News for 2/25

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Please sign up for Spring Parent Teacher Conferences here
• Webber Discovery Fair: Webber’s annual Discovery Fair is scheduled for Friday, March 8 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.  This family event is a celebration of science, technology, and the arts. This year’s Fair will include a student art show, live animal exhibit, LOCS Robotics teams, Lego projects from Brick It Up, a kids’ workshop, make and take projects, an engineering challenge, and more! Your child is invited to participate by submitting an individual Project of Discovery; entry forms came home this week. RSVPs are not necessary. We’ll see you there!
• March is Reading Month: Be a Bookanner! Where books arrggh the treasure! Please check your students FROG binder for notes/flyers regarding the reading challenge and a hard copy of the calendar below. 

M.I.R.M. Dates:

• 3/1 - March is Reading Month Kickoff Assembly (wear Webber gear)
• 3/4 - Dress like a Pirate Day (students will be given eye patches)
• 3/6, 3/13, 3/20, 3/27 - Wacky Wednesday Bucks for Books - $1 donation recommended (see calendar)
• 3/8, 3/15, 3/22, 3/29 - Friday Read In's (send in a beach towel)
• 3/29 PJ or Dress like a Pirate day (students are given a pirate themed snack)

Important Dates:

• 3/8 - Discovery Fair
• 321 & 3/29 - Half days for students
• 3/21 & 3/26 - Spring Parent Teacher Conferences
• 4/1-4/5 Spring Break

Learning This week:

• Writers will...
• write reviews to persuade others
• talk right to readers and remember to talk back
• make comparisons
• hook your reader
• Readers will...
• use drama to bring read aloud to life
• celebrate learn about the world reading
• be the boss of their own reading
• use everything they know to solve a word
• "check it!" to self monitor
• Mathematicians will...
• add and subtract 10's
• add and subtract multiples of 10's
• focus on mathematical practices
• take the unit 5 test
• Scientists will...
• understand and learn body parts that help animals survive
• understand and learn behaviors that help animals survive
• draw and label the parts that help one animal we've studied survive
• In phonics we will...
• need powerful tools to get the job done
• make our own individual vowel team charts
• learn the ou vowel team and search for ou words in our books
• sort phonographs with vowel teams

Pictures From Last Week's Learning:

Judging other's collections in writing workshop and providing reasons why we disagree. 

Counting a large number of objects in math by sorting into groups of 10's. 

News for 2/20

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Please sign up for Spring Parent Teacher Conferences here
• Webber Discovery Fair: Webber’s annual Discovery Fair is scheduled for Friday, March 8 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.  This family event is a celebration of science, technology, and the arts. This year’s Fair will include a student art show, live animal exhibit, LOCS Robotics teams, Lego projects from Brick It Up, a kids’ workshop, make and take projects, an engineering challenge, and more! Your child is invited to participate by submitting an individual Project of Discovery; entry forms came home this week. RSVPs are not necessary. We’ll see you there!

Important Dates:

• 3/1 - March is Reading Month Kickoff Assembly - WEAR WEBBER GEAR
• 3/4 - Dress like a Pirate Day
• 3/6, 3/13, 3/20, 3/27 - Wacky Wednesday Bucks for Books (stay tuned for more info)
• 3/8, 3/15, 3/22, 3,29 - Friday Read In's (send in a beach towel  & small stuffed animal)
• 3/8 - Discovery Fair
• 3/21 & 3/26 - Spring Parent Teacher Conferences

Learning This week:

• Writers will...
• expect disagreement in their opinion writing
• award the last place item in their collection
• bolster arguments in their writing
• Readers will...
• read with feeling
• read like a writer
• explain and think about key words
• Mathematicians will...
• solve problems with 3 addends
• count with groups of 10
• practice numbers through 120
• add and subtract 10's
• Scientists will...
• study parent vs. baby animals
• study if all animals of one type look alike
• understand that body parts help animals survive
• In phonics we will...
• build words and pay attention to vowel teams
• learn new snap words
• watch out for the words that don't work the same way

News for 2/11

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Valentine's Day Celebration - Our party will be Thursday, February 14th from 9:30-10:30. Students will decorate paper bags to hold their valentines in class. We will pass out valentine cards at the end of our party. When filling out valentines cards please do not write a name in the TO section. Please only have your student write their name in the from section. This makes passing out valentines cards much quicker. We have 25 students in our class :) 
• Valentines Day Read In - On 2/14 please bring in a small stuffed animal that fits inside your backpack. We will have a read in with Ms. Weaver's class in the afternoon! 
• FILL A SHEET -GET A TREAT: Its time again for a Box Tops for Education Collection. Each student who turns in a completed collection sheet  will receive a special prize. February 11^th -15^th 
• Please sign up for Spring Parent Teacher Conferences here

Important Dates:

• 2/14 - Valentine's Day Celebration 9:30-10:30 & Read In 1:30-2:30
• 2/15 - 1/2 day for students
• 2/18-2/19 Mid Winter Break - No School for Students
• 3/21 & 3/26 - Spring Parent Teacher Conferences

Learning This week:

• Writers will...
• explain judgments in a convincing way
• expect disagreement in their opinion writing
• award the last place item in their collection
• Readers will...
• reread a page to find the just right sound
• find interesting things to share
• read with feeling
• Mathematicians will...
• practice with teen problems
• solve problems with 3 addends
• solve a valentines day higher level math story problem
• count with groups of 10
• Scientists will...
• study polar bear features
• study penguin features
• study parent vs. baby animals
• study if all animals of one type look alike
• In phonics we will...
• build words and pay attention to vowel teams
• learn new snap words

Pictures from last week's learning:

 "Missing Partner" Game

Celebrating our Nonfiction Writing Unit with Mrs. Garrett's Class

 

Taste test with Gummy Bears to kick off our opinion unit. We learned to use the words "I think" and "because." We also learned that the more reasons you give, the more you will convince people to agree with you :) 

Judging our collections in Writing Workshop

 

Finding key words in nonfiction books

 
 
 
 

Working in our rug clubs in phonics being "word builders."

Newsletter for 1/28

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Valentine's Day Celebration - Our party will be Thursday, February 14th from 9:30-10:30. Students will decorate paper bags to hold their valentines in class. We will pass out valentine cards at the end of our party. When filling out valentines cards please do not write a name in the TO section. Please only have your student write their name in the from section. This makes passing out valentines cards much quicker. We have 25 students in our class :) 

Important Dates:

• 2/14 - Valentine's Day Celebration, 9:30-10:30
• 2/15 - 1/2 day for students
• 2/18-2/19 Mid Winter Break - No School for Students

Learning This week:

• Writers will...
• use craft moves
• edit step by step
• create a writing museum full of nonfiction topics
• have a final celebration
• Readers will...
• check that what they're reading makes sense
• learn new words as they read
• find and think about key words
• reread a page to find the just right sound
• Mathematicians will...
• complete unit 4 test
• find the unknown partners with teen totals
• solve subtraction problems with teen numbers
• solve mixed problems with teen numbers
• Scientists will...
• discover what protects animals
• learn about adult vs. baby snails
• learn about adult vs. baby whales
• In phonics we will...
• make contractions with not
• play word games
• review snap words and sort them by rules

News for the week

Notes from Ms. Rau

• Semester One Report Cards     Your child’s first semester report will be emailed to you on Friday, January 25. In Lake Orion we use standards-based grading, which means we score your child based on his or her progress towards “mastery” of a particular standard. A score of 4 indicates mastery; a score of 4 on an academic subject means that the end of the year expectation has been reached. A score of 3 means consistent progress toward the standard, a 2 indicates inconsistent progress, and a 1 signals an area of concern. As you would expect, we have not yet taught most academic standards to their full extent. For example, a math standard may include addition and subtraction to 20, but during this first semester we taught addition and subtraction to 10. Consequently, students are scored out of a possible 3, indicating that expected progress towards mastery. At this time, you should expect to see 3s for academic standards on which your child is doing well. A few academic areas that have been taught to mastery at this time are listed below, so that you know to look for 4s on those standards. Because behavioral skills have consistent expectations throughout the year, they are scored out of a possible 4; you should see 4s in the skills section if your child is meeting behavior expectations. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have questions or concerns about the report or your child’s progress. The report card is divided as follows:
• Reading     In this section, the current expectation is reading level F. Only students reading at the end of the year exit level expectation of J or above will see 4s in the reading section. The only exception for the standard “Manipulates spoken sounds and symbols” which has been scored out of 4 as it is expected that oral sounds are mastered at this time. We recently began exploring nonfiction texts but have not yet assessed these elements, so they are not scored at this time.
• Social Studies and Science   Our first two social studies units are complete and were scored out of a possible 4. The other unit that we addressed this semester, the public issue standard, will be revisited in the spring and is scored out of 3.  In science we have only completed the plant portion of the plants and animals unit, so that standard is also scored out of 3 and will be continued.
• Writing and Language   All standards in these sections are scored out of possible 3; all standards will be revisited and expanded upon.
• Math   In math this semester we completed only one standard to mastery, which was “understands and applies properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction.” That standard is scored out of 4; all others are scored out of a possible 3. Some students earned 4's if they were able to count AND write their numbers to 120. 
• Skills   These critically important areas were all scored out of a possible 4. 

• Our Valentine's Day Celebration will be Thursday, February 14th. Please consider donating items for our party https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D45ACAB2FABF85-valentines. The time is currently TBD. I will send out an email to parents who volunteered to run a center next week. Thank you! 

Important Dates:

• 1/21 - MLK Day, No School for Students
• 1/25 - Report cards sent out electronically via email, to parent 1, in PowerSchool at 4:00 p.m.
• 2/14 - Valentine's Day Celebration, time: TBD
• 2/15 - 1/2 day for students
• 2/18-2/19 Mid Winter Break - No School for Students

Learning This week:

• Writers will...
• research using photos to say more
• use craft moves learned in small moments
• editing step by step with a checklist
• have a final celebration
• Readers will...
• not let hard words get in their ways
• crash word parts together to solve
• check that the words they read look right and make sense
• learn new words as they read
• Mathematicians will...
• play 2 digit addition games
• complete unit 4 test
• practice adding 10's and 1's
• Scientists will...
• observe how parent animals help their babies survive
• learn about animal features that help them survive
• learn about adult vs. baby snails
• learn about adult vs. baby whales
• In phonics we will...
• bring new knowledge of words to learning snap words
• use snap words to help make and read other longer, trickier words
• make contraction with not

News for this week

Important Dates:

• 1/18 Half Day for Students
• 1/21 - MLK Day, No School for Students
• 1/25 - Report cards sent out electronically via email, to parent 1, in PowerSchool at 4:00 p.m.
• 2/14 - Valentine's Day Celebration time: TBD
• 2/15 - 1/2 day for students
• 2/18-2/19 Mid Winter Break - No School for Students

Learning This week:

• Writers will...
• use all they know to plan for new chapter books
• do research to help them say more
• edit "on the go" 
• use craft moves learned in small moments 
• Readers will...
• work on fluency (stress and intonation)
• celebrate learning and create new goals
• don't let hard words get in their way
• Mathematicians will...
• add 10's and 1's 
• complete the quarter 2 common assessment
• count on from 2 digit numbers
• Scientists will...
• be introduced to sea turtles hatching from their shells
• observe animals and their babies
• discover what will help a sea turtle survive
• In phonics we will...
• spell words part by part
• use a vowel in every word
• karate chop words to read them part by part
• use snap word power in our writing

Photos from the week:

Breaking words apart and crashing them together in phonics

Our MLK Jr. Day project to be displayed at the High School

Studnets use 10's and 1's to add to 100 in the game 100 Ants

Having a mini celebration of our nonfiction chapter books with Miss Weaver's friends

Finding -ill and -ell word patterns

Using our nonfiction books to help us in our nonfiction writing

Using 10 sticks and 1's to represent 2 digit numbers