Classroom Update - Weeks of December 10th & 17th

• The MES Book Fair Family Event will be rescheduled for tomorrow, Thursday December 13th. Community members and teachers will be doing read alouds of their favorite books and it will allow you a chance to visit the book fair at night with your child. If you are able to help out at it, please visit this SignUp Genius link for Ms. Minton: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e4faaa72ba31-enchanted It is sure to be a fun event! The book fair will also be extended through this Saturday, December 15th.

• Our first Saturday School make-up day from the snow days earlier this week will be this Saturday, December 15th. School will be from 9:15-12:45. A form went home today will your child, so you could indicate how your child will be dismissing that day. Breakfast and lunch will not be served, so please send your child in with a snack that day.

• Monday and Tuesday next week (December 17th & 18th) will be no technology days at MES due to our server being upgraded. I will not have access to email throughout the day on those two days, so if you have an urgent need communicated to me, please call the front office. I will be able to check my email from home in the morning before school and when I get home at night. The students will also get to learn without technology those two days, as well. Everything should be back up and running on Wednesday.

• MES wants to show our wonderful bus drivers how much we appreciate them, so each grade level will be assigned a bus driver to celebrate by collecting some of their favorite things. Fourth grade has been assigned Mr. Keante (Route 6). Please see the attachment to this email for a list of Mr. Keante's favorite things. All items will need to be collected by next Wednesday, December 19th.

• Next week MES will be celebrating Happy Holiday's week! Students and staff are welcome to participate

• Monday, December 17th--Holiday Socks Day

• Tuesday, December 18th--"Bling in the Season" Sparkle and Tinsel Day (The more sparkly, the better)

• Wednesday, December 19th--Red Day #redfored #redforfestive

• Thursday, December 20th--"Fun With Flannel" Wear your BEST Flannel outfit!

• Friday, December 21st--Ugly Holiday Sweater Day

• Registration has begun for this years Science Fair & Expo. This year’s event will be held Thursday, February 21st from 6:00-8:00pm. To register, please Complete Registration Form online by Friday, February 15th . To participate, all projects must be pre-registered. A flyer will be going home in Friday Folders.

• Friday, December 21st will be an Early Release Day - School will dismiss at 1:15PM

• The Last Day for Second Quarter is Friday, December 21st. See you back in school on Monday, January 28th!

• Our second snow day make up is scheduled for Saturday, March 16th from 9:15-12:45. A transportation form will be sent home closer to that date.

E.L. Education:

This week and next week in EL the students will be working on writing their own “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” narrative featuring the animal that they choose to research. Today, they worked on writing an introduction that explains their animal’s physical description, habitat, predators, and defense mechanisms (a modification of their introduction from their research paper). They will also work on writing an “About Your Adventure” page tomorrow to set the scene and provide their reader with instructions on how to read this narrative. Then, they will spend the rest of the time planning and writing their narrative. They will be constructing this narrative in 2nd person and be expected to include strong description and purposeful vocabulary. Their main character (their animal) will be expected to encounter a predator in this narrative and then they will offer their reader two choices (or defense mechanisms) that their animal will be able to take. I am hoping that the students will be able to publish this using Google Slides next week.

How to Help Your Child at Home:

• Discuss with your child how they plan on outlining their Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

• Have your child share with you the hook that they plan on using and discuss other alternatives that would be strong, as well.

• Have your child share with you examples of strong description vocabulary that will help their reader visualize or picture the action in the story.

Math:

In math this week the students will be working on finding equivalent fractions. They will start by learning what a unit fraction is and how a fraction such as 2/5 can be decomposed into the unit fractions 1/5 + 1/5 = 2/5. Then, later in the week, they will be using models and multiplying fractions by one (ex. 3/3) to find equivalencies. The students will take the equivalent fractions common assessment on Saturday. The last unit of the quarter will focus on comparing fractions. The students will learn about different strategies for comparing fractions. Some of the helpful techniques that we will be focusing on this week are creating visual representations (fraction bars), ordering the fractions on a number line, and by finding common numerators and denominators. The students will take a common assessment on this skill next Friday, December 21st.

How to Help Your Child at Home: ​

• Have your child share with you all of the different ways that they have learned to find equivalent fractions and compare fractions.

• Have them explain to you how they can use benchmark fractions, like 1/2 to compare fractions.

• Discuss with your child the method of finding equivalent fractions and comparing fractions that they feel the most comfortable with.

Science:

This week the students will continue their second quarter science unit with Mrs. Wade. It will center on animal adaptations and nutrition and exercise. They should be taking home their science notebooks to study and prepare for their final assessment, which will take place next Wednesday or Thursday.