Week of December 18-21

Dear families,

Hello, we are getting so close to our winter break! I can't believe we are almost to a brand new year, 2018 - it doesn't seem possible!

In reading this week we have been continuing on with reading non-fiction. We read several Time for Kids articles. We have been noticing non-fiction features such as: headings, labels, diagrams, index, glossary, captions, and photos. In reading we have been previewing books to and anticipating what we think the book may be trying to teach us.

In phonics we have been working on root words, prefixes and suffixes. Yesterday we learned how to add -ies and -ied to words that end in y. We will learn after the break about silent letters "kn" and "ph."

In writing, we have been working on writing non-fiction lab reports. We made ramps last week and we predicted how far objects would go down them. We wrote procedures and then tested out hypothesis.
Then we wrote conclusions to our findings. We watched a video about force and motion. We learned two new science words: friction and inertia.

In math, we have begun a unit 4.  The unit three math tests will stay in your child's file. I will share the unit 3 test when we have conferences (date to be determined).  Unit 4 is about place value, time and money.

In Science last week we made kites and took them to the cafeteria to see if we could make them fly. We also measured the snow fall in our rain gauge. We noticed the gauge was full of snow, but after melting it only measured 1/2 inch of water. The students were quick to point out that there was air between the snow flakes making it full! We will continue to learn more about the weather into January.

We are excited for our field trip tomorrow! We will depart from Wixom Elementary at 9:30 a.m. we will ride the bus to the Northville Marquis Theater. After the play we will come back to school. The afternoon will follow our normal schedule with block recess.

On Thursday at 2:00 p.m. we will have our Holiday Party. The students will play some minute to win it games, make and eat ice cream sundaes and make a fun craft!

Have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends!
Mrs. Scheck