Things have been busy, yet uneventful at the same time! (If that even makes sense?!) We have been busy MAP testing and will finish TOMORROW!!!! I am SO proud of the kids. They have done an outstanding job and persevered!
Here are a few updates!!! Walking Field Trip TOMORROW- We will walk to the Willard Branch Library tomorrow at 12:30. (Of course, depending on the weather). Be sure your child has on comfortable walking shoes! We will be back at East by 2:00 pm. George Washington Carver on THURSDAY! We will be traveling to The George Washington Carver Museum in Diamond, Mo on Thursday, If your child has a Leader In Me/ Friday shirt, please have them wear that and comfortable walking shoes. They will need a sack lunch unless they ordered one on the permission slip. Students don't need anything for the bus ride. (no iPods, handheld game consoles, phones, etc) There will be no way to lock them up. It will be good for them to just enjoy nature for the day! :) We will leave as close to 8:45 as possible. It will all depend on what time our bus gets here. If you are attending, you can follow the bus or meet us down there around 10:00! :) We will arrive back at east by 2:00-2:15. If you attend and would like to check your student out to ride home with you, please see me at the museum. It does count against their attendance. Field Day- Field Day is NEXT Friday- May 18th. Students will want to wear their Field Day shirts IF they bought one and athletic clothes and shoes. They will also need sunscreen as we will be outside for all of Field Day. They may also want a change of clothes for after. Field Days tend to get a little wet. ;) That is all for now! Have a great week!!!
0 Comments
On the calendar...
April 27th - Tiger Pride @ 2:30 May 1st- May 9th - MAP testing (We will not test all of those days) May 10th- Field Trip to George Washington Carver May 18th - Field Day May 24th - Last Day of School Upcoming Dates:
April 27th- Last Tiger Pride May 1- MAP (We will test May 1st and 2nd and May 8th and 9th in the mornings) May 10- Field trip to George Washington Carver Museum (More info to come soon!) May 18- Field Day May 24- Last Day of School! (1/2 Day for students!) What we are working on this week! Leader in Me - Review of all the habits. Reading - We are practicing test taking strategies for the MAP test that is coming up. We will begin testing on May 1st. Students will only test in Math and ELA. Please check with your students if their earbuds/headphones are working. These are a student provided supply and students WILL need them for portions of the MAP test. Writing - Today we started our first fairy tale piece. We are reviewing story elements of fairy tales. Math - We are looking at attributes of 2D shapes right now in math. Our Unit 15 is very short so we will be reviewing today and tomorrow (a study guide will go home tonight). The test will be Wednesday. Spelling - List 23. This list can always be found under the student links page. Click spelling city and then list 23. You all officially have 10 (well, 9.5) weeks until you have FOURTH GRADERS! That is insane! The longer I teacher, the faster the years fly by...and this year has flown.
Here are some upcoming events to mark on your calendar: Skate Night at Skateland! This will be Thursday, March 22nd! The party is from 6-8. The cost is $5 and $1 of that is donated to Willard East! Spring Conferences- We will be hosting Spring Conferences the week of March 26th with Tuesday night being the only late night. These conferences are a little less formal than the fall conferences and are not required. I have already contacted some parents through email to schedule a time. If you would like to schedule a face-to-face conference or phone conference then feel free to contact me and I will send you the sign up. This is a great opportunity to touch base before the year comes to close. Below are some reasons to meet for a spring conference:
Spring Concert- April 5th "Let's Go To The Movies"- Willard East's School Concert Willard High School Gym @7:00. Students should dress nice for the performance. What We Are Learning: Reading - We are talking about social issues found in books and what we can learn from them as a reader. Writing - We are writing narrative pieces. We will have a fairy tale unit coming up. Math - We are starting Unit 14. This unit deals with telling time on a digital and analog clock to the nearest minute and calculating mass and volume of an object. Try to practice telling time on an analog clock at home! Spelling - List 20. This list can always be found under the student links page. Click spelling city and then list 20. We have a busy and fun last week of the 3rd quarter planned! Here is what we will be up to!
Writing- We will continue to write about our opinions for fun and present them in the form of a friendly letter. Math- We will test over Topic 13 on Wednesday. The Study Guide has a red stripe on the left side. Another practice page also came home with a green stripe. Students DO NOT need to complete both. The study guide provides better questions and the practice page (green stripe) has good examples on the page. Reading- We are finishing up 3rd quarter assessments this week and book clubs! Spelling- List 19 Upcoming Dates: Friday, March 9th: 1/2 Day. Students will release at 12:30 March 12-13: School is IN session (snow makeup days) March 14-16: Spring Break, No School March 30th- April 2- No School Thursday, April 5th: Spring Concert at 7 pm Obviously, the arrival of March excites me! Winter has seemed to drag on a bit over the past few weeks. I am ready for some sun and warmer weather! We have a fun week ahead! It is our Literacy Week! Be sure to check for our dress up days each day! Family Literacy Night-
Our annual Family Literacy Night is Tuesday, February 27th. There will be all kinds of fun activities and games that have do with our school-wide book, The One and Only Ivan! Come and go as you please between 6:00 and 7:00 and be sure to visit the Book Fair! Here is what we are working on the the classroom: Writing- Students will be finishing up their second and final opinion piece for 3rd quarter. Math- We are working on finding equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. We have been doing something called "Practice Buddy" in class. Their worksheets are started with me and they do a few interdependently in group with me and I check those. The rest they SHOULD be bringing home to show you and use for any extra practice as needed. :) Reading- We will review for our 3rd Quarter District Reading Assessment and take it Wednesday. Reading groups will look a little different for this week as I start giving some students the DRA before the end of 3rd quarter. The DRA is not required to be given this quarter, I just have a few that will need to take it. (It is only required to be given to every student during 1st and 4th quarters) Social Studies- We will be looking at producers and consumers for our economics unit this week! Upcoming Dates: * Feb 26-March 2: Book Fair All Week! (Open before school and after school until 4 and during Family Reading Night.) * Feb. 27- Family Reading Night from 6-7 *March 12-13-: School is IN session. These are snow makeup days. *March 22: School Skate Party at Skateland After our snow day on Monday, I got a little off track with Spelling! Students will have List 17 for this week. I didn't find it fair that it was a short week and then I forgot to send it home. :)
Here is what we are working on this week- Writing- Students have finished up writing about their opinion of whether the Big Bad Wolf or the 3 Little Pigs are the innocent party(ies) after reading the book. This was our first published opinion piece as 3rd graders! They are hanging up outside of our classroom! Be sure to check them out when you are in the building or at Family Reading Night (Feb 27.) Math- We have been learning about using fractions to represent parts of a whole. We will assess this topic on Thursday (Feb 15). Be watching for practice and a study guide to come home next week! (We are still aiming for this even with the "ice day". I will let you know if we plan to push this back!) Reading- This week we looked at biographies and read a biography about Walt Disney (Because their teacher is a TOTAL Disney Geek). They all loved it! The book is from a series called "Who Was (insert famous person's name)" . It's geared towards 3rd-5th graders. Social Studies- We have been talking about Economics in SS and making pretend budgets. We will talk about choices and opportunity cost next week! Valentine's Party- Our Valentine's Party will be on Wednesday, February 14th. Lists of names of friends in our class came home today! Students may make a box or a bag to collect their valentines. The box or bag must be able to fit on their desk and fit in their backpack (for bus riders). If students choose to pass out cards, we have talked about how we must have one for each friend in our class. We also discussed some safe candies (since many times valentines come with candy these days) and candy alternatives that EVERYONE in our class can enjoy since we have some food allergies. Skittles, Airheads, and Jolly Ranchers are all safe candies we can all enjoy!!!! Please send in $3 for party supplies! The moms who help plan go above and beyond and this is a small way we can all chip in for the party! The party will be at 2:30 and end at the end of the day! Come join us! Upcoming Dates: Feb 14: Valentines Party @ 2:30 (Please send in $3 for supplies) Feb 16: 1/2 Day! Students will get out at 12:30 Feb 23: Family Reading Night! Come join us for some fun activities! Here are some updates for the last week of January!
What we are learning: Writing- We continue to explore writing about our opinions and supporting them with reasons and examples. Math- We have been working on some "Additional Standards" for our last few topics. This means that they aren't major works of 3rd grade and so there is no formal assessment for these standards. We started Topic 11 yesterday (Thursday) and will be working with 2-step word problems using all 4 operations. We will continue this at the beginning of the next week, review Tuesday, and test Wednesday. Look for a study guide to come home by Monday. :) Reading- We have been exploring a couple of books from a mystery series called Mystery A to Z. With these books, we are learning to think carefully about the details and clues presented in the story and making predictions based on evidence from the story. Social Studies- We are finishing up learning about the Constitution and why it is so important to our country. Upcoming Dates: Friday, January 26- Tiger Pride at 2:30 Wednesday, January 31- 100th Day of School!!! Dress like you are 100 or represent the number 100 in some way! (A shirt with 100 marks on it, 100 safety pins on your clothes, etc) Wednesday, February 14- Valentines Parties I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Years! It feels good to be back and settled back into our routines! Here are some updates for the next week:
Leader in Me- Habit 7, Sharpen the Saw; I can do things that help Sharpen my body, brain, heart, and soul. Writing- We have lots of opinions and we are writing all about it. Our opinions need detailed reasons to be supported. We will start to write our opinions this week and include our reasons to support our opinion. Math- We will wrap up Topic 7 - Adding and subtracting fluently within 1,000. This was focused on deeper in 2nd grade and in 3rd grade, it is a supporting standard. This means it will not be reassessed this time but embedded in other work and skills we do. Next week, we will start Topic 10. This goes back to multiplication and multiplying by multiples of 10. Reading- We have been reading and collecting clues as a class as we enjoy the book Falcon's Feathers by Ron Roy. We have been working on asking deep questions and making predictions and revising our predictions as they change. Next week, we will start a new book from the series and we will use it to work on that oh so tricky skill. (RL. 3.9 - compare two like texts). Most were red on this skill on our last term's progress report. This quarter, we continue to learn about and practice this skill! Social Studies- We will continue to talk about the Constitution and it's importance to our country. Upcoming Dates: Monday, Jan. 15th- NO SCHOOL Thursday, Jan 18- Student Leadership Application Deadline. (A packet was sent home this week with info about each team. Friday, Jan 26- January Tiger Pride Happy December! It's hard to believe it's December with the warm weather we have been having. Well, until this week! Be sure to remind your child to dress warm and bring a coat and cold weather supplies! Our recess rule is if it is above 32* (windchill and actual temp) and dry, we will go out.
Christmas Drive- We ended up getting a FULL shoe box to send off for Shoe Box for Soldiers! THANK you for your generous donations! Christmas such a wonderful season and so many lessons about giving and spreading joy can be taught throughout the season (and all year!). If you and your family are looking for a way to help out families in need this season, Willard East does a Christmas Drive for local families in need. I have included a link to a spreadsheet of Christmas needs for families in our area. Just put your name next to an empty need and bring those items unwrapped by December 15th. CLICK HERE to access the spreadsheet! :) Multiplication Facts- Over the last semester, students have been able to use a multiplication table to solve multiplication equations on math assessments to check their work while they learned. Starting 2nd semester, students will not be able to use these on math assessments because they will not be able to on the MAP or grade levels beyond 3rd grade.We have talked about this in class for about a month. I have 4 sets of flash cards students can check out if you need to borrow a set or two to help learn facts. As mentioned earlier this semester, it can even be working on each set of multiples at a time (no flash cards needed). What we are working on this week... Leader in Me- Synergize; Leaders use everyone's strengths to accomplish goals. Synergize teaches the value of listening to others’ ideas. By teaming with others, 3rd Alternatives can be created. Writing- Students are picking a new topic to write and publish an informational book for out 2nd QTR writing assessment. Math- We finished up Unit 7 and will be starting Unit 8: Use Strategies and Properties to Add and Subtract. Reading- We are taking our 2nd QTR reading assessment (doesn't determine reading level) and reassessing those skills as needed. Science- Finish our 2nd Qtr Matter Assessment and then begin our Social Studies unit about American Symbols. Upcoming Dates: December 15: Christmas Drive Items Due December 21: Winter Party @ 11:45 and 1/2 Day for students (Dismiss at 12:30) December 22- Jan. 3rd: NO SCHOOL. Winter Break. Students return January 4th. |
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
March 2020
Categories
All
|