Please bring in either your Bridges Read-a-Thon log and collected Monday by Tuesday OR a reading log showing your nightly reading for the month of February.

Math skills: Students should practice addition and subtraction facts (through flash cards, online through our math sites, or any way possible). Also, practice your multiplication flash cards. Everyone has a set!

Read your mystery book by Wednesday or Thursday and be prepared to give a book commercial to the class on Friday. Also, practice your 50 state capitals song this week.

Math homework every night:
Monday: HomeLink 7-4
Tuesday: HomeLink 7-5
Wednesday: problem-solving and skills sheet (given out in class)
Thursday: HomeLink 7-6

Please let me know if you plan to return to school late from your spring break (i.e. a few days later).

This class was creative, inspiring and fun during the three very short weeks that I spent with them.  Mrs. Baker has obviously spent a lot of time working with them on their acceptance of new teachers because the transition with them was seamless.  I couldn’t have asked for a greater experience – one that Mrs. Baker entrusted with me.  We spent a math lesson brainstorming about all the places that we’ve seen pyramids and then looked at a slide show of some familiar and maybe not so familiar ones to see how many we could identify. The students then tackled creating their own pyramids – Tetrahedrons which were made into little gift boxes.
The big unit the class tackled was the Thirteen Colonies.  I found that this class likes to move and create.  Hornbooks,  ABC books,  calligraphy, stitching, mapping, hula hooping, concentric circles (yes, those were tied into the Thirteen Colonies!), and singing.

We had a wonderful time. 

Would you like to replay the video or share the link to it with your friends?

We will have Math Club this Thursday from 3:00 to 3:45.

I will be attending a Governing Council meeting on Tuesday so tutoring will be with second graders and Ms. Monica.

Please work on completing your Bridges Read-a-thon reading log even if you are not collecting money and participating in the program.  I would like a record of what you have been reading for class purposes.  If you are participating, the money will need to be collected and handed in to me next week.

We will be focusing on mystery novels this month.  Please choose a mystery book to read and report on.  We will share these when we come back from vacation in three weeks.

We continue to focus on learning to read and spell sight words from the orange sheet.  Our dictation will be finished up on Monday.  Students who miss words will be responsible for practicing and learning those words in the next week.  This is a review from the fall.

COLONIAL CRAFTS MORNING:  We will have three hours of colonial craft stations this Friday.  Please consider coming in to help us out.  We need 2-3 more parents to make this successful.  Set up will be from 8:00 to 8:45 and clean up is after 12:00 noon.  If you can come for part or all of the morning, we would appreciate it.  This promises to be a great day!

Monday: Read and record pages on your read-a-thon log.  Start your mystery.

Math Open Response sheet.

Tuesday: Read and record.  Continue your mystery novel.

Math HomeLink 7-1 and 7-2.

Practice spelling words missed.

Wednesday: Read and record.  Math Open Response

Practice spelling words missed for a retest.  Alternate assignment

for others.

Thursday: Read and record.  Math HomeLink 7-3.  Spelling!

Another short week!  I am not assigning an essay this week because we are revising and editing essays in class quite a bit.

We will focus on finishing up our Bridges Read-a-Thon log.  Money is due next week so you want to plan some time for that.  I’m interested to see how many pages we have read.  Students who are not participating should still track pages and be able to show me titles of books read.  Our goal is to read across all the genres this year.

Math Open Response:  This is our focus right now.  Students need to be able to solve a math problem and explain how they did it.  The state assessments in April will test this ability.  It is a great skill to have in life, too.  I am assigning an open response problem on Wednesday and Thursday night, and possibly on the weekend.

The orange sheet called “Words to Know by April” is an important one.  We will check to make sure that every student can read and spell these words.  Dictation will start Thursday and continue until we have tested all the words.  This is a review from the fall on these sight words.  We will follow-up with phonics-generated spelling lists and new vocabulary words.

Next Friday morning we will have a mini-Colonial Day full of crafts.  We are looking for a parent to help set up and supervise a station from 8:30 until 12:30.  Is anyone available to help with this?

March will be here before we know it.  We are still working hard in third grade and looking forward to spring!

We have a wonderful week ahead.  Don’t forget to bring in your field trip permission form AND ask your parents if they would like to chaperone.  We are going to Santa Fe to the Folk Art Museum on Thursday from 8:30 until 3:15.

You will need to be picked up at 3:15 sharp because I will be heading into a meeting right at that time and will not be able to supervise you if you are picked up late.

Great work on our dictionary explorations.  Thanks again to Dick Oliver from the Rotary Club and Carty Monette and Traci Chavez McAdams from Kiwanis Club for their presentation last week of individual dictionaries to each third grade student.  We loved receiving our own books and engaging in activities to use them and learn about new words.  We made a list of our favorite words.

Tuesday:  Read for the Read-a-thon.
          Start on your essay prompt.  This is due Friday.
          Check for complete sentences and a hook!

Wednesday:  Read!  Practice your words-to-know sheet.
           Math Home-Link 6-9

Thursday:   Read.
            Finish your essay and prepare to share it.

Parents,                                          

Your child’s progress report should have come home today.  Please review this with your child,  set goals for improvement if needed, and encourage them to follow-up on missing assignments.  The progress report is a mid-term reporting from me to you and your child, letting you know what is needed in terms of effort or assignments.  This gives your child the time to improve before our third quarter report card which will go in the cumulative folder.

If you would like more specifics about missing work, please contact me by email or phone (751-7222 X222).  Rest assured that I have been informing your child of expectations, providing opportunities to redo tests, and enforcing clear boundaries for behavior.  Overall, they are doing well.

As you know, third grade is a great time to teach and learn good work habits and self control in class.  Thank you for working with me to help your child grow in these areas.  They are on their way!  Thanks for giving me the opportunity to spend so much time with your child.  It is always a pleasure.

photo credit: Daniel Y. Go

No tutoring this Tuesday due to scheduled meetings for me and for Monica.  Also, there will beno Math Club on Thursday.

Also, we will share Valentine’s on Tuesday when we return to school.  If you would like to participate, please make a Valentine for all students.

We need Clorox wipes and boxes of pencils (wooden) for the classroom.  Please consider donations.  Thank you to those who have already sent in wipes.

Homework this week follows:

Monday: Math Home-Link 6-4 

        Read and record for the Bridges Pledge-a-thon. 

        Start on your packet for writing a friendly letter.

Tuesday:    Math Home-Link 6-5

            Work on your letter packet.  This is due Wednesday!

Wednesday:  Math Home-Link 6-6

            Read and record.

Thursday:   No school Friday due to a teacher in-service.

            Continue to read and record for the Read-a-thon.

            Catch up in your Math Journal as needed.

Check our our new book order fliers (sent home) .  Order online if you wish.

photo credit: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

We are practicing our recorder-playing every Wednesday under the guidance of  Quinn’s mom, Carrie Moon.  It is harder than expected, but we are getting the hang of it.  This week we will practice writing notes as well as learning to play them.  Also, with the help of Mrs. Henderson, we are learning some colonial songs. 

Check out our solfege activity.

Mrs. Henderson’s surprise song here.

We are experimenting with doing podcasts for the books we are reading.  Let’s see if you can learn about Horrible Harry Moves Up to Third Grade by Susie Kline, as explained by Brandon Ortega.  Brandon brought in a few items to illustrate his talk.  See the photo of them below.