THANK YOU!

Thank you so much for everything! This teacher feels SOOOO appreciated! We are already enjoying our classroom supplies. We love our mechanical pencils and now we have lead to put in them! The flowers were beautiful and our classroom looked like a spring garden! Don't get me started on the treats! Oh Wow! Yes, I am sharing those with both the classroom and my family. The door is the best in the school (I'm not biased or anything!). All my (sorry, I consider them mine at school) cute kids with their mustaches are perfect.

We are continuing with all our school work. We have completed our SAGE test in writing. I must say what I saw looked good. These students have come so far this year. The expectations have been raised and guess what!? They have risen to meet the challenge! We will be testing in Language Arts next Monday and Tuesday and then in math the next Monday and Tuesday. Please help them prepare by helping them get a good nights rest and a good breakfast.

We are looking forward to 2 field trips. We are going to This Is The Place monument on Thursday, May 22nd, and to Clarke Planetarium on June 3rd. We are riding Trax to the Planetarium and are so glad that UTA has provided free passes! The last day of school in June 4th and the whole school will participate in field day. All this fun kind of makes you wish you were back in elementary school, right?

We are SMART!!

Sage testing starts this Monday morning with a check on our writing skills.  We will continue this week Monday thru Wednesday.  Please help your student by encouraging them to get plenty of sleep, and come prepared having had a good breakfast.  Also please send a snack with your student for recess.  Pushing our brain cells to the max sure makes us hungry!



The Current Event was cancelled this month in order for us to spend more time on preparing/reviewing for our tests.

Homework this week consists of 1 math page and reading 20 minutes every night.  Because of testing this week our homework is minimized.   Have a great week-  we will!

Welcome back from Spring Break!

Welcome back from a wonderful spring break.  So many students described their activities and  adventures ranging from camp outs, family parties, St. George, and Easter egg hunts.  How fun!  We are all glad to be back and are working hard to improve our fluency, writing, and math know-how!  We love learning!

This week in Reading Street our question of the week is:  "Why do we have symbols that represent freedom?"  Today we talked about what freedom means and we shared our background knowledge about the Flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the Alamo. Did you know  that it took 18 years to design and construct the Statue of Liberty. The statue then was disassembled and shipped to the United States. Here, an enormous base was built for the statue. The statue was reassembled, and Liberty has welcomed newcomers to the harbor ever since.

We will be finishing up our area and perimeter unit in math this week . We will be reviewing and reteaching much of perimeter and area over the next couple of weeks.

We are still pushing forward with multiplication and division timed tests for the next 3 weeks.  We won't be able to do pass-offs everyday but we will do checks twice a week.  There's still time to scoop up that ice cream with a little practice every night.  Our multiplication ice cream party is scheduled for May 21 at 2:00 p.m.  We will be needing a few moms or dads to help out with serving, so if you are interested in helping, please let me know.  Many hands make light work- and it's a lot of fun!  Thanks for all your support! 

 

Sage testing will be starting next week beginning April 28-30 for writing, May 12-13 for Language Arts, and May 19-20 for Math.  Hope this helps while you are planning appointments and vacations.  Have a great week- thanks for all you do to support your student and me!

Click On The Link!

Book Reports Are Due Thursday, March 27

This week we will be learning about customary and metric units of measurement.  We are measuring our smiles to the nearest 1/2 inch just to see how happy we really are.  After that we'll combine our individual measurements and see how big our classroom smile is!

We are continuing to work in practice stations with a focus on fractions as well as passing off multiplication/division facts.  Yes!  We love math!
In Language this week we will be reading the story Jalapeño Bagels.  Our narrator is trying to decide what treat to take to his class at school. As he helps his parents make food items in the bakery shop, he goes over his choices. Able to draw from his mother’s Latin American heritage and his father’s Jewish heritage, he has an unusual array of choices.
Our comprehension strategy that we will focus on this week is Drawing Conclusions.  When we draw conclusion we take what we read, and add it to what we know and then the mixture becomes our conclusion.
We will also be learning about comparative and superlative adverbs.  Some adverbs compare action.  To compare two actions, add -er to many adverbs.  to compare three or more actions add -est to many adverbs.
Our book report trains are due this Thursday, March 27.  I look forward to seeing all our fabulous work!

Windy, Wet, Wonderful March

March is blowin' hard! It's blowing in Spring. We are working hard inside the classroom. We have learned so much this year and are still cramming knowledge in as fast as we can!


We are working on fractions in Math and are getting ready to test. We are reading about other cultures in reading and trying all sorts of comprehension strategies to understand what we read better.


Thanks to all the parents who volunteer! We love our Friday Helpers, our Homework parties, and our parents who do all the little things like cutting things out!


We are looking forward to our Multiplication Banana Split Party that is coming up! Keep practicing those multiplication and division facts!!!

Just a little reminder… our traditional literature book reports are due March 27.  Don't forget we are completing a train project that focuses on name, title and author, a picture of your favorite part, and a paragraph that describes the setting. Good luck with your reading and project!

Parent Teacher Conference Week

Our new unit in Reading Street asks the question:  What happens when two cultures come together?  We will be looking specifically this week at the influence culture has on our dress.  So far we've decided that customs, climate and tradition directly influences what we wear.  We will be learning about synonyms, adjectives, and articles as well as learning how to compare and contrast and visualize for our comprehension skills.
In our math groups this week we will be pushing forward with multiplication/division timed drills as well as introducing fractions as equal parts.
I look forward to seeing you for Parent/ Teacher conferences this week.  See you then!

Our question we will be discussing this week is, "What unique traits does it take to be the first to do something"?  Today we read a story about the first Female Hispanic- American astronaut.  Dr. Ellen Ochoa became an astronaut in 1991, but not before she earned 3 degrees in physics, science, and electrical engineering.  She became part of the Discovery crew and also helped develop the International Space Station. We decided it would take imagination, creativity, determination, intelligence, skills and bravery to do all that Dr. Ochoa did to be the first in her field.  We will be reading about other unique individuals this week who were the first in their own field like Gertrude Ederle. Please ask your child what she did first!

We are looking forward to the Valentines Party on Friday at 11:00. Please bring a Valentine box that you make at home (one that will fit on their desk) that morning. Please include Valentines for 24 students. There won't be a list of names going home.

Keep working on those multiplication facts! :) Banana Split Party is coming soon!!

Super Fabulous!

We Are Awesome!

Great work for all those that have turned in book report projects last week.  Awesome job of not only caricatures, but also understanding the biography that was read. We are in the process of our oral reports and presentations to our class and will be finishing them up over the week.   I will post a picture of our fabulous  work in the next few days!
This month we will be presenting current events instead of book reports.  We will begin our presentations next Tuesday and will continue through the month.  A calendar will be coming home this week with your student.  Remember...current events mean that the news is current and recent.  Forms for current events are found inside your homework folder.  Good luck students!
This week in our literacy study we will be asking ourselves, "Why is it valuable to have unique interests?"  We will be reading about hobbies and interests and individuals who shine.  Today our journal prompt was, "What do you like to do most when you have free time?"  It was fun to see how we are alike and different with our thinking.
Our spelling pattern for the week is studying the meanings of the common prefixes, pre__, out__, mid__, over__, and de__. 
We will reviewing cause and effect as well as fact and opinion this week. 
Because it is a short week, we will be turning in homework on Thursday.  Please remember to track your reading minutes and turn your white slips in on Thursday.  Keep up the great reading!
in math we are still passing off multiplication facts and focusing on division facts.  We will be using fact families to help us find missing quotients.  Multiplication progression reports are coming home today in your students's homework folder.
We will be having a Valentine's Day party on Friday, February 14 at 11:00.  This is a great time to feel someone's bucket!  Please make sure that if you are handing out cards or treats that day that you are including everyone in our class.  I will be sending home a note with student names included.  We will also be collecting our valentines in a container.  You can be as creative as you wish, but the container needs to fit on your student's desk.  Please bring containers on February 14 and not before- unfortunately we just don't have the space for storage.
Thanks for all you do for your student.  Have a great week!

Its All About Basketball

This week we are learning basketball skills in P.E. and we are reading about basketball.This week in Reading Street we will be reading a story about James Naismith, The Man Who Invented Basketball.  Did you know basketball started by shooting balls into peach baskets? The question we will be answering this week is how do talents make someone unique?
Our spelling pattern this week is irregular plurals (ex: wolf-wolves).
We will be focusing on generalizing, and summarizing for our comprehension studies.  Using what I know, and what I am learning I can make statements using key words: most of the time, most, all, few, etc. to make a generalized statement.  When I summarize a text can I do that in 1-2 sentences?  Can I do it in 20 words? Summarizing is a brief statement focusing on the most important events or details.
We are beginning math this week with a look at division meanings and how  that connects to multiplication.  We are also working hard to pass off multiplication timed drills in anticipation of our Sundae party celebration after spring break.  Please keep practicing at least 5 minutes every day to work on fluency.  
We held our classroom spelling bee last Friday and everyone did a great job of participating!  Congratulations to Juleah Taylor, John Byington, Madilee Shellman who will be moving on to the school spelling bee!  Good luck!

Review/Testing Week

We will be reviewing Unit Three this week as we prepare for  formative assessments this Friday.  The stories in Unit 3 are about nature and the skills that help living things thrive.  In Week 1 we read the story, How Do You Raise a Raisin?  This nonfiction story tells all kinds of facts about raisins—how they are grown, how they get to your table, and their importance to people throughout history.
During Week 2 we read the story, Pushing Up the Sky.  Myths help us use our imagination to create
stories that explain the natural world. This is a myth that explains how the sky moved to where it is today.  Week 3's selection was Seeing Stars.  Stars are always in the sky. Stars are spheres of fiery gas. In Week 4 we read the story,  A Symphony of Whales.  A young girl has a special gift that helps her save the whales from certain death.  Week 5 we read Around One Cactus.  In the harsh climate of the Sonoran desert, the saguaro cactus is critical to the survival of other creatures, from tiny hummingbirds to desert foxes. These stories helped us think about how people and nature interact with each other.
Some of the  comprehension skills we learned about during Unit 3 were Cause and Effect and Drawing Conclusions.  A cause tells why something happened. An effect is what happened.  When you draw a conclusion, you  reach a decision after thinking about facts, details, and what you already know about something.
Some vocabulary skills learned this unit and will be reviewed this week are homophones, context clues, and dictionary skills.  Homophones are words that are pronounced the same way but have
different meanings and different spellings.  Context clues are words and sentences around an unknown word that help you figure out the meaning of the unfamiliar word.  A dictionary is a book that explains the meanings of words arranged in alphabetical order with guide words at the top of each page.
 Testing
We will be testing in Reading on all five units we've studied and in math on multiplication Units 5&6.  Then throw in the class Spelling Bee on Thursday and its officially a very busy week!!

Spelling Bee and Biography Book Report

To prepare ourselves for our school wide Spelling Bee, we will be having a class Spelling Bee this week.  The list of grade level words can be found on the back of the informational sheet that came home in homework folders.  All are encouraged to participate in the class Spelling Bee on Thursday.  Good luck students! 

                          

We’re busy and working hard on one of the most important computation concepts for your third grader this year: multiplication!  Future math concepts will be taught with the assumption that the students have mastered these basic facts.  Below is the schedule for passing off facts.  Please post it so that you can help your child master them at home.

Procedure:

We will be studying and practicing multiplication/division fact families at school according to the schedule below. Math drills will be given daily with the opportunity to pass off fact families 1-2 times per week.  Students may work at their own pace, but should try to keep up with the class schedule as much as possible.  Automaticity is the goal!

Homework:

       For the next few months, math homework will center around practicing multiplication facts.  Students may use flashcards, websites, or other practice strategies that work well for them. There are many ways to memorize math facts.  Your child should also continue reviewing facts that he/she has already learned. Websites for games and worksheets can be found under “Multiplication” on the class blog, and flashcards are available upon request.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  We’ll be celebrating the children’s success with an Ice Cream Party after Spring Break. Good luck, students!

Date                                         Math Fact Families                              Ingredient Earned

Jan. 10                                                 x0-x1, x10                               bowl

Jan. 17                                                 x2                                            spoon

Jan. 24                                                 x5                                            1^st scoop of ice cream

Jan. 31                                                 x9                                            1^st topping

Feb. 6                                                   x3                                            napkin 

Feb. 14                                                 x4                                            banana 

Feb. 21                                                 x0-5 Review                             2^nd scoop of ice cream

Feb. 27                                                 x6                                            2^nd topping

Mar. 14                                                 x7                                            whipped cream

Mar. 21                                                 x0-7 Review                             sprinkles

Mar. 28                                                x8                                            oreos

Apr.  4                                                 x0-10                                       skittles/ gummy bears/?

                                               

This month our genre for book reports is Biography.  The next several weeks will be full of biographies as we study in class about many  people who made a difference for good in the world.  Today during our library rotation students chose biographies that interested them and are interesting to read.  The project that we are completing to go along with our reading is a caricature poster.   Below is a list of things that should be included on each child's poster.  Biography book reports are due Thursday, January 30th.  Happy Reading!

Requirements: 

• On a poster board, draw a large picture/caricature of the individual whose biography you read. 
• The illustrations must be done by hand, by the students, and neatly colored. 
• Outline everything with a darker color or a black fine tip marker.
• Along the sides of the character, write or type sentences and draw a line to each of the following body parts:

Forehead (Mind):    Write something the person thought.  
Eyes:                       Write something the person saw.  
Ears:                        Write something the person heard.  
Heart:                      Write something the person felt or believed.  
Hands and/or Feet:  Write something the person did.