Newsletter for January 27, 2013

Important Dates & Reminders

 

Our remaining library days are: February 7, 22; March 8, 22; April 16, 30; and May 14, 29.

 

Please visit the link below for donating to the Ohio Wildlife Center's visit. Your donations offset the center's standard cost to visit and will help many animals undergoing rehabilitation. The Ohio Wildlife Center will be visiting us again this year on Valentine's Day to teach us about native Ohio animals, life cycles, defense mechanisms and the habitat.

Thank you!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4AADAA2AA64-ohio

 

January 29, 2013: Progress reports sent home.
January 31, 2013: Early release @ 11:05 for conferences
February 11, 2013: Ohio Wildlife Center donations due for their visit on February 14th
February 13, 2013: Early dismissal at 1:15
February 14, 2013: Ohio Wildlife Center visits for life science study (See above.)
February 18, 2013: No school in honor of Presidents' Day
March 23, 2013: Invention Convention at UAHS (more information coming in January)
March 28, 2013: End of the Third Grading Period
March 29 - April 5, 2013: Spring Break
April 8, 2013: No School: Teacher Grading Day
April 11, 2013: 3rd Grade Musical Program with Mrs. Delcamp
April 15-18, 2013: Terra Nova and InView assessments (Please try to avoid appointments on these days.)
April 16, 2013: Progress reports sent home
April 26, 2013: Kidfest
April 29, 2013: Ohio Reading Achievement Assessments (All students will take. Please try to avoid appointments on this days.)
April 30, 2013: Ohio Mathematics Achievement Assessment (All students will take. Please try to avoid appointments on this days.)
May 11, 2013: Windermere Wish Run
May 27, 2013: No School: Memorial Day
May 28, 2013: Field Days (Please contact Mr. Moore if you are able to volunteer at adammoore@uaschools.org.)
May 29, 2013: Field Days rain date

What We Learned This Week

Word Study

- I can identify prefixes, suffixes and root words.

- I am familiar with the most common prefixes and suffixes.

- I know many words do not have a prefix or suffix.

- I know prefixes and suffixes change the meaning of a word.

- I know that spelling patterns for common prefixes may represent part of a root word.



 

Reading

We finished our historical fiction read aloud, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, by Rodman Philbrick, which takes place during the Civil War. We are doing final first person reflections as Homer.  We will be reading a number of picture books about famous African Americans as we start researching African Americans. We started with Henry's Freedom Box, written by Ellen Levine and beautifully illustrated by Kadir Nelson, the true story of an escaped slave.
- I can make text to self connections.
- I can think beyond the text (emotions, inference).
- I can summarize my reading with characters, setting, and plot (beginning, middle, end).

 

Writing

Students are taking notes on their African American research subjects. Our focus will be on courage and sacrifice to deepen our understanding beyond the customary. We began this research project by listing "all the famous people you can think of in two minutes." I then took our comprehensive class list and sorted by US and foreign citizenship, ethnicity, gender and occupation. You can click on the following charts to see how our "famous people" list sorted. Our clear slant is towards US, male, white entertainers. This supplies us with much support to develop our research skills by studying the contributions of African Americans (and women in March during Women's History Month).

Citizenship

 

Ethnicity

 

Gender

Occupation



 

- I can identify noteworthy notes.

- I can rewrite notes in my own words.
 

Math

I introduced fractions this week.

- I can name the numerator, denominator, and whole in a fraction.

- I can define the numerator, denominator, and whole in a fraction.

- I can can count by fractions with different denominators.

- I can identify whole numbers from fractions when the numerator is a multiple of the denominator.

- I can solve fraction story problems.
If you are looking for a way to support your student, visit the math links under favorites on the right side of the blog.

 

Science
We will begin our Invention Convention process soon. You can help your student by identifying common problems and simple solutions.
 

Newsletter for January 20, 2013

Important Dates & Reminders

Our library days are: January 24; February 7, 22; March 8, 22; April 16, 30; and May 14, 29.

You'll soon be hearing from our room parents regarding making donations for the Ohio Wildlife Center's Valentines Day visit. Please let me know if you have any questions. These donations pay for their visit. You can visit their website to learn more about them at: http://www.ohiowildlifecenter.org/dnn/Conferences

Progress reports will be sent home on January 29, 2013. In the meantime, I will be scheduling conferences with the families of students who are performing below grade level.

What We Learned This Week

We had a busy week of assessments, but we also had some great learning opportunities.

Homework

It is important that students answer their reading homework questions in complete sentences: 

- Begin with a capital letter.

- Capitalize any proper nouns.

- End with punctuation.

- Include a who (subject) and a what (action).

Students should also use the text to spell words correctly. I am spot checking homework and having students redo it at school if they have not done the above. 

Reading

We are nearly finished with our read aloud, The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg as we have reached the Battle of Gettysburg. I will be starting a new read aloud soon. Students are continuing to respond to the text as Homer.

Writing

Students are writing persuasive arguments on a variety of topics. I've been very pleased with their growth and have seen them transfer this skill to other assignments. They are starting to construct arguments with supporting details. So... watch out at home:) They're becoming very persuasive.

Sir Isaac Newton

Science

We  utilized Sir Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion for a collaborative challenge in constructing marble runs. We'll expand this in the spring when we formally start our study of force and motion.

Democracy

Social Studies
We collaborated with Mrs. Graver, our enrichment teacher, to develop an understanding of democracy. Led by our enrichment students we adopted a system of checks and balances that mirrors our federal government with legislative, executive and judicial branches. Students suggested laws, each table representing an independent community or state. The laws then went through the Senate, the House, and ultimately to the president. Our judicial committee then interpreted the laws. It was a great lesson and student reflections show they got a lot out of it. Hopefully, they have shared some of this with you.

Author, Susan Levine, illustrator, Erin Burchwell and the Ohio Bird Sanctuary visited this week to talk about Columbus and birds of prey.

Author Susan Levine

Representative from the Ohio Bird Sanctuary

Illustrator Erin Burchwell

Newsletter for January 11, 2013

Happy New Year!

Important Dates & Reminders

Our library days are: January 24; February 7, 22; March 8, 22; April 16, 30; and May 14, 29.

Reminder: I will be assessing students this week as we end the quarter. Please try to schedule any appointments after school. Thank you.
 
January 16, 2013: Visiting author, Susan Levine, illustrator, Erin Burchwell (Book orders for Packard Takes Flight are due January 15th)

You'll soon be hearing from our room parents regarding making donations for the Ohio Wildlife Center's Valentines Day visit. Please let me know if you have any questions. These donations pay for their visit.

January 17, 2013: Family Fitness Night at Super Games
January 17, 2013: End of the second grading period
January 18, 2013: No school for students: Teacher grading day
January 21, 2013: No school in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 31, 2013: Early release @ 11:05 for conferences
February 11, 2013: Ohio Wildlife Center donations due for their visit on February 14th
February 13, 2013: Early dismissal at 1:15
February 18, 2013: No school in honor of Presidents' Day
March 23, 2013: Invention Convention at UAHS (more information coming in January)
April 29, 2013: Ohio Reading Achievement Assessments (all students will take)
April 30, 2013: Ohio Mathematics Achievement Assessment (all students will take)
May 11, 2013: Windermere Wish Run

What We Learned This Week

Homework
- I can answer questions in complete sentences.
- I can use the spelling from text.
- Students may attach an additional sheet of paper if they need more room for complete sentences.

Word Study
- I can determine the number of syllables in a word.
- I know what prefixes and suffixes are.
- I can decode a multiple syllable word using five steps: prefixes, suffixes, root word, glide sounds together quickly, context clues.

Reading
We are reading plays based on familiar books that we will present to the class next week.
- I can project my voice so others can hear me easily.
- I can read with "voice," (an awareness of punctuation and context).

Writing
- I can write a persuasive argument that includes clear and distinct topic sentence and conclusions.
- I can support my position wit supporting details.
- I can counter my oppositions' position by anticipating and acknowledging their arguments  with details.
- I can effectively incorporate new vocabulary.
- I can self edit by reading my writing backwards, starting with the last sentence and looking for capitals, punctuation, a who and a what for complete sentences.

Math
- I have a strategy for multiplying single digit facts for 0's, 1's, 2's, 5's, 6's, 9's, and 10's.
- I have learned all of the square products (both factors are the same, e.g., 3 x 3).
- This leaves only six multiplication facts to memorize that are not associated with a strategy: See the chart below. All products in white boxes are tied to a strategy. Red and blue are turn-arounds, leaving only the following facts to memorize: 3 x 4, 3 x 7, 3 x 8, 4 x 7, 4 x 8, and 7 x 8. Work on these whenever you have time.

Dear Families,


Welcome back. I hope everyone had a great winter break and enjoyed the snow! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone next week. I will be reviewing our curriculum and learning this week and assessing the following week as we wrap up our second grading period.


Important Dates & Reminders

Our library days are: January 8, 24; February 7, 22; March 8, 22; April 16, 30; and May 14, 29.

January 17, 2013: Family Fitness Night at Super Games
January 17, 2013: End of the second grading period
January 18, 2013: No school for students: Teacher grading day
January 21, 2013: No school in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 31, 2013: Early release @ 11:05 for conferences
February 13, 2013: Early dismissal at 1:15
February 18, 2013: No school in honor of Presidents' Day
March 23, 2013: Invention Convention at UAHS (more information coming in January)
April 29, 2013: Ohio Reading Achievement Assessments (all students will take)
April 30, 2013: Ohio Mathematics Achievement Assessment (all students will take)
May 11, 2013: Windermere Wish Run