January 25

Tech Fest Logo Contest: 

All students are invited to design a logo for this year's Ren Baldwin Student Technology Festival! CLICK HERE for more information on this contest (I've also posted information for the students to reference in our Google Classroom). Entries are due by Friday 1/29.

Valentine's Day: 

February 14th is approaching fast and, of course, things this year will be a little different.  It just so happens that the 14th is on a Sunday this year and students do not have school on Friday the 12th or on Monday the 15th. So, hold off on the candy and packaged valentines, here is the plan...

During the week of February 8 - 11, our Positivity Project (P2) activities will be focused on "Love."  Their definition of love is that you value close relationships with others and being close to people. The character strength of love represents the way we think, feel, and behave towards the people with whom we have close relationships. 

Our class will have activities and lessons throughout the week that will take the place of the traditional card exchange.  No need to send anything in from home, we will handle it all in-house.

Mrs. Bawks' Brown School Family Blog:

Please don't forget to take a peek at Mrs. Bawks' Brown School Family Blog each week. CLICK HERE to read it.

Important Upcoming Dates:

Thurs. 1/28 - 1/2 Days of school for Conferences (dismissal at 12:34pm)

Fri. 1/29 - 1/2 Days of school for Conferences (dismissal at 12:34pm)

Wed. 2/3 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Friday 2/5 - Popcorn Friday!

Wed. 2/10 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Fri. 2/12 - NO SCHOOL

Mon. 2/15 - NO SCHOOL

Wed. 2/17 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

Wed. 2/24 - Late Start - school begins at 9:45am

This week's learning:

Positivity Project (P2): This coming week we will be focusing on the character strength of "Other People Matter - Supporting Others" - When you see other people struggle, you support them if you can.

ELA: This week, we will continue to focus on identifying cause and effect in pictures and in passages. Students will be learning about, identifying and will be able to use the signal language for cause and effect. We will also be focusing on identifying cause and effect within pourquoi tales. Pourquoi [por-kwa] means "why" in French. Pourquoi tales are old legends told to explain why certain events happened. These tales often start in the past, e.g. A long, long time ago . . . and end when the explanation is complete. Pourquoi tales are most often concerned with animals and the natural world.

Looking to help your child connect what they are learning in school at home? Click on the image below and check out the activities:

Writing: This week we are continuing our persuasive writing unit. This week we will be focusing on identifying our audience, creating a pro/con list and using a graphic organizer to plan and organize our persuasive essay.

Here are some pictures from our class working on different points of view. The question students were posed with was: Should  students should have homework? They wrote from their own perspective as a student, a parent, a principal, and a teacher.

Math:  This week we are finishing up our fraction and decimal unit! On Monday, you will see the study guide come home and our test will follow on Tuesday. My plan is to begin unit 4 after the test on Tuesday. Unit 4 focuses on multi-digit multiplication - please continue to work on mastering single digit multiplication fact fluency at home each night (this can be done with flash cards, using an online program or any other method that words well for your child).

Monday: Unit 3 study guide

Tuesday: Unit 3 test and Lesson 4-1 - I can find a rule for solving multiplication problems involving multiples of 10.

Wednesday: Lesson 4-2 - I can make estimates and evaluate the reasonableness of my answers.

Thursday: No lesson due to 1/2 day of school

Friday: No lesson due to 1/2 day of school

Social Studies: This week we will begin learning about the human characteristics of the Unites States. Big ideas from this lesson are:

-Geographers use physical and human characteristics to describe what a place is like.

-Human characteristics of a place are man-made features.

-Human characteristics of a place can include cities, highways, bridges, and buildings.

-Human characteristics are often closely connected to physical characteristics. For example, cities are often located near bodies of water and farms are often located in prairies.

Homework:  Homework each week consists of reading 20+ minutes at home (this can be a library book, magazine, newspaper, online book, etc) and practicing multiplication and division facts 1 through 12. Mastering multiplication and division facts is vital to our learning this year.

Students will also have a math home link page to work on most days of the week. I will always include the lessons we are working on in the blog each week so that you know when to work on each home link. These home links are not going to be turned back in, but I highly recommend that students work on them each week so that they can show you what they have worked on. I don't mind if students work a bit ahead in the packet; it is also ok if you miss a night and have to come back to that particular lesson on a different day. Times are unpredictable and I completely understand that you may have prior commitments on certain days of the week.

Have a great week!

Mr. Hernandez