Room 17 Newsletter
Read to find out what's happening in Ms. Guerra's Class
Hello!
The BFG Live!
Halloween Fun
Dojo Points
Classroom News
Classroom Holiday Party!
Our classroom Holiday party will be Friday, December 18th in the afternoon. The party will be from 2:00-3:30. I have several parents who volunteered to help plan this party and I will be contacting you this week. The week of December 14-18, our class will be participating in a Secret Santa gift exchange with each other. You will be receiving a separate letter explaining this next week ( all gifts will be hand made by your child!) My class last year came up with the idea and we had so much fun doing it!!! Plus it takes the place of homework for that week :)
Writing: We have been focusing on using correct grammar in our stories as well as punctuation. STudents have been practicing with adding dialogue, elaboration techniques usinng sensonry details, etc. They have included these into several personal narratives and creative writing assignments in class. Our next unit will be Opinion Writing (Personal Essays).
Word Study: We continued with spelling this week, and now have 3 different spelling groups. Please help your child review and practice their spelling lists throughout the week as needed. Often these are not part of their homework contracts, however, a few extra minutes here and there can be beneficial. All spelling tests will continue to be on Mondays.
Reading: Our current read aloud is still The BFG by Roald Dahl. The students are enjoying listening to this fictional story about 9 gruesome giants who eat little kids. I was so excited to be able to go see the play last month with a few students! I am also excited to say that there will be a new movie coming out this summer in honor of what would have been Roald Dahl's 100th birthday. We will be watching the older version of the movie in class before our holiday break.
Our reading groups this month are based on author studies. Students will be reading several picture books at their reading level and looking for the author's style, similarities throughout texts, common themes, etc. They will also use research skills to learn more about their authors. They will be responsible for reading 4 books by an assigned author, taking notes on what they notice, comparing 2 books, taking AR tests, and meeting with me and their groups! We have already had a lot of great discussions.
Social Studies: We will be finishing up our Social Studies Geography/Economics unit soon. Students have been learning about Michigan's natural and human characteristics, how these characteristics connect, and what products we can produce. They have a lot of background knowledge that has lead to great classroom conversations.
Important Dates:
Thursday, December 3rd Leo's Coney Island Fundraiser
Friday, December 4th TLC Movie night
Sunday, December 6th, CNN Hero live on CNN @ 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, December 10th Scholastic Book Orders due, Santa's Workshop
Friday, December 18th Holiday Concert @ 9:40 a.m.
Classroom Party 2:00-3:30
Wednesday, Dec. 22 Holiday break begins