Spring Has Sprung!

Time is just flying by and we are really busy in Room 25. Please check out the post below to see where we are at and where we are going!

Today we launched our Mill Valley History Project. Please take time to carefully review the detailed assignment packet that came home with your child and make a plan for supporting them in gathering information. The due date for the project is May 9th, providing 4 weeks of at home work time, not including the spring break as we know many of your families will be away. This is an at-home project and we hope that students take it as an opportunity to show all that they've learned about reading and writing nonfiction, as well as creating a presentation to teach others. Weekly homework packets will reflect suggested guidelines to help with time management of the project. Please make it work for your family, but we'll be checking in weekly to be sure that students are making progress and won't be staying up all night on May 8th!  

For the last month, our Community Circle focus has been working on a Global Awareness Project. Ms. Coleman has a very close connection to a Fijian family who's village, like so many, was destroyed during Cyclone Winston. We have done mini research projects and small group presentations on Fiji, taken picture walks through images sent from Fiji before and after the cyclone, researched cyclones to better understand extreme weather, and read a handful of picture books related to helping others in need, even when they are across the globe. After discussing what makes it possible for us to learn when we come to school and identifying ways we could help, our class has decided to host a 3rd grade used book and school supply drive running April 6th - April 27th. Students from our class will be speaking to the other 3rd grade classes and hanging posters in our 3rd grade hallway. 



This note is going home to all 3rd grade families this week:

Room 25’s 3rd graders have been learning about the Fiji islands in an effort to understand how we could help the communities impacted by Cyclone Winston in February. As a grade level, we are hoping to collect as many gently used books (all levels and genres!) and school supplies to send to the school children in Fiji. We know that the government will eventually replace textbooks, but they will not be replacing or providing money for books for classroom libraries, like we are so fortunate to have in our classrooms at Edna. Consider this a great time to employ your kids in some purposeful Spring cleaning! 

School supplies are also welcomed donations. Students in Fiji are receiving one pencil per month and notebooks/notebook paper is scarce. That said, we are hoping to make this drive about donating things we no longer need or have extra of as opposed to spending money at the store. Please do not feel like there is an expectation to purchase donation items!

The drive will run from April 6th to April 27th. 

Thanks for supporting our global awareness project!

Ms. Coleman and Ms. Barry’s 3rd Graders

Below is a link to a video that was shared with our whole school last week, as the Edna Community Outreach club will also be helping relief efforts for Fiji. 
http://www.facebook.com/lolomafoundation  

As writers, we have begin our unit on Information/Expert Writing. Students are planning their very own information book all about a topic they are an expert on. We are going through the writing process just as really nonfiction writers do. Please visit us on Twitter @Room25Rockstars for videos of our pre-writing expert teaching!

As we continue to master math facts and firm up those addition and subtraction strategies, we are exploring fractions and will be working to understand equal parts of a whole, fractions of a set and fractions on a number line. We are also learning measurement as it relates to using measurement tools, measuring lengths, and measuring mass/volume. You'll see these new units reflected in upcoming Tenmarks homework. 

Wishing you and your families a relaxing and sunny Spring Break next week!
~ Ms. Coleman and Ms. Barry

Valentine Appreciations and Other News

Valentine Appreciations and Updates

A bright pink packet full of love came home in this week’s homework folders. Your child should share the assignment with you and make a plan for writing an appreciation for each child in Room 25. Attached to the back of the packet is a class list to help your child keep track of who they have written appreciation for. During our community circle this week we’ll be brainstorming reasons why we might appreciate each other to get the juices flowing. The packet also includes sentence starters to help writers start their appreciations. 

Appreciations are a requirement. Any other cards or goodies are completely optional and very often kids only do the appreciations!

The entire packet of uncut appreciations is due on Wednesday, February 10th, allowing plenty of time to write thoughtful appreciations without spending hours on it the night before. This project can require a little support from parents, but it brings so much more meaning to this  candy-happy holiday. Thanks for overseeing this at home!

Also, during the week of 2/8, your child will bring a shoebox-sized box to school to create a Valentine Mailbox. Reminders will be included on the homework packet in a few weeks. Please see the Valentine packet for more details on this. Our Valentine’s Day celebration will be low-key and student-centered with a focus on appreciation!

Tenmarks – For the next few weeks, students will be assigned one assignment to be worked on across the week. The assignments will vary between our two focus concepts right now: addition/subtraction and area/perimeter. Any other assignments available in student accounts can be worked on as a challenge!

FYI - Ms. Coleman will be joining district administrators and teachers in San Diego next week for an incredible conference and training in making the most of iPad technology in the classroom. I’ll be bringing back many new tricks to try with our class!

Help needed – Are you looking for something to do on Wednesday mornings from 9-9:55am?! If you are, we’d gladly sign you up for our open math center volunteer position. Please visit our signup genius if you are interested! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0548a5ae28a20-math1

Don’t forget! - Room 25’s Interactive Art Show time is next Tuesday, 2/2 at 8:30 in the MPR!

Big Bucks

We have been so busy in Room 25 and haven't found the time to add Big Bucks in awhile.  Today was a great day for catching up.  Your child will be coming home with a pile of corrected papers.  Although most of our class work is stored in notebooks, journals and on Google Drive, the children enjoy looking at their progress on other work and homework.  We provide continual feedback to children on a daily basis about the work that doesn't come home. :)  Big Bucks is also an opportunity for practice adding larger numbers and counting money.

Special Scientist

David Attwood, Marina's grandfather, presented a wonderful lesson to the class about atoms and molecules.  He provided each student with a copy of the Periodic Table of Elements and discussed what these are.  The class enjoyed his hands-on examples of the elements and his slide shows showing diagrams of atoms.  Everyone was fully engaged and this was a real treat!

Character Webs

We have been learning about making inferences about characters using various books. After reading several books aloud, students shared inferences about character traits and supported these inferences with clues from the book. They also created webs in class for characters from their own "just right" books and the books they are reading with their reading groups. Next week, students will begin doing the same for their "just right" books they are reading at home. There is an explanation for the assignment and an example of a web we created together in the front of the Home Reading Journal. Each child should work on creating a web for no more than 30 minutes. Sometimes, an entire web will be completed in one night. Other nights, your child may only complete part of a web and should continue adding to this web the following week. All webs should be written in complete sentences, the inferences should be a character trait or feeling about the character and the clues should include examples of actions and dialogue from the book to support the inference. Thank you for your support at home!

Classroom Updates

We are off and running in Room 25, working every day toward our resolutions for 2016!

In math, we are continuing to deepen our understanding of multiplication patterns, strategies and properties. Consistent practice of multiplication facts at home is imperative to reach fluency by year’s end and any strategy that works for you and your child works for us. The Xtra Math is one way we support and quiz progress on fact mastery, but flashcards, Apps and games at home all support the overall goal. 

As we continue our study of the moon’s phases in science, we are working to read and understand myths and legends about the moon that come from all over the world. We have begun our own journey to write moon pourquoi tales to link science, reading and creative writing all together. We’ll be so excited to share these with you next month! Investigations and learning around matter and geography are happening alongside our moon study. The independent science experiment presentations have been great so far! Thank you for supporting this adventure in learning at home. 

We are wrapping up nonfiction reading and opening our hearts to characters in new fiction books. Throughout the next unit we’ll be thinking deeply about character traits (and exploring traits vs. emotions), analyzing relationships and growing theories about characters in our books. In coming weeks, you’ll see Home Reading Journals include post-it note work and entries related to character analysis. When you read aloud to or alongside your child, any questions that prompt thinking about characters (their traits/motivations/changes) will support what we are doing in our reading workshop!

Dates to note on your calendar:

Monday & Tuesday, January 18th & 19th: NO SCHOOL for MLK Jr. Holiday and Staff Development Day

Tuesday, February 2: Interactive Art Show - 8:30-9:20am, Multipurpose Room

February 15th-19th: Mid-Winter Break

Happy New Year,

Ms. Coleman and Ms. Barry

Thank You!

Thank you for your generous gifts for our family in need.  The children enjoyed wrapping them and our spectacular Room Parent, Logan Tymoff, delivered them for us.  Thank you, also, for your unnecessary, but very appreciated, kind cards and gifts of thanks for our teaching.  Our greatest gift is the opportunity to teach your children every day.