Newsletter 12-6-12

Ms. Little’s Third Grade Beacon

December 6, 2012

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Thursday, December 6^th – Dismissal at 11:25 (conferences)

·        Friday, December 7^th – Dismissal at 11:25 (conferences)

·        Friday, December 7^th – Book orders due

·        Thursday, December 13^th – Holiday Shoppe for students

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

Classroom News:

Madison: When you do math problems there are steps. First you have to make sure you understand it. Then you have to think of strategies to solve the problem. Next you see if the strategy didn’t work for you. If it didn’t work then you’d pick a different strategy and then solve the problem. Then the most important part is checking it.

Sophia: Last week in Library Mrs. Patino read Sylvester the Rusty Nail. Then we played a game called Would You Rather. After that, we checked out books. Last, we went on our own account on the computers.

Molly: Last Friday we went to Mr. Mehigan’s class to watch a play. It was about the Pilgrims and Wampanoags. My friends were in the play. They did good! They showed when they were on the Mayflower and at Plimoth Plantation. They also showed how they made decisions about becoming friends with the Wampanoags.

Seamus: We started to keep track of our literacy choices. We had to keep track of what we did. The choices during literacy are spelling, read to self, read to someone, and listen to reading, or work on writing. We are keeping track of it on a white board that has all our names and all the choices on it.

Lily: In one of Ms. Little’s book groups they are reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins. In my group, we are reading The Back to School Burglar. Reading groups are fun! In The Back to School Burglar there is a fair at the school.

Seanalee: In class we read a book about matter. It was a big book. I learned that when the atoms are tightly packed together it makes a solid. If the atoms are spread out it makes a gas.

Jesse: We watched The Tale of Despereaux movie because we almost finished our Tale of Despereaux book. In the story the queen was drinking her soup and a rat jumped in her soup, and she had a heart attack and died. The princess went to the dungeon. The princess almost got eaten by the rats.

Nathan: We are learning about realistic fiction. Realistic fiction is a story that could happen, but it has to occur in the present, not the future, not the past…the present. It does not have to happen in real life. Here is an example: Because of Winn-Dixie.

Tyler: Last week in Music we practiced playing recorders. We used our fingers on the holes but didn’t put our mouths on them. And we played games. We practiced a happy song. Then we went out to recess.

Colin: We are brainstorming story ideas in writing workshop. We are helping our partners to think of ideas for their realistic fiction stories. My story ideas are weird! And I picked a weird main character, too!

Katie: In class we learned how to write lowercase cursive g and o. The g was pretty easy but the o was hard. You have to start from the top of each letter. When I started it was pretty hard but when I did it for a longer time I got the hang of it.

Emily: Last week we made December calendars. In the December calendar we had to fill in all of the days of the week and fill in all the numbers of the days, too. After we finished, we had to write all of our events that we had going on like Christmas! And no school! When we were done we got to decorate it real fancy.

Jameson: We went to Mrs. Messina’s class to do Science. My partner is Kevin. We were cutting words out of a paper. We had to glue them in the right place on the solid, liquid, or gas paper. We helped each other. For the second paper I helped him mostly. I helped him with some answers.

David: In Math we learned how to multiply by 4. First you take a problem like 4 x 7 = ? You would take the 7 and double it like you’re doing 2 x 7. Then you take the answer and double that so it would be 28. You just double the double.

Brenna: Ms. Burns’ class is reading buddies with our class. They came to our class last week. They also came to our publishing party. They are in first grade. We all read to our buddies.

Phaydan: Ms. Little gave us math notebooks instead of a math paper for morning work. There was a little piece of paper taped to a page inside. We had to figure the problem out. When we were done we had to give it to Ms. Little. Then we helped a friend, read to self, or read to a friend.

Ali: Ms. Little changed our desks yesterday. She changes our desks every month. Each time so far there are five tables. My table is me, Madison, Lily, Nathan, and Jesse.

Elizabeth: In Art we finished coloring our Mexican masks. When we were done we took pictures of our masks. Then we watched a mask video. Then we got our backpacks and coats and went home.

Daniel: Last Friday at Gym we did a relay race. There was a substitute teacher at Gym. Then we did shooting baskets with basketballs. Last, we got to play soccer.

Logan: In Writing we are writing a realistic fiction story. I wrote my story idea about a kid that got hurt by a fish tank. He became a karate person. His brother is who Seamus is writing about. We didn’t know that they were brothers in the first place.

Ms. Little: Parent conferences will be held on Thursday, December 6^th and Friday, December 7^th.  A reminder with your scheduled date and time was sent home with your child last week. Please let me know if you are not able to come at your scheduled time and we can find a different time that works for you. Enjoy the weekend.