• Jan. Feb. / Newsletter 2020

    What's Happening in 3C?
    Parents, 
    Happy New Year! We are off to a good start with a couple snow days mixed in!!  We went outside for the 100th day of school snow challenge and snowball attack.  There is no better winter therapy than getting out in the snow. Throwing snowballs at your teacher also helps with the winter doldrums. 
     
    Valentine's Day is coming up next week and I would like to let the kids decorate a box or container for their cards.  Please send in or talk to your child about what they might use.  On Monday afternoon we will start decorating them in class and the kids will bring them home to finish on Monday night for the party on Thursday afternoon.  Guidelines will be sent home later this week.  
     
     
    READING/WRITING WORKSHOP
    We are well in to our non-fiction unit and you should see some non-fiction reading happening at home this month.  Students have a choice for their reading homework so they might be reading fiction if they are enjoying a good book.  They can also read non-fiction books from the library. I have some weblinks on my webpage that have some great online sites and the kids have TFK magazines which have great articles about current events. They are very kid friendly and a good vocabulary building resource. We have many children’s magazines in our library or online magazines ( TFK is online also).
     
    REMINDER**Reading should be 30 minutes each night.   Readers need a quiet, low distraction environment to successfully, "Read to Learn". Your help is appreciated!!  
     
    As we read about true events and topics that interest us the kids are beginning to take notes for their non-fiction writing piece and learn the structure of an essay.  We have been working on main idea and details in text; both finding examples in our reading and working to write paragraphs across many topics.  I often use our culture studies for writing topics and create a cross curricular unit around these standards. This will also be part of a project the kids are planning to share their information.  You may be asked to help out with materials depending on what type of project they are planning.  Thank you in advance for your support. 
     

    SOCIAL STUDIES

    We have started our Culture Unit and will be immersing ourselves in books, artifacts, video clips, presentations, interactions, and conversations about how people in other cultures live. I would like to invite guest speakers to come in for the next couple of months to talk about their experiences in other countries as an extension of our culture unit.  This has been a favorite  time for the kids in past years as their parents/guests come in to share their own cultures and we have learned so  much.  We are incredibly lucky to have people from all over the world attending Meramec school. I will have both adult and student speakers come in for short, engaging talks to bring some first hand perspective to our learning.  
     
    If you were born and raised in another country or have spent considerable time living in another country and you are interested in sharing some of your experiences, please contact me to set up a time to visit.  Third graders are a tough crowd so it is important that you are comfortable with large groups of kids.   Topic examples might include some, but not all of the following; school/education, play, foods, dance, sports, traditions/customs,  religion, and language. Artifacts, photos, videos ...etc are also engaging for the kids. Our best time of day would be between 9-10:30  or at the end of the day  between 2:30-3:15.  Plan on sharing for 15-20 minutes and then some time for questions. 
    MATH
    We just finished up our multiplication chapters and moved on to a quick graphing chapter.  Our last science unit covered a good deal of data  including weather/climate graphs and temp. tables.  Mr. Springnether did some graphing with the kids so it was a good time to build on that learning during math. We will finish our fixies and begin bar modeling for mulitplication/division this week. THe kids have worked online with the Thinking Blocks activity on a weblink found on my webpage.  They all know how to access it and may do this work at home with your permission.  It is a great resource for parents to understand and learn about how we use bar models as pictorial representations of story problems. 
     
    TECHNOLOGY 
    Last month we participated in an Hour of Code set up in the library by Ms. Marty.  The kids had opportunities to work at several stations with our Maker Space materials. We will spend time each month with these tools throughout the year.  We will also have an opportunity to use the 3D Virtual Reality Goggles again at some point during our current Culture unit. those were a big hit.  ( unless you have motion sickness, in which case ...ugh) The kids are also putting together their electronic portfolios to demonstrate learning throughout the year.  These will be shared with families in the spring.   
     

    IMPORTANT DATES
    February 13 th- Valentine's Party
    February 14th - Early Release Day
    February 15 - NO SCHOOL - President's Day
    February  25-  Black History Night - 6:30 at the high school
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
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  • October 2019 - Newsletter

    Parents, 
    Throughout the year I will send home a newsletter about what is happening in the classroom, as well as upcoming dates and important events.  I will send a link to your email that will connect you directly to my webpage. You can also access my webpage/web links through the Meramec website. 
    And now ......
     
    What's Happening in 3C?
    We have conferences coming in a couple weeks  and I am looking forward to discussing your child's start to the school year.  Please use Sign-Up Genius to schedule a conference if you have not already done so.   If the time slots offered don't work for you please feel free to email me and we can set up a time for another day.  
     
     
    **Thank you so much for your generous donations to the food drive.  It really makes a big difference for our food pantry.  
     
     
    SOCIAL STUDIES
    We just finished our first science unit in the lab and are starting our first Social Studies unit on Geography.  More information will be coming home next week.  
     
    MATH
    We finished chapter one on place value and are currently working on chapter two - addition / mental math strategies.  It is very important for students to use mental math as they move to more difficult algorithms. Last week, your child brought home a handout to practice and demonstrate one of the strategies they are learning.  Explaining these strategies aloud is another step in reinforcing the strategy and gives them a chance to show off what they are learning :) We will revisit mental math on a regular basis throughout the year.  We will also be doing some bar modeling during this chapter to connect pictures with problem solving. "Seeing" math is important to understanding math. 
     
    After each chapter assessment students are required to make corrections (we call them "fixies") and I will conference individually with them about the concepts they struggled with.  Quite often they fix mistakes on their own or with a few hints from me.  If you see blue pen on a math page you will see the original answer in pencil and the blue ink is the correction.  You may also see my writing on the side and this lets you know we had a mini-conference or lesson about that problem/concept. The class has also been working on some math challenges and center games/activities meant to push their thinking.
     
     
    READING WORKSHOP
    We are finishing up our first unit, "Building a Reading Life" that focused on setting up routines, choosing "just right" books, reading for pleasure, setting goals, building stamina, and learning how to talk about books with others. This week we have been working on predicting and prediction clues that authors give.  I finished up James and the Giant Peach, which is always a read aloud crowd favorite.  We worked on visualizing, character traits, and predicting throughout the book. Everyone is now reading realistic fiction books and we will focus more on real-life characters and how they act.  We are currently focusing on comprehension checks in our choice books. The message I am getting across to the kids is that "word calling" is not the same as reading.  It is what you remember and how well you understand all parts of the story that make you a reader.
     
    **On Monday we will have a movie/pajama party and watch James and the Giant Peach. 
     
    You can help at home by having your child read aloud to you and talk about their current reading goal.  You might ask for a brief summary after they read their choice books. Ask them to dig deep and tell you what the characters are thinking and feeling, not just a simple retell.  Make predictions together about what might happen next.   
     
    WRITER'S WORKSHOP 
    We have done a lot of introductory work this year by free journaling and learning how to use strong adjectives and verbs to help make our writing more descriptive.  We gathered many ideas for our personal narratives, which is our first big writing piece of the year. The kids have been working on their prewriting/ story sketches and are currently completing their organizers and starting their rough drafts. We are also doing lots of word work/spelling/punctuation/editing mini lessons and activities. 
     
     
    TECHNOLOGY
    We have spent time this year working on a variety of lessons using our Chrome Books.  You probably heard that the kids learned how to use email. Students have a school email address and for now they are allowed to email anyone in our class, older siblings, or their parents.  They love to send and receive email.  I have gotten more emails than I can count.  If you want to send your child an email this week they will get a chance to read your note later in the week.  We have also started on a year long electronic portfolio your child will share with you in the spring.  They have created and downloaded videos and pics of their learning thus far.   
     
     
     
    IMPORTANT DATES
    *No school - Friday, October 11, Conference prep. day 
    *Parent teacher conferences - Oct. 15, 16, & 17 
    *Early release day - Thurs. Oct. 17 due to parent teacher conferences
    *No school - Friday, Oct. 18 due to parent teacher conferences
     
     
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