Ms. Baker’s Blog

Wow!  We made it through third grade together.  We are celebrating our success with a third grade show this Wednesday, May 20th, at 1:15 in the classroom.  Please join us if you can.   There will be songs, skits, poems, and end-of-year awards.  We will complete our festivities with refreshments.  Please send in any snacks that morning and I’ll set them up for after the show.

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It has been a wonderful year.  Please help us celebrate it!

Janet Shipley spoke to our class today about the upcoming triathalon at Quail Ridge.  This fundraiser is for children and adults, and will be held on June 7th.  She is available to train students on Fridays from 4:00 to 5:30 pm at Quail Ridge.  You can just show up!  Pick up your raffle tickets to sell.  This is your ticket to participate.  You may contact Janet on Fridays at Quail Ridge or call me at school and I can give you her number.

Hey parents.  As you probably know, we have been learning about oral history in conjunction with our study of folktales.  Students had to interview an adult to learn about life in other times and possibly in another place.  Together we generated a list of interview questions to guide them in their interview.

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Now we are ready to compile this research into an essay.  A few students did this at home with some adult help (?), which is great, but for the others, we will be writing a 3 paragraph essay (or longer) using the skills we have learned this year.  Kids, please be sure you have enough information about your person to turn into a full-length essay.

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The questions we thought of were:

1.  Tel lme about your grandparents.

2.  What was school like for you?

3.  Did you have to deal with any catastrophes?

4.  What was the economy like?  How much did things cost?

5.  Tell me about your town.

6.  What was the hardest thing you had to deal with?

7.  What was the best part of your childhood?  Your adulthood?

8.  What were your fears as a child?

9.  What were your dreams?  Your hopes?

10.  What parts of your life have been hard?

.Don’t forget to include information such as your person’s full name, birthday, and where they were born and lived.

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We’ll finish these by Friday!

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Parents and Kids:

We will take our end-of-year trip on Tuesday, May 12th.  We will leave school at 8:45 am.  First stop is the Wildlife Center where we will learn about birds, raptors, and the interconnectedness of living things.  We will eat our sack lunches here after the presentation and tour.  Then we will go to Big Rocks Bowling Center for a round or two of bowling starting at 1 pm.  We plan to be back at school for a 4:00 pm pick-up.

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Parents, please make arrangements to pick up your child at 4 pm.  Also, students will need a pair of socks for bowling, a sack lunch, sunscreen, a water bottle, and walking shoes.   This trip will be paid for by our activity fee from the beginning of the year.

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I have two chaperones but could use 2 or 3 more.  Let me know!  Also, please sign the permission slip coming home today.

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End-of-year performance in third grade:  We will have a performance for you full of singing, poems, and skits on Wednesday, May 20th at 1:15 pm in the classroom.  Please join us for this celebration of a successful year. Prior to this show, we will take a trip to see the Children’s Art Show at the Stables Art Gallery.  You are welcome to meet us there at 10 am or ride the bus.  We will have individual pieces of artwork in this show.

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Field Day will be on Thursday, May 21st at Kit Carson Park.  You may pick up your child before we ride the bus back to school (usually 2 pm or so), or do the regular pick-up or bus back at TCS.  This will be our last day of actual group activities.

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Summer is coming, summer is coming, summer…..

I forgot to put it in the homework post, but remember our book commercials this Thursday.  I look forward to hearing you “sell” your story.  We might do them in groups of 4 or 5 so you can learn about more books.  Don’t forget!

Hello!  We are nearing the end of a wonderful school year.  Thanks to all who helped with our Earth Day Celebration on Friday.  It was a day full of learning, nature, and wind!  I was impressed with the many demonstrations, excited to finally see the inside of the greenhouse, and glad to have so many people to celebrate with.  We truly have a unique community.

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This week we have a teacher in-service on Friday, May 1.

Spelling:  We are working through a list of “Spelling Demons for Elementary Students”.  Also, students are responsible for the Sight Words learned earlier this year.  Soon we will be pulling the words out of a hat and seeing if everyone knows them.  Thanks for practicing these at home.

Today, Monday, we had a nice Science Museum presentation for our K-2 classes.  Third graders took on the role of teachers, sharing their learning and projects.

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Monday:  Read for 15-20 minutes.
          Do math HomeLink 8-5.
          Write these spelling words 3 times each:
            truly     Tuesday           two        until
            used      vacation          very       wear
            weather   weigh             were       we're
            when      where             which

Tuesday:   Read 15-20 minutes.
           Do Math Home-Link 8-6.
           Write a sentence for each spelling word.

Wednesday: Read 15-20 minutes.
           Ask a family member to tell you some of their history
           Take notes or record your conversation to help you
           remember this oral history.
           Practice for dictation tomorrow.

Thursday:    NO SCHOOL TOMORROW.  See you Monday!

Congratulations to third grade for completing our eleven SBA tests this year!  The class did very well learning the discipline of testing and staying focused the whole time.

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As you know, we had very little homework during our testing weeks.  We will resume some of our regular work with the main emphasis still on reading daily.  I will assign a book commercial for next week, so please prepare a book to share.

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It is Turn Off Your TV Week this week.  Please fill out the sheet telling what you did to participate in this effort.  Bring it back on Monday!

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Practice these spelling words this week.  Hand in 3X each and sentences by Thursday.  Dictation Friday.

their           there         they       though

thought     through    tired     together

tomorrow   tonight     too       toys

train             traveling         trouble

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Have a great week and enjoy the spring weather.

Wow!  It’s the end of the year already.  We have had a very successful year in third grade.  Now we are planning our last field trip.  We will visit the Wildlife Center in Espanola on Tuesday, May 12th, followed by a bowling session in the afternoon.  Mark your calendar and look for the permission form that will come home next week.

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Also, I will need six chaperones for this trip.     Chaperones will need to help monitor student behavior.  Also, the Wildlife Center asks that no children younger than four years old accompany the group.   Please let me know if you would like to be included in this group.

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Welcome back from spring break.  That unexpected snow day was an interesting way to kick off vacation!

Don’t forget the teacher in-service this Friday.  NO SCHOOL!

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We will have standardized testing on Wednesday and Thursday mornings this week.  Please arrive promptly at 8:15 so we can start on time.  We will have the language arts tests this week.

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This week there will be no math tutoring.  Also, we are waiting for a new book to arrive so we will postpone Girls’ Book Club until next week.

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Science projects will be postponed until next week when we have time to present them to younger students.  We will work on these in class during afternoons this week.

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Monday:  Read for 15-20 minutes.
          Do math Home Link 8-2.
          Write these spelling words 3 times each:
            straight        studying       sugar
            summer          Sunday         suppose
            sure            surely         surprise
            surrounded      swimming       teacher

          Also, practice the words you missed from our
          list of "spelling demons".  We will finish
          this list in a few weeks.  Good work!

Tuesday:   Read 15-20 minutes.
           Go to bed early in preparation for testing!
           Please bring back the purple questionnaire
           about the class blog.  THANKS, parents, for
           your time on this.

Wednesday: Read 15-20 minutes.
           Testing tomorrow.

Thursday:    NO SCHOOL TOMORROW.  See you Monday!

Have you heard about the earth hour planned for this Saturday night.  People all over the world will send a message about global warming and the need for change.  What can you do?  Turn out your lights this Saturday for one hour and be part of this message.  To learn more about this global event, check out the earth hour website here.