Remember, No School Next Monday and Tuesday

Students look at a weather map to predict what the weather will be like at recess.

Thank You for Those Conferences
It was really nice meeting with all of you last week.  I enjoyed learning about your families and I really gained a lot of insight into your children, thank you.

Halloween
For families new to Ann Arbor STEAM please be advised that students do not wear costumes to school on Friday.  We are reading some fun Halloween books and talking about the season but we are not having any big celebrations.  Please do not send in any food or sweets, save that for Saturday and trick-or-treating.

No School Next Monday and Tuesday
There is no school next Monday and Tuesday, November 2nd and 3rd.  They both are teacher work days and November 3rd is election day.

Box Tops for Education
Thank you for bringing in so many box tops! A2 Steam benefits from you bringing them in.  Keep them coming.

This Week’s Curriculum Overview
Science Weather Project - Last week students developed tools they could use to see if it was windy outside.  This week are going to try building an anemometer (a tool meteorologists use to track the wind).

Math - This week we will continue working with on number ten and how it can be broken up (5+5=10, 7+3=10, etc).  We are also comparing different two-dimensional shapes.

Literacy - This week we are reading Halloween books and discussing the characters, setting, problem, and resolution in each book.

Writing - Students are using pictures, letters, and words to write about things that happen in fall.

Word Study - This week we are learning about syllables.

Clouds!

Last week we began using our classroom iPads.  Ask your students about the books they read, as well as the work they did with Mr. Van Loo in the STEAM Lab.

Hi, I hope you stayed warm this past weekend.  Here are a few things from Room K-3:

Parent/Teacher Conferences
Parent/Teacher conferences begin tomorrow after school.  If you need to you can check your time here.  If you have not signed up for a conference yet I will be contacting you to figure out an alternate time when we can meet.  It is really important that I get a chance to sit down with every parent, I am committed to finding a time that works for you.

Clouds!
As part of our study of weather we have been looking at clouds.  When you are out walking or running errands with your kids take a look at the clouds you see and try to identify them.  Cummulus clouds are the big puffy clouds that look like white cotton candy in the sky—usually on sunny days.  Cirrus clouds are the thin wispy clouds that you barely see way up in the sky.  Stratus clouds are the thick layers of clouds that cover the sky like a blanket on a dreary, drizzly day.

Box Tops for Education
We are having a school-wide Box Tops For Education collection.  If you find any box top cut-outs on your groceries please bring them in.  If possible put them in a plastic bag and write "Mr. Luxon, Room K-3” on the outside.

This Week’s Curriculum Overview
Science Weather Project - Taking on the role of meteorologists we have begun predicting whether or not it will be safe to go out at recess and what clothes we will need.  This week we are learning about different tools meteorologists use to track the wind.

Math - This week we are focusing on the number ten and how it can be broken up.  We will also learn about what makes a rectangle a rectangle.  Ask your students what they learned today about circles.

Literacy - Together as a class we are reading and writing about the fall season.

Writing - Students are using pictures, letters, and words to write about things that happen in fall.

Word Study - This week we are examining the letters and sounds found in the names of students in our classroom.  We are also practicing writing our own names neatly using an uppercase letter for the first letter and lowercase letters for the remaining letters.

With a globe and a flashlight students saw that when the earth is tilted toward the sun we have more sunlight and the summer season.

Numbers 1-10, Snowfall

Last week students worked on building the numbers 0-10.  We discussed the plus one staircase pattern created when we built the numbers.

Hello, I hope you enjoyed a beautiful weekend.

Needed Items
For some of our upcoming engineering work students will build prototypes of different weather instruments.  If you have any used plastic bottles, cups, boxes, or straws at home that you can wash and donate to school, please bring them in.  I also have put up a wish list of other needed staples like hand soap.

Parent/Teacher Conferences
Next week the kindergarten team will be holding Parent/Teacher conferences on Tuesday, October 20th and Thursday, October 22nd!  If you haven't already, please sign up for a time slot here. 

This Week’s Curriculum Overview
Science Weather Project - Taking on the role of meteorologists we have begun predicting whether or not it will be safe to go out at recess and what clothes we will need.  This week we are learning how the earth rotates and tilts creating seasons.

Math - We are learning how to compare numbers using terms like more, less, and equal.  We will also study sorting and what makes a circle a circle.

Literacy - We are reading fiction books where weather causes problems for the characters.  We are studying what characters are, and what a book’s setting is. We are also identifying the most important events from the story. 

Writing - Students are using pictures, letters, and words to write about what we learned last week about snow.

Word Study - This week we studying the -at and -it word families. 

Last Friday we studied snowfall and snowflakes.

Students Learn About Temperature

As part of our kindergarten weather project students learned about, and experimented with thermometers.

Walk To School Day
Walk to School Day is this Wednesday, October 7th!  This is a great day to get some family exercise first thing in the morning.  This flyer has more information.  Even if you live far away there are drop-off locations that you can walk from.

Parent/Teacher Conferences
As I wrote last week, the kindergarten team will be holding Parent/Teacher conferences on Tuesday, October 20th and Thursday, October 22nd.  If you haven't already, please sign up for a time slot here.

This Week’s Curriculum Overview
Science Weather Project - We are studying what it means to be a meteorologist.  We have experimented with temperature and begun graphing days that have sun, clouds, rain, or snow.  This week we will read and learn about sunlight, wind, rain, and snow.

Math - We are learning how to compare numbers using terms like more, less, and equal.  As part of understanding of the number 3 this week we will also study what makes a triangle a triangle.

Literacy - We are reading fiction books where weather causes problems for the characters.  We are studying what characters are, and what a book’s setting is. We are also identifying the most important events from the story.  Ask your students about Dump Truck Dash, It’s Mine, and Rain!

Writing - Students are using pictures, letters, and words to tell stories from their lives.  We are also writing about the weather we see.
 
Word Study - This week we are expanding our study of rhyme to examine letter groupings that create rhyme like ‘-at’ (cat, hat, mat, sat, etc.)