Welcome Back - Evaluating Our Paintbrushes

Today students tried out the paintbrushes they designed and created.  They evaluated what kind of painting they can do and how well they work.

I hope you all had a wonderful break and New Years.  Thank you so much for all of your holiday cards and gifts and for the classroom gift card you all got me!  I truly appreciate it.

Martin Luther King Day - No School  
At Ann Arbor STEAM at Northside we honor Martin Luther King by meeting as a school and reaffirming our commitment to listening to, understanding, and respecting each other.  I will read some books about Dr. King on Friday and we will have a school assembly in the afternoon.  On Monday, January 16th there is no school.  This flyer has information about activities available at U of M to celebrate Martin Luther King.  I also saw an email sent out to the whole school today with the same information.

NWEA
Students will be taking the Northwest Educational Assessment or NWEA this week.  The NWEA is a pair of assessments students take in our computer lab to assess their understanding of reading and math.  Room K-3 will be taking them on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Home Reading Book Bags
Bring in those blue and clear bags back so we can get out some fresh books to you.

Shoes
Don't forget to send in shoes when your child wears boots to school in the morning.  It helps in class and especially when students visit Ms. Lewit in the gym on Thursdays.

Curriculum Overview
Science - Today students evaluated the paintbrushes they created by using them to paint.  We are also starting a new Project Lead the Way unit called ‘Pushes and Pulls’.  Students will learn about basic physics and the forces they experience in their life (using the swing on a playground, playing tug-of-war, dropping something).  We will also see how those forces interact.

Reading -  We are reading, comparing, and contrasting different versions of the Gingerbread Man fairy tale.

Writing - Students will use Seesaw to write about the fairy tales we read before break.  They will also write about using their paintbrush.

Math - This week we will explore the concept of weight.

Word Study - Students will be identifying the vowel sounds found in words.  We will start with long vowels.  For example the word jeep has the long e sound.