Leader of the Week - Calvin

Weekly Update

January 30th-February 3rd

Hello Families!

Listed below are the important reminders and objectives for our week.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks!

Important Reminders:

• Spelling tests are this week!
• ALEKS homework for this week will be due Feb. 6th.  Remember it is only 10 minutes on ALEKS PIE per week.
• Tuesday is the 100th day of school! We are celebrating this accomplishment by watching "101 Dalmatians" and the third grade teachers are making pancakes for the students!
• As Valentine's Day is getting closer, just a reminder that any Valentine's cards that students bring in may not contain candy.
• Here is the revised calendar for the 2016-17 school year due to the snow day.

Weekly Objectives:

Writing:  We will continue working on our fourth writing unit: Persuasive Speeches, Petitions, and Editorials. Last week we choose our "seed idea".  This is the piece that we would like to take all the way to publishing!  This week we will work on organizing our speeches and making sure to provide enough evidence to back up our opinion.

Reading: We will continue our fourth reading unit: Research Clubs.  We will focus on the multiple ways to organize the information we collect from reading nonfiction. The multiple forms of note-taking that we will learn about are boxes and bullets, sequential, compare and contrast, and cause and effect.

Math: This week we will begin Chapter 9: Properties and Equations.  We will focus on the Distributive Property as well as multiplication sentences using three factors.

Science: This week we will be starting our next science chapter: The Water Cycle.  This week we will discuss the water cycle process as well as the multiple types of clouds.

Have a great week!

Mystery Reader - Owen's Mom

Owen's mom visited us today and read three fabulous books about showing kindness and empathy!  They went right along with our Ability Awareness Day today, and with our Flyer Families on Wednesday.  All of these books had great messages!  I think that the kids enjoyed "Nugget and Fang' the best because of your awesome voices!  You were amazing!  We really loved "Is There Really a Human Race" and "What Makes Us Unique" also.  Thanks for coming to read to us today!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Irie!!!!

Leader of the Week - Owen

Weekly Update

January 23rd-27th

Hello Families!

Listed below are the important reminders and objectives for our week.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks!

Important Reminders:

• This Wednesday, the 25th, is an early release.  Students will be bringing home their Leader Binders.  Please make sure to check out all of the work we have added!
• On Wednesday we will meet with our Flyer Families.  Please have your child wear their flyer family shirt.
• This Friday is Ability Awareness Day.  We will start the day with an assembly and we will listen to multiple presenters throughout the morning.
• Here is the revised calendar for the 2016-17 school year due to the snow day.

Weekly Objectives:

Writing:  We will continue working on our fourth writing unit: Persuasive Speeches, Petitions, and Editorials. We will edit the speeches that we have already written and we will choose the one speech that we would like to take all the way to publishing. 

Reading: This week we will continue our fourth reading unit: Research Clubs.  We will focus on collecting important information and making to sure to think about that information.  We will ask questions about the information we collect in our research clubs.

Math: This week we will be reviewing for our Chapter 8 test.  Our test will be on Wednesday.  Study guides are coming home today!

Social Studies: We are working on a project that will replace our test for chapter 10. This project will be done at school. The students will be creating their own product and thinking of a way to market and "sell" their product to consumers.  This week we will be presenting our product "commercials" to the class!

ALEKS Homework:  Students will begin having homework on ALEKS this week.  They will need to complete at least 10 minutes on their ALEKS PIE during the week.  This is NOT nightly homework, but 10 minutes for the week.  I will send home another ALEKS login page today in case the one from earlier in the year was lost.  

Have a great week!

Mystery Reader - Irie's Mom

Thank you to Irie's mom for coming to read to us today, and for sharing some of your favorite books from when you were a kid.  We enjoyed the weird  book, "A Stone Doll for Sister Brute."  That book made us laugh!  We also loved hearing some poems/short stories from your other favorite book "Where the Sidewalk Ends."  We loved the funny poems that you chose to read to us, especially your favorite one about the boy who eats everything!  Thanks soooo much for coming to read to us today!
By the way, I think we all want to take a vacation to the Treehouse with you!  :)

ALEKS PIE Completion

Way to go, Caroline!  Caroline completed her third grade ALEKS PIE, and is now working on her fourth grade PIE!

Sheldon Hall - Folk Music

We enjoyed listening to Folk Music at the Sheldon yesterday on our Music field trip.  We also got to see some homemade instruments that the Folk Musicians made.  Ask your kiddos to tell you what they learned and what they enjoyed!

Weekly Update

January 17th-20th

Hello Families!

Listed below are the important reminders and objectives for our week.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks!

Important Reminders:

• Field Trip TOMORROW Wednesday the 18th! Just a reminder we leave at 9:15 for Sheldon Hall and we will return at 11:30
• Book orders will now be due this Friday, Jan. 20th.
• Our Multiplication x3 quiz will also be Friday, Jan. 20th.
• Next Wednesday the 25th is an early release.

Weekly Objectives:

Writing:  We will continue working on our fourth writing unit: Persuasive Speeches, Petitions, and Editorials. We will write persuasive pieces focusing on recognizing people, place, and things that are noteworthy.

Reading: This week we will continue our fourth reading unit: Research Clubs.  We will pay close attention to the traits motivations and struggles of our nonfiction subject. 

Math: We will be focusing on multiplying and dividing by 11's and 12's.  Our test will be next Tuesday the 24th!

Social Studies: We are working on a project that will replace our test for chapter 10. This project will be done at school. The students will be creative their own product and thinking of a way to market and "sell" their product to consumers.

Have a great week!

Leader of the Week - Colin

Weekly Update

January 9th-13th

Hello Families!

Listed below are the important reminders and objectives for our week.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks!

Important Reminders:

• Book Orders are due Friday, Jan. 13th.

Weekly Objectives:

Writing:  This week we will begin our fourth writing unit: Persuasive Speeches, Petitions, and Editorials. We will start this unit by writing our very first persuasive speech to Dr. Mariscal and Dr. Moehlmann trying to convince them that third grade should have a math-a-thon.  Hopefully we can persuade them!

Reading: This week we will continue our fourth reading unit: Research Clubs.  We will be taking a look at multiple texts on one topic and learning how to use the information from each book when researching a topic.  Students will also be placed in research clubs and given multiple texts on one type of animal in order to apply the strategies we talk about during class.

Social Studies:  This week we will begin chapter 10: Economics.  We will focus on producers, consumers, and supply and demand.  We will also learn about human, capital, and natural resources.

Math: This week we will begin Chapter 8: Apply Multiplication and Division.  We will discuss strategies to multiply and divide by 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11.  

Have a great week!

Mystery Reader - Hana's Dad

Thanks to Hana's dad for coming to read to us today!  We enjoyed the book "Travel Size Pups."  It was great to hear and learn about the different small dogs from around the world.  What a fun book!

A Week in Review

January 4th-6th

Hello Families!

Listed below are the important reminders and objectives for our week.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks!

Important Dates:

• Jan. 9-13 - Colin is the Leader of the Week
• Jan. 16 - No School
• Jan. 20 - Ability Awareness Day (more info to come)
• Jan. 23-27 - Owen is the Leader of the Week
• Jan. 25 - Early Release
• Jan. 27 - Family Bingo at Truman from 6:30-8:30
• Jan. 30 - Feb. 3 - Calvin is the Leader of the Week

Weekly Objectives:

Writing:  This week we began our fourth writing unit: Persuasive Speeches, Petitions, and Editorials. We started by creating writing goals for ourselves!

Reading: This week we began our fourth reading unit: Research Clubs.  We started this unit off with a short pre-assessment that allows me to understand what students already know and don't know about researching in order to help them better throughout this unit!

Math: Since this is a short week, and some students were at Leap on Wednesday, we will begin our next math unit on Monday. During our math time this week, third grade decided to begin Genius Hour!

Genius Hour:  Genius Hour is one hour of class-time set aside each week where the kids have a chance to collaborate, work toward a common cause, use their talents and strengths, and get creative about something they are passionate about!   The possibilities are endless and totally driven by the kids.  The goal of genius hour is to mold innovators and creators- students who use inquiry and creativity to think for themselves and problem solve in ways they may not have before.We will take this week to begin generating ideas and coming up with a passion project.  We will take a look at projects that have been done in the past and begin looking at websites that can be used to help us research our topic.  After this week, Genius Hour will take place on Tuesday mornings from 9:00-9:45. Be sure to ask your child about this exciting new addition to our schedule!  **I emailed yesterday the first set of slides that I used to introduce Genius Hour to the students - take a look!**

Have a great weekend!