Mrs. Loppnow's News & Notes
Week of January 22, 2018
A Note from Mrs. Loppnow:
Hello Parents!
Happy Friday! What a crazy week! Starting with our snow day and a late start, it proved to be a bit challenging when we are out of our routines, but we did it! I am still in mourning over the Vikings BIG loss, but each day gets a little easier and easier. :-) I have included pictures here from last week that I was unable to upload. I still love my team and my amazing students who support me!
Please read the content information below carefully as there are some homework updates and important upcoming dates.
I hope to see a lot of you next Friday for the big Battle of the Books showdown at 12:45 in the Media Center. Even if your child did not participate, you are welcome to join us! Good luck to all teams and THANK YOU to our awesome coaches!
Enjoy your weekend!
Mrs. Loppnow
651-425-5667
Special Guest from the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital
Learning about ports.
An x-ray of a port.
Learning about Medulloblastoma
Maddix visits Sea Life at MOA
A Peek into this week and next!
Writer's Workshop: Animal Research!! The students worked hard this week to research facts on the description of their animals, sort the facts into categories, and rewrite informative sentences in their own words. Whew! Next week they will write introduction and conclusion sentences for description and work on editing and revising their paragraphs.
BIG PICTURE: When completed, the students will have 6 awesome paragraphs about their chosen animals including: introduction, description, habitat, food/food chain, life cycle, and conclusion. It is a lot of work but also, a lot of fun! The students are learning amazing facts about animals and I know, will be excited to share what they have learned with you!
CELEBRATION: To celebrate our learning, the students will have an opportunity to present their final products to you on Tuesday, March 20 from 1:00-2:00 in our classroom. You will receive more information in the coming weeks, but for now, SAVE THE DATE!
Content: This week we continued to explore different habitats. This week we focused on deserts, grasslands, tundra, and forests. We will finish up our work next week just in time to begin researching facts about our own animal's habitat.
I have set up an "Exploration Station" in the classroom related to animals. If you have anything cool to share, please let me know. Right now we have an ostrich egg and a rattlesnake skin. I will also be bringing in elk antlers, a buffalo skull, and perhaps a wolf hide that my parents were able to get from the DNR in Alaska when they visited several years ago. We are having great conversations about conservation along with learning about the food chain and life cycle of these incredible creatures!
Reader's Workshop: To support our research skills, we have been learning how to use context clues to identify unknown words. This skill is especially important while completing our animal research to help deepen our understanding of the content. We are discovering that informative texts often have their own special vocabulary about the topic, but thankfully, the author gives us clues to help figure out the difficult words! We will continue to work on this skill next week as we focus on synonyms/antonyms and the importance of bold words.
MATH SPOTLIGHT STRATEGY
This week's SPOTLIGHT STRATEGY is...Equivalent Fractions
REMINDERS & REQUESTS:
PROJECT SUPPLIES: I will be collecting empty JELLO and PUDDING boxes over the next few weeks for a project next month. Please send in, if you have any! THANKS!
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS: I can't wait to see you all on FRIDAY! Good luck to all teams!
READ TO FEED: I am excited about our school Read to Feed event! Please let me know if you have any questions about signing up and/or collecting pledges. I hope this will be a fun event to encourage the love of reading while working towards a classroom and school goal.
- BOOK LOGS: Rocky's Reading and Writing Club sheets are due on MONDAY! Please make sure you have recorded your minutes AND received a parent signature. Thank you! Writing notebooks should be returned each Monday for an opportunity to SHARE.
Upcoming Events:
- 2-2: BATTLE OF THE BOOKS 12:45
- 2-19: NO SCHOOL: President's Day
- 3-1 & 3-6: Conferences
- 3-12: NO SCHOOL: Teacher Workshop Day
- 3-13 & 3-14: Star Lab
- 3-20: Animal Menagerie 1:00-2:00 in the Third Grade Classrooms
- 3-26 to 4-1: SPRING BREAK