Welcome Back!

This photo was taken the morning of the first snow.

I hope you all had a wonderful break and New Year's.  The students were really happy to see and greet each other this morning.  Here is the information for this week:

Thank You!
Thank you so much for all of your holiday cards and gifts and especially for the classroom gift cards you all got me!  Absolutely everything I received will be put to good use (or already has!).  I truly appreciate it, thank you!

Martin Luther King Day - No School 
This coming Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  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.  This Friday I will read some books about Dr. King on and we will have a school assembly.   On Monday, January 15th there is no school.  U of M has youth activities on that Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King you can learn more about those activities here. 

NWEA
Students will be taking the Northwest Educational Assessment or NWEA this week.  The NWEA is a pair of assessments students take on our iPads to assess their understanding of reading and math.  These assessments help me plan their next steps academically.  We are going start tomorrow and do a bit each day.  Try to make sure your kids get healthy meals and a good night's sleep this week.

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 Mr. Willard in the gym.

Library Books
Please bring back any library books tomorrow for Ms. Reader.

Curriculum Overview

Project Lead The Way - During our last week in December students took what they knew about structure and function and designed and created paintbrushes.  Look out for some writing about their designs in Seesaw this week. This Friday students will evaluate the paintbrushes they created by using them to paint.

Science - This week we will spend some time on our year long exploration of weather.  We have been tracking the temperature on a large graph.  This week we will learn about the seasons, and how the tilt of the earth toward the sun causes the seasons.  As part of this process students will write about the season they like the most and explain their opinion using words like 'because'.

Reading -  We are reading some non-fiction books about seasons.

Writing - Students will use Seesaw to write about designing and using their paintbrush.  We will also start opinion writing, writing about our favorite season.

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

Word Study - Students will be identifying the ending sounds in words.