MESSAGE FROM MR. HILL- PARENTS PLEASE READ!

The cold weather is fast approaching.  We ask parents to dress their youngster as warmly as possible prior to their leaving for school.  Even though some children ride the bus to school, they still will be spending a considerable amount of time outdoors on the playground, particularly during the noon hour.  Our school district policy states that when it is not raining or when the temperature is 10 degrees or above, pupils are not permitted into the building until the usual time of 8:25 AM (unless they are having breakfast) and 12:45 PM for 4K so be sure to dress your youngster for our Wisconsin winters.  On rainy days or when the temperature is below 10 degrees, pupils are permitted to enter the building at 8:15 AM and will spend the noon hour indoors.  A red flag will be placed on the doors indicating early entrance due to inclement weather.  Please be sure your child has a hat and a pair of mittens.  PLEASE LABEL THEIR ITEMS SO IT’S EASIER TO RETURN IF THEY ARE LOST.

PILSUNG!

Joseph Hill Principal

General Mitchell Elementary

414-604-4511

hillj@wawm.k12.wi.us

PARENTS,
Mr. Hill would like you to complete survey. Thank you.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mitchelltechsurvey

EVENTS:
Happy Birthday to Rane and Denric. The cake and donuts were delicious.
Please label LUNCH Boxes, winter coats, boots, hats, mittens etc…
MATH:

·        Find a Rule-add, subtract, multiply, and divide

·        Patterns with numbers

On Tuesdays, we will have MM test on fluency of subtraction. Fridays’ MM test will be multiplication. They will need to complete both multiplication and subtraction as Homework over the weekend.  Please look at our Mitchell Blog under library to find many web sites that focus on math skills.
READING: 

·         Connecting the known info to understand new learning and recognize background knowledge may be inaccurate to clear up misconceptions.

·         Students making inferences as they read and support with details from their stories.

·         Working on base words and endings

·         Prefixes

WRITING:

• Working on organization within our writing
• Strong beginnings, middle and endings

INQUIRY:

• Students exploring customs, traditions, and different cultures.

NEWS UPDATES: 

• Keep bringing to school box tops, Campbell’s soup labels, etc...
• Orchestra concert on Tuesday, December 11 at General Mitchell School
• Winter Sing on Thursday, December 13, at Hale High School
• Elf Workshop on Friday, December 14

EVENTS:
Happy Birthday to Adam-The brownies were outstanding!
Congratulations to Polina our Class President, Ayden our Vice-President and Alyssa our Secretary. These students were nominated and presented speeches to their class. I am impressed and proud of their thoughtful speeches. The class worked collaboratively and put together responsibilities for these positions.
WKCE TESTING is over and your children took the tests seriously and did their best.
Winter is around the corner:
Please keep your child home if they have symptoms of the flu. We went over how important it is to continuously wash our hands with soap and water before we eat and after using the bathroom.
Please label winter coats, boots, hats, mittens etc…
MATH: 

·         Working on multiplication facts 0-12

·         Differentiated groups working on multiplying double digit numbers with single digits

·         Story problems using multiplication showing number sentences and how they group

On Tuesdays, we will have MM test on fluency of subtraction. Fridays’ MM test will be multiplication. All students have passed 5minutes addition. CONGRATULATIONS! They will need to complete both multiplication and subtraction as Homework over the weekend.  Please look at our Mitchell Blog under library to find many web sites that focus on math skills.
READING: 

·         Students read government inquiry books and wrote down facts of new learning

·         We continue to work on main ideas and supporting them with details from the story in reading and writing

·         Finding compound words in our reading

WRITING:

• Worked on editing our rough drafts on topic: First Day of School
• Publishing our stories to make class book

INQUIRY:

• Worked on posters of our new learning on government
• Used computer lab to explore where to find topics about government

NEWS UPDATES: 

• Keep bringing to school box tops, Campbell’s soup labels, etc...
• No school on Wednesday-Friday Thanksgiving break

Here our your children working on inquiry learning and sharing out their learning.

Celebrate Halloween Bingo

Great Food!

Super delicious

Great Friends

THANKS
Thank you for supplying goodies for our Fall Festival celebration: Abigail’s Mom, Shawn’s family, Adam’s family, Everett’s family, Hassan’s Family. They were delicious!
WKCE TESTING BEGINS MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2012 FOR SOME OF MY STUDENTS IN ROOM 101W.OUR SCHEDULE HAS CHANGED NOW: it is AS FOLLOWS for the others: TUESDAY,OCTOBER 30-AM,WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31-AM, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1-AM, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6-AM. THE FOCUS WILL BE ON READING ON THESE DAYS.TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6-AM, WEDNEDAY, NOVEMBER 7-AM, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8-AM-THE FOCUS WILL BE MATH ON THESE DATES. Please encourage your child to do their best, sleep and eat well, and come to school ready to learn.
MATH: 

·         Practiced addition and subtraction regrouping two and three digits numbers

·         Rounding to the nearest ten

·         Story problems using addition and subtraction, showing work and verbally explaining.

On Tuesdays, we will have MM test on fluency of subtraction. Fridays’ MM test will be addition or multiplication depending where your child is. They will need to complete both addition/multiplication and subtraction as Homework over the weekend.  Please look at our Mitchell Blog under library to find many web sites that focus on math skills.
READING: 

·         Students read government inquiry books and wrote down facts of new learning.

·         Students read a practice story for WKCE and answered questions. We worked on eliminating answers, key vocabulary to look for, and how to write paragraph about main ideas and supporting them with details from the story

WRITING:

• Worked on revising our rough drafts on topic: First Day of School
• Review Contractions

INQUIRY:

• Worked on note taking
• Used computer lab to explore where to find topics about government
• Shared out new learning

NEWS UPDATES: 

• Keep bringing to school box tops, Campbell’s soup labels, etc...
• November 1-PTA Food Drive

Flat Stanley with Kassidy

Flat Stanley with Everett

Flat Stanley with Emiliano

Exciting News
Our third grade class led our Fish Assembly on Friday. All students made announcements individually or with a group. A special thank you to Rane and Emiliano for sharing their writing with the school. WE had many stories to share, but the mile run announcement of names did not allow us time to have more students read. WE WERE ROCK STARS FOR A MORNING!

WKCE TESTING BEGINS MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2012 FOR SOME OF MY STUDENTS IN ROOM 101W.OUR SCHEDULE IS AS FOLLOWS for the others: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31-AM, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1-AM, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5-AM. THE FOCUS WILL BE ON READING ON THESE DAYS.TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6-AM, WEDNEDAY, NOVEMBER 7-AM, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8-AM-THE FOCUS WILL BE MATH ON THESE DATES. Please encourage your child to do their best, sleep and eat well, and come to school ready to learn.
MATH: 

·         Practiced addition and subtraction regrouping two and three digits numbers

·         Rounding to the nearest ten

·         Story problems using addition and subtraction, showing work and verbally explaining.

On Tuesdays, we will have MM test on fluency of subtraction. Fridays’ MM test will be addition or multiplication depending where your child is. They will need to complete both addition/multiplication and subtraction as Homework over the weekend.  Please look at our Mitchell Blog under library to find many web sites that focus on math skills. 
READING: 

·         Students made an anchor chart on what to do when meaning breaks down as they read.

·         I modeled and they came up with fix-up strategies.

·         They read to identify main ideas and make predictions in their GR books..

WRITING:

• Using the 5 W’s to add details to stories(who, why, when, where, what)
• Worked on prewriting and rough drafts on topic: First Day of School
• Review Contractions
• INQUIRY:
• Students brainstormed list of resources to use when inquiring about new topics
• Worked on note taking
• Used computer lab to explore where to find topics about governmentNEWS UPDATES: 
• October 24-Halloween Dance 6-8pm
• Keep bringing to school box tops, Campbell’s soup labels, etc...
• NO SCHOOL for students on Thursday and Friday (25^th and 26^th)
• November 1-PTA Food Drive
• Wednesday, October 24 -2^nd and 3^rd will participate in Fall Activities with Mrs. Hart, Mrs. Germain, and Mrs. Franz’s classes.

Flat Stanley Visits with Vance, Polina, and Hasson's Family!!

MATH:  On Tuesdays, we will have MM test on fluency of subtraction. Fridays’ MM test will be addition or multiplication depending where your child is. They will need to complete both addition/multiplication and subtraction as Homework over the weekend. We worked on subtracting two and three digits numbers. Please look at our Mitchell Blog under library to find many web sites that focus on math skills.
READING:  Flat Stanley came home with your child. He is to write down his adventures with your family. This project is due on Wednesday, October 17, 2012. Have FUN!
GUIDED READING ROTATIONS:  Students are working on predictions, analyzing text, and making connections to their own life.

WRITING: We continue to work on main ideas and supporting them with details that follow their topic. We are reviewing that every sentence needs a capital letter to begin sentence and an end mark. Students wrote to friends in the classroom. We are patiently waiting for our pen pals to write to us from Texas.

INQUIRY: Who came up with Pokémon and why? Research completely on the computer.

NEWS UPDATES:  

THANK YOU FAMILIES FOR COMING TO CONFERENCES! I enjoyed meeting with you and loved updating you on the progress of your child. Let us keep up this communication.

October 24-Halloween Dance 6-8pm

Keep bringing to school box tops, Campbell’s soup labels, etc...

If you look real closely, you may see the additional freckles on our face after we drank Freckle Juice.

MATH:  On Tuesdays, we will have MM test on fluency of subtraction. Fridays’ MM test will be addition or multiplication depending where your child is. They will need to complete both addition/multiplication and subtraction as Homework over the weekend. We worked on adding two and three digits numbers and their place values.
READING:  Students are listening to Flat Stanley and practicing accuracy of words they are not sure of by Flip / Flopping vowels. Trying short vowels then long vowels to figure out correct words. We began our Stephanie Harvey toolkit with our first lesson by reading How Many Days to America. We worked on monitoring our comprehension by listening to our inner conversations and paying attention to our thinking as we read. Students left tracks of their thinking: questions they had, connections, and feelings. (They marked these tracks with their post-its and have discussions whole group and in small groups.
GUIDED READING ROTATIONS:  Students are using post-its to leave tracks for discussion about the main ideas and questions they have.

WRITING: We continue to work on main ideas and supporting them with details that follow their topic. We are reviewing that every sentence needs a capital letter to begin sentence and an end mark.

NEWS UPDATES:  Conferences on Thursday, October 11, 2012 beginning at 3:45-8:30. Please be prompt because the allotted time is fifteen minutes. Please bring questions you have about your child.

October 24-Halloween Dance 6-8pm

MATH
3rd graders worked on story problems, addition and subtraction fact families, number lines and practiced addition math facts. Students will begin to go to different 2/3 classrooms based on their needs. This will be fluid and continue to change based on learning targets. We will start subtraction mad minutes next week Tuesday. Your child will receive a “cheese sheet” like the one they received for addition. This will be homework on certain days instead of addition MM- it will be in their assignment notebook.
READING
Students finished listening to the story Freckle Juice. They worked on understanding when comprehension breaks down to stop, think, and reread. We talked and practiced how to cross check for accuracy. Ask your child to show you how they do this. Students also had the opportunity to taste the freckle juice recipe. (revised of course) On Wednesday, they received a few more freckles than they came to school with.

GUIDED READING ROTATIONS

Students are rotating for guided reading groups based on their reading levels. Students will be assessed on their abilities and needs. We continue to get know your child and their skills.

WRITING

This week we used graphic organizers and wrote our rough drafts for the West Allis West Milwaukee District writing assessment. Students will be assessed on their ability to use the six trait writing skills. Final copies will be completed this week. Future lessons and assignments for individuals’ students will be created using the results of these assessments.

NEWS UPDATES

Mr. Hill would like parents to please send a separate note or make a phone call to the office to inform us of any upcoming absences your child may be having. Thank you for your support.

September 28-Mitchell in Motion Finale

October 24-Halloween Dance 6-8pm