Braymer’s Biologist Sturgeon T–Shirts

Make sure to get those order forms for our class t-shirts by Oct. 25th!  They look great so far and it will be exciting to have such a nice keep sake from our year together.  We will wear them for special occasions and definitely when we are on camera for our Sturgeon Project. 

Also get those forms in asap for the pumpkin carving coming up on Halloween.  The costume parade is to follow and it’s always a super fun day here at Quincy Elementary.   If you come to the carving and stay for the parade you are welcome to take your student home with you after the parade is over. 

Concepts to re-enforce with your students

I CAN Explain…

Area Model, Short-cut, Expanded Methods for Multiplication.

What is an internal story?

How are food chains and food webs different?

Producers?

Consumers?

Decomposers?

Language Arts:

We will be publishing narratives this coming week and preparing for our study of persuasive writing and text.

Math:

Unit  2 Multiplication with Whole Numbers ( Quick Quiz 1 this week)

Science:

Organisms in Our Environment (finishing)

A View From Earth (next)

Social Studies:

Geography (finishing)

Midwest Region (next)

Upcoming Important Events:

Sooper Yooper Author Visit and Invasive Species Museum Day Oct. 25th

Braymer’s Biologist T-shirt money due Oct. 25th

Halloween Parade  + Pumpkin Carving Oct. 31st

Make sure to get your pumpkin in on the 30th or 31st. 

Supplies to Donate:

Large White Construction Paper

Pumpkins

Michigan Sea Grant visit with Dan O’Keefe

The kids really enjoyed our visit from Dan O’keefe a fisheries biologist with the Michigan Sea Grant last week.  He also gave a little introduction on Lake Sturgeon that the kids will be learning a lot about very soon.

The talk centered on invasive species which I know you all learned a lot about!  The kids hopefully enjoyed the projects and I loved seeing them come in on Friday! 

We will be using them to set up an invasive species museum for our Author Visit this week.  Mark Newman author of the Sooper Yooper series (focuses on invasives in the Great Lakes) will be here to talk with the kids, and they will be sharing their projects in a museum format with him.  Look for a video of the day to show up on our website soon!

Concepts to re-enforce with your students:

What is a food web?

What are Narrative Elements of a story?

What is a sensory detail?

Units of Study:

Language Arts:

We have been focusing on writing with sensory details to help our reader visualize what’s going on in our personal narratives.

Math:

Unit  2 Multiplication with Whole Numbers

Science:

Organisms in Our Environment

Social Studies:

Geography

Starting Midwest region soon!

Supplies to Donate:

MEAP Snacks 25 (easy to handout)

Large White Construction Paper

Upcoming Important Events:

 Sooper Yooper Author Visit and Invasive Species Museum Day

Oct. 25th

MEAP is finished

Oct. 16th (unless Make-up is needed)

Halloween Parade Oct. 31st

Physical Characteristics of Organisms

Hey Parents, this week we have been really working hard to understand how living things survive in their habitat.  The students have been working on their invasive species projects at home, and I can’t wait to see them come in on Oct. 11th! 

Yesterday and today we worked in our wetland habitat here at school to capture some aquatic organisms and started studying what we caught, what physical characteristics each living thing had, and how it helps it to survive out there in our wetland.  We are comparing those organisms to our African Dwarf frogs, snails, and goldfish in our classroom aquarium.  Please ask your student to describe what a physical characteristic is, and what an ecosystem is.  See if they can tell you!

Some vocab words to re-enforce with them are:

Physical Characteristics

Ecosystem

Habitat

Units of Study

  Language Arts:

We have been focusing on writing with sensory details to help our reader visualize what’s going on in our personal narratives.

Math:

Unit  2 Multiplication with Whole Numbers

Science:

Organisms in Our Environment

Social Studies:

Geography

Upcoming Important Events:

MEAP Testing  Begins                    

Oct. 8th        

Invasive Species Projects

Due Oct. 11th

Sooper Yooper Author Visit (4th Grade)

Oct. 16th

Supplies to Donate:

MEAP Snacks (anything easy to handout)

Large White Construction Paper

Mechanical Pencils

Sturgeon in the Classroom Coming Soon

Hey Parents, this week I located a fish tank, cleaned it out, and it’s placed in the classroom.  Our Endangered Species Permit is hung on the glass outside our door.   If you would still like to make a donation towards the project you can either write a check to Quincy Elementary with Sturgeon Project in the memo line or deliver cash to the front office.  We have created an account through the school and I will be needed some supplies through the school year.  Thanks again for any and all donations, it really helps and the Quincy Community has always been so generous.  We appreciate all your support!   We should receive our Sturgeon sometime in October.

The students are doing a good job on our weekly reading logs.  Please re-enforce the 4 details for 4th grade with them and capital letters with punctuation. 

 We will begin our invasive species projects  this week.  We will have a portion of the project here at school and an at home portion.   We will start next week and set-up a due date for approximately 2 weeks. 

Language Arts:

Narrative Reading and Writing:  We will continue with our Daily 5 that incorporates multiple texts from our reading series, social studies and science.

Math:

Unit  1 Place Value and Multi-digit Addition and Subtraction

TEST this WEEK Unit 1!  Most  likely Wed. or Thurs.

Science:

Organisms in Our Environment

Social Studies:

Geography

P.J. Hoffmaster State Park

Once again our students loved their trip to P.J. Hoffmaster State Park last week.  Hoffmaster kicks off our studies of organisms in our environment, ecosystems, and habitats.  The Great Lakes Dune Ecosystem is very rare and fragile.  Scientists come from all over the world to study how this complex and unique ecosystem operates.  As always the hog-nosed snake and and other animals are a highlight for the kids in the Genevieve Gillette Nature Center, which is aptly named after a woman nicknamed "Natures Guardian Angel" for her help in the formation of our wonderful state parks. This trip is fantastic and free of charge, we are thankful that we have such wonderful resources here in West Michigan, and it's always so much fun to bring kids to the wonderful ecosystem of the sand dunes.

Parent Screen Cast 2013-1014

Dear Parents,

Hopefully everyone had a chance to view the screen cast I sent home on email the other day.  I know it’s kind of long, but I promise most other communication will be 3 minutes and under.  If you didn’t receive any emails from me yet please write your preferred email address on the line below so I can add you to our parent list. 

Email:_______________________________________________

I am looking forward to a great year with the kids, as we get into the beginning of the school year and our routine please make sure you initial the students agendas each night that we have home work and leave any notes for me in the agenda.  I will check with the kids each morning.  Again homework will be Mon-Thurs. and will mostly be math, homework and remembering worksheets, and our reading logs which will come home next week. 

We will be starting some projects on Organisms in our Environment soon and those may require some weekend homework.   Again, I am looking forward to a great year!  Thank you for all you do!

Wetland Trail Sign Posts

We would like to thank our metal shop high school students, their teacher Mr. Crinion, Zeeland Powder Coating, all of the people who bought our Quincy Wetland Project wristbands, and of course Mrs. Timmer for making this a reality!  We had a great two half days here at Quincy installing our trail sign stands.  They look amazing, they're full stainless and powder coated for the ages.  We feel so fortunate to have the help and support of so many local businesses and educators.