Weekly Update: January 4 - January 6

Announcements:

• Writing Homework This Weekend: We are currently working on our One Little Word Project. This is a project in which each student creates goals for him/herself for the 2023 year. After writing these goals in class, each student chose One Little Word to represent and guide themselves to pursue these goals this year. Each student has written a page in their writing notebooks about why they have chose their One Little Word (some students may have chosen to bring their writing notebooks home to continue to work on this over the weekend if they did not finish in class).  The homework I have assigned each student to do this weekend is to collect words, phrases and pictures that represent their One Little Word they've chosen. These words, phrases and pictures can be cut out from magazines, catalogs/advertisements, or printed from searching online. Please, have your student bring these clippings in a ziploc baggie on Monday. We will use them to create a poster/collage with our One Little Word and written page. See Mrs. Lilleboe's example below at the end of the update. 
• Math Superstars: Challenge your child to show off their math skills as a Math Superstar! Participants who complete all 20 worksheets will receive a prize packet! This program is supported and run by PTA volunteers. Please visit  https://england-pta.memberhub.com/w/programs for more information. If you have any questions, please contact eee.mathsuperstars@gmail.com
• Become a PTA Member: Our school needs parents like you to sign up for PTA. Critical learning tools, field trips, and resources are paid for by our wonderful PTA, but that means we need you!  Please, become a PTA member today. England PTA website
• Home Access Center: Please, check weekly to stay up to date on your child's academic progress. Link to Home Access Center.  Continue to discuss with your child the importance of listening to directions, staying focused on school work and doing his/her personal best on all assignments. Remember, if a student earns below a 70% on any assignment or test, the student can make corrections to earn a possible passing grade (70%) per school district policy. 

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​Upcoming Events:​​​​.​ ​​​​​​​​​​​

• Jan 9 - One Little Word homework is due today!
• Jan 11 - School reading assessment using mClass 9:15 - 10:15am
• Jan 12 - School math assessment using Aimsweb 9:15 - 10:15am
• Jan 12 - Bring in a ziploc bag of soil from anywhere!  Due today!
• Jan 13 - School assembly 9:00 - 9:45am 
• Jan 16 - No School (Martin Luther King Jr Day)
• Jan 20 - Math Unit Test "Geometry" - Bae, Jones and McKenzie math students
• Jan 23 - End of the Bluebonnet Reading Program 2022 - Voting for best bluebonnet book​

What are we learning?  
Writing: Students are currently working on their One Little Word Project. This will be completed next week. Then we will start our poetry writing unit. 

Reading:  Our current unit is Reading Poetry.  Students will be able to: 

• The learner will create mental images and make inferences using text evidence to support their understanding while reading and writing responses to a variety of poems. (3.6DF, 3.7BC)
• The learner will describe how the poetic language in poems (imagery, literal and figurative language such as simile, and sound devices such as onomatopoeia) creates imagery for the reader.  (3.9B, 3.10D)
• The learner will read a variety of poems and explain how the rhyme scheme, sound devices, and structural elements contribute to the meaning. (3.9B, 3.10D)
• The learner will compose poems using genre characteristics and revise drafts to improve word choice by adding, deleting, combining, or rearranging ideas for coherence and clarity. (3.11C, 3.12A, 3.10D)

​Math: 

• ​Swyers and Lilleboe Students: We are currently in our More Multiplication & Division unit.​
  • The first goal is for students to extend the fact strategies they’ve learned to help them multiply a two-digit number by a one-digit number. They should be encouraged to look for strategies involving mental math, partial products, area models, and/or properties of multiplication.
  • The second goal is for students to know that multiplication and division is more than just computation. Students must also learn how to solve story problems related to these operations, including those involving multiplicative comparisons. They must also represent relationships in story problems and be able to explain strategies used to solve problems using concrete objects, pictorial models, and number sentences.
• Bae/Jones/McKenzie students: Math unit - Geometry. Use my "math links" and Splash Learn to help with these concepts. In this unit students will:
  • ​Identify attributes of all quadrilaterals (squares, rectangles, rhombus, trapezoids, parallelograms)
  • Identify attributes of 3 types of triangles
  • Determine the perimeter of a 2D shape
  • Determine the area of a 2D shape
  • Describe the differences between prisms and pyramids​​

Science: We will begin our new unit on Weather & Earth's Forces (Volcanoes, Landslides, Earthquakes) next week. We will also explore soils as well. Please have your child bring in a small ziploc bag of soil from his/her front or backyard, the park, or a field in your area by January 12.  Please, dig down deep to get below the "bark mulch or bark dust" layer. We will examine the soil for its properties. The test for this unit will be the first week in February. 

Social Studies: We will learn about how humans adapt to their living environment depending on where they live (cold region, hot desert area, on an island, etc) and begin our economics (financial literacy) unit as well. The economics (financial literacy) unit will stretch into March as we prepare for our Economics Fair on March 8th.