things that have been happening in our classroom. I hope you also got to snap a few pictures at our photo booth station - I will get those pictures printed and sent out as soon as possible.

Highlights:
-We just finished our Personal Narrative writing unit and had our celebration on Thursday. Look below for some pictures from the gallery walk that we did. Students were able to read each others' published writing and leave compliments. On Monday, we will begin our new writing unit on Realistic Fiction!
-In science this week, we dissected flowers and looked carefully at all of the parts and functions.
-Our multiplication/division unit in math launched this week as well. Students are asked to practice their multiplication facts so that ALL are memorized!
-We are digging deeper into analyzing characters from the books that we are reading. We used different graphic organizers to look at the inner thoughts of our characters and comparing and contrasting them with other characters. We will continue this work next week.
-A great website for practice keyboarding skills is Dance Mat Typing. Please use this website to practice typing skills!
-I will be sending out information for Volunteer Spot: a website that helps me get supplies needed for different activities and crafts. Please check this out if you are able to contribute in any way! Thank you!

Highlights from Week 6!

In this short week, we had many things happening! We finished MAP testing and will test one more time in the spring - if you would like to know your child's score, we can discuss it at our conference coming up next month. Yesterday, we had a guest visitor/teacher and also Jesse's father, Doug, come and share about his knowledge of bees. We have been studying plant growth, pollination, and the structure of a bee. He came to show us his bee suit that he wears when he collects the honey in their backyard. Students were able to ask LOTS of questions and even sample some pure honey! Check out the picture below of Doug showing us his suit and doing a Q&A.

Highlights:
-Students chose their personal narrative draft that they want to revise, edit, and publish in the following week. We will hopefully have some published or in the publishing stage when parents come for Open House.
-As mentioned before, we learned about bees this week. Our plants have flowers budding and we are learning about how important bees are in the pollination process. We made a bee stick and have table groups of "bee condos" - please ask your child about this!
-We took our unit test on Addition & Subtraction today. I will grade and return the tests early next week. Our next unit will start on Monday and it is: Meaning of Multiplication & Division.
-In Readers Workshop, we worked on asking questions while reading and did a fun inferencing activity using a Pixar short film - it was a lot of fun!
-PLEASE turn in your field trip form as soon as possible. I still have many that have not turned in their forms.

Highlights from Week 5!

We had an extra busy week! Today alone we had MAP testing (math), picture day, spelling tests, Buddy art time, and a special assignment from Mr. Moriarty, our PE teacher. He has chosen our class to collect some data and a packet will go home today. It will be to keep a pedometer for a few days and record how many steps were taken on those days. There is information in the packet, a parent survey, and a permission form in there. Please return it as soon as the four days are up (you can choose which four, but the packet is due on Thursday). Here are some highlights from the week:

Highlights:
-Starting next week, I will be sending home a blue half sheet of paper to students who do not finish their work plans by Friday. The expectation is that every students completes their work, because I differentiate and make sure that it is at their level. Students will write their plan for how they will make up the work, whether it is by missing recess to complete it in class, or taking it home as additional homework.
-We began drafting our personal narratives (small moments) and learned about how to start a story to grab the attention of the readers.
-Our plants are really growing tall! Next week, we will observe the buds and flower that are starting to grow - we will also look at bees and how animals and plants are interdependent.
-We continued our math unit on: Addition & Subtraction, and the unit test will be on Thursday (October 10th).
-In Readers Workshop, we are looking into reading strategies such as visualizing, making connections, and making predictions. As students read, they are responding to the text using these strategies. Students record in their Readers Notebooks their thinking and response to text.
-If you haven't turned in your field trip form, please do so immediately!
-We will have another field trip in November related to our plant science unit - be on the lookout for that field trip form as well!

Have a great weekend! :)

Highlights from Week 4!

Fall is here!!  We are definitely feeling the weather change in Room 307... long gone are the days of sweating with no AC in our room and now, they are grabbing their coats whenever we go out (so please make sure students come with a coat)!  This week, we took our first math test on our unit: Place Value.  Students took home their graded tests so please check those to see their scores.  As a class, we worked on a review test together and walked through each problem earlier in the week so that each student could be successful.  For homework this past week, many students forgot the writing portion.  Each week, there will be a writing portion to the homework - every part of the homework is clearly written on the cover of the homework packet.  Please help your child read every part so they do not miss a portion of the homework.  If your child took home a pink "No Homework" slip, please sign and return the next day.  Thank you to the 8 students who turned in every part of the homework!  It was surprising to see the drastic drop from 100% completion/participation to only 1/3 of the class turning it in!

On a lighter note, I have scheduled our first field trip!  We will be going to The Center for Wooden Boats (South Lake Union) on Friday, October 18th.  It will be a fun trip where students will participate in the "What Floats Your Boat" program.  Students will get to make their own toy wooden boats and test them out on the water.  We will also go ON the boats and paddle on South Lake Union.  I am so excited for this field trip coming up - forms will be sent home tomorrow!

Highlights:
-Learned more writing strategies and will begin writing personal narratives next week!
-We started a new math unit on: Addition & Subtraction.  Homework and in-class work will be tailored around this concept.
-Planted our seeds (Brassica rapa plant) and they started growing already!  Check out pictures of our watering system, lamp, and growing plants at the bottom of this post.
-We learned about different genres of literature this week, and we review for the next couple of weeks the different reading comprehension strategies.
-Picture Day is next Friday!  October 4th - picture forms will come home soon, so fill those out quickly and return them ASAP.
-Our first MAP Test will be on that same Friday.  Please make sure your child is not absent and well-rested that day.
-Please fill out the field trip form and return as soon as possible!

Highlights from Week 3!

Room 307 is getting in the groove of the routines and schedules in our class! We have had a very full week of continuing to build our stamina and stretching out our Writers Workshop time, work time, and Readers Workshop. It was also the very first week that homework was due - I am THRILLED to say that we had 100% participation and no homework slips (for late or missing homework) were passed out. I corrected and read through each homework and they were returned to students so that immediate feedback is given to students. I want to take the time to thank and acknowledge parents also for being a part of that success! I know that homework isn't always independent for students and that it is a family effort. I appreciate the time that you took out to either help, go over, or give the space/time for students to do their homework. It is such an important skill to build at an early age!

Highlights:

-We welcomed a new 3rd grader to our classroom, named Ethan! :)
-We started Homework Club this week and had a huge turn out! More than half the class came to finish and work on their homework. With the large turn out, I may need some donations of snack to be passed out at Homework Club. Please donate if your child attends - also, please come up to the room to pick up your child unless you have let me know in advance otherwise (sending to Peppi's on their own or sending to the office). It ends promptly at 3:45. If parents pick up students late often, I will unfortunately have to ask the student not to come to Homework Club. 

-Writers Workshop is starting to pick up with more and more students starting to really invest in their stories! At the time, I am helping them build their stamina and get their creative juices flowing, so I'm not limiting their writing to a specific form/genre. 

-Math Test on "Place Value" will be given Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. The cover of the homework packet has specific concepts that will be covered on the test. Students will also take home a review study guide beforehand. 

-Science has officially started! We are learning about Plant Growth & Development. We studied the inside of a seed and will be planting next week. 

-Readers Workshop at the end of our day is probably the favorite time for most students in our class (including me!). It is a teacher's dream to see students so engaged and enjoying books! Here are some more pictures from this week: enjoy! :)

Highlights from Week 2!

Students in Room 307 are VERY thankful that the AC has returned in our classroom! It has been a hot week with beautiful weather! Thank you to families who came out to Curriculum Night! It was good to see your faces and talk to you more about how the rest of the year will look.

Highlights:

-We began Writers Workshop! Students are getting used to writing again and building their writing stamina

-Launched our first math unit on: Place Value - we will continue this unit for another couple weeks

-Begin work time: I am assessing and getting to know how students work during this independent time

-Begin Rocket Math, our daily math facts practice

-Started up on a new year of JiJi! Students should have the same password as previous years

-Met our "Little Buddies" from Ms. Chin's K/1 class :)

Here are a couple pictures of students reading and writing... Enjoy!

Our First Week!

What an awesome first week of school we had! I have been really enjoying getting to know and reconnecting with each student. We have been playing games to get to know each other and learning the culture of the 3rd floor at Leschi! It was been a whirlwind of a week and here are some of the things we have done:
-Begin Readers Workshop
-Tell stories every day in preparation for our Writers Workshop launch next week
-Take our writing and spelling assessments
-Take a math placement test
-Introduce a short work time
-Decorate journals, and watercolor covers
-Introduce the STAR Binders!

THANK YOU to the families who have turned in all of the forms that needed to be completed. I know it was a lot of reading and information to take in, but it is very helpful to me to get those during the first week of school! If you have not done so, please fill the forms out as soon as possible and return them to me. The pink form about this blog and giving permission to have students post is a very important one, so please make sure that is signed and turned in!

I am excited and looking forward to the rest of this school year - it will be a good one! :)

P.S. Sign up for Remind101, please!

Wish List!

Thank you to all the families who came out to our "Meet the Teacher" or "Popsicles in the Park" event! It was so great to see all of the new and old faces that will be a part of Room 307 this year. I loved hearing all of the summer adventures and seeing pictures of the fun events - I can't wait to hear more as the school year begins. 

I wanted to also share with you a way that you can help add to our classroom! I am always looking for ways to make school more fun and exciting for students, and new books/classroom materials is definitely on my priority list. I have added many new things this summer and I decided to create an Amazon Wish List. If you are wanting to help in this way, please take a look at our classroom's wish list. You can search for my name: Sunny Staab in Seattle, Washington. Most of the supplies are science materials and books. Thank you for your continued support! :)

Our new room...

Summer is flying by!  I am in a bit of shock that it is August 1st... what?!  Tomorrow is my last day of teaching summer school and soon, I will be starting our new classroom set up!  I took a peek inside when I went to help get our school ready for T-Mobile to paint our school (which looks great, by the way).  I will give you a sneak peek of what it looks like currently... like the paint color?  I love it!  It was a lot of work, but so worth it :)