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!