Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

We hope you have had a wonderful week!  It has been so fun seeing all the Chiefs spirit!  Here's hoping for a win this weekend!

Yearbook order forms are in your student's Friday folder.  They are due February 27.

Map the Love

• We have received some Valentines already and are excited to get some more.  If you want to have family/friends/etc. send in Valentines for our Map the Love, the address is below.
• We still haven't told the kids yet, so help us keep our secret.  :)  We will get a world map and find all the spots our Valentines came from.

Rock Bridge Elementary
Attn: Team Moss
5151 S. Hwy. 163
Columbia, MO 65203

Important Upcoming Events

• 100th Day of School: February 3
• The 100th Day of School is Monday! 
• Students may bring a special snack of 100 items (just for themselves).  It can even be a junk food snack.  
• If they want to wear a fun 100th Day of School outfit, they can.
• We have fun 100th Day of School activities planned for the afternoon.
• Valentine's Party: February 13
• We will pass out valentines before the party.  If your child wants to bring in valentines, they can bring in for all of Team Moss (45 students) or just for their homeroom class (Mottaz: 23; Ross: 22).  Please only fill out the "from" section as this makes it easier to pass out.  Students may create a valentine box at home or we will have paper bags to decorate during morning work.
• Here is the Sign Up Genius for the Valentine Party.
• No School: February 14 (Teacher Work Day) and February 17 (President's Day)
• Parent Teacher Conferences:  Week of February 17 and February 24
• Conference times will be send home next Thursday.  
• Book Fair: February 24-28
• Special Friends and Family Day: February 24
• March 9-13: Read Week
• If you would like to sign up to be a mystery reader, here is the Sign Up Genius.

Next Week's Learning
Reading

• We will be using our reading time next week to research musical instruments.  Students chose their musical instrument today.
• After they have researched the instrument, they will write a paragraph about it and make a 2-D version of their instrument.

Writing

• Students will be writing an expository piece about the instrument they researched.
• We will also start on our Google Slide project of our personal narrative story.  Our goal is to have these finished in just a few days so we can share them at conferences.

Math

• We will continue in unit 6 next week.  We will be learning about ballpark estimates and then learning to use partial sums to add 2- and 3-digit numbers.
• Our goal is to take the Unit 6 test before Valentine's Day.

Fundations

• We are continuing to work on -ur, -ir, -er words.  They have been using their spelling options section of their Monster Book to identify the correct spelling.
• We will start working on 2 syllable words that have ir/ur/er.
• Our trick words picture, learn and Earth.  The other 2 words are trick words the students felt they needed to practice based on previous tests.

Social Studies

• We started learning about geography.  We are reading a book about a character named Swift Walker who walks around the world.  We are using this book to learn the 7 continents and special places in each continent.
• They are also color coding a map of the world with each continent.

Have a fabulous weekend and GO CHIEFS!

Happy Snowy Saturday!

Happy Friday!

Wow!  Winter definitely didn't want us to forget about it, did it?

Friday Folders (which will come home on Monday)
*There are electronic copies of some of the papers included in the Friday folders, if you want to print them off, fill them out and send them in on Monday, that is fine, if not, there are paper copies in the Friday folder.*

• Unit 5 Math Test
• Please look over the math test with your student, then sign and return it in the Friday Folder.
• Conference Time Request Form: Due Thursday, January 30
• Please choose the top 3 times that work for you and your family.  
• We do our best to accommodate a time that works for everyone.
• We look forward to meeting with everyone.
• Here is the form.
• Chat and Chew
• Chat and Chew is a group that meets during lunch on set days to discuss a book they are reading.  
• Parents can sign up to lead groups if it works in their schedule and they would like to.
• You can order the books (it's on the form) or if you already have the books, you can use them.
• Forms are due January 31 and no late forms are accepted due to planning and scheduling or meetings and groups.
• Here is the form.
• Book Order Forms
• The students saw the book orders on Ms. Mottaz's desk and got really excited about them, so they are coming home this week.
• You can order online and our class code is RZ6KY.
• Orders are due by February 7. 
• Just a reminder, this is completely optional.
• Also, the Spring Book Fair is at the end of the month and some of the books may be available then as well, so you can wait o shop at the book fair also if you would like.  

Map the Love

• As a fun activity/surprise for the students, we are trying to get Valentines from different places across the US and the world and map where the love comes from.  We have posted out Twitter and reached out to contacts that we have across the country and the world.  If you have family/friends across the US or the world that would like to send us a Valentine, we would love that!  Our address is:

Rock Bridge Elementary
Attn: Team Moss
5151 S. Hwy 163
Columbia, MO 65203

Important Upcoming Events

• Wednesday, January 29: Early Dismiss at 12:10 p.m.
• Please let us know if your child is going home a different way than normal.
• Thursday, January 30: Conference Time Request Forms Due
• Here is the form.
• Friday, January 31: Chat and Chew Forms Due
• Friday, January 31: 100th Day of School
• Thursday, February 13: Valentine's Party at 1:45 p.m.
• We will pass out Valentines before the party.
• Students can choose to pass out to just their homeroom class (Ross (currently 22 students) or Mottaz (currently 23 students)) or to all of Team Moss (currently 45 students)
• We recommend students just write the "From" portion of the Valentine as it makes it easier to pass out when there aren't specific names on each.  
• Friday, February 14 and Monday, February 17: No School (Teacher Work Day and President's Day)
• Tuesday, February 18-Thursday, February 23: Team Moss Conferences
• Monday, February 24: Special Friends and Family Day
• Special Friends and Family will attend specials with the students.
• Our specials start at 1:35 p.m.  If the special family/friend is planning to do some shopping at the Book Fair, they may pull their students a few minutes early to shop.
• Monday, February 24-Friday, February 28: Book Fair
• Specific hours will come closer to the Book Fair.  Students will be creating wish lists so parents/guardians/Book Fairies will know which books the students are excited to read.  
• March 9-March 13: Read Week
• If you would like to sign up to be a mystery reader or if a family member/family friend would like to sign up, here is the link.  The kids love when grandparents or older siblings come in to read.  Of course, they love to see their parents also.  
• https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c45aca62ca2fb6-read1

Next Week's Learning
Reading

• We will start our week long study of expository text next week.  
• Students will be learning about how people express themselves through music and will be using evidence from the text to support their answers about the stories we read.

Writing

• Almost everyone finished publishing this week!
• In the next week or so, we will start to digitally publish these as well.  The goal (time allowing) is to have them digitally published by conferences so we can share them with you then.

Math

• We are starting Unit 6.  This unit covers bar graphs, estimation and word problems.
• Next week, we will focus mainly on types of word problems and how to solve them.  Some of the word problems have multiple steps, while others present the information in different ways and the students will be learning how to determine which information is needed and what to do with it.  

Science

• Next week, we will move onto weathering and erosion and how it changes the Earth.

Fundations

• Trick words for this unit are picture, learn and Earth.  For the additional 2 trick words, students will be looking at their unit 8 test to see what words they still need to practice.  
• This unit covers -ir, -er and -ur.  All of these spelling patterns make the /er/ sound so we are teaching students about the spelling options section of their Monster book which is similar to a dictionary.

Have a fabulous weekend and stay warm and dry!

Happy Friday!

Happy Tuesday!

We hope you have had a wonderful week and extended weekend!  We have been working hard getting back into routines.

Please review school expectations with your students at home also.  Some of them are struggling with following expectations since break.

Important Upcoming Events

• Early Release at 12:10 p.m.: Wednesday, January 29
• Valentine's Party at 1:45 p.m.: Thursday, February 13
• No School: Friday, February 14 (Teacher Workday) and Monday, February 17 (President's Day)
• Special Friend's and Family Day: Monday, February 24
• Book Fair: Monday, February 24-Friday, February 28
• Read Week: March 9-13 (Mystery Readers invited March 2-12)
• We invite parents, guardians, grandparents, family members, family friends, etc. to come to be mystery readers in the classroom.  You can bring your own book or we can provide one and if you would like to bring a snack to go with your book, you can do that also.
• The Sign Up Genius is below if you would like to be a Mystery Reader.  Please indicate if you need a book and also if you plan to bring a snack.
• https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c45aca62ca2fb6-read1
• We look forward to celebrating reading with our students!

Next Week's Learning
Math

• We will wrap up Unit 5 with our test next week and move into Unit 6.  
• Unit 6 has additional practice with word problems.  The students will learn additional strategies to use to solve the word problems.  Please continue to practice facts at home.  This makes the word problems easier for the students when they know their facts "in a snap".

Reading

• This week, we have been wrapping up our fiction genre study.  
• Next week, we will have a week long study of expository text.  The students will be looking at different expository pieces of text and determining what they have in common and what is different about each of them.

Writing

• We finished revising our writing this week.  We talked about how all writers go back and edit and revise their writing to make it better.  Next week, we will publish their writing.  We are going to publish it into a book and then digitally as well.

Science

• The students are becoming experts about why it is colder in certain parts of the world than others and also why water is liquid or solid at different parts of the world.
• Next week, we will do an experiment to see how water that is moving takes longer to freeze than water that is still.

Fundations

• We will wrap up Unit 8 next week which covers ar/or.  
• We will then move onto Unit 9.  Unit 9 covers ir/er/ur which all make the same sound.  We will be doing a lot of practice since it can be hard to determine which r-controlled vowel to use.  

Have a fabulous week!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

We hope you have had a wonderful first full week of 2020!  It was so great to see the kids again and hear about what they did over break and also what they are excited about for the second half of the school year.

Friday Folders

• Math Unit 5 HomeLinks
• We are about half way through Unit 5 so we are sending home the HomeLinks.  As a reminder, these are not required.  We send them home as additional practice if you are interested in using them at home.  They can be used for Homework Bingo activities. 
• Fundations Unit 8 Family Letter
• We will be starting Unit 8 in Fundations next week.  This unit is about r-controlled syllables.  The letter explains the unit and has some optional activities if you would like to practice at home.  These also can be used for Homework Bingo activities.
• Freddy's Fundraiser Paper
• Freddy's RBE Eat Out Fundraiser is next Wednesday, January 15.  If you present the flyer, 15% of your purchase comes back to RBE. 
• 
  

Important Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, January 14: Ross students Pledge of Allegiance airs on KOMU at 6:57 a.m.
• Tuesday, January 14: PTA Meeting at 6:00 p.m. in Media Center
• Wednesday, January 15: RBE Eat Out at Freddy's
• From 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m at the South Providence location of Freddy's
• 15% of sales come back to RBE
• It's a great excuse to not cook lunch or dinner or get a yummy ice cream treat after school.
• Thursday, January 16: Mottaz students Pledge of Allegiance airs on KOMU at 6:57 a.m.
• Monday, January 20: No School (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)
• Friday, January 24: RBE Spirit Day (Decades Day)
• Wednesday, January 29: Early Dismiss at 12:10 p.m.
• If your student is going home a different way, please let us know.

Next Week's Learning
Reading

• We started our genre study over fiction this week.  The students reviewed the characteristics of a fiction story.  They have made up characters, events and settings (even though they could actually happen, but they didn't), they have a beginning, middle and end, and is either told by a character or a narrator.
• Next week, we will finish our fiction genre study.  The students will be comparing and contrasting different fiction pieces.  The students will be using text evidence to support questions about the stories also.

Writing

• This week, we wrote our personal narrative stories about a time they helped someone.  We worked hard on creating three separate events instead of writing the entire story on one page.  The students also worked on included a variety of transition words and descriptive details.
• Next week, we will edit and revise our writing and then publish it.  We are looking for a fun way to publish it with technology also.

Math

• This week, we focused on counting money and making change.  The students are doing very well with coin identification.  A fun way to practice money at home is to give them an amount of money (27 cents for example) and see how many coin combinations they could come up with to make that amount (for example 1 quarters, 2 pennies or 2 dimes and 7 pennies or 5 nickels and 2 pennies or 27 pennies).  
• We will continue working our way through Unit 5 next week.  We will be focusing on different strategies to use to solve word problems.  We teach the students a variety of strategies so they can choose the one that works best for them.

Science

• This week, we learned about why different parts of the Earth are colder or warmer than others.  We revisited an activity we did before break where students represented how the sun shines more on different parts of the Earth and then discussed how this would affect temperatures.
• We also started to discuss and learn about where water is solid or liquid on Earth.
• Be sure to ask your students why it is colder in Antarctica than it is in the Arctic.

Fundations

• This week we wrapped up Unit 7 in Fundations.  This unit was about open syllables and how they create a long vowel sound.  We also learned how y can make a long e and long i sound depending on how many syllables are in the word.
• Next week, we will start Unit 8.  This unit is about r-controlled syllables.  We will learn about /ar/ and /or/ and practice spelling words that have these spelling patterns.
• Our trick words next week are world, answer, different.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Kate and Elizabeth