Fire Prevention Week

Today we had the Long Lake fire rescue team out to Westwoods! The students learned how to obey and follow the fire safety rules and practice safety every day. They have some treats coming home as well that cover all the rules of proper fire safety. There are friendly reminders for all to continue conversation about and keep spreading the word on how to stay safe!

It was a great presentation by our local firemen, a big thank you to them!
Please ask your child what they learned today about fire safety and if they can teach you anything new and important.

October Scholastic

Friday your child brought home a new Scholastic Magazine order. There are six different magazines attached with a LARGE variety of books. If you are looking to make an online order please do at anytime. If you would like me to place the order please have this in no later than
Thursday, October 12. 
Thank you!!

Bug Zoo & Butterfly Garden

Such an amazing afternoon!

The butterfly garden was filled with plants and flowers to best showcase the hundreds of butterflies flying all around. A few landed on students and adults hoping to get a sweet treat and to also get a ride out. There were butterflies from all over the planet where not only could we watch them fly around but also get a glimpse of how they emerge from their chrysalis and make their way into the outside world. 

The bug zoo is home to some exciting displays that we were pretty amazed to see! Tarantulas, beetle boulders, a honeybee observation hive, a variety of frogs and toads, and axolotls. To see such creatures that we don't see in our everyday life of Michigan is pretty fascinating!!

Thank you to Heather Kirschner and Fritz Heller for your help today on our great field trip!! Always great to have parents involved...greatly appreciated!

Hopefully your child is coming home today expressing the excitement of the our trip! 

Warning: Picture overload!

 

 

 

Epic Books

We started Epic Books in our classroom on computers! SO FUN!

This is a digital library for kids with unlimited access to an incredible selection of 25,000 high quality books, learning videos, quizzes, and more. 

Epic books is another tool that will help foster your child's love of reading!

This is a program that can be used at home and at school and keep track of progress made in both locations. So any books your child reads in the classroom, during computer time, they can then finish at home and vice versa. This can also go towards the 25 minutes they have to read each night for homework!

Here is how to do it at home:

Please go to www.getepic.com

click sign in

Scroll down to Sign in with your Classroom Code and click on it

Type the code UVR-7921

Then students will know what to do from there.

Journeys

This week we are analyzing fictional texts;

Students are introduced to two texts that help deepen discussions with vocabulary words, grammar, skills and strategies within reading and writing.

Diary of a Spider

Genre: Humorous Fiction

This text is similar to Diary of a Worm, with the same author. 

It provides hidden humor in the text, the illustrations, and the captions.

Learning Objectives:

While examining the text we will be using words and illustrations to determine cause and effect and introduce figurative language. 

A Swallow and a Spider

Genre: Fable

Knowing the elements of these traditional tales and being able to determine the moral will help them to appreciate texts and ideas from different cultures. 

Learning Objectives:

Use fluency skills to read a text aloud and find the moral of the story.

Homework

The students first homework packet is coming home! 

Each Monday they will receive a homework packet that also contains a schedule to help follow each day of the week. This week is a little light, with only a word ladder, math page and 25 minutes of reading each night. I will had a couple more activities as the weeks go on. 

I know with extra activities after school, and especially family time each evening, homework is not able to get done every day. This will help the students to be responsible and find time for their school work in addition to other scheduled events.

All homework is due by the latest of Friday.

Please help your child to remember to take their time. Homework is not due until the end of the week, so they have time to do the different activities in separate chunks throughout the week.
Please know that ALL homework is review from the classroom. Nothing sent home will ever be new content. Students should be able to do this independently, however, they might need a slight push or a helpful hint here and there.
I do expect and hope reading is done each night, but will not be monitoring home reading. Reading can be done with a partner where they are reading or the partner is reading to them. They came up with great examples of where to read, read to their pets, or even have books in the bathroom :) 

Please let me know if you have any further questions. Thank you for your help and support on this!