Week of October 5

  

Hello Families!

We certainly felt the change in seasons this week with the dip in temperatures and the many days of rain. I know we are all looking forward to the nicer weather that is returning this week!

As we begin our 3rd full week of school, I can't thank you all enough for your patience, flexibility and partnership. This year certainly feels different than previous years and we are all doing our very best to adapt and create a sense of normalcy. As you know from Dr. Bruce's e-mails, we are in the middle of re-imagining education and activities this year; everything we are doing is different from past experiences. You may have heard Dr. Bruce's slogan for this year, "Be Kind, Be With, Be Present." Myself and the rest of the staff within SJPS have been focused on instructional strategies that promote social and emotional learning. We all hold a common belief that if students do not feel safe, they cannot learn and is the reason we have been focused heavily on social emotional learning as a starting point for learning this fall.

Daily Student Health Screener: Click here for a checklist of symptoms and situations to keep a focused eye on this year. The teachers are logging daily health checks, as well. We are doubling down on health and wellness in efforts to protect our ability to meet for in-person learning. Thank you for your cooperation on this. 

Classroom Donations:

Thank you so much for the donations of kleenex, clorox wipes, sanitizer and paper towels! They are greatly appreciated! You are welcome to send in more at any time.

As you may already know, due to COVID regulations, students are not able to drink directly from the water fountains this year; they are only able to use the bottle filler feature. I'd like to keep some of the disposable water bottles in our room for students who may forget theirs at home; that way they will still have water to drink throughout the day. If you're able to, we'd greatly appreciate donations of water bottles like the image below (does not have to be this brand):

Scholastic Book Orders - Due Friday October 9:

Each month, I'll be sending home a set of Scholastic book order forms. Ordering books is completely optional but is a fantastic way to grow your at-home library collection at a low cost.

Each book that is ordered helps our classroom to earn free books for our class library and the students LOVE to see what new books we receive each month.
If you are ever interested in ordering books as a gift and want me to set them aside for you to pick up, please let me know.
You can click the following link to place an order through our class ordering page: https://orders.scholastic.com/L63HX

Orders for this month are due by Friday October 9th.

Bear Wear Orders:

On Friday September 25th, your student should have brought home the bear wear order form (photo below). Clothing is available in both adult and youth sizing; ordering bear wear is optional. You may begin ordering on Sunday September 27th and closes on Sunday October 11th. Orders can be placed at: https://brown2020.orderpromos.com/

Fall Conferences:

Fall conferences will be held via Google Meets this year on Thursday October 15 and Friday October 16. Please click on the link below to sign up for a time slot; I'm looking forward to meeting with you!:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040B49AFA82AA4FA7-mrs

Important Getting to Know Your Student Survey:

If you have not already filled out the Getting to Know You form, please do so as soon as possible. Thank you so much for helping me to get to know your student a bit better!

Mrs. Bawks' Brown School Family Blog:

Please don't forget to take a peek at Mrs. Bawks' Brown School Family Blog each week. CLICK HERE to read it.

Important Upcoming Dates:

Wed. 10/7 - Late Start (school begins at 9:45am) and Student Count Day

Wed. 10/14 - Late Start (school begins at 9:45am)

Thurs. 10/15 - 1/2 day for students (dismiss at 12:34pm) and conferences

Fri. 10/16 - 1/2 day for students (dismiss at 12:34pm) and conferences

Mon. 10/19 - No School

This week's learning:

This past week, we finished up our NWEA testing in math and reading along with many of the beginning of the year grade level assessments. These assessments help me to know what your student is able to do independently and where we need to focus our learning.

Classroom Community: This week, we will continue to practice our new procedures and routines; we will also be continuing to learn about having a growth mindset. We'll be reading books like: Rosie Revere Engineer, The Dot and I Can't Do This, Yet.

ELA: We will begin our first unit of study this week on identifying the stated and unstated main idea and supporting details within a text. Specifically, we will be using the strategy of asking questions. This particular skill is one that we will continue to work on practicing all year long. I'm including a list of activities below that you can view for ideas on how to support your students learning at home (click on the photo below to view the full size version):

Writing: This week we begin our first writing unit: imagined narratives. This unit will be a bit different for students as they are used to writing a personal narratives in their previous grades. We will be working over the next few weeks to fully develop their imagined narrative. Stay tuned for more information!

Math: Last week, we began the first 2 lessons of our first unit in math. This unit is called "Place Value: Multi Digit Addition and Subtraction." Within this unit, we focus on reviewing and extending mathematical concepts that were developed in 3rd grade. This review is vital to ensuring that your student has a strong foundation in place value as we head into more advanced concepts later in the school year.

At the beginning of each new unit, I will be sending home a printed copy of the math Home Links that provide your student with extra practice after each lesson. These are for you to review with your student at home and allow you to see the skills we are currently working on. While I do highly recommend that these are completed after each lesson in school, these do not need to be returned back to school. An answer key is provided for you in the unit Family Letter along with important vocabulary to know and practice, activities to support and expand their learning along with games that they can play at home. These games will be available to your student once we are able to get them logged into the online side of our math program.

Math learning the week:

Monday: Complete Lesson 1-2: place value and comparing numbers

Tuesday: Lesson 1-3: rounding

Wednesday: Lesson 1-4: recognizing place value and understanding relationships with rounding

Thursday: Lesson 1-5: estimating numbers through 100,000

Friday: Review day

Please click the images below to open the PDF documents for each:

         Click below to view Home Links:                                  Click below to view Family Letter:

.                

Science: This week we are beginning our first science unit, Waves of Sound: Sound, Waves and Communication. This unit helps students develop the idea that sound in an actual thing, a wave of vibrations traveling through the air. Equipped with this understanding, students can begin to make sense of how sound and music work. The anchoring phenomenon for this unit is a music video by composer Nigel Stanford, that showcases a series of devices that make sound waves visible. Students generate observations and questions about the phenomenon and create an initial conceptual model to explain what is happening.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything from me!

Thank You,

Mrs. Hassenger