It Was Great Meeting You All Last Week!

In our erosion experiment we saw that the roots from grass held soil together and kept water from washing it away. The tray with just soil did not fair as well and much of the soil was washed away by the water.

It was really nice sitting down with all of you last week to discuss your children and their academic progress.  As the school year continues I will continue to be in touch.  Always know that you can contact me with any question or concern you have.

Making Connections with Books
This week I will begin really focusing on helping students make connections to both the books we read as a class and the books they read independently.  There are two specific types of connections I want students to make.  First, students can connect books to previous experiences they've had.  For example, last week we read a story where a boy lost something on his walk home from school.  Many students connected the boy's search for his lost item to similar times when they had lost things. 
     Students can also connect events and characters from one book to events and characters from another.  An example might be a strict teacher in one book who seems similar to a strict librarian in another book.  When your students read at home ask them about what they read, and what connections they made.

Eagle Express Weekly Email
Do you receive the weekly Eagle Express email message?  The Eagle Express contains important information about events happening at Silver Springs and is sent on the Silver Springs Listserv.  Please subscribe to Silver Springs School by going to northvilleschools.org and clicking on "Listserv."

Book Fair: Online Purchases until Nov. 22nd!
You can shop our Scholastic Book Fair online this week.  Get your final wish list items or make holiday purchases by visiting scholastic.com/fair until Saturday, November 22nd.  All purchases benefit our school!

Curriculum Overview
Literacy - Making Text-to-Self and Text-to-Text connections with fiction books (see above for more info)

Math - Three digit subtraction with regrouping.  Understanding how we can use addition to check our work.

Writing - This week we will continue publishing and perfecting one of our favorite stories.

Science - We are continuing our study of erosion and how plants and roots prevent erosion.  At the end of this week we will also conduct an experiment to better understand groundwater.

Social Studies with Mrs. Heron - In Social Studies we will be learning about how when humans change our environment it can have positive and negative consequences.

Word Study - Students took a short quiz last week over our last 5 words.  Please review these with your child.  Try to use them at home to keep them in their memory.  Below are the new words and their definitions that we will begin to learn this well.

Commotion - (verb) making a loud noise or disturbing others

Sprinted - (verb) to run or go at full speed for a short distance

Raucous - (adjective) very loud noise

Savor(ed) - (verb) loving how something tastes, enjoying it

Pursue - (verb) to follow & try to catch something

While we do write down the kid friendly definitions in our vocabulary journals, the goal is to have students become so familiar with the words that they can give their own definition of the word (not the memorized one) as well as be able to make a “7-up sentence” (a sentence with at least 7 words) using the word correctly.

Leadership – Understanding Habit 2, Begin with the End in Mind.