January 30th
Rome wasn't built in a day, but the third graders built three Native American villages in about one day's time! Thanks to all who helped us to construct our models. I hope you enjoyed watching the process of the students working together as a tribe to mold their ideas into their unique models. They look great, and we all survived without too big of a mess and chaos! They will be on display at Open House, so I hope that everyone will come by and see their efforts.
Thank you also to those parents/students that helped to give the second graders and their parents such a lovely First Reconciliation reception. Mrs. Norton was very appreciative for your generosity of time. Also, thank you to those that helped with the Continental Breakfast on Sunday. I dropped by after 11:15 Mass, and it looked like a success and good fun. Thank you to Barbara Wagner for the beautiful poster of pictures of third grade happenings.
It was a busy week last week, and I truly apprecaite all the help and support of the third grade parents in making everything such a success! I look forward to seeing you all this Thursday at Open House. I'm sure you will enjoy all of the wonderful work that your students have created and are so proud of.
As for this week, we will be starting cursive. The students are ready and excited. It will go a little slower than they expect, so I have encouraged them to be patient and wait to use their new writing syle until after we finish the lower case alphabet. Cursive is still a state standard, and we want them to learn it correctly and the connections can be a little tricky if they don't learn them correctly. I certainly want them to use it as much as possible after it is taught so that they are comfortable using it.
We also will continue on with multiplication. This week we will be doing the 4 times and 5 times facts-we will do the 3 times facts after them. The order they are taught goes along with our text. It is set up to make connections between the facts, such as 4 times is done after 2 times as you can use those facts to show that 4 times is just double the 2 times or "double-double".
We are wrapping up our chapter in Science, Ch. B2 on Motions of Earth and Moon. The test should be next week. We also will be reviewing our chapter on Native Americans in Social Studies and the test should also be next week.
This week there will be no spelling test with Open House on Thursday and being a half day. There will be no homework Thursday night except to come to Open House. We will start and finish Chapter 13 in Religion on Eucharist and have have a test this week.
Tests this week are as follows:
Wed., Feb. 1st- 4 times fact test
Thursday, Feb. 2nd- 5 times fact test
Religion test on Ch. 13-Eucharist
Finally, the mystery cube book report is due this Thursday, Feb. 2nd. The students should not leave it to the last day as they have two tests to prepare for on Thursday. They have had a month and many students have already turned theirs in. They will be on display at Open House and should be given the time and effort they require.
Thank you again for all your help and see you on Thursday evening.
Sue Arnold
January 23rd
Third grade is getting ready to start constructing their tribal villages. Your student should know what tribe they are in and their chief has noted the materials that each member has offered to bring in. Please check with your student to see if they have volunteered to bring any materials in. It shouldn't be much and they don't need a lot-the villages are on a 24" x 24" piece of wood! If they can't find or get it, they can let their chief know, and I do have extra supplies or others bring in what is needed. We need all materials by this Thursday. Thank you also to all those who have offered to help on Thursday morning (9:30-12:00) or Friday afternoon (12:00-2:30). It does get a little messy so please dress casually and bring an apron if necessary. Your students can also bring a shirt or apron to help cover up. Should be fun!
Also this week, we will be having several tests:
Thursday, Jan. 26th-Religion, Ch. 12 on Sacraments
0, 1, and 2 times fact test
Friday, Jan 27th-Spelling
We are starting a new theme in Literature with our stories having to do with animal habitats. We will be learning about fact and opinions and reviewing sequencing. In English, we are continuing with verbs and the Spelling pretest will be coming home today with 20 words to review for the test on Friday. The dictation test went very well last Friday, and it will go home with other tests/papers tomorrow to be signed and review.
In Math, we are beginning multiplication this week. We are exploring and learning the concept behind multiplication and using addition and arrays to help. We will be starting with 0 times, 1 times, and 2 times this week. Next week, will be 4 times and 5 times and then we go back to 3 times. We skip around to make it easier to understand some of the associations between the facts-such as 4 times is twice the two times or "double-double" as we'll call it. I hope that everyone has their flashcards ready and using carpooling time is very effective in running facts orally. It helps so much for the students to know their facts quickly and accurately and the confidence they will get from performing well is invaluable. It does take daily review and time devoted to review.
We are continuing our study of Native Americans in Social Studies and starting Chapter B2 in Science on Motions of Earth and Moon.
There is school mass on Friday led by the fourth grade and the students need to come in SCHOOL UNIFORM not their PE uniform.
Lastly, thank you to all our drivers/chaperones who helped with our field trip to the Museum of the American West last Thursday. It was a great trip and the students really seemed to like it and learned a lot.
Sue Arnold
January 17th
Can't believe it is already the middle of January-2012 is flying by and we just began! Hope you all had a wonderful and restful 3-day weekend.
This week is short and very busy. We have Meet the Masters (Matisse) activity tomorrow morning. On Thursday, we have our field trip to the Museum of the American West. It is supposed to be perfect weather so we should be able to enjoy our sack lunches there and have enough time to really enjoy this gem of a museum. Thank you to all who offered to drive/chaperone. I sent home more information with your student on Thursday so we should be set for a fun and educational day.
This week we will be taking a Theme Skills reading test on the comprehension strategies we have been working on in class literature. Also, we have a math test on Chapters 3 and 4 tomorrow which is on addition and subtraction, estimating, patterns, and the properties of addition. It sounds easy, but tends to create problems for those that rush through and don't remember proper subtraction. They have had plenty of review, but please review any returned papers coming home today and make sure they understand their math homework which is a review of Ch. 3. We did Ch. 4 review in class on Friday and it is coming home for review today with other papers.
We are starting Ch. 12 in Religion which is a brief overview of the sacraments. We will continue with verbs in English-being verbs, helping verbs, and irregular verbs. In Social Studies, we are continuing with our studies of various Native American tribes to prepare us for making our model villages next week. The students will find out what "tribes" they are in on Friday and will be responsible for getting some materials that their tribe may need for their village construction next Thursday and Friday, January 26th and 27th. Thank you to all who volunteered to help. I promise that you will be amazed, if not exhausted, by what they will be able to do to recreate their model villages.
In Science, we will begin Chapter B2 (Motions of Earth and Moon) next week as we focus on our Native American unit right now in preparation for Open House. We did our sand paintings and the students are writing a myth to go with it. We also our recreating buffalo hides with NA picture writing and another painting project reflecting the philosophy of the Native Americans.
The only other test this week, besides the reading and the math, will be a spelling dictation test on review words from the last 4 tests. They will not go home with a pretest today as they are review words, but they will have spelling homework in their Practice Book so the words will be in their workbook. The dictation test will be on Friday.
I think this is it. Should be a fun week full of learning.
Sue Arnold
January 9th
Oops-so sorry! Thought I did this already, but that was on Thursday. I guess it takes all of us some getting used to the routine again. I know that some of the students think that vacation is still going on! Me, too, I guess!
Anyway, this week we will finish Ch.11 in Religion (we did today) and have a test on it tomorrow-Tuesday. It is on the Liturigical Year.
In English, we are continuing with verbs and focusing on past and future tenses. In reading, we will be wrapping up our unit on Incredible Stories and taking the theme skills test this week to see how they are understanding and applying comprehension strategies we are learning. This is not a test they study for. In spelling, the list is mostly homonyms and they will be writing sentences for their homework on Thursday night so that they understand the meaning of each word that sounds the same as another.
In Math, we are finishing up subtraction, especially regrouping and across zero(s) which still gives some students trouble. The test on addition and subtraction and estimating both operations (Ch. 3 and 4) will be next Wednesday, Jan. 18th.
We will be starting our unit on Native Americans and do some sand painting this week. We will not start our next chapter in Science until next week.
We also have MTM lecture on Matisse this week.
We are still needing some drivers/chaperones for our field trip to the Museum of the West on Next Thursday, Jan. 19th. Please contact Mrs. Toth if you can help and enjoy the day with us. Also, we will need some helpers for our Native American model villages that we will be creating at the end of the month to display at Open House. Jill Toth will be sending out an e-mail asking for helpers on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 26th and 27th. It is quite an experience!
That's it for now. Enjoy your week and the lovely weather.
Sue Arnold
January 5th
Happy New Year and welcome to 2012!
Just a quick hello to say I hope that you all had a wonderful and restful vacation. I'm looking forward to seeing all the students very soon!
Obviously, there are no tests these two days. We will be wrapping up a story in Literature, starting verbs in English, estimating subtraction in Math, and learning about the Liturgical Year in Religion.
The book report this month will be on a mystery and will be further explained next week to the students. At that time, a letter will go home with all the directions as always.
We will be doing a lot of activities with our Native American studies this month and will be going on an all day field trip to the Museum of the West (Autry ) on Thursday, Jan. 19th. Please look for information from Jill Toth as I supply it to her as we will need a lot of helpers this month and would love to have your support.
Thank you for your generous and much appreciated class gift and all the little goodies/cards I received from many of you. I will be sending home individual thank yous soon through your students.
A quick reminder-if you haven't gone through your student's portfolio and returned the parent response form, I would appreciate you doing that and getting it to me as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy reviewing the wonderful work together.
Happy 2012!!!
Sue Arnold
