Homework, Week of 8/22

Just a reminder about how I handle homework: I will give it all out at one time at the beginning of the week and it will be due on a specific day. If I need a particular piece of the homework for a lesson in class, I will make a separate note and due date on that particular assignment.

1. Observe an Ecosystem, due Monday: The directions are printed on the sheet, but your child needs to observe a natural area (it doesn't have to be a road trip) and classify living and nonliving things. They can also look for evidence of living things, such as a spider's web. If you would like for your child to extend the assignment, have them document by taking pictures and send them to me. Or, another idea is, instead of just writing "spider", your child can research to see if it's a specific species. For example...

I saw this amazing spider over the weekend. I showed the students in class and instead of just saying "spider", I used the wonders of technology and Internetness to find the species. One student said to search "spider with yellow circles on its back"...within a few seconds we had the answer. If you said, "Golden Orb Spider" you were right! Guess what else we learned...did you know that a Golden Orb Spider has venom that is similar to a Black Widow but slightly less potent? It affects you in the same way but to a lesser extent. It made me feel quite brave actually!

2. Math Packet, due Monday: Students will complete math packet covering properties of multiplication and division. This is an excellent opportunity to sit down with your child and listen to them share their strategies that they've learned in class. One of my best college professors once told me, "Teaching is the highest form of learning. If you can teach it, then you REALLY know it."

3. Richland County Library Cards, by Friday: We go to the library near the school about once a month. I already have several cards from last year, but if I don't, please send them in by Friday if you would like for your child to check out books. If you're not sure if I have your child's card, send me a quick email.

Dates to Keep in Mind:
1. Friday, August 26: We walk to the library @ 9:15.
2. Monday, Sept. 5: Labor Day, no school
3. Thursday, Sept. 15: Opening Picnic; if you're new to us, you'll be getting more information about this fun time.
4. Thursday, Sept. 22: Early Dismissal @ 11:30
5. Friday, Sept. 30: Our 1st Gathering @ 2:20
6. Thursday, October 6: Curriculum Night #1 @ 7:00

Note: In the future, I'm going to post my weekly blogs on Friday. When I originally said Monday, I forgot that it's our Faculty Meeting Day and it might be "information overload" with Homework info as well.

Technology RUP Forms: Please log into Parent Portal and complete your child's Responsible Use form for Chromebook use as soon as you are able. If you have questions or difficulties, send me an email and I'll forward it to our tech-guru Mrs. Hucks.

As always, if I forgot something, I'll send everyone an email. Have an excellent week!

B

Welcome to 3rd Grade!

Hello families!

It's almost time for third grade. This is a big year for your child and I'm very glad to be there to help them along the way. Most of you already know me, but to those of you that don't yet, I want to welcome you to a school where real learning happens, where kids are encouraged to ask questions, and where everyone is on a journey of outgrowing themselves.

I wanted to send you a quick post outlining some info about the beginning of the year and how I will communicate with you.

Schedule
Our schedule will vary depending on the day. Some structures will stay in place, but others have to move around. I'll be sending each of you a copy of our class schedule. Plus, it's color coded!

MAT
Our class will have an MAT for the fall semester. Her name is Mrs. Katie Watson and I've had the pleasure of getting to know her over the last couple of days. She will be a real asset to your children this year. I was an MAT several years back, so it's a program that I really believe in and I'm excited to contribute to.

Traffic!
Dr. Mueller sent out an edconnect explaining that you may want to consider bringing your child between 7:45 and 8:10 because our parking lot gets extremely congested on the first day of school. It's really not bad the second or third day. So, you may want to plan accordingly for tomorrow.

First Day Jitters
If you are able to come in, look for the tall, lanky guy with a tie surrounded by tiny people. I would love to meet our new parents and reconnect with the old ones...(get it?). The first part of our day will be getting our supplies organized, so some help with that will be appreciated. However, my goal is for our class to get started around 8:20-8:25 so I can start getting everyone acquainted and setting the tone for our day.

Forms/Technology
At the beginning of each year, your child comes home with all these forms. I'm not sure when you'll get them, but I'll send an email letting you know to check your child's folder for them. It's very important that we get these back ASAP, especially the one dealing with technology. I need to have that form before I can get the students started with their Chromebooks.

Weekly Communication and Homework
I communicate through email when I need to share information quickly or am giving you specific information about your child. If you send me an email and I haven't responded in 48 hours, just assume that I didn't see it and send it again; usually I'm pretty good about responding quickly.

I communicate daily through our class Twitter feed: @footecfi. I use this to share pictures and videos of what we're working on during the day.

I will communicate weekly about homework and a reflection on the week in our class blog. I'll send you an email each Monday with a link to the blog post. It will start with a bulleted list of what your child will have for homework, explanations if needed, and due dates. Then, if you continue reading, you'll get a summary of how our previous week went.

Alright, there you go! I hope to see everyone tomorrow morning. Tell those kids to get some sleep. :)

-B

Letter about Homework

Good News from Room 303

Dear families,

       I was going to give out a reading log, math packet, and spelling list for homework this week, but I think something more important may be in order...  

Lately, our world has been seemingly filled with all kinds of horrible events. It seems like every time we turn on the news, get on the Internet, tune into the radio, or pick up a newspaper we are immersed in negative stories about crime or violence. Some of these stories are important; we want to ensure we are “in the know” because some of these stories hit close to home, maybe it reveals wounds that were simply covered up and can lead to productive dialogue that can actually change the course of history.

          Yes, we do live in a world where “bad things happen”. But, I think the reason we phrase it like that is because we recognize that it’s a shame that so much good in the world gets overshadowed by the bad. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to celebrate the good things in the world instead of dwell on the bad.

          Our class is in the middle of a unit on nonfiction. We were going to work on pieces about weather, but something came up in our morning meeting today that I think would be immensely more powerful and authentic. The students want to create a newspaper that only has stories, opinion pieces, instructional pieces, sports pieces that focus on the good in life.

          This is a massive overtaking. We want to get it put together before Winter Break begins; we’ve already begun coming up with some possible ideas:

·       South Carolina flood recovery

·       President Obama pardoning the turkeys

·       The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade

·       The lighting of the tree at the State House

·       Clemson’s 30,000 person pizza party

·       A community helping replace a woman’s stolen Christmas lights.

·       The Panthers being 12-0

·       Important things that make us personally joyful

·       Passing of the Cans

·       Donating gifts

·       Recipes/directions

·       Student Voice Council

·       Morning Milers

·       5^th graders getting ready for 6^th grade

I’ve decided that I’m going to do a story on President Jimmy Carter being cancer-free. I want to learn more about the man and what his life has stood for. Your child wants to come up with an idea for a piece that is positive and worth a read. It can be:

·       A story from the local community

·       A story from your personal connections about someone doing good to others.

·       A sports story that highlights something positive

·       A national story that is positive

·       An opinion piece about something positive your child wants to convince others about.

·       A story about our school.

·       Recipes and other how-to pieces

·       Interviews

Your child’s homework tonight is to come up with a possible idea to write on this week. So we can publish it next week. I appreciate your help with that. Your child will have a sheet of paper to guide their thinking tonight. If you would ensure that it is completed and brought back tomorrow, that would be awesome.

-Mr. Foote

Homework

Homework is pretty straightforward this week. Your child has their weekly spelling list in their folder. They should study for 10 minutes on 2 different days before Friday. Also, there is a math packet with the due dates at the top of each page. All of the pages deal with comparing values of numbers. Other than that, I'm leaving the kids some free time so they can try to earn cans for Passing of the Cans.

Homework

Math Packet: Three worksheets due on different days, just like last week. The second worksheet is not one that requires any answers on the paper, just practice. I need to see a signature from a parent on this sheet on Friday for your child to get credit.

Reading Log: Students should log 4 days of reading equation style by next Tuesday.

Th- Spelling List: The list the students came up with contains these words: thought, thanks, through, third, threw, those, these, think, they, and thousand. They should study for 10 minutes a day on 2 days before this Friday's check-in.

11/9 Homework

Hello families,

Something strange happened to me over the last two months; I was able to experience life with kids in school for the first time ever. It has been an incredible experience, but extremely thought-provoking as I am now experiencing the "joys" of making sure that tired, hungry kids get their homework done and everything signed and OH WAIT a permission form that's due tomorrow and...yeah.

I've spent the last few weeks reflecting deeply about how homework in our classroom is structured. I want to give the students authentic, sometimes enjoyable engagements or assignments. There also is a balance between giving independent practice in math, reading, and writing. I value the quality time that you get with your children and I don't want your evenings to be chock-full of assignments. Most of the work I'll send home will be things that the students will not need much scaffolding with and will not consume their evenings. If a larger task needs to be done, say a project, then it will usually be the only assignment for that week.

Here is your child's homework for this week, they have different due dates so it's not all done on the same day.

Weekly Word List: Check-in on Friday
I have revised our spelling practice. Instead of looking at the words on the recommended list, we are looking at a spelling pattern or sound each week, doing a minilesson about the structure of those words, naming several words, and voting on the words we think we would use most often in our writing. That's where the spelling lists will come from now on.

stronger, burn, dinner, purse, nurse, member, remember, number, culture, November (festive, I know)

Place Value Math Game: Play by Thursday
There is a score sheet, front and back, for you to share with your child.
1. Roll 2 dice. Add the numbers up.
2. Pick which place you want to put that number. The goal is to build the larger number than your child. Hide your number so there's mystery about where you put it.
3. Your child goes. You hope they roll low numbers.
4. You repeat until the 10th round.
5. Whoever wins the most rounds does a victory dance. Or, you could maybe get some additional chores out of them? Just trying to give you some good ideas.

Scoring: 2-9 is worth 2-9. 10 is worth 0. 11 is worth 1. 12 is a reroll.

I'd like for you to write out what you learned as well. This is to be turned in on Thursday.

Reading Log: Due Monday
Your child will need to log 4 days of reading by next Monday. They should read 20 minutes each day. Please make sure they do their equation to figure out how many pages they read.

Homework for the Week

Homework

Three math worksheets are in a packet. They are based off of the math we will be working on in class this week. The due dates for each sheet are written at the top of the page. We have only done the lesson for the first sheet, so that's all that should be done before Wednesday. The second sheet is due Friday. The third sheet is due next Monday.

Also due next Monday is your child's second weather observation/illustration. Alot of students put in great detail with their written observations. Please look over your child's work to make sure clarity and detail are present.