Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Energy Assembly
Wow, what a great assembly today provided for free by Consumers Energy! This evening I am sending home a kit with your child that has a few items that are yours for free. All that I ask is that for homework this evening that you help your child complete the back page of the student guide booklet and turn it back into me as soon as possible. Enjoy and if you were in need of some new light bulbs, it’s your lucky day! Consumers is sending you 3 CFL bulbs, an LED night light, and a hand crank flashlight!!!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Great Conferences!
I had a great week, meeting with all of you for conferences. I loved getting to know you and having the opportunity to share some of the things that we’ve been doing here at school. If at any time you have additional questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact me.
Language Arts: As we get ready for Thanksgiving, we discussed and wrote about different things that we are all thankful for. We also continued using readers theaters to help with our expression when reading aloud. We are so fortunate to have so many actors that enjoy hamming it up in front of an audience
Math: Our new concepts we’ve been learning are multiplication facts starting with 0’s, 1’s, and 2’s and division. We will be starting multiplication testing after Thanksgiving so flashcards are a great addition to the daily homework routine.
Science: We will be starting our Forces and Motion unit. Your child will be exploring what makes things move and how friction and gravity slow things down or speed things up.
Social Studies: We are learning about mapping skills and the geography of Michigan. We are also learning about the very interesting history of Michigan before statehood.
Spelling: This week we are studying words that have the short I and long I sounds. Next week, since we only have two days…no spelling next week!
Dates to remember:
November 23rd, 24th, and 25th, No school.
December 7th: The Holiday concert at RHS Auditorium starting at 6:45 p.m. (This will be third grade only at this time.)
December 8th: Secret Santa shopping.
December 15TH: Holiday Celebration, more information to come.
December 16th: Last day of school before the Holiday Break.
HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!
Language Arts: As we get ready for Thanksgiving, we discussed and wrote about different things that we are all thankful for. We also continued using readers theaters to help with our expression when reading aloud. We are so fortunate to have so many actors that enjoy hamming it up in front of an audience
Math: Our new concepts we’ve been learning are multiplication facts starting with 0’s, 1’s, and 2’s and division. We will be starting multiplication testing after Thanksgiving so flashcards are a great addition to the daily homework routine.
Science: We will be starting our Forces and Motion unit. Your child will be exploring what makes things move and how friction and gravity slow things down or speed things up.
Social Studies: We are learning about mapping skills and the geography of Michigan. We are also learning about the very interesting history of Michigan before statehood.
Spelling: This week we are studying words that have the short I and long I sounds. Next week, since we only have two days…no spelling next week!
Dates to remember:
November 23rd, 24th, and 25th, No school.
December 7th: The Holiday concert at RHS Auditorium starting at 6:45 p.m. (This will be third grade only at this time.)
December 8th: Secret Santa shopping.
December 15TH: Holiday Celebration, more information to come.
December 16th: Last day of school before the Holiday Break.
HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Plant Projects
I absolutely LOVE all of the creative plant projects that are coming in. Just a reminder that they are due this Wednesday, November 2nd. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, thanks!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Happy Halloween!
That’s right, MEAP testing is over! That means that it will be back to our regular routine. Thank you to everyone once again for all of your support with the testing the last couple of weeks. Your kindness and encouragement helped make the children more confident and ready to do their best.
Language Arts: We are finishing the read aloud “Because of Winn-Dixie”. In the book Opal asks her dad to tell her 10 things about her mom, so we made a list of 10 things about each of us. This is a beautiful story of how a lonely and sad girl turns everything around once she meets a dog that she names Winn-Dixie.
We also continue to read AR books and take tests. Just a reminder, the children may read these books at home and at school. I am trying to encourage the kids to take at least one test a week. We discussed how exposing ourselves to different types of literature can help expand our vocabulary, increase our fluency, improve comprehension, and it can also show us different ways to write our own stories!
We also started doing text talk this week. We read a story and pull vocabulary words out and trying to incorporate them into our everyday speak. This week’s words are obedient, misconception, and despair.
Math: We have been focusing mostly on number stories, addition and subtraction practice, patterning, split sums algorithm and count up subtraction method. You may remember it as carrying and borrowing. This can be a difficult concept for the children. Please don’t be alarmed, it takes practice
Science: We are finishing our living things unit. Believe it or not, we still have 3 crayfish out of 4 living! Their names are Darth Vader, R2D2, and Rocky. They are all quite feisty but have been great pets. I hope everyone has seen the flower homework that came home last week. This is due on November 2nd.
Dates to Remember:
October
28 Halloween party.
Agenda:
1:40-2 All school recess
2-2:15 get into costumes
2:15-2:30 All School Costume Parade
* Parent set up for party during parade
2:30-3:10 Classroom party
3:10–3:30 Clean up & Kids get ready to leave
November
9th-10th Parent/Teacher Conferences. Look for slips to come home today
11th No school.
23-25 No school, Thanksgiving.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns. Have a great week!
Language Arts: We are finishing the read aloud “Because of Winn-Dixie”. In the book Opal asks her dad to tell her 10 things about her mom, so we made a list of 10 things about each of us. This is a beautiful story of how a lonely and sad girl turns everything around once she meets a dog that she names Winn-Dixie.
We also continue to read AR books and take tests. Just a reminder, the children may read these books at home and at school. I am trying to encourage the kids to take at least one test a week. We discussed how exposing ourselves to different types of literature can help expand our vocabulary, increase our fluency, improve comprehension, and it can also show us different ways to write our own stories!
We also started doing text talk this week. We read a story and pull vocabulary words out and trying to incorporate them into our everyday speak. This week’s words are obedient, misconception, and despair.
Math: We have been focusing mostly on number stories, addition and subtraction practice, patterning, split sums algorithm and count up subtraction method. You may remember it as carrying and borrowing. This can be a difficult concept for the children. Please don’t be alarmed, it takes practice
Science: We are finishing our living things unit. Believe it or not, we still have 3 crayfish out of 4 living! Their names are Darth Vader, R2D2, and Rocky. They are all quite feisty but have been great pets. I hope everyone has seen the flower homework that came home last week. This is due on November 2nd.
Dates to Remember:
October
28 Halloween party.
Agenda:
1:40-2 All school recess
2-2:15 get into costumes
2:15-2:30 All School Costume Parade
* Parent set up for party during parade
2:30-3:10 Classroom party
3:10–3:30 Clean up & Kids get ready to leave
November
9th-10th Parent/Teacher Conferences. Look for slips to come home today
11th No school.
23-25 No school, Thanksgiving.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns. Have a great week!
Friday, October 7, 2011
MEAP Begins...
We’ve enjoyed another wonderful week here at Valley View. Starting next week on Tuesday we will begin MEAP testing. We have three days of testing over the next two weeks. I find that children often do a better job with a snack. If you want to send a special snack with your child that is fine, but I will also be providing a snack in between testing. Remember to get plenty of sleep and eat a good breakfast. The most exciting part to the kids is that we have NO HOMEWORK during the MEAP. The only thing is that we still do spelling tests, so the children still need to study their words and take a test on Fridays.
Language Arts: We continue working hard to improve our writing. We talked about going back to edit and revise our work. For read aloud I have started a new book called “Because of Winn-Dixie”. We are getting close to finishing all of our lower case cursive letters. I am so impressed with how beautiful everyone’s handwriting is!
I have had a few questions about AR testing. The students need to have an AR book from the library that they read here and at home. They are required to take at least one a week and can take no more than one a day. On this week’s weekly report, I have attached your child’s testing information.
Math: We have finished unit one and moved into unit two this week. Concepts that we have been learning about are frames and arrows, practicing addition and subtraction, following rules for in and out tables, fact extensions, and more math games.
Science: The kids are enjoying learning about all the parts of a plants and flowers. It’s also so exciting to watch our crayfish. We have 3 out of 4 still with us.
Dates to Remember:
October
11 MEAP begins
28 Halloween party-Thank you so much to ChrisAnn Lilly our wonderful room mom for planning this year’s festivities. We look forward to an awesome party! Also a huge thank you to everyone that is donating items. Your generosity is greatly appreciated
Today’s candy sale was a big success. So big that we ran out and had to get more! Thank you so much for saving the day Laura Bargwell!!! We are looking to get a new electric pencil sharpener and dust buster for our room with the profit.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns.
Language Arts: We continue working hard to improve our writing. We talked about going back to edit and revise our work. For read aloud I have started a new book called “Because of Winn-Dixie”. We are getting close to finishing all of our lower case cursive letters. I am so impressed with how beautiful everyone’s handwriting is!
I have had a few questions about AR testing. The students need to have an AR book from the library that they read here and at home. They are required to take at least one a week and can take no more than one a day. On this week’s weekly report, I have attached your child’s testing information.
Math: We have finished unit one and moved into unit two this week. Concepts that we have been learning about are frames and arrows, practicing addition and subtraction, following rules for in and out tables, fact extensions, and more math games.
Science: The kids are enjoying learning about all the parts of a plants and flowers. It’s also so exciting to watch our crayfish. We have 3 out of 4 still with us.
Dates to Remember:
October
11 MEAP begins
28 Halloween party-Thank you so much to ChrisAnn Lilly our wonderful room mom for planning this year’s festivities. We look forward to an awesome party! Also a huge thank you to everyone that is donating items. Your generosity is greatly appreciated
Today’s candy sale was a big success. So big that we ran out and had to get more! Thank you so much for saving the day Laura Bargwell!!! We are looking to get a new electric pencil sharpener and dust buster for our room with the profit.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Another Day in Paradise!
We have enjoyed another fun and exciting week here in third grade. We ended the week meeting with our book buddies from Mrs. Fowle’s second grade class.
Did I mention it’s almost October? It’s hard to believe that fall is here. Time flies when you’re having fun!
Language Arts: We are reading the anthology “Miss Nelson is Missing”. We also have read aloud many books, including some of my favorites such as…”Skippy Jon Jones”, “We had a Picnic this Sunday Past”, “Do Unto Otters”, “Molly Lou Melon”, and many more. We have mostly focused on books that remind us of friendship and also using manners. We also take time to read and discuss our Weekly Readers.
Spelling: These past few weeks we practiced words ending with –s or –es and also some basic high frequency words. Just a reminder that each child creates their own individual list of words each week. I put a set list of words for kids to use if they have misplaced their list, or if they are absent Monday and didn’t create one.
Math: We are still doing many review activities in our math program. We have done number boxes, pictographs, calculator review, place value, and more addition and subtraction.
Technology: The children took a reading test and practiced using a program called Key Skills.
Science: I’m sure your child has already told you that we have some crayfish that have joined our room for our living things unit. We have been looking at plants and now will be learning all about animals. We have a terrarium full of plants and will be adding worms next week to watch them work under the soil. Science is so fun and exciting!
Just a reminder that next week Friday is the Valley View Voyage. Thank you ahead of time for all of your hard work collecting pledges. I am pledging $1 to each student, so feel free to add that to your total You should have all received a letter telling you about the upcoming MEAP testing. I just want to stress that if you need to pull your child out for any appointments to try to do it at another time. Our MEAP testing dates are Tuesday, October 11th, Wednesday, October 12th, Tuesday, October 18th.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns.
Did I mention it’s almost October? It’s hard to believe that fall is here. Time flies when you’re having fun!
Language Arts: We are reading the anthology “Miss Nelson is Missing”. We also have read aloud many books, including some of my favorites such as…”Skippy Jon Jones”, “We had a Picnic this Sunday Past”, “Do Unto Otters”, “Molly Lou Melon”, and many more. We have mostly focused on books that remind us of friendship and also using manners. We also take time to read and discuss our Weekly Readers.
Spelling: These past few weeks we practiced words ending with –s or –es and also some basic high frequency words. Just a reminder that each child creates their own individual list of words each week. I put a set list of words for kids to use if they have misplaced their list, or if they are absent Monday and didn’t create one.
Math: We are still doing many review activities in our math program. We have done number boxes, pictographs, calculator review, place value, and more addition and subtraction.
Technology: The children took a reading test and practiced using a program called Key Skills.
Science: I’m sure your child has already told you that we have some crayfish that have joined our room for our living things unit. We have been looking at plants and now will be learning all about animals. We have a terrarium full of plants and will be adding worms next week to watch them work under the soil. Science is so fun and exciting!
Just a reminder that next week Friday is the Valley View Voyage. Thank you ahead of time for all of your hard work collecting pledges. I am pledging $1 to each student, so feel free to add that to your total You should have all received a letter telling you about the upcoming MEAP testing. I just want to stress that if you need to pull your child out for any appointments to try to do it at another time. Our MEAP testing dates are Tuesday, October 11th, Wednesday, October 12th, Tuesday, October 18th.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, comments, or concerns.
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