Reminder

On Monday we will be walking to the park so be sure to wear walking shoes and bring a lunch that does not need to be heated. 

Don't forget to send in headphones or ear buds if you haven't already.  They will need them on Monday when we do our practice test.

Wednesday will be our nacho bar and game afternoon.

Thank you to everyone who came to conferences. You all have wonderful children!

Oops

I realized after I got home that my last post was not an email but was on the blog....which means you can't reply all! :) Tomorrow when I get back to school I will send an email of what is needed for the nacho bar and then everyone can reply all for what they want to bring.

Next week 3/30- 4/2

Next week we are have stamina building days for our students.  To make these days more fun for the students in the afternoon on Monday and Wednesday we have some fun activities planned.

On Monday the 30th we will be walking to the park for lunch and play time.  We will leave school around 12:15 and return at 2:00.  If you would like to walk over with us please let me know.  Also I would like to have a parent bring over water bottles and popsicles for our class. If you are able to do this please let me know.

On Wednesday April 1st in the afternoon we will be having a nacho bar and play board games.  We will need the following things brought in for our nacho bar:
                           *4 bags of chips
                           *crock pot of nacho cheese
                           *salsa
                           *olives
                            *bowls
                            *napkins
                             *bottles of water
If you can bring in anything please reply all to this email so everyone will know what has already been taken.

Also, if you have a board game to bring in and share with the class for the afternoon please send it in with your child.  Make sure you write your name on the game.

End of 3rd quarter!

I cannot believe that the 3rd quarter is already over! This year has flown by. I will be so sad for these kids to move on to 4th grade. I'm glad I will at least still get to see them for reading.

I am going to try something new for signing up for conferences.  It will be all online on  sign up genius.  I will be setting it up at the beginning of the week and you will be getting an email telling you to go on and sign up for your conference time.  Other teachers here use this and say it works great.

Reading:  (3rd) We worked on a smarter balance question requiring them to write the ending to a narrative story.  On Wednesday they shared what they wrote with a partner and got feedback.  Then they revised their story using their feedback.  We also had a spelling test on Thursday.  We will have a Latin/Greek test this week.

(4th) We worked on a smarter balance question requiring them to summarize a non-fiction text.  On Wednesday we discussed and they shared with their bridge partner.  They then used the feedback from their partner to revise their summary.

Writing:  The students were giving two examples of a tall tale.  They then had to write their own tall tale.  We will continue with these this week.

Grammar:  We practiced putting a paragraph in the correct order so it will make sense.  Making sure to have a topic sentence and a concluding sentence.  They then had to add more details to the paragraph to enhance it.

Projects:  We almost finished our life cycle projects.  They will practice presenting this week and will present to each other on Wednesday.

January 16-19

Reading:  This week we worked on author's purpose. We also had a Latin/Greek test.  Most of the students did great on this test!  This week we have a spelling test.

Writing:  We started a new writing assignment this week.  It is a bit of a challenge for everyone.  We read two articles on how to keep kids fit. Now they have to write a paper about this subject.  They have to use evidence from the both texts to support their reasons in the paper.

Grammar:  We worked on comparative and superlative adjectives.

Projects:  We are continuing our projects on the life cycle.

** We are out of pencils.  If you could please donate some pencils to our class that would be great!

January 26-29

Reading (3rd and 4th):
We are learning about text structures this week.  We have learned about cause and effect, and problem and solution, so far.  We are back to using edmodo this week in book club.  The students are working on restating their question in their answer and going back and locating the answers in the book to use to support their answer.

Writing:
We started a new informational writing this week on unusual deep sea creatures.  The students are loving what they are learning!

Grammar:
We reviewed simple and compound sentences and then began learning about complex sentences.  We will continue with this more this week.

Projects:
The students continued working on their egg drop simple machines.  Some groups have already tested their machines.  One group had a complete success, a few needed minor changes and two groups needed some major changes. :) We will finish up this project this week and start a new project on the life cycle.

Misc:
We will not be having a Valentines party, as I'm sure you all know from the email the school sent out last week.  Our student council will be selling candy grams that your student (or you) can purchase during lunch.  They cost 50 cents each.

We are running our of expo markers.  If anyone would like to donate some to our classroom that would be great!

The Money for Maverick contest ends soon.  Our class is not doing so well.  If they want to bring in money to donate to this great cause I will give Blue/White points.

Jan 19-22

Reading 3rd and 4th:
We continued working on main ideas and supporting details. We had a Latin/Greek test. The students did great on this test!  This week we will have a spelling test on Thursday. Please remind your student to study.

Writing:
We finished our inventor papers. The students typed their papers using different text freatures. Some of the students finished early and researched a person for Black History Month.

Grammar:
We reviewed and then took an assessment on simple and compound sentences. The students all did great on this assessment!

Projects:
We reviewed the different types of simple machines. We then went over the requirements for our egg drop project. Then they got with their partner and came up with two prototypes. They picked one and decided on what materials will be needed. The students are very excited about this project and many want to work on it at home, however they must only work on it at school with their partner. They can bring materials from home that are needed if they want.