Newsletter 1-31-13

Ms. Little’s Third Grade Beacon

January 31, 2013

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Friday, February 8^th – Dismissal at 12:30

·        Friday, February 15^th – Book orders due

·        Friday, February 15^th – February vacation begins at the end of the day

Classroom News:

Phaydan: On Friday we filled up the marble jar. Everybody voted on getting a turtle as a class pet. If we can’t get a turtle then we will have a talent show. Everybody wants to get a turtle. I do too.

Madison: In Music we are working on practicing playing our recorders. The songs we learned so far are Juba, Jingle Bells, and Hot Cross Buns. My favorite song is probably Hot Cross Buns. And I like the tune of Juba. We always play a game after the work.

Cherokee: Last week on Friday we played the addition and multiplication five-minute game. Last week we did addition. The week before we did multiplication. For multiplication we got 54 in five minutes. For addition we got 74. How you play is the teacher shows multiplication cards and if you get it right you get a point. If you don’t get it right she goes to the next person. We have five minutes to see how many we can get right.

Ali: Last week we were working on our stories. They were for Writing Workshop. First we read our own stories to check for capital letters, periods, and spelling. Then, we checked each other’s stories. We were checking them for capital letters, periods, and spelling.

Tatyiana: We had a snow day. It was two weeks ago. I sledded on the hill. We had a snow day because it was snowing a lot and it snowed too much for us to come to school.

Jameson: We have the same spelling words again this week. It’s because we had a short week last week. This will give us more time to learn them.

Colin: In Read Aloud, we finished The Tale of Despereaux. We started a new book called A Series of Unfortunate Events. So far, there are three orphans named Klaus, Violet, and Sunny. Their parents died in a house fire. Klaus loves books and reads until his eyelids close.

Seanalee: We read Time for Kids. It was all about pictures and what happened in 2012.  There was a ship that fell over. I liked the animals page because there were all kinds of animals. There was a page about the U.S. Army. There was also a page about the bad happenings like Hurricane Sandy.

Daniel: In Library we reviewed Opac. We had a checklist. We had to find a cooking book. Then we had book check out and some people used Opac to find their books. We could choose a book from the everybody section, biology, fiction, and nonfiction. Then, we left.

Seamus: Yesterday we had Art. We were painting our houses made out of clay. After we painted, we used a gloss coat. We painted with watercolors. When we got them back today they were shiny.

Brenna: We did a Science Matter Fact Swap. This is how to play: so you pick one fact from a friend and they pick from you. Then you write your fact on their paper and they write their fact on yours. One of my facts was that matter can be a solid, liquid, or gas. I wrote 3 and traded 6 with friends. One of the facts I traded for was that matter is everything.

David: Yesterday we watched a movie about the water cycle in Mrs. Messina’s class. It taught us about all the different parts of the water cycle. There is precipitation, accumulation, evaporation, and condensation. It also told us to keep the water clean. I really liked it.

Lily: We were chip trading in Math to practice subtraction. Chips can be worth 100s, 10s, or 1s. Emily and I came across a problem where we had all our chips in the 100s place and we had to trade to get chips in the 10s place and then in the 1s place. Molly and Madison got that problem too so I helped them figure it out and I got a paw! A paw is a square that says “kind, safe, learners.” It’s great getting a paw!

Sophia: Last week we had to finish our Tigercast News. Katie and Jesse interviewed Mr. Mehigan about his talent. Logan and Ali interviewed Ms. Lilley about Music. Some of us got to introduce the interviewers because we were the anchors. The others got to be videographers. At the end, all the anchors said goodbye.

Logan: In Math, we are subtracting and regrouping 3-digit and 2-digit numbers. We played a game with chips and a die. We roll the die 3 times so we have a 3-digit number. Then we roll once and we subtract that number from the 3-digit number. We try to get to 0.

Emily: Last week we did Cursive. We did the uppercase letters M, N, H, and K.

Then we practiced our letters on our white boards. I practiced writing words that have them in the middle of the word and the beginning of the word.

Nathan: In Math we are subtracting. Subtracting is taking away! NOT ADDING. Here’s the way I do subtraction. 16 – 6 = 10. There are many more awesome problems. We did some word problems, too. I like subtracting because it’s math. I love math.

Tyler: Last week in Gym we first did a triple stacking relay race. Then we did some stations. One station is a ball toss. One other station is a basketball game. Then there was a jump rope station.

Elizabeth: Last Wednesday we read with our first grade buddies and we got new reading partners. We read with our buddies every other Wednesday. Sometimes we go to their classroom and sometimes they come to our classroom. Our buddies are in Ms. Burns’ class. When they come in we read with them.

Jesse: Our class watched a movie called Ruby Bridges with Mrs. Messina’s class. The movie was about a smart girl that transferred schools. Everybody didn’t want to go to school with her because she didn’t have the same skin color. At the end, all of the other kids ask to play with her because they realize she is just like them.

Katie: On Monday we sang a song about our new topic, the water cycle, in Science. It goes to the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm. We did it in Mrs. Messina’s room. It was almost time for recess so we only sang it once. It has about four stanzas. Part of it goes like this:

The water cycle has many parts

These are the parts I know

Precipitation, water falls

As rain, sleet, or snow

With a drop drop here and a drop drop there

Here a drop, there a drop, everywhere a drop drop

Molly: On Friday we had an assembly. At the assembly we saw our class presentation of Tigercast News. Everyone put hard work into it. I really liked watching it. The whole school was there at the assembly and watched it.

Ms. Little: We are running low on shared classroom supplies such as pump bottles of hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy the weekend.