Happy Halloween

Hard to believe October is already coming to a close! I am truly impressed with how much we have learned and accomplished in the first two months of the year. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting with all of you and have found our conversations to be very productive. Please continue to contact me at any time with any questions or concerns you may have.

This week includes:

• the NED show on Tuesday morning! We will enjoy a character education program that embodies many of the traits we have with PRIDE.
• a Halloween party on Thursday!!!
• the book fair preview Thursday and time to purchase books on Friday!

Reading Workshop
This week students will analyzing a chapter of Charlotte's Web independently and we will be discussing the changes we have seen in Wilbur. We will also be meeting in our small reading groups this week. Our focus will be on character traits and textual evidence.

Writing Workshop
We will learn how to nurture our seed ideas that we want to take through the writing process. We will investigate various leads and focus on using a storyteller voice instead of a summarizer voice.

Math
We have begun exploring multiplication concepts. The goal this week is to introduce underlying concepts of multiplication. We will understand multiplication as repeated addition, use arrays, learn properties of multiplication, and write multiplication stories. Look for a review packet of these concepts to come home mid-week. This packet is meant for you to support your child's learning at home.

Social Studies
The students have been working on a landform dictionary in class. We are using the computers to define a variety of landform terms. This week we will complete this work and begin a closer look at the geography of the United States. Our focus will be on the major landforms of the US and how the landforms impact population.

We continue to enjoy our mystery readers every Friday. Here's Connor's dad and brother from October 18th.

Firehouse Visit

On Friday, October 18th, the Elsmere Fire Department came to discuss fire safety with us. We were able to put on and touch equipment, spray the hose, and get on the truck! Here are some photos...

The 3 and a half day week...

Hello families! I hope you all have been enjoying this picture perfect Fall weekend! My family went pumpkin picking and spent an afternoon at Jiminy Peak's Fall Festival!

 

This upcoming week is a short one, due to the holiday and a half day on Thursday, however we certainly will make the most of the time we have together!

This week in...

Reading Workshop...

we will continue our character study. We are learning how we can formulate opinions about the characters we read, however, we must back our opinions with textual evidence. We have been reading from Charlotte's Web by E.B. White as a class. As we've been reading, we've been realizing how much depth each character has and we have been surprised to find that Wilbur really isn't a likeable pig based on his personality.

Writing Workshop...

we will learn how to edit our writing as we're writing and how this is an important skill when we write in all disciplines. We will also choose a seed idea. This seed idea will be a small moment that we will work on and take it through the writing process.

Math...

we will look at subtracting greater numbers with regrouping and subtracting across zeroes. We will also learn a new problem solving strategy: drawing a picture.

Science...

we will look at the parts of a flower and closely observe how our flowers on our plants change as it continues through its life cycle. This week we may even be able to learn about pollination and get the chance to pollinate our flowers!

Social Studies...

we hope to discuss continental drift and begin looking at the different landforms that cover our globe.

Dictionary Skills...

we have been learning how to navigate through a dictionary using guide words. We will begin looking words up to learn their part of speech.

I look forward to our upcoming conferences over the next three weeks. We have a lot to cover in our 20 minutes together! Thank you for your continued support.

This week's mystery reader was David's mom!!!

A visit from George Steele

This past Monday we had a visit from scientist, George Steele. He came in to speak with us all about Mammals of New York State. He spent almost 2 hours with us! We learned so much. Below are some photos of his presentation and his "museum" of skins and skulls that we were able to view and touch!

The busy week ahead...

Hello families! I hope your weekends were filled with fun, fall activities! It always feels as if there just isn't enough time on Saturdays and Sundays!

Your child came home with a ton of papers on Friday. I hope you were able to sort through them to see all of the progress your child is making! It's hard to believe that we have only been in school for one month. I am so impressed with how much your child has grown as a learner already!

This past Friday we had our first mystery reader! I was thrilled to have Aidan (a former third grader and Lauren's brother!) come read to us! We are all anticipating our next mystery reader this Friday.

This week in...

Reading Workshop
We will begin our character trait study. We will read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White together to examine each character in depth. We will learn how to use textual evidence to support our thoughts on each character.

Writing Workshop
We will continue to write small moments with detail. In addition, we will learn what it means to self-assess our writing. We will note our strengths and then make goals to help us improve as writers. We will learn how to work towards reaching the goals we set.

Math
We will learn what a variable is in addition equations. We will also begin adding greater numbers using our knowledge of place value, and how drawing a picture is a strategy for problem solving.

Science
Our plants are thriving! We will learn how our plant grows, observe it's growth spurt, and learn about bees.

Dictionary Skills
We will practice putting words in alphabetical order by the second and third letters of each word. This will help us as we go to look up words using the guide words in the dictionary. We will learn the difference between guide words and entry words.

Reminder!
Picture Day is tomorrow!

George Steele Visit
On Monday we will have George Steele visit our classroom for Farm to You week. He will be talking to us about NYS Mammals.

Humphrey
If you enjoyed reading each night with your families as much as I did, and come to love that little hamster, the second book in the series is Friendship with Humphrey in case you'd like to continue reading about his adventures.

October already?

Our class has been working so hard! We have been learning so much every day! Monday your child brought home his/her first math test. I was pleased with the scores. Please look over the test with your son/daughter and make corrections together. I am asking that the test is signed, corrected and returned by Friday, October 4th.
   
Math
     We are on our second chapter in math. This week, we will be rounding, estimating sums and estimating differences. Please continue to practice addition and subtraction facts at home as often as possible. We will have our third timed test on 14, 15 facts this Friday.

Reading
     This week we will focus our work on becoming more fluent readers. We will revisit decoding skills, specifically focusing on using context clues, as well as rereading to ensure understanding.

Writing
     Last week we began our personal narrative unit. We explored ways we as writers can generate ideas. This week we will continue to add to our list of small moments and we will work on developing our ideas into stories. Our focus will be on creating a beginning, middle and end to our stories. You can help at home by having conversations with your child about moments in their lives that are special or memorable enough to make into an interesting narrative. We will also identify areas of our writing that we admire.

Science

     Last Wednesday, we planted our Wisconsin Fast Plants. They are taking off! This week we will discuss how to make a scientific observation. We will be graphing the growth of our plants, and thinning and transplanting our plants. Check out the video we watched about the scientist who developed these seeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73S63xV_o34&feature=youtu.be

Miscellaneous
     We will also begin to learn how to use the dictionary. This is an essential skill for third graders. Once we have mastered the dictionary the students will define their spelling words each week. In the meantime I am asking you to help explain the meaning of unfamiliar words to your son/daughter. They will be required to use their word in a sentence and spell the word correctly on their quiz this Thursday.

Current Events began today! We were able to learn about the baby giraffe that was born at Adirondack Animal Land. Check out the video clip we viewed: http://www.news10.com/story/23517788/baby-giraffe