October 27, 2017

Announcements

You will find your conference confirmation date and time in the Friday folder. Please let me know as soon as possible if we need to reschedule.

Our field trip to the food bank is next Thursday! If you are volunteering, you will find a paper in the Friday folder with directions to the food bank. Every student also received a paper describing the dress code for the food bank. Please have students wear long pants, tennis shoes, and have long hair pulled back. We will be leaving around 11:45 and return around 2:15.

Thank you to everyone who helped with our Fall Party on Friday! Here is the link for the Winter Party. It will be here before we know it!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0e4ca9ad23a1fd0-winter1

Congratulations to Kyler for earning our Paxton Pride award this week!

In the Classroom

In math this week, we finished assessing over unit 2 and began unit 3. We completed activity stations early in the week where students explored liquid volume, measuring area, and fraction circles.

This week, students met with me for teacher revising and began editing their personal narratives. We will begin working on our final copies next week. We also took our personal narrative post test. I will be sharing the results at conferences. 

This week in reading, we took the STAR reading assessment and practiced our reading responses. We also spent one of our reading times practicing problem solving skills and cooperation through Makerspace. Students were given the task to build the tallest tower using small plastic cups in 20 minutes. It was great to see students working together, working through problems, and not giving up. The tallest tower was 67 cm tall.

In weather this week, we finished and shared our severe storm projects. Students had the option of presenting the information any way they wanted. We had some Google Slide presentations, posters, a video, and even a puppet show! They did an excellent job teaching each other about severe weather!

We also had a guest speaker on Wednesday! Kenton Gewecke, the meteorologist from KOMU, came to talk to us about what he does, severe storms, and how to be prepared for bad weather. The students were wonderful audience members and asked great questions!

Upcoming Events

Fall Room Parties-October 27

No School, Teacher Work Day-October 30

Field trip to Central Missouri Food Bank-November 2

Parent Teacher Conferences-November 9-10

No School-November 10

October 20, 2017

Announcements

I will start scheduling our Parent Teacher conferences next week. You will get a confirmation time in the Friday folder next week. Please let me know as soon as possible if this day/time does not work. It is a building expectation that I meet with all families during this time. I appreciate your support in meeting this goal!

In the Classroom

In math this week, students focused on division with remainders, as well as patterns. They used an organizer called frames and arrows to study patterns. We also reviewed and did our first day of testing for Unit 2. We will finish the test next week and begin Unit 3. 

Students completed partner revisions this week. We worked really hard on how to give constructive feedback to your partner. Students made revisions and completed their second drafts. We will be doing teacher revisions and editing next week.

In reading this week, we focused on plot. We used a roller coaster to help us picture the up and down flow of stories. 

Our focus for weather was on severe storms. Students became the teachers this week! Each group was assigned a type of severe storm and told to research and present their findings to the class. They could choose to do a poster, Google Slide presentation, video, etc.

Upcoming Events

Fall Room Parties-October 27

No School, Teacher Work Day-October 30

Field trip to Central Missouri Food Bank-November 2

Parent Teacher Conferences-November 9-10

No School-November 10

October 13, 2017

Announcements

Make sure to look for the conference form in the Friday folder this week! Please try to have these back as soon as possible so I can start scheduling conferences for November.

Thank you again for all your help with the Comet Carnival! I know my family enjoyed it, and I loved getting to see most of you there.

We have filled all our spots for the Fall Party! Thank you so much to the parents who volunteered. I will be asking for more help soon for the Winter Party. 

Congratulations to Shyanne for earning the Paxton Keeley Pride Award this week!

We enjoyed having the 5th graders stop by Friday morning for the Vocabulary Parade!

The kids also enjoyed our Campout Reward Party! It was a very fun afternoon, and I am so proud of their excellent behavior. Students spent time buddy reading, exploring the online math games through Schoology, and enjoying a Smores taste test. We have already started earning our next 100 gemstones! 

In the Classroom

In math this week, we focused more on multiplication and division. Students used arrays to represent various number stories. We also learned how to make division number models. Finally, students problem-solved what happens when you are dividing and cannot make equal groups.

This week was exciting for our writers! They chose which personal narrative from their notebook they would like to take through the publishing process. So far, students have re-written their first draft, assessed themselves using a kid-friendly rubric, and started making self-revisions. We will continue revising next week with partners and the teacher.

We have been enjoying our read aloud book as part of Global Read Aloud! This week, students contributed to the 3rd grade Padlet, and we also did a Mystery Skype with another class reading the book. The class was located outside of Boston. The students had a great time trying to figure out where they were located by asking them yes/no questions. We did not get to ask them about the book, as we had to evacuate the building Friday morning. However, we are planning on chatting with them again next week. I was very impressed with how seriously the students took their assigned jobs!

In our weather unit this week, we finished discussing weather tools. Students made wind vanes and anemometers. The wind vanes were successful, but it was back to the drawing board for our anemometers. : )

Upcoming Events

Early Dismissal-October 17 at 12:50

Fall Room Parties-October 27

No School, Teacher Work Day-October 30

Field trip to Central Missouri Food Bank-November 2

Parent Teacher Conferences-November 9-10

No School-November 10