Newsletter Week of October 2nd

Week of October 2, 2017

Hello 3AH parents,

It has been a busy week in the class. We had ISA testing and are working on the last bend of our writing and reading units. This upcoming week we will be setting goals in math, reading, writing and the SLR's for our 3-way conferences. You should have received a letter with the time and date for your conference. Please sign the bottom of the form and return it to school. Remember that your child is expected to attend conferences along with their parent(s).

Our Wonder Wall has been a great place to record questions. It located in the common area and is a space where each student can write down a wonder they have. In the coming weeks, we will move on to adding different prompts to encourage even more thinking.

We need your help! Please send in cardboard and other materials that students could use for building. Next week we will be talking about the upcoming cardboard challenge, which will lead us toward Genius Hour. We will need this by October 11.

This week we begin on Day 6. Please make sure your child has a water bottle and hat each day.

Reading This week we end our first reading unit. We will then move from fiction reading to information/nonfiction to focus on main ideas and text structures. This is perfect as we think about areas of interest, so students can build on their strengths.

Writing We are also ending our personal narrative unit. At conferences next week you will see both the pre and post assessments for this unit, which will help with goal setting as we move forward. Many aspects of writing are transferrable across genres, so this information will help us as we move on to informational writing. This is not a unit where the focus is on researching to write, rather the students will use informational writing strategies as they compose texts about subjects they already know well.

Math We have begun our second math unit and in the coming week will focus on rounding to the nearest ten. We will introduce multiple strategies including using a number line, using benchmark numbers, and finding halfway numbers. As always the parent learning connection has ideas for you in math and reading/writing here.

Social Studies As we continue to look at different maps and what we can learn from them, students are creating their own maps (landform, resource, climate, and population are the focus). We have noticed that water is a key resource. We have enjoyed looking at various maps that students have shared.

Enjoy the week ahead.

October 2, 2017- Choose 2 activities to complete before Friday to share in class.

Math: Show an adult how to round 23 56 78 to the nearest ten. Explain to the adult how you know.	Language arts: Write a letter to someone.	Language arts: Read a nonfiction book about one of your interests/passions.  Share something you learned.
Math: Write the following numbers in words (English and your home language if it is different), expanded form, and model it using base 10 blocks. 347 679 204	Social Studies: What has been your favorite part about our Mapping unit? What are 3 things that you learned?	Other: Put on a play for your family or practice keyboarding on Typing Web.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.