Happy New Year!

Dear Families,

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful vacation and holiday with friends and family. Our first full week back was a busy one. We used our first two days back to familiarize ourselves with our classroom expectations and rules, as well as get back into our usual routine. We also set a new class goal to reach 590 points on Class Dojo. Students voted and agreed on a movie day. We are very close already! Individual students also started to reach their 25 point reward of a homework pass! This is to be used only with a homework assignment that I give and must be attached to the assignment when handing it in.

We continued to set goals and discussed what a New Years resolution was and how we can make one for ourselves. We first discussed growth mindset and how we can grow and stretch our brains when we try and learn something new. We brainstormed things we couldn't do YET and then turned that into a New Years goal and explained ways we will achieve our goal. These are hanging up in our classroom and will be kept up to remind us that we can achieve anything if we grow our mind and have a positive outlook!

In science we began to wrap up our soil unit. Students will have a test on ecosystems and soil NEXT Wednesday the 22nd. Everyone will receive a study guide on Tuesday and we will begin filling it out and studying in class. I encourage students to study a little each night!

In writing, we took a look at last year's MCAS writing question and worked through it together. Students are asked to read a fictional story and then finish writing the ending. Students are loving this assignment and are really being creative! We will be wrapping up our narrative unit this week and will be launching our informational writing unit! This writing unit will go great with our new unit in reading, nonfiction book clubs! Students will be working in groups to read and discuss nonfiction texts based around different topics.

Please make note that there will be NO school this Friday the 17th and no school Monday the 20th for MLK day. Have a great week!