Newsletter 12-13-12

Ms. Little’s Third Grade Beacon

December 13, 2012

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Friday, December 14^th – Dismissal at 12:30

·        Monday, December 24^th – Wednesday, January 2^nd - Winter Break

Classroom News:

Katie: When we listened to reading we had to compare and contrast with the stories The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. We had to write something that was the same and something that was different about two stories. One thing I wrote was that the wolf went to jail at the end of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. The thing that was the same was that there were three pigs in both stories.

Colin: In Writing we were reading stories. My partner and I read Alexander Who Doesn’t Want to Move. It was so funny and weird. Other partners read different stories. We were looking for problems in the stories.

Seanalee: We don’t have to do an Independent Reading Journal for homework until January. It is because it’s going to be winter vacation. We still need to do math homework and read 15 minutes. I like the idea.

Tyler: In Math we were practicing multiplying by 6s.  We even played a game. We would roll the dice and we would see what we get, so if I rolled two numbers that add up to a 7, I would have to multiply 7 x 6. We have a little tile that we put on the answer.

David: In school on Friday we practiced multiplying by 6s and 7s. We played a game. There were two rows: a x 6 row and a x 7 row. I chose the x 7 row. I was versus Nathan. In the end he won. You play by rolling the die and doing the multiplication fact times the number you rolled. Then you write in the answer and whoever fills up their row first wins.

Logan: We read and watched The Tale of Despereaux. A mouse named Despereaux was born with his ears big. His friend Roscuro fell in the queen’s soup and she died. The princess was put in the dungeon. Despereaux and Roscuro went to get her back.

Sophia: In Listen to Reading we listened to The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. The story is animal fiction. The wolf sneezed the houses down. He didn’t blow them down. At the end of the  story the wolf was put in jail.

Emily: Last week in Writing Workshop in our notebooks we wrote internal and external character traits. Internal means inside you and external means outside of you. So before we did this we were making ideas for our character and we took the ideas from our character and sorted them into internal and external character traits. For internal, you would probably write something like kindhearted because you don’t look kindhearted. For external, you would write blue eyes or pale skin because you can see those things.

Molly: Yesterday we went to Mrs. Messina’s class to do Science. We each had a partner to help us. We watched a video. It was about solids, liquids, gases, and matter. One thing from the video was how matter changed from a solid to a liquid to a gas.

Brenna: We have folders where we keep our reading logs. We recorded books. We got them in class. We all have blue folders. Right now we are all reading The Tale of Despereaux so we wrote it in our reading log.

Tatyiana: We didn’t go to Music last week. We didn’t go to Music because it was an early release. Last week we got our recorders. I got a book that came with the recorder.

Lily: In Math we were working on multiplying by 7. For example, 5 x 7 = 35. To figure it out I would break apart the 7 into a 5 and a 2. Then I would do 5 x 5 and 5 x 2 to get 35. It was hard at first but I got used to it.

Daniel: Last Friday at Gym we played noodle tag. If you have a ball you try to hit someone. If you miss then you’re out. If you hit them then they’re out. When you’re out you need to roll the two dice. One has an exercise and the other one has a number. If you roll sit-ups and three then you do three sit ups. If you have a noodle then you tag them on the leg. If you get them you have to sit down and stand up, and if you take your hand off then you’re out.

Jameson: We went to Mrs. Messina’s class to do Science. We watched a movie about matter. It was funny when the person fell to the ground.  Then we did a paper where we were putting science words in the boxes. We had to sort the science words into observable and measurable properties.

Phaydan: In Spelling we played a game. We had to use the coin chart to figure out how much each of our words was worth. We added up the coin values for each letter. Then we recorded each word and value.

Ali: In Writer’s Workshop yesterday we brainstormed ideas. The ideas were possible problems and drama for our stories. We did a few examples. For example, my girl’s brother broke his leg, so he had to go to the hospital.

Nathan: We played a game with the Smartboard. It was called the “Function Man.” What we had to do is this: we put in a number and it came out as a different number. We had to guess what the rule was.

Seamus: Last week we had Library. I had so much fun because we played on the computers. We read a story called Zothora. It was hilarious because there was a robot that went crazy.

Madison: Last Friday and Thursday we had a wicked early release. We didn’t even have lunch. It was unbelievable! We didn’t even have math. I was relieved. We got out of school at 11:25.

Jesse: Our class did an experiment with Mrs. Messina’s class. We did three papers. We were testing the textures of our skittle. A texture is how something feels. Then we got to eat our skittle. Then we lined up for recess.

Elizabeth: In Art we made picture frames. Mrs. Santillo gave each of us a package with wood frames. We had to punch out the frame we wanted and put the other one in a pile. Then we had to paint the stand and decorate the frame. When we were done we did free draw, and took our masks and our frames home.

Ms. Little: I enjoyed meeting with parents last week to discuss each student’s progress. Please let me know if any issues or concerns arise at any point during the year and we can make an appointment to meet. Enjoy the weekend.