I hope you all enjoyed your Spring Break as much as you could! My kids and I stuck around our house as much as we could. We were EXTREMELY grateful for Wednesday when the sun was out and the temps were nice. The outside time was MUCH needed. Today we are just doing random chores and we might start a big puzzle I ordered from Amazon earlier this week. ;) I know there is so much question as to what comes after this week. For the next two weeks there are so many simple things you can do to help keep your student on track. I will link a Padlet you got in your email on Wednesday with some resources and if I come across any great ones I will add them to our “Stories” tab/ Page on Dojo. I will also try to remember to add them to our blog. ( But I think that most of you access Dojo more than our blog). Students can still access their Google Classroom and work on programs we use at school, too! (Google Sign In reminder at the bottom) What Can We Work on at Home? If you don’t have your child do anything else PLEASE have them read- every single day for at least 25 minutes. We were sure to send books home last Friday and I know that many have great books at home. Not reading for 3 weeks will be just like not working out for 3 weeks (or longer!). That muscle gets weak, stamina is lost, and they will regress. Working on multiplication facts is also another great, easy one to do. Both of these things are technically our nightly homework. Having a 5th grader this year, I can tell you from the parent side, knowing their facts will help them so, so much in the future. Your student knows the last multiple they passed before break (2, 3, 4, or 5’s) . Just have them work up from there! Take it one multiple at a time. For example, once they master their 3’s from memory, move onto the 4’s. Kids can also keep a daily journal. They are living history as far as these generations go.I mean, we thought the Ice Storm of 2007 was crazy, and it was, but we have never been quarantined and shut down like this before. Just short daily writings about what their days are like. It will keep them in the habit of writing and might be a fun artifact for them to look back on. Here are some other resources for you to work on. A lot of these are interactive learning/ practice sites. Some are set up as games and some are more video/ practice style learning. Here is the Padlet that was sent out with our info this week. There are a LOT of great resources on here that we use in the classroom. I use Readworks a lot in our class and small groups to work on skills. We also use Khan Academy. Students can log in with their Google logins that they should know if they don’t , I will link an example at the bottom of how you can easily figure that out and can log in at home. Kahn provides adaptive practice, or what the kids hear me call “open practice” at school. Open practice means they don’t need to work on an assigned skill. It will give them what they are ready for next. I am going to leave it at that for now. :) Just see what works for you and your family. There are so many at home or “extended learning” schedules out there. Use or modify one of those. They all still include watching T.V. ,playing, and time with your family. Thank you for your patience as we navigate these uncharted waters. Thank you to each of you who work in a hospital, clinic, or nursing home setting at all. Thank you if you work at a restaurant or retail store and you are literally keeping us going right now. Thank you if you or a loved one drives a truck or works for a railroad- we know you are working as hard as you can to provide for us all right now. Google Login: Just go to the Google homepage and click on the nine squares to login. If they click on the Classroom, they should be prompted to log in. **We only use Google at school and so please forgive me if it’s a little different on another type of browser. Log in EXAMPLE: First 3 letters of first name + First 3 letters of last name+ Day they were born @ willardr2.net So- Carrie Letterman and I was born on the 8th of November. (any single digit date will need a 0 in front of it.) [email protected] (this is not a real address for me so I wouldn’t email it. ;)) * Password: tiger+ (your child’s lunch pin) So if my lunch pin was 12345, then my password would be tiger12345 Link to Google Classroom: (your child will have to login ) https://classroom.google.com/c/NDEyNDE3Nzc5MTJa Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! I'll be in touch again soon! :)
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The second semester is off to a great start! We have started an opinion writing unit and have been talking about point of view in reading. In math, we have been working on rounding to the nearest 10 and 100 this week and next week will start adding and subtracting within 1000. Homework: Just a reminder to be working on our homework that we have in 3rd grade! Students know (and have known) that they should be working on multiplication facts, reading 20 minutes a night, and spelling.. All three of these things are extremely important for students this year and in years to come! They don’t have to work for hours a night on these things. Multiplication facts and spelling can be done anywhere- in the car, waiting for practice, while making dinner, etc. For multiplication facts, start on the 2’s and work your way up as students master them. Then they can do a mixed review once they have mastered their 2’s through their 10’s. :) Students will also start tracking these in their leadership notebooks each week so they will know what multiple they need to work on. Coming Up: Next week is Super Bowl Spirit Week! Students may dress up to celebrate and support the Chiefs the week leading up to the Super Bowl! Valentines Day/ Party- February 14th will be our Valentine’s Day party. It will stay at our same time (11:45-12:30). Be watching for more details and a sign up sheet in the next week or so! Students can make a box or bag to collect their valentines in. It must be something they can take on the bus with them and can sit on their desk. I will send home a class list next week. We ask that if students choose to pass out valentines, they bring one for each of our 17 friends in our class. **February 14th is also a ½ day. Students will release at 12:30 that day. Upcoming Dates- January 31- January Tiger Pride @ 2:30 February 14- Valentines Party/ Half Day for Students February 17th- SNOW MAKEUP DAY! School in session! February 27th- Family Reading Night from 6-7pm It always amazes me how fast the year goes. It's hard to believe it's already mid-November and we got here FAST between Fall Break and the random snow day last week. It's hard to believe that when we come back from Thanksgiving Break it will already be December!
Here are a few updates for the week: Picture Re-Takes Picture Re-Takes are tomorrow. If you were unhappy with your child's picture, you can have them retaken. Send back the complete package and they will replace them. Pumpkin Grams These are being sold by the Student Lighthouse team. They are .25 each. You can fill out the order form that came home Friday and return to school! Send to your student, their friends, whoever you want to send a little happy gram to! :) Book Orders Orders came home tonight. If you want to order as a gift for Christmas, let me know and I will hang on to it and let you know when it's in. Two flyers came home but there are more to shop from online! Just enter our class code and shop away! Snow Makeup Day- As you have probably heard, our snow makeup day will be Wednesday, November 27. Students will be released at 1/2 Day. (12:30) There will be NO TIGER TALES that day after school gets out. Upcoming Dates: November 22- Family Movie Night! (info coming home tomorrow!) November 27- Snow Makeup- 1/2 Day. Book Orders Due December 6- First Friday for Families @ 7:15 December 13- Tiger Pride @ 2:30 December 20- Winter Parties/ 1/2 Day Release at 12:30 December 23- January 3- Winter Break Updates for the end of our week!
Fall Party/ Half Day Tomorrow is our fall party! If you signed up to bring something, you should have gotten a Dojo message from me yesterday. Please send that in with your child in the morning so we have in time for the party. We will party from 11:50-12:30. Tomorrow is a half day and students will be released at 12:30. If you did not get the chance to sign up for something and would like to help out, there were some other supplies that our homeroom mom picked up today. If you could, send a few dollars to help cover the cost. If you’ve helped be the “Room Parent” and organize the party, you know there is always extra stuff that is needed and appreciate help getting it. Thank you all for your team work to help make the parties fun for the kids! Link to Party Sign up (if you need to double check what you signed up for) Parent Teacher Conferences- Parent Teacher Conferences are the last week of October, just two weeks away! Conferences will be on Monday and Tuesday night this year. If you have not signed up for a conference, click on the link below to sign up. We will pass out report cards at conferences and it is a great time for us to have a short chat about how the year is going! Link to Conference Sign up Multiplication- We have spent this whole first quarter getting to know multiplication and division! After much work to understand the concept and not just memorizing the facts, we are READY to start working on our facts. We do some practice at school but students also need to be practicing at home. Just 10-15 minutes a night makes a huge difference. A great way is to work their way through the multiples, moving on to the next multiple when they have the previous one down! (Ex: Start working on the 2’s. Once they have mastered those, work on any fact that has a 3 as a factor. Once they’ve mastered that work on any fact that has a 4 as a factor and so on!) I have a few decks of cards I can loan out but Dollar Tree and Walmart both usually have them for a reasonable price! :) The standard for multiplication says they will know their facts fluently by the end of 3rd grade and, as you know, knowing them by heart makes math for years to come much easier! Thank you for your support! Upcoming Dates: Spirit Week: October 21-25 Tiger Pride: October 25 Parent/ Teacher Conferences: October 28-29th Fall Break- NO School- November 1- November 5th Here are a few updates for the upcoming weeks!
*Tomorrow is supposed to be QUITE the change in weather. Be sure your child has on warm clothes for this little dip in temps. If it's not raining and the wind chill is above 32* we will go outside still. ( I know they were talking about the wind chill being close to freezing. ) Fall Party! Fall Party is NEXT Friday (October 18th). It will be from 11:50-12:30 and parents are more than welcome to come help and party with us. Students will be released at half day. We need some different supplies to make our party happen. I have attached a link to the sign up below! THANK YOU! Click HERE for Fall Party Sign Up! Conferences- Fall Parent/ Teacher Conferences are right around the corner! During the fall, we try to meet with each family. Each time slot is only 15 minutes and You will get your child’s report cards then and be able to ask any questions or address any concerns you have. If you were unable to be at Open House or missed the sign up at Open House, I have attached it below. The white spaces are the available times. If none of these work, let me know and we can try to work out a different time. Click HERE for Conference Sign Up! (Both sign ups work better on a computer. If you have issues accessing these, please let me know! Thank you!) I hope that everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. I hope that you got rest and some family time. Thank you to those who worked on your holiday weekend. Many jobs that are needed to still work because we have come to depend on them. THANK YOU!
Here is what we will be working on this week: Reading/ Writing- We have been talking about overcoming challenges in learning as an overall theme for our unit. Last week and this week, we are focusing on reading to determine the moral/ lesson and to find the gist of the story. On Thursday, we will take our NWEA for math. Students will need their headphones/ earbuds. If you haven't sent any in, please send them in by Thursday. We also use them for Listen to Reading and other educational programs we use on Chromebooks.This is an online test that we have been using the past few years to determine the level of learning each child is currently at, what their ready for, and to help them set goals. It is NOT used by the state of Missouri in any way to measure achievement. :) It is adaptive so every student will end up getting questions they don't know or haven't learned how to solve or answer. It wants to see how far each student can go. Math- We have barely scraped the surface and have introduced multiplication and what it is. We are now starting to do the same with division. This week we will focus on division as sharing. Social Studies- We have been talking about the Deceleration of Independence and the Constitution. We have focused on WHY these documents are important to us. Other Announcements: Homecoming T Shirt orders can be sent in with money if you would like one. Upcoming Dates: September 20- Homecoming - 1/2 Day for Students September 26th- Open House I hope you all had a great Easter Weekend and a great Monday! We worked hard today and started talking about the upcoming MAP test and Earth Day today! Here are some updates about some important events and dates coming up in the next few weeks!!!!
Secretaries Day We have some AWESOME ladies that run our office here at Willard East! We wouldn’t be able to operate without these ladies! This week we will celebrate secretaries day AND Nurse’s Day! They are our HEROES so in honor of them, we are inviting the school to dress like “superheroes” on Wednesday! Be sure to give Mrs. Angie, Mrs. Tommie, and Nurse Christina a big THANK YOU for all they do for us when you see or talk to them this week!!! FIELD TRIP!!!!! On May 16, Willard East third graders will travel to Diamond, Mo to the George Washington Carver National Monument! This is an awesome field trip where we learn about the life of a famous inventor from our state! Money and signed permission slip is due BY May 13th. The cost is $8 per child. MAP Test Next week, your child will be taking the MAP (Missouri Assessment Program) test. This is our state test. Check with your child to make sure their headphones/ earbuds are in working conditions. This test will cover standards and skills learned in 3rd grade this year. We will test Thursday, May 2nd and Friday May 3rd of next week. And May 7th and 8th of the following week. How can you help your child be ready?
This group is the first class that has taken the NWEA three times during the school year. I think after doing that, they are feeling okay with testing. And they should! Most kids don’t mind taking the MAP. Spring Concert! Our school spring concert is coming up! Join the students of Willard East Elementary at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, April 30th at the High School Gym. Students will need to arrive at 6:30. Each grade level will sing 2 songs each. Dress in your “spring best” and we’ll see you there!!! Upcoming Dates: April 26- April/ LAST Tiger Pride @ 2:30 April 24- Super Hero Day (Secretary and Nurse’s Day Celebration!) April 30- Spring Concert practice/ Concert @ 7:00 May 2-3rd- Math MAP Test May 7-8th- ELA MAP Test May 16- Field Trip to GWC Monument in Diamond, Mo We have been busy! Between the end of the quarter and these random snow days, we have had a lot to work on the past few weeks! Here is some information about upcoming dates over the next weeks!
Spring Break- Next week we will be in school on Monday and ½ Day Tuesday. Here is the upcoming schedule since it’s a little confusing: Friday, March 8th- Half Day! Students release at 12:30 Monday, March 11- Regular Monday Early out. Students release at 3:00 Tuesday, March 12- Half Day! Students release at 12:30 I will not be here Monday or Tuesday of next week. Mrs. Jessica Vandever will be here in my place. She is a great sub and the kids will have a lot of fun with her and will be in great hands! Be sure to call the office with any changes to transportation those two days. Spring Conferences- Spring Conferences are coming up! These are a little different than our fall conferences. I do not need to meet with every family this time and our only night we will stay late is Tuesday, March 26th. I will send out requests to meet with families I would like to/ need to meet with first. Then I will open it up and if you would like a conference you are more than welcome to sign up! Grade Cards will come home that same week if you choose to not have a conference. Field Trip- Our 3rd grade field trip is officially scheduled! On May 16th, we will be traveling to the George Washington Carver Museum in Diamond, Mo. This is an awesome field trip and we love taking our classes to visit. Parents are welcome to come. Keep in mind that if you come, you may be asked to help supervise. Nothing too heavy - we stay with our own class the whole day. :) We will leave as soon as the busses get here and will return around 2:00. More info will come home closer to our trip. Other Important Dates: Tuesday,March 26: Spring Conferences Thursday, March 28th: Tiger Pride @ 2:30 Friday, March 29th: NO SCHOOL Here is what we have been up to!
Writing- Students have been learning about opinions and the different ways we can share opinions. After having time to learn about and brainstorm all kinds of opinions, they are now writing about their opinion and supporting it with 3 reasons. Math- Students have been learning about two step word problems this week and will wrap that up next week! Reading- Students have been learning about comparing and contrasting two non-fiction texts about the same article. This is something they will continue to do in reading groups for the next couple of weeks. In whole group, we have started to talk about point of view. Social Studies- Students brought home their Missouri Border States quiz last week. This week, we have started a new topic and are learning about our government. We will start with talking about how our government is set up into three branches and why that is important. Other Announcements: Valentine’s Day Party! This year, we will be having our party on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15th. This is a half day (and half days seem to work better with parties!) The party will begin at 10:20. A sheet will be coming home today with information about our party! Like our other parties, the parents planning are asking for students to bring $3-$5 in to help cover the cost of supplies and such! It sounds like a LOT of fun! Class Valentines- We will pass out valentines before our class party on the 15th. Students are welcome to make a box or bag to keep on their desk for that day. We currently have 23 students in our class. I will send home a list of names if your child wants to write names on their valentines. I do ask that if your child brings valentines, they bring enough to share with the whole class. Leadership Day- On Wednesday, February 20th we will host a Leadership Day at Willard East. That week there is a Leader in Me Symposium in Springfield. Visitors from the Symposium will go to various schools that participate in Leader in Me to visit and see how they carry it out. We will have a Tiger Pride Assembly that day from 2:30-3:00 that you are welcome to attend! Upcoming Dates: February 15th- Valentine’s Pass out and Parties. ½ Day- Students release @ 12:30 February 18th- MAKEUP DAY! There will be school! February 20th- Leadership Day/ Tiger Pride at 2:30 February 25th- March 1- Book Fair February 26th- Family Reading Night March 8th- ½ Day! Students release @ 12:30 March 11-15- Spring Break!!! We are getting back in the habit of our daily routine after our break! Last week, we focused a lot on our routines and expectations. We have been talking a lot about respect and self control this week and how we can be better about showing that at school to our classmates, teachers, and supplies, as well as at home (or anywhere outside of school.)
Students also received their school wide book club books! This year we will be reading The Enormous Egg! I am excited ( I spared you the cheesy pun there...) because I have never read this book! Here is what we are learning this week: Writing- We started a new writing unit on opinions. We have talked about fact and opinion and how we back up our opinions with facts and reasons. This week, we are collecting ideas by visiting various areas in the school to think of ideas we can share to better our environment. Math- We have been working on addition and subtraction within 1000 with regrouping. This can be a pretty tricky skill to master. The regrouping is the piece that can make this skill so hard for some. We will continue to practice throughout the week. Students brought home a practice sheet tonight. They are to pick 5 problems to do and return tomorrow. We have talked a lot about this can’t be done mentally and students need to stack the two numbers to solve. (I think there are a few towards the bottom of the worksheet that are written horizontally.) Students will complete a check on this standard on Friday. Next week we will focus on multiplying by multiples of 10. Reading- Last week, we spent time going over our Daily 5 expectations and group expectations. This week, we are back in our groups. As a class, we are learning how to compare and contrast. We will then use our knowledge to compare and contrast two passages or texts with a common topic. Social Studies- When we came back from break, we started a new social studies unit. We are learning some about maps. One of our main focuses in this topic is to learn the 8 states that border Missouri. Your child should have a map with the 8 states labeled. We will continue to practice this week at school. Please review a little at home as well. (See if they can sing you this song to the tune of “London Bridge”) Missouri has eight border states Border states Border states Missouri has eight border states Let’s start north Iowa and Illinois Ken-tuck-y, Tennessee Arkansas, Ok-la-ho-ma Kansas and Nebraska Upcoming Dates: January 21- No school for students. Teachers have professional development. January 25- Tiger Pride @ 2:30 February 15- Valentine's Day Party/ ½ Day for Students February 18- No school (This can be used as a snow makeup day if needed) |
AuthorMrs. Letterman is a third grade teacher at Willard East. This is her 8th year in Willard, but her 10th year to teach third grade! Archives
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