Newsletter 10-18-12

Ms. Little’s Third Grade Beacon

October 18, 2012

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Friday, October 19^th – Dismissal at 12:30

·        Friday, October 19^th – Book orders due

·        Friday, October 26^th – Monster March (8:45 AM)

·        Friday, October 26^th – Dismissal at 12:30

Classroom News:

Colin: In Writing Workshop we are writing strong endings using description, dialogue, or action. My strong ending is, “Then me and my mom sped down the road to the Bowladrome.” I wrote about bird watching. I never climb the walls at Writing Workshop!

Brenna: In Literacy we do spelling activities. We read to someone or read to self. We have a listening center. We can make a word search for someone. Our new choice is to choose a word and write a definition and use the word in a sentence. We also draw a picture to help understand the word.

Phaydan: In Math we had to add three or more numbers. We had to try to put two numbers together to make ten. First we did one digit numbers. Then we did two digit numbers. After that we did three digit numbers.

Lily: In Writing Workshop we were changing our stories. For example, “The dog likes food.” I would change it to the black dog likes to eat dog food.” I like my story that I’m writing!

Nathan: In Math we practiced adding 2 digit numbers. The only time you can regroup is when single digits go into double digits. For example, 99 + 99 = 198. You would need to regroup when you add the 9s in the ones place. We played a dice game. We rolled 4 times and added up the numbers.

Sophia: In Literacy last week we got a new station. It’s called “Listen to Reading.” When we listen to reading we listen to a story on a CD or tape and then sometimes answer questions.

Madison: When we went to Plimoth we went on the Mayflower II to learn about what their voyage was like. It was weird smelling. We went in where the people slept and it was a warm, quiet place. A bunch of beds and hammocks were inside.  We went inside the captain’s office and in the office there was a chair and a desk. Then we left.

Daniel: Last week we received a lot of postcards. One was from Japan. We are collecting postcards from the 50 states and from other countries. We have collected exactly 100.

Seamus: In Music we sat and practiced our songs. One of the songs we learned was about white sand and gray sand.  At Music we played drums. We also played the maracas.

Tyler: Last week in Library Mrs. Patino read us a story called Nancy. After that we picked out books. I picked out a book called 100 Most Disgusting Things on the Planet. Then we could go on the computer.

Ali: In Math yesterday we drew pictures to solve math word problems. Mrs. Morrison came in and read us a story. It was called Edwina the Emu. Then she said to draw a picture of two cages, and split the twelve emus in the two cages as many ways as we can.

Seanalee: Last week we had 1^st grade reading buddies. The first grade reading buddies came over to our classroom. I read Madeline to my reading buddy. We also read The Cat in the Hat.

Jesse: Last week we went to Plimoth Plantation. When we went to the Mayflower it started raining. At the Mayflower I got to go on a hammock. I also saw a cannon. We also saw Plymouth Rock.

Jameson: Two weeks ago we played a bucket stack relay game. We stuck buckets on buckets on buckets. We also played tag.  This was all happening at Gym.

Elizabeth: We had to write thank you notes to our chaperones for the field trip. Our first sentence had to be “Dear Mrs. Olsen, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Bouffard, or Ms. Little, Thank you for chaperoning our trip to Plimoth Plantation and to the Mayflower II.” Then we had to write two sentences or more about what we learned or liked at Plimoth Plantation. When we were done we could decorate our note. Our last sentence had to be from or sincerely and your name.

Molly: Last week we went to Plimoth Plantation. We learned how the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags way of life were. We saw the insude of wetus and Pilgrim houses. It was really interesting!

Emily: Last week we listened to Alligator Baby on tape. It was about a mom and a dad and a little girl losing their baby at the zoo. First in the book they lost their baby and instead of a human baby they brought home an alligator baby! Then they went back to get their baby but it wasn’t a human baby, it was a seal baby! And then that went on and on, and then the little girl went to the zoo and brought back a human baby instead of an animal baby.  After the book was done we had to write what happened first, in the middle, and at the end, and kind of do a retell about it.

Tatyiana: Right now Ms Little is reading The Witches. We’re in the part when the Grand High Witch turned Bruno into a mouse. I like it because it is funny.

Katie: On October 11, 2012 we saw a movie that was about the Pilgrim voyage. I learned that they had a governor. I liked seeing the Pilgrims build their houses. I also liked seeing the Wampanoags help the Pilgrims live.

Logan: Every Monday we go to Art at the end of the day. We are starting to make masks in Art. First we wrote and sketched out what it was going to look like, and we looked in the name book to see what our name stands for. My name stands for “little hollow and I am very delicate, so do not break me!”

Ms. Little: We are looking for several medium or large-sized pumpkins to use for a math/science project in our classroom. Please let me know if you’d like to contribute one before Friday, October 19^th.  Enjoy the weekend.