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.

Book Buddies

Since September, we have been reading with our first grade book buddies twice a month. Recently, we changed partners so that we could read with and get to know a new friend. We love reading to our first grade buddy and listening to our first grade buddy read to us!

Newsletter 1-17-13

Ms. Little’s Third Grade Beacon

January 17, 2013

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Friday, January 18^th – Book orders due

·        Friday, January 18^th – Dismissal at 12:30

·        Monday, January 21^st – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (no school)

Classroom News:

Seanalee: We made cards for Cherokee, our new student. We welcomed her to our class. Her nickname is Cherry. Cherokee liked the fish. We became friends.

Lily: We played Multiplication Jeopardy! There are usually 4 or 5 teams in Jeopardy. We played to practice what we learned about multiplication. I love Multiplication Jeopardy even though my team did not win. I would play it again. It’s a good game!

Seamus: Last week we had Library. Nathan and I played Mini Train. It was the most fun thing there. Almost everybody else played Snail Bob 2. Mrs. Patino talked about computer safety. We took a test about it and we got the questions right.

Logan: In Math we learned about Mystery Numbers. We give people three or more hints to try to guess our mystery number. Like you could say, “My number is a multiple of 5.” Or for a hint you could do, “My number ends with a 4.” Once your partner figures it out, you do it again.

David: On Friday we took a multiplication test. There were 12 questions on it. I got all 12 answers correct. I really liked it. I liked it because I like tests better than learning new things.

Madison: We changed seats on the second of January. At the time, we were also making a seat for our new student, Cherokee. I’m sitting next to her! Katie is sitting across from her. Emily is sitting diagonal from her.

Katie: When we finished The Tale of Despereaux, we voted on a new read aloud book called A Series of Unfortunate Events. We have only read one chapter of the book. At the beginning of the book there is a family that lives in a mansion. The parents let the kids go to the beach. The oldest kid is named Violet, the middle kid is named Klaus, and the littlest kid is named Sunny. One day, the kids were playing at the beach when they saw a man walk towards them. When he got to them they saw it was only Mr. Poe. He told them their house burned down and their parents died. He said he would take care of them now.

Phaydan: During Writing we did Tigercast News. There were three different jobs. There were reporters, newscasters, and videographers. We split up into 5 groups. I was a reporter with Tatyiana and Cherokee. Madison and Lily were newscasters and Daniel was our videographer. So that is my group.

Daniel: At Gym on the 11^th we did a gymnastics unit. We had to do a forward roll. We also did points of balance. A point of balance is how many ways you can touch your body to the mat. Last, we played tag.

Jesse: Our class watched a movie in Science. It was about matter. The girl in the movie was talking about water taking the shape of a cup because it’s a liquid. The girl combined cold and hot to melt ice cream. During the movie Ms. Little stopped the movie and asked us questions.

Ali: Last week we went to Mrs. Messina’s class. There, we did a science experiment with play dough. First, we felt the play dough. Next, we dipped it in water. Last, we felt how it was after we dipped it in water. It felt slimy. Slimy is a property of the play dough when it’s wet.

Elizabeth: A few weeks ago we changed our reading groups into writing groups. In our writing groups we finished our story booklets. A story booklet is when you write all your scenes on separate pieces of paper from your story mountain. You also have to draw pictures to match your scenes. Most of us are almost done with our stories.

Tatyiana: We played recorders last week in Music. We had Mr. M. as a music teacher because Miss Lilley was absent. We played Jingle Bells on our recorder. Mr. M. played the trumpet. He played Pink Panther and the Star Spangled Banner.

Jameson: We finished reading The Tale of Despereaux. First, Despereaux went to save the princess. Then he traveled through the dungeon to find her. Last, Despereaux saved the princess. My favorite part was when he saved her.

Molly: We got a new fish. He is red and really colorful. We named him Fireball. We have another fish, too, named Sir Puffs a Lot. Someone has to feed him every day.

Colin: In Cursive we learned capital C and E. My favorite is the C! C is my favorite letter because it starts my name: Colin! We finished all the lowercase letters! Have a nice day!

Sophia: Last week we played Multiplication Scoot. Ms. Little passed out little square cards with multiplication problems on them. Then she passed out another piece of paper that was bigger with numbered squares. Then we solved our own problem and wrote it down on the square for that number. Then we scooted to the next desk to do the same thing again and again until we got all the way around the class.

Nathan: Last week we did a punctuation packet. We had to put the picture of each kind of punctuation. We had to write what we use it for and we had to write two sentences using it. The punctuations were a question mark (?), apostrophe (‘), exclamation point (!), period (.), comma (,), and quotation marks (“ “ ).

Brenna: We have first grade buddies. We are getting new partners. We can read to our first grade partner and they can read to us. We go to their class sometimes and sometimes they come to us. I like when I get to read to my partner.

Emily: At the beginning of the month we made January calendars. First we wrote the word January at the top of the paper. Then we filled in the days of the week in little rectangles. Then we filled in all the days in the month and filled in all the special events we have in the month. After that, we decorated it if we wanted to and then we handed it in.

Tyler: Last Monday in Art we made graphs of when we feel loved. First, we made a picture. Then we wrote when we feel loved. Last, we cut out a heart. Then we gave it to Mrs. Santillo. I feel loved when we go out to eat.

Ms. Little: This week we welcomed a new student to our classroom, Cherokee! We have all assisted in helping make her comfortable, learn our class routines, and adjust to Green Meadow School. We’re excited to continue our third grade year with her!

Newsletter 1-10-13

Ms. Little’s Third Grade Beacon

January 10, 2013

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Friday, January 11^th – Dismissal at 12:30

·        Friday, January 18^th – Book orders due

·        Friday, January 18^th – Dismissal at 12:30

·        Monday, January 21^st – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (no school)

Classroom News:

Madison: In Ms. Little’s class we are doing Literacy. One of the choices is to listen to The Snowy Day. In the beginning of the story, Peter wakes up and it is snowing so he rushes to get ready to go out in the snow. The next part in the story is he goes outside and finds a stick and uses it to make a track. Then he made a smiling snowman. Then he made snow angels. Then he pretended he was a mountain climber. Then he went inside and went to bed. While he was sleeping he had a dream that the sun came out and melted the snow, but when he woke up the snow was still there and he was glad.

Colin: In Literacy we changed reading groups into writing groups. My group is Daniel, Phaydan, Madison, and Elizabeth. I love writing with my group! We are working on story mountains and story scenes for our realistic fiction stories. Ms. Little thinks our stories are coming out very well!

Ali: At morning meeting yesterday Katie came up with a new greeting. It was called the finger touch. First we touched fingers. Then we said good morning or whatever Katie picked to say. We also learned how to do the snowball greeting last week. First we wrote our name down and crumpled up the piece of paper. Then we put it in the bin. Next we took one out of the bin and greeted whoever’s name was on the paper. Last we went back to our spot.

Logan: We read 100 Hungry Ants in Math. The ants were trying to get food from a picnic. The little ant said, “Stop! We are moving too slow.” So they went by 50 in 2 rows. They walked until the little ant said, “Stop! We are moving too slow.” So they went by 25 in 4 rows but when the got there the food was all gone. All 99 ants were chasing the little ant.

Phaydan: Last Friday we played a game. It was called New Years Scoot. First Ms. Little gave out cards. Each card had a question about the New Year. Colin and Tyler passed out the recording sheets. Ms. Little gave us two minutes to answer the question that was at the desk, and then she said, “Scoot!” So we moved one seat to the left and answered that question.

Seamus: Two weeks ago we listened to the story The Jacket I Wear in the Snow. I liked it because it showed all the gear that you wear in the snow in the book. All my friends laughed at the part about the long underwear. My favorite part was when she put on the warm coat. I think it was a good book.

Katie: On Monday we learned about line graphs. We marked the highest and lowest points on the graph. We used information from a tally chart to make our own line graphs. We used a ruler to make straight lines from dot to dot. We also did a worksheet.

Emily: A couple weeks ago we made snowman glyphs. When we make glyphs we have questions so we know like what kind of buttons we should put on. This is how we do it. Say this is a question for the kind of nose. We’d have two questions, like if you like snow or if you don’t like snow. If you did like snow then you would put a carrot nose, and if you didn’t like snow then you would put a square nose. We had a lot of questions like that. Then Ms. Little put them up on the bulletin board. Mine had a tall hat with a pom pom on it because I am a girl.

Daniel: Last Library we learned about Google Earth. In Google Earth the first thing we looked for was our house. We found our house by entering our address and writing MA. After that we checked out books. Last, we left.

Elizabeth: In our class we made New Year’s resolutions. We read two poems. First we read a silly poem and a then we read a serious poem. Then we wrote a silly resolution and a serious resolution. A resolution is something you want to do to make yourself better this year. There was a sock in the picture to remind us that that is the serious resolution. The silly one said, “This year maybe I’ll…” and the serious one said, “This year I’ll knock your socks off by…”

Nathan: We read a story called Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. It was about not letting the pigeon drive the bus. He did all he could to try to tell us he should drive the bus in the story. We read the story because the author Mo Willems uses a lot of punctuation and we are learning about that.

Sophia: In cursive we learned uppercase O and D. To do an O you make an uppercase O and flick it out at the top. To do a D you swing down, loop around, swing up, and loop around and out. After we were done we raised our hand and Ms. Little checked our page. Then we could practice on our white board or do a practice sheet.

Jesse: Our class read The Quiltmaker’s Gift. A king in the story wanted to celebrate his birthday twice a year. The king found a lady that could sew amazing quilts. The king sent all of his 1,000 soldiers to get a quilt from the lady. The lady said she only gives her quilts to people who need them so the soldiers tied the lady in a cave that had a sleeping bear. When the bear woke up, the lady had made him a quilt. At the end the king realized it was better to give and not get.

Lily: In Math we played a game called Bike Path. We used number cards and dice, too. We played to practice multiplication. It was a good game. I had fun playing it.

Seanalee: We did a cursive project because we finished learning all the lowercase letters. Everyone got to pick a choice from the Smartboard. The one I chose was called Can You Find the Cursive Lowercase Letters? There were different pictures like mine. Ali did Where is l? Katie did Can You Find the Lowercase Letters in My Dessert? We had to hide the lowercase letters or words in our picture.

Jameson: We read The Quiltmaker’s Gift. After we read we talked about what we would give away. I said I would give away my poofy blanket and my bed to someone who needs it. After we wrote we colored quilts and hung them on the wall.

Tyler: Last week in Gym we did a relay race. For the relay it was a bucket relay race. After that we played Crazy Tag. Crazy Tag is like tag but it’s crazy. After Crazy Tag we practiced shooting hoops.

David: In Math last week we made in and out boxes for multiplication. We had to find out the rule first. Then we finished putting the numbers in the boxes in the table. I was partners with Sophia and Molly. On Sophia’s I was doing x 9 as my rule. I had to figure it out by myself but it was fun.

Tatyiana: In Music last week we played the recorder. We have these books and there are all kinds of recorders. There are blue, white, and pink recorders. We played Jingle Bells.

Brenna: In Art we made clay houses. We used our hands. We made the roof, door, and window all with our hands. We all took our time. We used toothbrushes to rough the clay. We are going to paint them.

Ms. Little: Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an enjoyable winter break. 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.