Week ending 11/20/15

We have had a very busy week in room 250!  The Heritage Bear project was due today.  Thank you to everyone who brought it in on time.  They look awesome!  Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing them and asking questions to each other.

Important information:

• Special snack should be coming in on Wednesday.  Please remember to include a drink and a snack.  Bags are coming home today with your child, so please write on the front their name and why you are thankful for them. 
• Dismissal on Wednesday, November 25, is at 12:00.  NOT 12:30 so please plan accordingly.
• Social/Emotional morning will be held on Friday, December 11.  We hope you can join us to see what morning meeting is all about!

3, 2, 1 things you need to know about our week:

In math we have been working hard on 3 math skills:  finishing up our addition strategies using open number lines and splitting numbers and we've also started working on counting objects in an organized way and understanding place value (hundreds, tens, and ones).

2 activities we've been working on in reading workshop is focusing on finding non-fiction text features using a Non-Fiction Features Scavenger Hunt and writing out own book to show what we've learned about non-fiction features and their purpose.  

1 thing Adam wants you to know is we have math challenge work that can be complicated but fun.

Week ending 11/13/15

Hello Families!
We had a great pajama day in class today!  We also had a special  visitor…illustrator Ralph Masiello joined us for a great lesson on illustrating and idea building!  Students listed to his ideas, how he got started being an illustrator, and what types of projects he's working on now.

Here are a few pictures from today!
Enjoy and have a good weekend!

Week of 11/2/15

Happy November!
I can't believe it's November already!  Can you?  Thursday was our 40th day of school!  It has been a warm week, so it's been great to get outside and enjoy the weather!
A few important reminders coming up:

• Continue checking in on your child's homework and returning the packet on Fridays.  We had a conversation this week about reading every night and how important it is!
• Wednesday, the 11th, there is no school.
• Thursday, the 12th, at 12:30, we are going to the book fair.  It is up to you if you choose to send money with your child.  You may also join us if you'd like…it is about 20 min.  Students are bringing home a wish list they wrote after previewing the options today.  Please keep in mind that tax is NOT included.  Please send money in a zip loc bag with their name on it and I have asked them all to not be purchasing toys.  If you're ok with that, please find a time they can go with you.  Thanks for your cooperation in advance!
• On Monday, you will receive a cut out bear and directions.  We are having students make "Heritage Bears".  This can be worked on over the next 2 weeks and is in addition to homework.  
• Wednesday, the 25th has dismissal at 12:00 (NOT 12:30).  There is no school the 26th and 27th. 

3, 2, 1 things you should know about this week…

3 non-fiction text features we've been learning to identify are photographs (to show something), captions (to tell about the picture), and diagrams (to show what something is or to show inside something).

2 skills we've been working on in writing is using different writing styles to make our books more interesting.  We can make our words bigger to add excitement, such as "When we arrived my whole family was excited, excited, and even more excited then when we left!" We can also uses ellipses to help us keep the reader in suspense, such as "We arrived at the hotel and saw something strange…"

1 thing Logan wants you to know is we went to look at all the available books at the book fair.

Here are some pictures from our music performance this morning from Crocodile River Music.