October 5

CONTACTING ME: My school phone- extension is 413. I am not always in the room to hear it. You can always call my cell - 231-357-4710. 
My email: lblowers@hamiltonschools.us
   
REMIND 101:
  It's an easy way to get reminders for tests etc.
ENTER THIS NUMBER: 424-835-7621  
                              Type in: @mrsblow 

Friday Fun last week: Working in teams to construct the tallest structure that would also support a ping pong ball.

CAMP MANITOU-LIN: Tuesday, October 14th.

* A note with detailed information will go home on Tuesday.

* Forms and $ are due Wednesday, Oct. 8th.

If payment is an issue, you need to contact me soon in order for your child to attend so we can help you out with this.

PLANNERS: I am no longer checking to see if these have been signed. This was something to get your child in the habit of checking their own planner each day. If you write a note in your child's planner, please have them let me know.

SNACKS: Please send a snack with your child each day. many students are not bringing one with them and 3-4 hours since breakfast is a long time!

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* Homework this weekend

MATH: Your child has the math HW written in his/her planner. The entire page is due.

  
  Book Project Homework DUE OCTOBER 28th. 

Your child knows there is a new book project for October. This activity will be sent home on Monday. I am sharing an example with them. Students are to be reading a chapter book (can't be nonfiction this time because of the assignment) in order to complete this project. 

I enjoyed reading and listening to their "Sandwich " book reports!

MATH:
   We are working on the test review for adding and subtracting fractions. The test will be on Thursday. Our next unit is Place Value.

LANGUAGE ARTS 

This past week we continued to practice reading and getting information from informational texts. We are focusing on using text features, how to find answers to different types of questions (right there questions, author and me, on my own...) and how to write a complete and thorough response. 

DAILY 3: We have begun getting into the Daily 3 routine during our ELA time in the morning. Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work. (We often include Read to Someone as well.)  I give a bigger lesson or mini-lesson depending upon where we are in the reading or writing assignments. I write down due dates and options on the Daily 3 board. Then students are able to choose how long/which activities they would like to work on each day keeping due dates in mind. I review daily the assignment, when it's due, how long they'll have, etc. We discuss how some may have to do the work for HW if class time isn't used wisely or maybe a student chose to do something extra... Students are to read daily in their chapter book. If everything is complete, students may choose to do a project of their choice (they share this with me and must stay with it over time until finished), free write, continue to read, etc. 

This structure allows students to learn to manage their time, always be working on their goals for reading and writing, and have some choice in what they are doing during the day.

SCIENCE 

Last week we worked on and studied the study guide for the first quiz. We discussed and practiced how to prepare for a quiz/test. I will be giving retakes to students who need to retake on Wednesday. It isn't atypical to have students not perform well on this first quiz. It's their first one and they often need to change the way they study for tests. We began learning about balanced and unbalanced forces. We had some fun arm wrestling to demonstrate this and tug-of-war is next when it's nice enough outside. We will also perform another investigation using balloons.

Spelling: We took the skill and proofreading tests Friday. This will come home Monday. Students typically have a lesson, homework page (which often gets completed in class), and a couple other review activities for spelling each week. Next week's skill is ways to spell the /k/ sound.