Week of January 4

   

Welcome back! I hope you all had and restful winter break; I'm so excited to be back to our regular schedule in the classroom!

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.

P2 Shirts on Monday:

Don't forget to wear your P2 shirt each Monday to celebrate a new week of learning!

New Year, New You Celebrations:

We are planning to celebrate the power of a growth mindset and the importance of goal setting with New Year, New You Celebrations on Friday, January 8, 2021. I'll be sharing photos of the celebration in next week's blog.

If you are able to send in some small, individually wrapped snacks and/or drinks for Friday, please send me an e-mail to let me know.

Welcome Mr. Burton!:

I'm excited to share that Mr. Burton will be joining our classroom for his teaching internship until the end of March.

Mr. Burton is a lifelong resident of Berrien County.  He is a husband, father, pastor, and a talented singer & songwriter. Making a difference through educating our young learners has been a lifelong dream that he’s looking forward to fulfilling. He will begin his internship this week.

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:

Mon. 1/4 - School resumes and P2 Shirt Day

Wed. 1/6 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Fri. 1/8 - Popcorn Friday and New Year, New You Celebrations!

Mon. 1/11 - NWEA Mid-Year Assessments begin

Wed. 1/13 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Mon. 1/18 - NO SCHOOL (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day)

Wed. 1/20 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Thurs. 1/28 and Fri. 1/29 - 1/2 Days of school for Conferences (more information to come)

This week's learning:

Positivity Project (P2): This coming week we will be focusing on the character strength of "optimism" - You expect the best from the future and work to achieve it.

ELA: This week we are focusing on the genre, Trickster Tales. We will determine the text importance for Trickster Tales and will compare and contrast using a graphic organizer

Click below for some ways you can help your student practice compare and contrast at home:

Writing: This week we will begin to look at and learn about our next writing unit: persuasive writing. Stay tuned for more information!

Math: This week we are going to be backing up a bit with our fraction unit so that we can properly introduce fractions with more hands-on materials. I will be sending home the home link packet with your student on Monday; as we have already completed some of the lessons during our weeks of online learning, you may go back and complete those home link pages at your leisure.

We will also be reviewing for our Unit 2 test on Friday (this was the test we initially were going to take on Friday December 4th. Students have already taken home a study guide to practice from and still should have their unit 2 home links at home. Please take some time to practice at home this week.

Unit 3 home links can be accessed by clicking here:

Science: This week in science we will finish up our geology unit about rocks. Your student will learn about landslides and how a steep slope plus rain can cause broken rocks to tumble and cause real damage. Your student will be brainstorming solutions for preventing landslides, keeping people safe, and protecting property. We will solve the mystery, “How can you survive a landslide?”

You can support this week’s learning by picking a problem that your family is encountering and brainstorming solutions with your student. Examples of problems could be how do we do X?  How can we prevent Y from happening? Take a few minutes to write down some ideas together.  Remember, when you’re brainstorming, there are no bad ideas! After you’ve generated some ideas, discuss them and decide which idea you think has the most promise.

Social Studies: This week we will be focusing on learning the physical characteristics of the Unites States. Big ideas from this lesson are:

-Place is an important theme in geography.

-Geographers investigate both the physical and human characteristics of a place.

-Physical characteristics include landforms, bodies of water, climate and vegetation.

-The United States has a wide variety of physical characteristics.

Homework:  Since we are focusing on learning through remote instruction this week, homework expectations will be different. There won't be any math home link pages but we would still like students to be reading 20+ minutes per night and practicing their multiplication facts.

Thank You,

Mrs. Hassenger