Moorlands Room 302 News September 22, 2017 Is it really going to be October soon?! We must be having fun because the time is simply flying!! Students continue to improve, working to be responsible for their work and behavior as well as thinking about when it is and is not an appropriate time to chat with a neighbor. Dates to Remember: * September 26th, Tuesday 3rd Grade Curriculum Night, 6:00-7:00 p.m. - Room 302 * Sept. 29th, Friday Online Scholastic Book Orders Due * Sept. 29th, Friday Fitness Logs Due (signed) Logs available for download online at Mr. Tenney s website. * Sept. 29th, Friday First Spirit Day! * Nov. 3rd, Friday Health Screening
* Nov. 16, 17, 20, 21,22 Parent Conferences: Students out at 12:10 p.m. * Nov. 23 rd, 24 th Thanksgiving (NO SCHOOL) -------------------------------------------------- Spotlight Student! Zaid was our Spotlight Student of the week. He will be traveling to Orlando, Florida, with his mom, dad and sister for his birthday celebration, so we will miss him on his actual birthday which is Monday, 9/25. Zaid enjoys soccer, likes the color red and his favorite cookie is an Oreo. He loves orange Fanta, the song Roar and the TV show Slugterra. Happy Spotlight Week, Zaid! ------------------------------------------------------------------- This week we * experienced an unscheduled emergency evacuation drill at the end of school on Thursday. Luckily Moorlands students had two drills under their belts and were able to safely evacuate to 81 st Street despite their surprise. Some helpful ways to improve our evacuation procedure came to light, and Moorlands will be working diligently to put these into place as we deal with evacuating to our new temporary location. * developed and practiced class behavior expectations around being up in our circle. Transitioning up to the circle has become very smooth. Now we need to establish and reinforce how we act while learning sitting together. Math
* learned the game of Make 10 Bingo to add to our math game repertoire. This game provides practice in quick problem solving to find a missing addend to make a 10. * learned how an array can show multiplication with its rows and columns. * learned the terms dividend, divisor and quotient. We practiced developing division equations for word problems and explored how a related multiplication equation could also reap the same answer. * practiced writing a clear and complete math explanation when helping Puzzled Penguin understand what he did incorrectly with a math problem and how he could fix his mistake. Students are being asked to write in complete sentences, use math language and carefully answer all the questions. * began practicing the 2x s table along with the 5x s table. Reading * discussed the importance of knowing yourself as a reader and why it is important to be able to select a Just Right Book to read. Students learned about how to determine if a book is too easy, too tricky or Just Right and practiced figuring out if the books they have in their book boxes were Just Right or not. (Having a few easy or tricky books is okay, but the bulk of the books in a book box should be Just Right.) * took a reading pre-test as part of our first unit of study with the Lucy Calkins reading program which focuses on Building a Reading Life. * discussed the importance of building a powerful reading life, reading books as if they are gold and knowing how to select a Just Right Book to read. Writing * were introduced to our Writing Journals. Students will use this journal for their own writing. We will be decorating the covers this next week to personalize the journals.
* talked about and noted things in our lives that we care enougha bout to write about them. This will transition us nicely into the first Calkins Writing unit of study which focuses on Personal Narrative. Word Work * reviewed/learned how to complete a Closed sort, an Open Sort, a Speed sort and an ABC sort. Computer Lab * took the STAR reading assessment to get an idea of the appropriate reading level for each reader. Cursive * practiced the cursive letters i, t. We discussed the importance of consistent and correct Shape, Slant and Space. What s Happening in P.E.? Welcome to the 2017-2018 school year! As a little insight as to what s happening in PE, I will send out a brief overview of what students will be learning in the up-coming unit. I send a new overview every time we change subjects (about every 3 or 4 weeks, sometimes shorter). I also have a blog titled Monthly PE News on my website (Mr. Sheaffer) that goes into more details about what we are learning, some of the activities we did, some questions you can ask your son/daughter and of course pictures! There are also links to websites to enhance our learning, so check out the website! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact Mr. Sheaffer or Mr. Tenney. 3-6 th grade We started off the year going over classroom rules and expectations. We will play some cooperative activities before we dive into our soccer unit so we can get to know each other. During our soccer unit we will be working on passing, dribbling, shooting, learning the rules of soccer, and eventually leading up to a modified soccer game. This year we will continue to have a big emphasis and focus on cardio-respiratory endurance. Students will participate in an
8-minute run, PACER challenge, and Run-A-Thon. We will do two runs per month. You can find a running schedule on Mr. Sheaffer s website. The schedule has all the dates students will be running (1st 4 months are up). As a reminder, please wear appropriate gym shoes on PE days, as it helps cut down on injuries. Mr. Sheaffer & Mr. Tenney How Was School? (The following are questions to stimulate family discussion around school hopefully these will help your child share a more thorough account of their life as a professional student!) * How do you play Make 10 Bingo? * What is a way to think of getting the product of a 2x s fact? (double the number that is multiplied by 2) * How can you tell if a book is too easy? (know all the words, understand readily, read quickly) too tricky? (read slowly, many words tricky, hard to completely understand) Just Right? (1-3 tricky words on a page, understand, read with correct inflection and intonation) * What is the difference between an Open, Closed and Speed sort? (Closed told what the categories are; Open you create your own categories; Speed you put the word cards into categories as quickly as possible, trying to beat yourself) Things to Remember * Early Release Wednesdays end at 2:00 p.m. * Each Friday your child will bring home their Friday Folder that contains completed work and weekly evaluation. Other miscellaneous school letters or information may also be included. Please look this work over with your child, clean out the folder and then sign the sheet inside. This should be returned the next school day. * Scholastic Book Orders:
September Online book orders due 9/29. Online Ordering Information Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs Class Activation Code: GMXC6 Dear Parent, Now it s easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child shop our online Book Clubs Web site. Choose from a much-wider selection of books than in the printed flyer. Plus, you can send your orders directly to me online and use your credit card to pay. Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online. It s so simple! Here s how it works: * SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, register by clicking click the Don t have a user name or password? link. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me. * SELECT the books you d like to order choose from thousands of titles many more than in our monthly flyers. * PLACE your order online by the due date and your child s books will be delivered directly to my classroom. Ordering online is fast, easy, and secure. FYI * Our specialist schedule is as follows: Monday Library Tuesday Music Wednesday P.E. Thursday Music Friday P.E.
Please help your child remember when P.E. (for shoes) and Library (for books) sessions occur. * I will be sharing a weekly newsletter each week. If you have subscribed to my newsletter page, you will receive an ealert that a new newsletter has been posted. At curriculum night I will be going over how to subscribe. Thank you for your cooperation with this procedure. * Curriculum Night will be on September 26th, Tuesday, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. in Room 302. Adults only, please. I look forward to providing an overview of your child s third grade year at that time. Moorlands Homepage Please check the Moorlands Homepage for other IMPORTANT school information! Moorlands Web Site: http://moorlands.nsd.org We have a wonderful group of third graders in Room 302 with much potential. As we all get to know more about one another, I am trying to support and nurture good choices and respectful, responsible behavior. We are off to a good start! June Iwafuchi jiwafuchi@nsd.org 425-408-5132