Week of November 23 and November 30

Hello Families! This blog will cover information for this week (week of November 23) and next week (week of November 30). A new blog will not be released next Sunday November 29th; the next blog will be released on Sunday December 6.

I hope you all have a safe and relaxing time off for Thanksgiving Break!

I am so incredibly thankful for you and your child! This year is definitely different than previous years but your children are doing AMAZING and I am enjoying each and every day with them in the classroom. Thank you so much for all of your support!

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.

Virtual Book Fair:

Please consider taking part in this Media Center fundraiser - November 12-25. Order online! Orders delivered straight to your home. Information will be sent home on Monday 11/9. This is a great way to encourage a healthy, ongoing reading routine for your child to grow their knowledge. Interested in donating books to our classroom? CLICK HERE to view our specific classroom wishlist. Thank you for considering.

Virtual Holiday Shop:

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:

Tues. 11/24 - Report cards sent home

Wed. 11/25 through Fri. 11/27 - NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Break)

Fri. 11/27 - Virtual Holiday Shop opens (see information above for details)

Wed. 12/2 - Late Start (school starts 1 hour later)

Fri. 12/4 - Popcorn Friday!

Mon. 12/7 - Virtual Holiday Shop ends

Wed. 12/9 - Late Start (school starts 1 hour later)

Wed. 12/16 - Late Start (school starts 1 hour later)

Fri. 12/18 - Winter break begins at the end of the school day

Mon. 12/21 to Fri. 1/1 - Winter Break

Mon. 1/4 - School resumes

This week's learning:

Positivity Project (P2): This coming week we will be focusing on the character strength of gratitude. This week, we will be learning about how to be aware of and thankful for the good things that happen to us.

Next week, we will be focusing on the character strength of kindness. We will be learning about how to be generous to others, show we are never too busy to help others and how to enjoy doing good deeds for other people.

ELA: This week we are starting our 4th unit focusing on the comprehension strategy of summarizing information. Students will start by summarizing the information communicated by a series of pictures. We will then summarize the big ideas in a passage to express what it is all about.

About the Strategy

• To summarize information, state the most important ideas briefly in your own words.

• A summary connects and sums up the important ideas from a text.

• A summary gives the general idea and omits most details.

• Identifying key words and phrases in a text helps readers discover its important ideas.

View some home/school connection ideas below to extend what we are learning about at school at home (click photo for the PDF):

Writing: This past week we finished writing our imagined narratives and are excited to use our NEW computers to type out our final draft this coming week! During the week of November 30 we will be celebrating our writing and sharing it with our classmates.

Math: We are so close to finishing our second math unit! We will finish out our unit by classifying triangles and quadrilaterals by their properties, exploring lines of symmetry and reviewing multiplication strategies. It is imperative that your child continues to practice their multiplication fact fluency (facts 0 through 12) each night to develop automaticity with multiplication and division facts. Automaticity with multiplication and division facts is one of the most valuable math tools that students can acquire!

Math learning the week:

Monday: Lesson 2-10: Classifying triangles by angle properties.

Tuesday: Lesson 2-11: Classifying quadrilaterals by their properties.

Wednesday: No School

Thursday: No School

Friday: No School

Math learning for the week of November 30:

Monday: Lesson 2-12: Exploring lines of symmetry in nature, objects and shapes

Tuesday: Lesson 2-13: Reviewing the "What's My Rule?" routine to analyze patterns

Wednesday: Unit 2 study guide comes home today

Thursday: Review day

Friday: Unit 2 Test

Science/Social Studies:

This week in science we will continue our study of volcanoes. Your child will learn about different kinds of volcanoes and how the thickness of the lava can explain the shape and eruption pattern of the volcanoes. Using lava made out of water and flour, they will test how different lavas create different shapes and trap gases differently. We will solve the mystery, “Why do some volcanoes explode?”

You can support this week’s learning by watching this high definition video of lava flowing in Hawaii with your child: http://video.link/w/iel. See if you can figure out the shape of the volcano that’s producing the lava. (hint: the lava is pretty thin so it doesn’t trap the gas very well.) Good luck!

For the week of November 30:

This week in science we will continue our geology unit about rocks. Your child will learn about weathering, the process when solid rocks break into smaller pieces. This can happen when plant roots grow into cracks or when freezing water expands in small cracks, exerting tremendous force on the rock to break into pieces. Students will also investigate how tumbling rocks can wear down and break apart by shaking sugar cubes. We will solve the mystery, “Will a mountain last forever?”

You can support this week’s learning by taking a walk with your child around where you live. Together you can point out and discuss examples of weathering like cracks in the sidewalk, potholes in the street or bricks that have started to chip away.

Here’s another idea: to demonstrate how frozen water expands (key to ice wedging), you could try filling a glass bottle or jar completely full of water, closing it really tight and putting it in the freezer overnight. It’s likely that the glass will burst so use a glass container that you don’t care about and put it in a bag so the pieces don’t scatter. Be safe!

Homework reminder: Homework each week consists of reading 20+ minutes at home (this can be a library book, magazine, newspaper, online book, etc) and practicing multiplication and division facts 1 through 12. Mastering multiplication and division facts is vital to our learning this year.

Students will also have a math home link page to work on most days of the week. I will always include the lessons we are working on in the blog each week so that you know when to work on each home link. These home links are not going to be turned back in, but I highly recommend that students work on them each week so that they can show you what they have worked on. I don't mind if students work a bit ahead in the packet; it is also ok if you miss a night and have to come back to that particular lesson on a different day. Times are unpredictable and I completely understand that you may have prior commitments on certain days of the week.