Dec 14-18

“December, being the last month of the year, cannot help but make us think of what is to come.”
― Fennel Hudson


 We began our week with the amazing band and chorus concert.  The music certainly helped to get us into the holiday spirit!  Our Reading Buddies came for their last visit of the year.  We will look forward to seeing them after the holidays.

We began our Measurement Unit today.  Students cut out paper rulers and used them to measure to the nearest half inch.  Other lessons this week include generating measurement data and representing it on a line plot, determining distances in half-inch increments and reviewing the characteristics of polygons.  Students will have a one sided math assignment each night for homework.  In an effort to reduce the amount of paper we are using, the homework will now be found on the back of the Minute Math. 

Our spelling rule involves the double vowel syllable groups -oi, -oy, -au and -aw.  Students will have a Spelling Cafe choice each night for homework.

Have a fabulous week!  :)

Dec 7-11

"December daily is about celebrating the SEASON, finding the joys, and being THANKFUL for all the BLESSINGS we have in our lives." AE

We began our week with a visit from the PEA students.  Our Reading Buddies continued with the book If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island.  I am happy to report that students are really enjoying our Immigration Unit.  They will be working on their immigrant journals this week as they document their journey from the Old Country to America. We will also be reading Molly's Pilgrim and then comparing and contrasting the book to the movie. 

We finished Unit 3 in math today.  Students worked on Name Collection Boxes for various numbers.  They used number models, arrays, roman numerals, and tally marks to represent equal numbers.  They have a Home Link for homework tonight and Thursday night.  Tomorrow we will review for the test in class.  Students will have a second review packet to complete and study for homework tomorrow night.  The test will be given on Wednesday.  A challenge assignment will be sent home on Wednesday night for homework.  We will begin Unit 4 on Thursday.  Please look for the Family Letter on our new Measurement and Geometry Unit in your child's folder tonight. 

Our spelling rule this week involves the double vowel syllables -oa, -oe and -ue.  Students will have a Spelling Cafe choice each night for homework.

Thank you to my parent volunteers this week ~ Mrs. Allard, Mrs. Albertelli, Mrs. Sears, and Mrs. Kavanaugh.

Have a fabulous week!  :)

November 30th-December 4th

 “December, being the last month of the year, cannot help but make us think of what is to come.”  Fennel Hudson

We had a wonderful start to our week with a math lesson on square numbers.  Students played Rolling and Recording Squares with partners in class. They will play the game with an adult at home for homework tonight.  Other lessons this week focus on the Commutative Property of Multiplication, the Adding a Group strategy, and the Subtracting a Group strategy.  Students will have a one sided assignment each night for homework.

Our Spelling Rule this week involves the double vowel syllables -ai, -ay, -ee and -ey.  These vowel groups work together in a word to make one vowel sound.  Students will have a Spelling Cafe choice each night for homework. 

Students will choose their authentic name and role in their immigrant family this week.  We will also learn about one family's choice to leave Italy in the story Journey to a New Land. 

Scholastic book orders are due back to school on Friday, December 4th.  A free book coupon went home today with your purchase of $10 or more. 

Have a fantastic week! 

November 23-24

"Give thanks for each morning and its light
for rest and shelter of the night
for health and food
for love and friends
for everything thy goodness sends"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Students wrote Thankful and Grateful Acrostic Poems today.  These poems will accompany their crayon resist water color paintings that they made on Friday.  The poems were edited and then children chose to hand write or type them.  It is my hope that they will share them with family and friends on Thanksgiving.

The class was broken up into five families today.  Please ask your child what country s/he will be immigrating from in the coming weeks.  We also finished reading Klara's New World.  This historical fiction describes one family's journey from Sweden to Minnesota in the 1860s. 

We will not have homework this week.  Students have done a great job of completing their homework over the last few weeks so this is my thanks to them for their hard work!

Scholastic book orders are due back by December 4th.  Feel free to order books online using our classroom code - HB244.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  :)

November 16-20th

"No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face." John Donne

We had a wonderful start to our week!  Our Reading Buddies from PEA came to class to read with students.  They will be reading If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island with our class for the next few weeks. 

Students worked on the Counting Up method of subtraction today.  Other lessons this week include the Expand and Trade Subtraction strategy, creating Scaled Bar and Picture Graphs and exploring Multiplication Squares.  We will have a one-sided homework assignment each night this week.

We began our Immigration Unit this week.  Our new read aloud is titled Letters from Rifka.  This historical fiction is based on a true story and is a great introduction to the unit. It describes one Jewish family's daring escape from Russia in the early 1900s.  Your child should be prepared to discuss some of the details of the story with you by the end of the week.

I will be breaking students up into their European families by the end of the week.  We will have families from Ireland, Germany, Russia, Italy and Sweden.  Students will choose their authentic names and role in their families next week. 

Our Spelling Rule this week involves the Consonant -LE Syllable and the Exception.  Students will have a Spelling Cafe choice each night for homework. 

Have a wonderful week!  :)

"Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire." 
-  Virgil

Miles in May is in full effect.  Our class is one of the top three competitors in the third grade!  Please ask your child about this awesome school activity.

Our spelling rule this week involves adding more than one suffix to a base word.  Students will have a Spelling Cafe choice each night for homework.

We will continue with our Measurement Unit this week.  Students learned about the difference between grams and kilograms today.  They also worked on measuring to the nearest quarter inch.  Students have a one-sided assignment each night for homework.

Our Wax Museum will take place next Tuesday, May 26th in the library from 1:45-2:20.  We hope to see you there.  Please help your child find props or a costume to help represent his or her famous person. 

Integrated Arts Night will be next Thursday, May 28th from 6:30-8:00 p.m.  This is such an amazing night for our school.  Invitations went home with students on Friday.  Please contact me with any questions or concerning regarding this evening.  

Have a fantastic week!  :)

"The world's favorite season is the spring. 
All things seem possible in May."
-  Edwin Way Teale

We started this beautiful week with a measurement activity and our Reading Buddies from P.E.A.  Students were happy to see their buddies and enjoyed reading about the famous Black American US Marshall, Bass Reeves.

The class seemed to enjoy measuring line segments to the nearest inch, half inch, quarter inch, centimeter and millimeter this morning. We will continue to work on measurement over the next couple of weeks as well as various graphing techniques.  Tomorrow our lesson will involve line plots.  Students will have a one-sided assignment each night for homework.

Our spelling rule this week focused on the various sounds of -ch and 
-que.  There is only one list this week.  Students will have a Spelling Cafe choice each night for homework.  

Enjoy the sunshine!  :)