Happy Break!

See you on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018

Over the Break!

A few things to remember...

READING
Please encourage your child to read over the break! I will be sending extra bookmarks (blue) with every student to bring home in their STAR Binder. Any books they complete over the break can be logged on the bookmark to add to their 40 Book Challenge count for the year!

MATH
Greg Tang Math is holding a New Year Math Challenge!
Check out the paper game board your child brought home today. The link below (click the image) will take you to the challenge information as well. Students can complete the game board over the break and bring it in on Wednesday, January 3rd when we return to be entered to win a signed book from Greg Tang! This is voluntary but might be a fun way to practice math over the break!

Students are bringing home two gifts for family members on Tuesday. These will be in white decorated gift bags. 

WRITING

Don't forget! The Brainstormers Writing Club begins on January 9th at 7:30 a.m. For more information and to sign up your child, click below!

WRITING CLUB LINK! CLICK ME!

Making Our Way!

Reading and Writing

As readers and writers, we have been finishing up our opinion essay unit, reading mentor articles, responding in writing, and developing our own opinions when responding to argumentative writing essays.
As we wrapped up this unit, we took a break from the structure of essays to explore more ideas within poetry. Students worked through the entire writing process and published poems using figurative language with a focus on personification.
Taking cues from poets, we began to notice that sentence variety and punctuation play a big role in how we read certain types of writing. We also realized we can make intentional decisions with regard to sentence length and punctuation to really showcase our "writing voices."

Math

Although we finished our first round of multiplication and division as a focus in our classroom, we will continue to review these concepts all year long and bring it back as a focus two more times during the school year. As of right now, our focus has shifted to addition and subtraction within 1, 000. We also began having conversations about rounding and estimation. Students have learned how important place value is when adding/subtracting and that place applies no matter what type of problem you are solving.

The class has been doing a great job working together as teams during our math block. Here are some examples of collaborative group charts they created together!

Monday:

On Monday we have a volunteer coming to lead the students in a cookie decorating activity. Our party activities will take place on Tuesday afternoon, likely beginning around 1:30. I have plenty of helpers all set and there is no need to send in additional treats or snacks unless you have already talked with me about your plan.

Tuesday: Holiday Party Activities!

On Tuesday afternoon the class will be up to their elbows in fun activities! I wanted to let you know the plan so you can help accordingly.

We do not need any food, drinks, or snacks. Please refrain from sending in any items as we will not be snacking this time around.

Send in a board game, dice game, or card game with your child. The last portion of our party will be an hour of games.

We will be making fluffy slime! The ingredients in the slime are as follows:

• ·         Elmer’s Glue
• ·         Barbasol Sensitive Skin Shaving Cream
• ·         Eye Contact Solution for Sensitive Eyes
• ·         Food Coloring

GIFT EXCHANGE:

We will do a school supplies gift exchange. I would ask that you not exceed $5-7.00 on the total cost of the gift. I would like all the wrapped items by Monday at the latest. As always, if you need assistance in providing a gift for the exchange I am happy to help.

Here is a list of ideas:

Markers

Color Pencils

Crayons

Fancy Notebook

Stickers

Watercolor Paint

Pencil Sharpener

Pencils (Any)