So Busy!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I can’t believe we only have two weeks until break!


Math: We are finishing unit 4. We are doing many activities with graphs and answering questions using skills such as place value and multiplication. We are also taking timed multiplication tests. Please check your child’s weekly report to see how they are doing!

Language Arts: We are currently reading Traders in Time. It is fun reading about two young boys and their adventures when they travel back 300 years ago. We also continue to revise and edit our writing. Currently we are looking at our writing and trying to zoom in on a certain moment and write as much detail as possible to describe that moment. We also had a great time at the first AR store. The kids get points for every test they pass and at the end of the month they can use those points to get prizes. Reading with a fun incentive!

Science: We continue to look at the earth and the materials that we find. We focused last week on soil and what makes up soil. This week we will be looking at how precipitation can make an impact on soil.

Dates to remember:
December
8th: Secret Santa shopping. We will be going 10:15-11:15, so if you would like your child to purchase items, please remember to send money with them this Wednesday. Please encourage your child to come with a list and approximate amount they should spend on each person.
13th: Music concert at the High School auditorium. * Students 6:35 in the choir room * Concert time 6:45 PM
16th: Class Christmas Party. Thanks again for all of your donations. Your generosity is amazing!
17th: The last day of school before Christmas Break.
January
3rd: School Resumes
18th: Lansing field trip.

Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns.

A Few Reminders

Friday, December 3rd: Michigan T-shirt orders due if you would like your child to have one, they are $6 each. We also are doing the Friday candy sale this week. All proceeds go towards Haiti donations and God's Kitchen.

Wednesday, December 8th: Secret Santa shopping. This is a great opportunity for your child to do some Christmas shopping on their own. Just send them with cash or a check made out to Valley View PTO if you are interested in purchasing items.

Monday, December 13th: Our Holiday music concert @ 6:45 at the high school auditorium.

Thursday, December 16th: Our Christmas party! Please let me know if you are interested in donating items or helping with the party.

Friday, December 17th: Last day of school before Christmas Break!

Monday, January 3rd: School resumes.

Tuesday, January 18th: Lansing Field trip. More info coming soon!

See You Soon!

I look forward to seeing all of you at conferences this week! Please let me know if you are unable to attend your child’s conference and we will reschedule at your convenience.

Spelling: This week we are studying words that have the short and long i sound. Just a heads up that we will have no spelling the week of Thanksgiving.

Language Arts: Friday we will be finishing our read aloud book “Because of Winn-Dixie”. As a culminating activity we will watch the movie and compare it to the book this Friday. If you have any objections to your child seeing the movie, please let me know. We also have been learning different strategies for writing during our writing workshop. Our strategies include writing about a person and telling about a specific memory with that person and also writing about a place and telling about a specific memory with that place. I’m trying to get the children to give more details and try to write more in depth.

Math: We are now in unit 3. The children are doing a tremendous amount of measuring, figuring of perimeter and area, and more practice with money.

Social Studies: We continue learning different facts about our Michigan history. We also had a wonderful time listening to the author of “Sooper Yooper”, Mark Neuman. He discussed the many invasive species that have come to Michigan over the years and how we need to work hard to protect our state and great lakes!

Computer Lab: We enjoyed making our top ten lists of why we are thankful. I know that I’m very thankful for my wonderful students and families!

Dates to Remember:

November

16^th: We visit the book fair.

17^th: Evening conferences.

18^th: Evening conferences.

24^th-26^th: No school, Thanksgiving break.

December

8^th: Secret Santa shopping

13^th: Holiday music program 6:45-7:15 p.m.in the RHS auditorium.

16^th: Holiday celebration

17^th: Last day of school before break

Have a Wonderful Week!

Halloween Party!

Halloween Fun!

Happy Halloween!

What a spooktacular day! Thank you so much for helping make our party a huge success. Whether you volunteered or donated items, I really appreciate your generosity. I also want to thank everyone for donating to our classroom basket. I hope to see you there!

Language Arts: We continue working on revising and editing our work. We have also practiced adding more details to our writing by starting with pictures and writing after sketching out the scenes of our stories.

Science: We just finished our unit on Forces and Motion. The kids did great and we had so much fun learning about friction, force, push and pull, why things move, the speed and direction of movement, the affect gravity has on objects, and much more!

Social Studies: This week we kicked off our Michigan unit. We discussed natural resources and we learned about copper mining in northern Michigan. We found out that long ago people use to use copper for many things including making jewelry. We made our own copper necklaces and discussed that if we had made our jewelry long ago we could've used it to barter for other goods. Next week we will switch and visit all of the other third grade teachers to learn more interesting facts about Michigan.

Math: We have been focusing mostly on number stories and also addition and subtraction facts. The children are also showing off their knowledge of those facts and working on multi-digit addition and subtraction. Some of you have asked when multiplication timed testing begins. We will start right after Thanksgiving. I will add where your child is on their weekly report so you know where they are at the end of each week.

Next week I will be sending home conference confirmation slips. If you still haven’t sent your slip in, please do so as soon as possible! Have a wonderful weekend and go Rams!!!

Who's Ready For MEAP?

We’ve enjoyed another wonderful week here at Valley View. Starting this week on Tuesday we will begin MEAP testing. We have three days of testing over the next two weeks. This means NO HOMEWORK until Monday, October 25^th!!! I appreciate all of the snack donations. Thanks in advance for your generosity! Remember to get plenty of sleep and eat a good breakfast. I also am very proud of the many students that are doing the electronic detox. Way to go!

Language Arts: We continue working hard to improve our writing. We talked about going back to edit and revise our work. We are also working on a readers theater that we will perform for our book buddies this Friday afternoon.

Math: We have finished unit one and moved into unit two. Concepts that we have been learning about are frames and arrows, practicing addition and subtraction, following rules for in and out tables, and more math games.

Science: The kids are enjoying learning about forces and motion. We have talked about how the use of push and pull and why you would use it to change to motion of an object. We have also learned about friction and what it does to motion.

The parent auction at English Hills will be October 29^th. Our classroom basket will be available to bid on. The theme again is “Pamper yourself”. Thank you so much for those who have donated or plan to. Also another big thank you to Joanne Gerhard for organizing our basket!

Dates to Remember:

October 12 MEAP begins 29 Parent auction at English Hills Picture retakes 29 Halloween party

Some of you have asked about when the Lansing field trip will be. Our class will be going Tuesday, January 18^th. Just to let you know, the children need to come early that day (7:30 a.m.) and we leave at 7:45 a.m. to ensure that we make it to Lansing in plenty of time. Look for future notes to come next month!

Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns.