Newsletter 5-1-13

Ms. Little’s Third Grade Beacon
May 1, 2013

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Friday, May 3^rd – Dismissal at 12:30

·        Friday, May 10^th – Dismissal at 11:25

Classroom News:

Logan:  We read about parts of soil in Science. The book Soil is about the parts of soil. The pages we read were pages 1 and 2. It talked about all the layers of dirt. It goes like this: topsoil, subsoil, large pieces of rock, and bedrock. Now I know the layers of soil.

Sophia: On Monday we watched a Bill Nye the Science Guy movie about plants and soil. There was a grass-covered car. The movie also showed a Venus Fly Trap. I liked that part. It also showed how the way we breathe helps plants.

Lily: In A Series of Unfortunate Events, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are sailing across Lake Lachrymose. The found Curdled Cave! They found Aunt Josephine, too! She was hiding in Curdled Cave. She thought that she was going to be staying there but she’s not.

David: In Math, we started a unit about fractions. A fraction is a part of a whole. One example of a fraction is 1/10. That means 1 out of 10 pieces of the whole shape. With fractions, it’s always the first number on top out of the second one (the number on the bottom). I think they’re easy!

Daniel: Last week we watched a brainpop video about soil. We also watched a brainpop video about rocks and minerals. In the video about soil it told us about plants and how to plant. In the rocks and minerals video it told us about different rocks and gemstones. Some gemstones are more valued than others.

Phaydan: In Math we played I Have, Who Has? For fractions. On round one I had the card that said “I have 7/9, who has 5/9?” On the second round I had a card that said “I have 4/4.” We played three rounds. I can’t remember the third card I had though. The first card that starts says “Who has ¼?” The last card said “I have ¾ end.”

Cherokee: In Social Studies we have been watching Liberty’s Kids. It tells us about how we became free from England. We watched one about Paul Revere and the Midnight Ride and we also watched one about the Intolerable Acts. It is a nice show and I really like it. It’s fun to watch it. I learned that living back then wasn’t as good as living now.

Nathan: In Writing Workshop we wrote mini stories for our essays. You have to have a thesis if you want to write mini stories. My thesis was “Hard work pays off.” Our mini stories are really good. I think our essays will come out really good.

Molly: Yesterday the fire alarm went off. Everyone lined up. Then we went outside. All of the classes were lined up. It was not for a real fire. The teachers counted us. Then we went back inside.

Ali: In Science we planted green beans. Each person has their own green bean plant. We got to make our own labels so we know whose is whose. None of them have sprouted yet. We put them in topsoil. Topsoil is the first layer of soil in the ground.

Seamus: On Friday we had Gym. We played dodge ball. Before dodge ball we did relay races and our group won. We were the red buckets. I got out a few times.

Katie: Last week we read Time for Kids. It was about elephants. We read all of the paragraphs and all of the pages. Elephants are endangered. They’re getting killed for their tusks. We are trying to protect the elephants. It is very important to protect elephants because they might become extinct.

Seanalee: We received our last postcard! We got Oklahoma, our last one! Yah! Daniel and Colin got them. Colin has two postcards and Daniel has three postcards from Oklahoma. The capital of Okalahoma is Oklahoma City. We’re going to color it pink on our map.

Elizabeth: We filled up the marble jar! We voted on what we were going to do. Most people voted on a movie. We are going to vote on what movie we’re going to watch. We’ll watch the movie on Thursday.

Brenna: We got the idea of making hearts by reading Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler. Kind things that we do are written on the hearts. They are hanging on the wall in our class. I hope to make 100. We can decorate the hearts. An example of something we wrote on a hearts is “I helped a friend pick up pencils.”

Emily: Last week we got new book groups. The new book group I am in is with Sophia and Phaydan. When we were choosing our book groups we had to choose a book instead of the people we wanted to go with. The choices for books were: Does a Whale Have a Belly Button? Animal Shelters, Is a Dolphin a Fish? Freaky Fish, Secrets of the Rainforest, and Underwater Animals. The book that Sophia, Phaydan, and I chose was Is a Dolphin a Fish?

Ms. Little: Thank you to everyone who has donated shared classroom supplies this year. We are running low on tissues and extra snacks (saltines, graham crackers, goldfish). Any contributions would be greatly appreciated! Enjoy the weekend.