Newsletter 2-20-18

ELA
We read Life Cycle of a Pumpkin and continued to work on adjectives.  Our comprehension skill was sequence, and we used a graphic organizer to show the plant life cycle. 

Congratulations to Eli for completing his 20-Book Challenge!

Math
We are wrapping up our topic on place value.  We will review today and have the test tomorrow.  I am sending home a review page today so that students can practice for the test.  Please go over it with your child, sign the page, and have her or him return it tomorrow for a Something to Celebrate. 

 

We're so close to reaching our goal of 90%!  Please encourage your child to practice their math facts each day, and have them show you that they're getting the green light.

Special Events
We had a nice time on our field trip to Capitol Theater.  The ballet was beautiful, and it was a great cultural experience.

We had a fabulous Valentine's Day party.  There were games, crafts, stories and snacks. Thank you so much to our room moms for helping.  

Thank you for all the nice Valentine's Day gifts.  I love the stuffed animals, mugs, flowers, office supplies, and delicious chocolates!

We were so lucky that our school was invited to test Google Expeditions.  Through augmented reality, we were able to see inside a tornado, go under the sea, and look for camouflaged animals.  What an awesome experience!
















Reminders
If you haven't signed up for parent teacher conferences, please do so as soon as possible.  I look forward to meeting with you and your child.

Thank you for all of your support.  Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Newsletter 2-9-18

ELA

We wrapped up unit three last week.  We practiced fluency and comprehension, played review games, and took the unit test.  We started unit four this week with the story Froggy Fable.  We learned a good lesson about change while talking about the frog and butterfly life cycle.  We also learned about adjectives and practiced drawing conclusions.

In the second half of the year, we start adopting more of the third grade program.  This includes a greater focus on vocabulary.  Vocabulary words are tested each week in our weekly test, which includes five vocabulary questions, five phonics questions, and five comprehension questions.  I have started writing your child's score on the story that goes with each weekly test so that you can see their progress. 

We have started using the program Reading Plus in class.  It is proven to increase achievement when used consistently.  If your child would like to use this program at home, they need to log in through clever.com.

Math

We finished topic eight, money and time, and our class  did very well on the test.  Thank you for working with your children at home. 

We are onto topic nine, place value.  We are working with three-digit numbers and writing them in different forms: standard form, expanded form, and word form.  We've also been making models of the numbers and drawing them.  I included a reteaching page in the email to explain this and to help your child practice.  I also added some games that you can play at home with dice.   

We dropped to 87% for a while, but we're back up to 88%.  If your child is not getting on Reflex regularly, they may start to lose facts. They need to prove that they are maintaining their fact fluency. 

Science

We have been learning about how animals adapt to their environments.  We practiced the vocabulary words predator, prey, camouflage, and adaptation.

White Ribbon Week

We talked about how we can stay safe on the Internet.  We had fun dressing up and remembering that we have the power to make good choices with technology.

Reminders

Our field trip to see Ballet West is this Tuesday.  We would like students to dress appropriately for the theater and use their best manners.

If you haven’t signed up yet for parent-teacher conferences, please do so as soon as possible.  I look forward to meeting with each one of you.

The kids are so excited to make their Valentine’s Day boxes!  The pink note I sent home gives additional information.  If students are not able to make a box, they can decorate a bag at school.

If you are going out of town and your child will be missing school, please remember to fill out a vacation form at least a week ahead of time.  I am sending the form again as an attachment.  You can print it at home and send it to school with your child.  This is important because it changes the way the absence is reported, and it gives me an opportunity to get work ready for your child.  Thank you to those of you who have already done this for upcoming vacations.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.