September 29, 2011 Newsletter

The Green Meadow Gazette

September 29, 2011

Upcoming & Important Events:

·      Friday, October 7^th – Dismissal at 12:30

Classroom News:

Rory: This week we received a postcard from New Jersey.  It was from Thomas’ mom’s friend.  We read it at meeting and learned that the capital of New Jersey is Trenton.

Dorinda: This week we have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s about a little boy named Charlie.  He finds a golden ticket so he goes to the chocolate factory that hasn’t been open in a long time.  Right now in the story, the people are in the inventing room.

James: We’ve been doing number patterns in Math.  Say we’re adding 7 for our pattern starting from 12.  We would go 12, 19, 26, 33… I think it’s fun.

Joseph: This week in Writing Workshop we wrote seed stories about our lives.  If we write a story, we will have a publishing party when we’re finished.  We are in the collecting part of the process.

Alexander: This week we received a postcard from New Mexico.  The capital of New Mexico is Santa Fe.  Parents, please inform your relatives from different states to send postcards!

Lindsey: Last week we painted pictures of ourselves with watercolors.  We started in pencil and then we traced over the lines with black crayon.  The next day we painted over the crayon with watercolors.

Hannah: Ever since we started school, we have been collecting seed stories in Writing Workshop.  Seed stories are little stories that can be made into big stories.  When you write a seed story, you don’t write about the whole day, you only write about one moment with a person, object, or in a place.

Alonso: Our class learned about ordering numbers in Math.  We did an ordering numbers activity in groups with white boards.  It was fun because I like math.  And it was also nice to learn something new.

Morgan: In Math we are learning how to compare numbers.  You can use <, >, or = to compare. For example, 263 < 599. I like comparing numbers.

Samantha: In Science we are learning about the food groups.  The five food groups are fruit, grains, vegetables, protein, and dairy.  Try eat these food groups every day so you can be healthy.

David: Last week we read Time for Kids.  It was about Hurricane Irene.  I learned that half of a road broke down into the water because of the hurricane.  I liked the pictures in Time for Kids.

Thomas: This week in Math we learned how to round numbers to the nearest hundred.  We had a partner.  We rolled the dice three times to make a 3-digit number and wrote our number down.  Then we rounded it to the nearest hundred.  The person with the bigger number got a point.

Reese: Last week we started book groups.  We try almost every day to read in our book groups.  All of us are reading interesting books.  We are going to read all kinds of books.  We read with our group, talk about what we read, and then write.  I love book groups.

Graham: We received a postcard from Missouri this week, so we colored Missouri orange on our map because it’s in the Midwest.  I like coloring our maps when we get postcards.

Aiden: This week we received a postcard from Washington D.C.  It is not a state so we did not color it in on our map.  I like the postcard project.

Robbi: Almost every day we have D.E.A.R.  D.E.A.R. stands for Drop Everything and Read.  If we read quietly for more than five minutes in a row, we can earn marbles.  We have a choice to read with a partner or alone.

Henry & Brianna: On Mondays in Art, we do three things.  My group (Henry) did the three leaf clover.  We are making a leprechaun carrying a pot of three leaf clovers.  There would be a rainbow shining on a patch of clovers.  In Art, I (Brianna) chose to do three feet in a yard.  My two partners and I chose to do that because it has to do with three things.

Kyleigh & Kyle: Last week in Music we danced.  We also learned the Marvelous Toy song and played the drums.  We all liked the new song we learned.

Hunter & Vinny: This week in Gym we played the Bucket Relay and Crazy
Tag.  Taking the buckets was fun.  We both liked both games.

Kate & Cara: Last week in Library on Wednesday we talked about tall tales.  Mrs. Patino read us Library Lil and another book.  We also read two stories from a mythology book.  At the end we checked out books.

Ms. Little: Thank you to all who attended Back to School Curriculum Night last week.  I sent home handouts of the information I presented.  Please let me know if you did not receive it, or if you have any questions about the third grade curriculum.  Have a great weekend. J

Back to School Curriculum Night

Thank you to all who attended Back to School Curriculum Night last week.  The following is an overview of the information that was presented.  Please let me know if you have questions or concerns regarding the third grade curriculum.

Back to School Night

3^rd Grade

Ms. Elizabeth Little

elittle@maynard.k12.ma.us

Expectations

·      Be independent

·      Be responsible

·      Be able to follow multi-step directions

·      Be respectful to others

·      Put best effort into all assignments

·      Be neat and organized

Homework Procedures & Expectations

Students will receive homework most nights (Monday – Thursday).  It should be brought back to school the next day in their homework folder.  Homework assignments will be discussed each day in school prior to going home so that I know students understand what is expected of them.

A minimum of 15 minutes of reading should take place nightly.  Independent Reading Journals will be given each Monday and should be completed and returned by the following Monday.  There is a checklist on the Reading Journal itself so students know exactly what is expected of them. The Reading Journals need to be initialed by a parent when it is completed.

Support at Home

You can support your child at home by asking questions about a book they are reading, such as asking what kinds of connections they are making to the characters or plot of the story. There is a “Sentence Starters” sheet that will stay in your child’s homework folder to help them respond to what they’re reading. 

Math is a cumulative subject, and therefore builds on what your child has learned prior to third grade.  It would be beneficial to practice basic addition and subtraction facts with your child to help them build a solid base for multiplication and division.

Communication

There will be a typed classroom newsletter (The Green Meadow Gazette) sent home most Thursdays in your child’s Thursday Backpack Folder.  This newsletter will communicate upcoming events, important dates, and classroom news.  Most of the newsletter will be written by the students.  I will also send home most of your child’s completed and corrected work in the Thursday Backpack Folder as well.  Please take a look at what we’re working on, and please feel free to speak with your child about their assignments.

Availability

I am personally available for parent conferences and/or extra help both before and after school if you find there is a specific concern you’d like to discuss.  Appointments can be made by email or by calling the school.  I check my email at least twice daily.  Please feel free to send me an email if you have a question or concern, and I will respond as soon as possible.

Back to School / Curriculum Night

It was great to see so many parents come to Curriculum Night!  Information was presented about each area of the third grade curriculum, homework policies and procedures, and student expectations.  Parents had an opportunity to look through their child's Writing Workshop notebooks and Me Books, see other pieces of work hanging up in our classroom, and ask questions regarding third grade.  If you were not able to make it to Curriculum Night, I have sent home an overview of the information provided with your child, which is also posted below.

Newsletter 9-15-11

We learned how to write our first classroom newsletter last week! Each student plays a part in writing by choosing an activity we completed in class, and then writing both facts and opinions about it.  We're practicing "reporting the news" so that others can learn about what we're doing each week in our third grade classroom.

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The Green Meadow Gazette

September 15, 2011

Upcoming & Important Events:

·       Friday, September 16^th – Dismissal at 12:30

·       Thursday, September 22^nd – Curriculum Night 6:30 – 8:00

·       Friday, September 23^rd – Dismissal at 12:30

Classroom News:

Brianna: In our class we have a marble jar.  Our teacher counts down from five when she tries to get our attention.  Say she gets to three and we’re all quiet, she would put three marbles in the jar.  When we fill up the marble jar we get to vote on what we do to celebrate.

Aiden: Yesterday we read How I Spent My Summer Vacation.  It was about a boy named Wallace who was going to his aunt’s house but cowboys asked them to help him because they needed another cowboy.  It was a good book because Wallace got to ride a horse.

Kyleigh: Last week we played a game called “Stand Up, Sit Down.”  It’s when a person says something like, “Stand up if you like summer.”  If you like summer, then you would stand up.  Then the person says sit down.

Robbi: Every day when we come in to the classroom, the Smartboard has an idiom of the day written on it that’s part of the morning message.  For example, “Ants in your pants” is an idiom.  It means you can’t keep yourself still.

Lindsey: During the first week of school we read a story called Chrysanthemum. It told us that it’s not nice to tease people if they have a funny name.  Then we made our own license plates with our names and decorated them.

Graham: We started to use our Reading Response Journals to write after we read.  We wrote a retell of the first chapter of Fox in Love.  After we read the second chapter, we wrote a prediction. 

Alonso: Last week in Math we lined up by birthday order but we could not talk.  In the end we got it right.  We also learned about ordinal numbers like first, second, and third.

Rory: Last week we wrote about our hopes and dreams.  A dream is what you want to be when you grow up.  For example, when I grow up I want to be a famous dancer.

Kyle: In class we interviewed each other.  Then we introduced who we interviewed to the whole class.  I asked a lot of questions and then my partner asked me a lot of questions.

Alexander: Last week we wrote acrostic poems about our names.  The word acrostic means the word goes down the side, and the words that describe what you’re writing about go across, starting with each letter of the word.  We all loved the poems.

Cara: We are doing the Pledge of Allegiance this week over the loudspeaker.  We all did a very nice job.  We all got flag stickers.  Not everybody has had a turn yet but I am guessing they are going to like it.

Dorinda: Mrs. Dankner read us a book called A Fine, Fine School with a fine principal.  The principal wanted school every day, even on the weekends and holidays.

Kate: We made our classroom rules together.  We also made hands and put them on the wall around the rule poster.  You needed to write your name on your hand so you could see it and then you could decorate it.

Morgan:  We drew our own self-portraits.  We had to draw our face on the paper, then color it in and make a background with colored pencil. There is a bulletin board in our classroom with our self-portraits on it.

Hunter: Last week we started doing D.E.A.R. It stands for Drop Everything and Read.  During D.E.A.R time we can read on the floor or stay at our desks.

Samantha: We are working on Me Books.  Me Books are books about us.  We write and draw in them about ourselves.

Hannah: When school started, summer objects was the first homework.  People took turns bringing in objects from their summer.  It was a way for us to know more about each other.  We brought in rocks, shells, photos, and postcards.

Vinny: Every morning we have morning work to do when we come in to the classroom.  Morning work is work that we write.  It is usually math problems.

Reese: In class this week we played Math Around the World.  Around the World is when we go around the class and Ms. Little shows a math flash card.  If someone makes it around the world (to each student) they win a prize.  We have no idea what the prize is yet.

James: In Math we played a place value game with blocks.  We used flats, rods, and units.  I liked it because I like blocks.

Daniel: Our class has been listening to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It is about a little boy who is trying to find a golden ticket.  I like it because it is a fun book.

Henry: Two weeks ago we made a calendar for September.  We had to write the names of the days of the week, the number of each day, and what we’re going to do in the month of September.  I liked it because I liked to decorate it.

Thomas:  In Math we played dice games with a partner.  We rolled the dice, added the numbers up, and then put a cube on that number on the game board.  I thought it was easy.

David: Our class had Writing Workshop yesterday.  In Writing Workshop, you write about people you have been with and moments you’ve had.  I like Writing Workshop because you write about family and friends.

Joseph: Yesterday in Library we listened to Mrs. Patino read a book about Greek Myths.  Then some of us checked out new books.  I liked checking out books.

Ms. Little: Our class had a busy and productive week!  We hope to write and send our class newsletter home once a week.  Please read it carefully to find out what has been going on in our classroom.  Have a great weekend! J