12/17/12 Update

Good evening,

Hello! This week all students will be taking a spelling test on Tuesday and a math test on Thursday over chapters 8-11. At this time, students should have at least one strategy that they can use to solve a multiplication problem. Even though we will be testing over multiplication this week, please continue to encourage fact practice throughout the remainder of the school year. By the end of the year, students should know their facts for 0-10. If you have not noticed already, there is a blue card taped inside of the take home folder. This is where I will make note of the facts your child has mastered so far. I have been trying to point out real-world reasons for why knowing these facts by heart is important, and most students are very motivated to learn them! All of third grade is giving the test on Thursday because we had no other option. If you are looking for materials to study, please refer to the math papers and notebook that are in the binder. If you would like to use the online textbook (on Moodle), the chapters being tested are 8,9,10 and 11.

Information regarding the class and school wide Spelling Bee was sent home on Friday, along with a newspaper that had words to study. Our class Spelling Bee will be on January 11th, 2013. The top 2 winners will advance to the school-wide Spelling Bee on January 18th. More information on this will follow.

Our Christmas party will be at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, December 20th. All are welcome to attend! Lisa Winterer is organizing the party (Sam's mom), and she has asked that if you have items/snacks to donate to please send them to school. Our nurse has a new policy that all of the snacks for room parties have to be checked BEFORE the day of the party. If you have anything to donate, please send it to school before Wednesday so I can send it up to the nurse's office and have it checked for you. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me.

It is hard to believe that the first semester of the school year has already flown by this quickly! This is a reminder that the last day for student's is this Thursday. I will be recording grades on Friday. If I do not hear from you or see you this week, I just wanted to say... Happy Holidays! I truly love working with your children each day! 

Weekend Update

Good Evening! We have just wrapped up a very busy week at school. Friday was Ability Awareness Day, and third graders spent the morning learning about autism, visual impairments, and therapy dogs. I was able to snap a few pictures so please check them out!

The music program will be at Long on Sunday, November 18. Third Grade's performance begins at 3:15 P. M. Students are to meet in the library prior to that time. The theme of the program is Egypt, so students can dress like an Egyptian or they can wear dress clothes. It is entirely up to you! Hope to see you there!

We finished our math unit on Money concepts today and will be starting multiplication on Monday. We also will take a Science test on Tuesday over Ecosystems. All study materials are in the binder. If you have any questions, please just let me know. If not, I hope you have a terrific weekend and a very happy Thanksgiving!

Weekly Update

Good evening,

It was great seeing a few of you at the Halloween Bash! This week we will be having parent-teacher conferences on Monday, October 29, and Thursday, November 1st. Sign Up Genius will automatically send you an e-mail reminder two days before the conference (so everyone coming to a Monday conference should have received an e-mail on Saturday). If you did not receive an e-mail about your conference time, please let me know and I will e-mail it to you. You can also call school and Lynn Bilyeu will be able to tell you your conference time.  I am looking forward to a great conference with each of you!

The Book Fair is currently underway in the library... students will be able to go up during second recess, before or after school. It will also be available both nights during conferences! We have library on Friday, so as a class we will go up there one last time on that day.

The Halloween parties begin at 2:00 P.M. in the classrooms on Wednesday.  There will be a costume parade taking place around 1:40 P.M., but there is a new route this year. If you are planning on attending please let me know and I can get you information about the new parade route. Everyone is welcome to attend the party! Thank you to those who have donated items to make our party a success. We all greatly appreciate it! Lastly, please send your child to school in normal clothes and they will have time to change into their costume after lunch. Thank you!

Here is what we will be learning about this week:

Math: Money (adding/subtracting, counting coins/ bills, word problems, making change from $5 and $10)
Science: ecosystems and food chains
Reading: inferring/ finding the main idea of fiction and non-fiction texts
Writing: paragraph and friendly letter prompt writing

One last thing... since you will be receiving your child's report card this week, I will resume sending home weekly progress reports the week of November 12 (the week before is a 3-day week). Thank you!

Have a great week and I look forward to seeing you at conferences! Please do not hesitate to contact me with comments or concerns! Thanks! :)

Odds and Ends

Good evening,

I just wanted to share a few odds and ends. On Thursday of this week, we will be going to the Sheldon Concert Hall for a music field trip. We will be gone from school from approximately 9-11:45 A.M., and we will be back in time for our normal lunch schedule. There are a handful of students who came home with another permission slip/cost reminder today. If you would like for your child to attend, please send the items requested back to school as soon as possible.

We will be having a math test this Friday over Chapter 5, subtraction concepts. You can help your child prepare for this test by reviewing the math notebook, math papers, or the online math textbook. The book order is also due by this Friday.

You will be receiving a reminder of our parent-teacher conference time within the next week. I am  looking forward to our meeting! The class Halloween party is also next Wednesday ( more info to follow). We are in need of goodies for the treat bags (it does not have to be candy). If you are willing or able to donate any items, please send them to school with your child and I will pass them on to our party volunteers. Thank you!

I hope to see many of you at the Halloween Bash on Friday night! Have a great week. :) 

End of 1st Quarter Update

Good evening!

This Friday marks the end of the first quarter! Students will be dismissed early Friday, October 19 at 11:50 A.M. Lunch will not be served this day. If you could please check in with your child and let them know how he or she is getting home, I would greatly appreciate it! Here is what we are working on in class this week:

Math: estimating/computing to find the difference of 3 and 4 digit numbers with and without regrouping.
Social Studies: we will be reviewing and testing over Units 1 and 2 on Wednesday, 10/17.
Spelling: all students will take a spelling test this week and receive new words
Reading: Finding the main idea and supporting details
Writing: writing friendly letters using the writing process

Upcoming events:

• Sheldon Concert Hall field trip,  on October 25th. Please turn in money and slips when possible! 
• Book Orders are due by October 26th.
• Our Halloween party will be Oct. 31st from 2-3:00 P.M. More info. to follow.
• New dismissal procedures are scheduled to begin on October 22nd. Please let me know if you need to make changes to bus/pickup arrangements. :) 
• Parent Teacher conferences are currently being scheduled on Sign Up Genius and most people have signed up. I will send out a reminder e-mail with your time as we get closer to the end of the month. 

Last but not least, all but two students greatly improved their eValuate scores for the month of October. One student increased by 44 points! While several others made gains of 20-25 points, most saw increases of 5-15 percentage points. The graphs have been updated in the eValuate tabs of the binders, and tomorrow I am going to hand back September's tests. Please feel free to look them over if you wish. After Friday, we are going to clean out all of the math, science and social studies papers in the binder. I will send them home in the take home folder in case you would like to keep them, but feel free to discard these papers after this time. 

One last thing... I am 90 % positive the Moodle is working reliably again in our classroom, so I am going to try to start using this again and hopefully there will be no problems. 

I hope you have a great week! Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you! 

Happy Friday!

Hello everyone!

We wrapped up learning about addition with 3,4,and 5 digit numbers this week. Our test over this chapter will be on Monday, as noted on the test calendar in the binder.If you would like to help your child prepare for this test, studying the math notebook, their math papers from this chapter, or going online to access the textbook for Chapter 4 would be a great idea.  Also, we will be taking the October eValuate math and reading tests next week. Since we are finished reviewing September's test, it will be coming home in your child's binder very soon. We have already gone over it, but feel free to help them with it at home if you would like. Their score will be listed on the eValuate graph in the binder. If you have any questions, please let me know.

We filled the marble jar (our whole class reward system)  and the students voted for going to Crestwood Park on Monday, weather permitting. We would go around 2:30, which is about 15 minutes before our normal recess time begins. If you have not returned your child's permission slip to go to Crestwood Park, I will have to send him or her to a different classroom to read until it is time to go to recess (where they can meet us back on the Long School playground). No problem... I just wanted you to  be aware!

Here is a list of what we are working on next week:

Math: test Monday, beginning subtraction unit (rounding, estimating, and computing up to 5 digits)
Social Studies: comparing and contrasting types of communities
Reading: identifying the main idea and supporting details in a story
Writing: review the writing process, begin friendly letter writing unit

I am going to add pictures to the blog this weekend while nervously watching the Cardinals game! :) I hope you have a great weekend! Feel free to leave any questions/comments to let me know how 3rd grade is going if you would like!

All District Night

This Friday, 9/28/12 there is no school for students... but that evening is All District Night at Lindbergh High School. Some of you might remember from year's past that each elementary school competes in what is called a "chariot race" across the football field. I am proud to announce that two students in our class were selected to participate in the chariot races! I hope to see you there! :) 

Weekly Update

Good evening!

Welcome to the second half of first quarter! This post will be shorter than the others. I just want to remind you that it is a four day school week. On Friday, 9/28 there is no school because teachers have a professional development day. We will be focusing on technology. There will be no library this week, so if students would like to switch out their books, I will send them up before Thursday. On Monday, I will be sending home a permission slip for our first field trip. This field trip is actually music related, as Mr. Kassulke takes the third grade to the Sheldon Concert Hall to view a program on Folk Music. The date and cost of the field trip is listed on the permission slip. Unfortunately, there is no room in the concert hall to accommodate parents (other third graders from different schools also attend). If 3rd grade goes on a second field trip this year, this will likely be the time when parents will be able to attend. Thanks and if you have any questions, please just let me know.

Important events this week:

9/25: Math test over chapters 2 and 3
9/26: Be There Day (good attendance is promoted on this school day each year)
9/27: Picture Day ( we are scheduled to have ours taken after lunch, around 1:30 P.M.)
9/28: No School

What we are learning this week:

Math: addition of 3,4,5 and 6 digit numbers
Social Studies: exploring the continents and oceans
Spelling: daily word work activities
Reading: making deeper connections between texts and sequencing events in a story
Writing: writing a 5-7 sentence paragraph with indenting, topic sentences, closing sentences, sent. variety

Weekly Update

Hello everyone! I hope that you have enjoyed your weekend. On this week's progress report, you might have seen your child's score for September's eValuate tests. In case you forgot, eValuate is a district-wide standardized assessment that is administered once a month to ensure each child is mastering and progressing with grade level skills. Even though we have not covered most of the curriculum yet, there are questions on the test that cover harder concepts such as multiplication and division, geometry, and etc. Keeping this in mind, most students did not score above an 80% on the math test this time around, and that is perfectly o.k.

The goal is for them to score an 80% or above by the end of the school year, because that demonstrates proficiency.  A score of 60 % or above for math demonstrates a solid foundation at this time. For reading, a solid score would have been 70% or above for the month of September. Please do not panic at this time if your child was slightly below! I teach both reading and math in small groups, and this allows for me to better suit the needs of each student. We will spend some of those group times going over this assessment and coming up with strategies. In the eValuate section of your child's binder, there is a bar graph where we have recorded our score and set a goal for next month's test on the back. Also, as soon as we are finished going over the test, your child will put both copies in that section of their binder and you will be free to go over it with them anytime at home.

WHEW!!! Now on to this week's learning topics and activities:

Math: comparing, ordering and rounding numbers using <,>, and =. up to 10,000
Social Studies: identifying and locating the world's continents, oceans and various landforms
Reading: Improving our comprehension by making connections, predicting, and using the skill sequencing
Writing: adding details to sentences, writing paragraphs with topic and closing sentences

Special Event this week: On Wednesday, 9/19, students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades will be getting their hearing screened.

Quick Question: Is your child actually using his or her math notebook at home? What are your thoughts on the notebooks? My goal was for students to use it as an invaluable resource, and use it at home if they are working on homework or studying. Thanks for your input. You can comment right here on the blog if you do not mind.


I hope you have a terrific week! :) 

Science Review Game

Here is the link to a science review game that I created to help the class study for the Living Things/ Plants test on Friday. It is modeled after Jeopardy. Enjoy!

http://jeopardylabs.com/play/living-things-plants-jeopardy

Weekly Update

Good evening, everyone! It is hard to believe that we are already halfway through first quarter! Even though I send a progress report home every Friday, all teachers are required to send one this week. Here are some of the other important events taking place this week:

• Math eValuate: Tuesday, 9/11/12
• Early Release Day: Wednesday, 9/12/12 at 1:40 P.M. 
• Reading eValuate: Thursday, 9/13/12
• Buddy activity with Mrs. Fink's  kindergarten class: tentatively scheduled for Thursday afternoon
• Science test over Ch. 1: Living Things/ Plants: Friday, 9/14/12
• Library on Friday

Please remember that you can log on to our class Moodle to access the online science textbook. Of course, if you would like for your child to bring home a physical copy, they can sign one out from me as well. We will be completing the study guide tomorrow so that they have a few days to study, but please have them look over the papers in their binders in addition to their study guide. If you have not already, please sign and return their plant quiz! As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me!

Lastly, our classroom experiences a weak wireless internet signal at times, especially in the afternoon. This can be a problem when we are logged into the computer, working on something, and then we get kicked off. Our time is precious and we just do not have time to sit and re- login to websites and to wait for the computer to stop processing. The technology department is aware of this and they are  helping me resolve the issue, but this is why the Moodle is not completely being utilized at this time. I will keep you posted! 

P.S. We gained a new classmate today! Her name is Chloe and she comes from Tampa, Florida. We are now up to 14 girls and 6 boys. :) We are looking forward to getting to know Chloe and helping her settle in at Long. Have a great week! 

Weekly Update

I hope everyone had a great 3 day weekend! These are the things that we will be working on in school this week:

• Math: composing/decomposing numbers and place value of digits up to 999,999
• Science: sequencing the life cycle of plants and identifying their parts
• Spelling: meeting in groups this week for the 1st time and getting our word sorts
• Reading: making connections and activating background knowledge
• Writing: writing complete sentences, identifying different sentence types and components
• We will have our first visit from the school counselor, Mrs. Maddock, this week and we are very excited! We will also be going back to the library on Friday. 

We continue studying plants and their life cycle.  We began growing lima beans in baggies on our classroom windows and they sprouted! Here are a few pictures of our classmates measuring and examining the seeds with their partner. Please feel free to comment if you would like! Enjoy! 

Ch. 1 Math test this week!

Please note that the testing calendar has been updated in the binder, and the math test for chapter one is set for Thursday, August 30, 2012. You can access the math textbook online from home, on our Moodle. Please help your child log on to the Moodle as it is still a complicated process. This information came home on Curriculum Night, but if you have any questions, please call or e-mail me. 

Meet the Class!

Click on the link below to be taken to a short video slideshow and meet the students in Room 20!

http://animoto.com/play/1cbHNGV2tkyhQRXFfXmaMQ

First Week Notes

This week, we got to know each other by playing team-building games and by sharing our "Me Bags".  The kids loved sharing their favorite things! As we figured out that we had things in common with one another, new friendships were made. This week we also worked on Addition and Subtraction concepts in math and learned the routine for math workshop. In Science, we started a unit on Living Things and Plants and will begin growing radishes next week. In reading, we have learned how to pick a "just right book", how to turn and talk with a partner to share our thinking, and went to the library for the first time. In writing, we are learning how to generate ideas for writing topics. It was a busy week!

Here is a preview of what we are learning next week:

• Math: finish addition and subtraction unit and take test over Ch. 1 
• Spelling: discuss procedures, expectations and activities and complete concept sorts
• Science: continue Living Things/ Plants unit 
• Reading: discuss why reader's abandon books; how to determine the difference between fiction/non-fiction; how to keep a record of what you are reading; and the guidelines for reading workshop
• Writing: continue generating ideas; types of sentences; capitalization and punctuation, writing a complete sentence.

Reminders:

1. Be sure to check the test calendar for the exact day of next week's math test. Once it is set in stone, it will be highlighted in yellow. 
2. I have heard that they are going to try and simplify the Moodle log-in process. This will make it easier for students to get on. I am going to teach them how this week and once everyone knows how, I am going to start using it every day with the students. 
3. Please return all important papers from Curriculum Night and the Tuesday Folders (green and white Flyer folder). 
4. If you have any questions about your child's weekly progress report, please let me know. Thanks so much! 

Curriculum Night!!!

Just a reminder that Curriculum Night is 8/21 in our classroom, Room 20. We will begin at 6 P.M. Please plan on staying for the entire half hour. If you have individual questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to remain after the presentation and I will do my best to accommodate everyone! Thank you and I look forward to seeing you then! 

Look Whoooo's in 3rd grade!

Welcome to Room 20! Our classroom is a place where character shines and we play, learn and grow together! I am delighted to be your teacher and would like to welcome you to our class for the 2012-2013 school year! 

 Alex B.    Lucy B.   Sam B.    Raina C.   Hayden C.   Kimmie G.   Abby H.   Malia J.   Lucy L.   Stella P.    Matteo P.   Evie P.   Raph R.  Emma S.   Elayna S.   Jacob S.   Brenna T.   Sam W.    John Z.