Week of November 9

Hello Families!

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.

Scholastic Book Orders - Due Friday November 13:

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

Yearbook Cover Contest:

The yearbook cover contest has started! If your child would like to submit a yearbook cover contest entry, please see the photo below. All entries are due to Mrs. Codde, in the office, by noon on Friday November 13.

Stuff-A-Truck Food Drive (November 16-20):

Brown School is proud to give back to the larger Berrien County community by collecting non-perishable (canned goods, boxed dinner/pasta) food items November 16-20. If you are able, simply pick up an item (or more) at the grocery store, and send it to school with your student to be donated. We collect now because there is a greater need for food around the holidays. Thanks for spreading kindness and positivity!

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.

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. 11/11 - Late Start (school begins at 9:45am)

Thurs. 11/12 - 1/2 day of school (school dismisses at 12:34pm) and Virtual Scholastic Book Fair begins and will run through 11/25 - more details to come).

Fri. 11/13 - 1/2 day of school (school dismisses at 12:34pm) and World Kindness Day!

Mon. 11/16 - Stuff-a-truck food drive begins (see information above)

Wed. 11/18 - Late Start (school begins at 9:45am)

Thurs. 11/19 - Special Thanksgiving Luncheon

Fri. 11/20 - 1/2 day of school (school dismisses at 12:34pm) and Stuff-a-truck food drive ends

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

This week's learning:

Classroom Community: This past week we started our P2 (Positivity Project) lessons! We started with the character strength of teamwork. Our class learned about working well as a member of a group or team and how we sometimes have to sacrifice our individual desires for the greater good.

This week we will be learning more about The Positivity Project and what exactly it is (hint: the mission is to empower students to build positive relationships by understanding, appreciating and living out the 24 character strengths in all of us!).

ELA: This week we begin our 3rd unit which is all about the comprehension strategy of summarizing information. Students will identify the big ideas, or most important information, in a passage and then summarize those big ideas to express what it is all about. I've attached some ideas below to practice this skill at home this coming week (click to view a full size PDF):

Writing: This week we are finishing up the "meat" of our stories and will begin on our conclusions. It's almost time for revisions and final copies.

Math: Unit 1 math tests came home last week! You may notice that your student chose to correct any mistakes they made on their test and return it for me to check again. I highly encourage this and love to show the students that mistakes are just proof you are learning and growing your thinking!

Math learning the week:

Monday: Lesson 2-4: Multiples (students learn that a whole number is a multiple of its factors)

Tuesday: Lesson 2-5: Prime and Composite Numbers (students will classify numbers as prime or composite)

Wednesday: Lesson 2-6: Little and Big (students will use multiplicative reasoning to make predictions)

Thursday: Lesson 2-7: Units of Time (students will convert units of time to smaller units of time and solve number stories using time)

Friday: Review day

Click the images below to access the following documents (these came home last week but I wanted to leave them here again this week in case you needed to access them digitally):

Unit 2 Family Letter Unit 2 Home Links

Science/Social Studies:

This week in science we started our unit on geology which we’re calling “The Birth of Rocks.” We learned about volcanoes and where they exist in the world. Below I’ve included a link to some amazing pictures of active volcanoes. Show these to your child; it’s guaranteed to be a conversation starter about what they learned!

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/12/2014-the-year-in-volcanic-activity/100873/

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.