Message from Miss Higgins Thanks for visiting our class page!  Check back every few weeks for updates!

It was a pleasure to meet with you all at conferences.  Please keep in touch and let me know if you have any questions or requests!

The students in room C305 have been hard at work!

In writing, we have begun our new unit of non-fiction writing.  First we will be writing "How to" books that give step by step instructions for how to complete or create something.  Next we will create "All About" books, which are an opportunity for the students to teach others about something on which they are experts.  Encourage your child to continue recording story ideas and ideas for All About and How to books in his or her mini writers' idea notebook. 

In math, we are learning about graphs and data analysis.  The students will conduct surveys and organize the data into bar graphs, pictographs, and line graphs.  After organizing the data, the students will practice analyzing the data, i.e. writing sentences about what can be learned from the graph.  The students will also learn about coordinate graphing.  Please continue to ask your child to count and total coins at home and at the store!

In reading, the students have been learning about things good readers do, including previewing, questioning, predicting, inferring, connecting, summarizing, and evaluating.  We've also been practicing strategies that can be used when we encounter a new or difficult word.  Ask you child about these strategies!

Our new social studies unit will focus on communities.  We will learn about the three types of communities: rural, urban, and suburban.  We will get to see a rural community firsthand as we visit Howell Living Farm for our field trip.  

 

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Study Island

 Check out www.studyisland.com!  This is a great website for students to practice skills, play games, and prepare for standarized tests.  We'll be visiting the computer lab so that students can learn more about the program.

 

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Grading and Expectations

Throughout the week (and especially in Friday Folders,) your child will be bringing home many work samples.  Some of these assignments were completed in class and subsequently gone over in class as a whole group or in partners.  Other assignments (both classwork and homework) will be "graded" by me.  For these assignments, I use the following system:

-A "check mark" means your child completed the assignment exactly as directed.  This is the standard "grade" for most papers.  

-A "check plus" means that your child showed extra effort on the assignment.  This could be a bonus, extra problems/sentences/examples, coloring, or other exceptional work that is above and beyond.  

-A "check minus" means that your child did not follow directions, did not complete the entire assignment, or did work that is not their best.  

*If your child receives a paper without any type of check mark, but with notes or corrections from me, please make sure that your child fixes any mistakes and turns the paper back in to me.  I will then assign a "grade" and record that grade into my gradebook.  If these assignments are not fixed and turned back in, your child will not get credit for that assignment.

Please check your child's take home folder and Friday Folder to see what we've been working on!

Feel free to email me with any questions or concerns!