Where were you?!

That is the big question from our class today! We only had fourteen students at school today, but we had a blast with our learning. The students began the day writing a morning journal about, "What was the best thing you did over the holiday break?" (Please remember if your child is out, they are still responsible for the morning journals they missed.) We then completed morning math day one which reviewed over place value, value of numbers, adding and subtracting money, three digit addition, and patterns.

During math we completed a SOLVE problem which had us divide 54/6. We drew out six groups and then divided out the fifty-four things into the groups. We found out that there were nine in one group, so 54/6=9. We checked our answer by multiplying 9x6-54. We discuss every day that multiplication and division are the opposite of each other and they create a fact family. We then played multiplication BINGO, to practice our multiplication facts. We had two winners and they received a piece of candy and NO laps at recess.

During Imagine It, I introduced the Sun, Moon, and Stars unit and read the story Galileo's Journal. This is an historical fiction (ask your child about this genre) story and the students really enjoyed learning about the first telescope was invented. I always enjoy reading this story to the students, because they are so shocked that people did not understand how outer space worked. We practiced clarifying things we did not understand in the story. Ask your child to help you clarify something as you read with them tonight.

Today the students participated in a "Gallery Walk". They walked through the halls and wrote positive comments on other student's heritage projects. Everyone enjoyed seeing how all of the projects were created and so different! I will be recording the students doing their presentations over the next few days and then we will watch the video together as a class.

Tonight for homework they had one math sheet, that had a review of multiplication and division concepts. They need to read 30 minutes and study their multiplication flash cards.

See you tomorrow!

Wells Fargo Banks!!

Our community service project will be coming to an end on Monday. Please have your child bring in their banks with all of the change they have collected. The banks are theirs to keep at home and enjoy. This community service project is the culmination of our money unit in both Imagine It and SS. The students will be counting the money that has been collected on Monday and Tuesday. We will present the money to a representative from the women's shelter at the end of this week. He will come in and accept the money from our students and then he will discuss with them how the money will be used, his career as a newscaster, and his work with the non-profit organization. He will explain to them the type of education that is needed to get a job in his field.

We will write thank you notes to the parent and Wells Fargo that donated the banks to our students. This will allow the students to practice writing friendly letters.

Thank you for your support in this worthy cause.

Midterm Reports

Parents:

Midterm reports came home today. Please sign and return these by tomorrow and your child will have no laps. If you have any questions about these grades or want to meet with me, please call me 980-343-3920 or email me jennifer.patrick@cms.k12.nc.us.

The fundraiser for the local women's shelter will end this Monday. Please send in any change you have collected in your Wells Fargo banks by this Monday. We are having a representative from the shelter come and receive the money from the students and talk about his exciting career. (He was once a newscaster in Charlotte.)

The heritage projects are due next Friday, December 16. Please remember they are to research the country of their heritage. They will not research a state or the United States, unless they are Native American. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Thank you for your continued support.

Ted Turkey, Timed Test, and Thanksgiving

The Ted Turkey project is due tomorrow. Your child's five day journal will count for 75% of their grade. The other 25% is for their creativity in creating Ted's disguise. We will present these projects during our Imagine It class tomorrow. These will count for both a writing and SS grade.

We have taken our first two timed multiplication test and many of our students are not studying their math facts. It is their responsibility to try to memorize their math facts 0-12. I am teaching them the strategies of how to solve a multiplication problem, but they are still responsible for the memorization of these facts. I will give a timed test every Friday. These timed test help your child earn their ice cream party!!

Our Thanksgiving break begins on Wednesday. There will be no school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

BOOSTERTHON!!!

Today was our Boosterthon Fun Run pep rally and we really got pumped up. We cheered, danced, sang, and some of us ran. The Boosterthon team got us excited for our upcoming fun run on November 4. We need as much parent and family support as possible. All students came home with their "Fun Run" booklet. On this booklet is a code that you can log in to funrun.com and get pledges from your family members. Make sure to log in tonight, so we can get the awesome reward of having the Boosterthon team with us during physical activity. There are a few rules that the students need to follow:
1. A pledge is a promise. If a person pledges this money, then they need to pay it after you have run your laps.
2. You may not ask teachers, other students, or strangers for pledges.
3. Have fun!

How does it work?

Ask Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, uncles, friends, and anyone else you know to make a pledge for every lap your child runs around the track. Let's say that grandma pledges $1.00 per lap run around the track and Sam runs 30 laps, then grandma would pay $30 at the end of the fun run. People can make their pledges directly to you or they can log-in on-line using your code. People can also pledge a flat amount if they would like, the money per lap just makes it fun for the kids.

Thank you for your support in this endeavor at our school.

**This will be our major fundraiser this year.

Testing, testing, and more testing!

I know it seems as if all we do sometimes is test our children, but these tests give me as the teacher valuable information to better help your child in our classroom. These tests inform me of what they have already learned and what I still need to teach or review with them. These tests also let me know what types of interventions I can do with your child to help enrich or re-teach these vital skills.

We also have to assess our students on a weekly basis in all subject areas. This testing allows me to understand which skills and standards I need to review and which ones we have mastered. I use these assessments to create my re-teach groups. I do not only assess with test, we also complete journals, graphic organizers, posters, group work, games, check-lists, self-assessments, and rubrics. I hope this helps you to understand the grades that are coming home better. You can also access all of your students grades through the on-line grading system.

Thank you for your continued support.

Curriculum Night!

Thank you for the great showing at curriculum night. I hope everyone had a good evening and enjoyed the presentation. We tried to make sure that everything we covered was pertinent to all third graders. We will be having another open house in February, where we will discuss EOGs and how to prepare your child.

We are continuing our Global Children's Challenge and we have gotten to travel to many interesting destinations. Make sure to check out our GCC site and see where all we have gotten to go. This project has been a blast. We will continue our study of other cultures by completing a heritage project about our own families culture.

Thank you for your continued support.