Friday Newsletter

Happy Friday! Right now, our room is "haunted" by ghosts and "infested" with 21 made-up insects! :) On Tuesday, we were lucky enough to have newly retired 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Brewers, come in to do an art project with us! She showed us how to make some adorable ghosts out of cheese cloth and fabric stiffener. They are really neat and are being displayed in the front display case for the month of October. The "insect infestation" is due to the fact that the students' insect dioramas were due on Wednesday. Everyone brought theirs in, and they are all really nice. I can tell that the students spent a lot of time on these. We started presenting them to the class on Thursday. We still have about 5 more presentations to go. Once we are finished presenting, I will put them in the hall for the other students to see. Feel free to stop by sometime next week to see our interesting insects!

The Week Ahead
English: We will continue our unit about nouns. We will be discussing common and proper nouns, nouns in the subject, and how to write with nouns.
Math: We will be learning how to write money amounts using dollar signs and cent symbols (the students have been anxiously awaiting this lesson), read and shade a thermometer to the nearest two degrees Fahrenheit, solve a problem by acting it out, collect data, tally data, and estimate the sum of two two-digit numbers.
Reading: My reading class will be reading and exploring a story called Turtle Bay. We will also discuss the author's purpose, how to reread to clarify, letter patterns kn, wr, and gn, homographs and homophones, and compound words.
Science: We will begin a unit about plants.
Social Studies: We will continue our new bullying unit.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I will be helping at the Zoe Stamer Memorial Benefit on Sunday. Hopefully I'll run into some of you while I'm there!

Thank you for your continued support! Please feel free to e-mail me at bcalcott@orionschools.us with any questions or concerns.

Friday Newsletter

I hope everyone had a great week! It was fun hearing all of the students talk about their involvement in the homecoming parade and festivities. It seems that we have many Chargers and Chargerettes in our class! This week, we started making our insect habitats. I sent a note and a rubric home with the students. Please see the "Science" section of "The Week Ahead" for more information about the project.

The Week Ahead
English: We started learning about nouns this week. We even had a chance to learn a song about nouns. They were all reluctant to sing at first, but then decided it was a fun song. Next week we will continue to learn about nouns. We will also be learning to write by using sensory details.
Math: We will learn to write fractions using the fraction bar, add nine to numbers, write fraction number sentences, identify dozen and half dozen, write a fraction to show a part of a set, and read and write numbers to 1,000 using digits. We will have a timed fact assessment on Wednesday, and a written assessment on Thursday.
Reading: My reading class will be reading and exploring a nonfiction story called, The Olympic Games: Where Heroes are Made. We will also be discussing elements of nonfiction, closed syllables (words that end with consonants), antonyms, acronyms, how to make inferences, and much more. Some students are telling me that they are taking their book home to read on Mondays and then not reading. Please try to encourage your child to read the entire assigned story.
Science: As you probably know, we have been working on our insects/habitats. On Monday,  I sent the students home with a note that explained the project, and a rubric to show how they will be graded. I sent the dioramas home with the students this afternoon, but they are not due until Wednesday, September 28th. If your child finishes the project over the weekend it is fine to send it to school with them on Monday.
Social Studies: We will finish talking about maps. I also want to squeeze in a quick unit about bullying, and how to handle a bully. We seem to be having an issue with this within our classroom.

Notes in Friday Folders
This week, an RSVP for Donuts with Dad went home with the students. Please send those back with your child by October 11th. Also, there is an exciting change to the lunch program! You can now add money to your child's lunch account online. You can still send money with your child if it is more convenient for you. There is a note about this change in the Friday Folder.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Have fun if you are going to the Homecoming game!

GO CHARGERS!

Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns!

Friday Newsletter

I hope everyone had a great week! We had an exciting week in 3rd grade. Along with learning all of the exciting new concepts that I mentioned in the newsletter from last week, we had an "Ag in the Class" lesson! The Farm Bureau volunteers come in once a month and talk to our students about the importance of agriculture. Yesterday, the lesson was all about apples. The volunteer that came in even made the students a yummy apple treat! The recipe was given to each student.

The Week Ahead
English: We had our first English test today! Next week, we will spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday writing a rough draft of a paper, peer editing, and writing a final copy of a paper. On Thursday and Friday, I will introduce unit 2 which is about nouns. We may even be learning a song that will help us to remember what a noun is!
Math: On Monday, we will have our third fact assessment. It will cover sums of 10, adding 0, adding 1, and doubles. On Tuesday, we will have our third written assessment. throughout the rest of the week, we will be learning how to solve a problem by working backward, name and draw polygons, divide a square into three equal parts, identify and shade thirds, rewrite numbers by regrouping tens and ones, and count dimes, nickels, and pennies.
Reading: In my reading class, we will be exploring a story called, Allie's Basketball Dream. We will also review narrative elements (characters, setting, and plot), work on decoding skills with CVCe and CVVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-e and Consonant-Vowel-Vowel-Consonant) spelling patterns, work with synonyms, practice using a dictionary, and much more.
Science: We finally get to do our final insect project! We will be starting this on Monday. Check your child's book bag on Monday for a rubric and information about the project.
Social Studies: We will be working in groups to create a map of C. R. Hanna.

The are a few notes in Friday Folders. Two of them have information regarding the Zoe Stamer Memorial Benefit. As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Newsletter

Hello Everyone!
I hope everybody had a great week! We had a very busy week in 3rd grade. With MAPs testing, we only had reading twice this week. We had time to do a little more science, social studies, and art! We will have MAPs testing again next week. Our class will test on Tuesday (September 13th). Because of testing, we will only have reading on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. As stated in the note sent home last Friday, the spelling pretest will be on Wednesday, and the final test will be on Friday.

The Week Ahead
English: We will be finishing Unit 1 (The Sentence). On Monday and Tuesday, we will learn how to write "good" sentences by using the word and. Wednesday and Thursday will be spent reviewing the Unit. On Friday, we will take the Unit 1 test. On Wednesday and Thursday, I will be sending the students home with their English books to study. I will also send a reminder note home during the week.
Math: We will be having our second written assessment on Monday. During the week, we will learn to write the date using digits, divide squares into two, four, and eight equal parts, read a thermometer to the nearest 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and round numbers to the nearest ten.
Reading: We will continue reading and exploring Nate the Great: San Francisco Detective.
Social Studies: We will continue our unit on community. We will also learn a bit about maps.
Science: We will continue and most likely finish our insect unit. This means an exciting science project will be introduced! I will send information about the project as soon as I explain it to the students.

Scholastic Book Orders
Book orders were due today. I will be sending that out on Monday! Expect your order to be in very soon!

Grandparent's Day
The Grandparent's Day Ice Cream Social is on Monday! If your child is attending this event and is also a bus rider, please send them with a walker note on Monday. I'm excited to meet some of the students' grandparents (and eat ice cream) on Monday!

Picture Day
I just want to remind everyone that picture day is on Tuesday, Septemember 13th! Please send your orders in with your child.

Have a fantastic weekend! Please contact me with any questions or concerns at bcalcott@orionschools.us.
Thank you for your support!

Friday Newsletter

Yet another week has quickly passed us by! We had quite an exciting week. I'm sure that most of you heard about some big insects that we have in our class. If you haven't heard, I have introduced the students to my Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. They are giant insects that do not bite or fly, which makes them great for kids to handle.  Right now, they live in a cage near our pencil sharpener. Since I have put them there, the students have mysteriously had many broken pencils that need sharpening... As soon as the excitement wears down, I'm sure the pencils will start breaking less frequently. Also, we now have enough shoe boxes for our upcoming project! Thank you for sending them in with the students!
I also want to remind everyone that there is no school on Monday. I hope everyone has a great LONG weekend. If you are going to the Fall Festival, have a blast!

The Week Ahead
English: We will be learning to correct run-on sentences. We will also spend some time reviewing subjects and predicates. We will also practice how to write using the "5 Ws" (who, what, when, where, and why).
Math: We will learn  howto divide squares into two and four equal parts, how to identify congruent shapes, how to count dimes and nickels, how to add/subtract 10 to/from a two-digit number, and how to solve addition facts with sums of 10.
Reading: As the note in Friday Folders stated, we will be stretching next week's story out over the next two weeks due to MAPs testing. My reading class will be reading Nate the Great: San Francisco Detective. We will also be discussing CVVC and CVCe spelling patterns, how to decode long words containing prefixes and suffixes, how to distinguish the difference between fiction and nonfiction, how to make a story map, and much more.
Science: We will continue our insect unit. More specifically, we will discuss symbiotic relationships and endangered insects.
Social Studies: We will continue our discussions about communities.

Friday Folders
Many important notes went home in Friday Folders. Make sure that you read each one. I also want to remind everyone to send in the reservation forms for the Grandparent's Day Ice Cream Social, PTA bag orders, and directory information.

MAPs Testing
Next week we will begin MAPs testing. Our class will be testing on Wednesday, September 7th and on Tuesday, September 13th.

Have a wonderful weekend! If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at: bcalcott@orionschools.us. Thank you for your support!