End of Year Wrap Up!

It’s amazing how fast the year went by. It seems like we were just bundling up against the cold of winter! I’d like to thank each of you for all of your support this year. It has been my absolute joy and privilege to teach this class of children. I have loved coming to work every day. It’s a very lucky person who gets to say that they truly love their job, and I am, indeed, very lucky! This class has worked so hard, and learned so much this year. They’re kind, sweet, hilariously funny, and super hard working kids! The days when they randomly broke out into song or started dancing will always bring a smile to my face when I think of them. Your children will always hold a very special place in my heart, and I look forward to hearing about all of their accomplishments in school and in life as the years go on!

Please be sure to join us for the Celebration of Learning on Thursday. It’s a fun slideshow of pictures taken of the children throughout the entire year. It’s a great way to help celebrate all of their growth and learning. They’ll also be able to share their research projects with you!

Here's the list of all special events coming up:

• June 6: Classroom chocolate tasting party in the afternoon
• June 7: Step Up Day in the afternoon
• June 8: Water slide and game day. Kids can bring board games (not electronics) to play in class that day!
• June 9: Book character parade and Classroom Celebration of Learning, EARLY RELEASE DAY!
• June 10: School-wide end of year slideshow, EARLY RELEASE DAY!
• June 13: Last day of school, Field Day, Report Cards go home, EARLY RELEASE DAY!

Remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Weekly Wrap Up

We’ve been working hard on learning to make higher level predictions in reading. This means that your child doesn’t just predict what might happen night in the story or with a character, but they also use evidence from the story to support their opinion. We’re even learning to kick it up another notch to include information we know from our own lives to help understand the motivation of the characters. You can help at home by asking your child to tell you about what they read, and then ask them to make a predication about what might happen next, reminding them to use “because statements” to support their prediction.

A DRAFT copy of the contact list is coming home today. Please note that DRAFT is on it. When I was putting it together I realized just how easy it is to make a mistake typing all that up. Please check over the info. for your child. In most cases of multiple phone numbers and emails I just listed the house phone and the first email written down. If you see an error or want all contact info. listed, please let me know by Wednesday. I’ll send home a final contact sheet by the end of the week.

Any time your child has a special event in his/her life, such as a sporting event, music or dance recital, trip, etc... feel free to send in a picture or email it to me. Short videos are okay too. I’ll put it up on the SmartBoard so your child can share his/ her big events with the class. No show and tell tickets are required for this! Also, I know it’s not until the end of the month, but send in a picture of your child trick or treating so they can show their costume off to their friends in school!

Here's what we'll be learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Strategies to understand a story, including retelling
• Writer’s Workshop: Writing endings
• Math: Estimation for addition and subtraction

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. I also check email frequently. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Waterslide Time!

Yeah, we met our reading goal and can go on the waterslide tomorrow!

Please come to school wearing your bathing suit under your clothes. If you can’t wear your bathing suit to school, you will be given time to change.

In a plastic bag, bring a towel, underclothes, and a t-shirt you can get wet. (EVERYONE GOING ON THE SLIDE NEEDS A T-SHIRT!)  Your dry clothes will go into your plastic bag when you are on the slide.

After sliding you will be given time to change back into your dry clothes and put your wet clothes and towel in the bag.

Please note: The school does not have extra clothes and towels.

Weekly Wrap Up

What super hard workers your children were this week! They put so much time and effort into finishing their Habitat posters, as well as creating their Geometry Town posters. The posters will be hanging up here at school for a while, so unless you stop by the hallway or our classroom, you won’t get to see them at home quite yet. I’m going to work on taking pics of all of their projects and putting the pictures on their student blogs so you can see them as soon as possible though. I’ll post an announcement on our class Twitter page and our class blog when they are up.

We love to celebrate birthdays in our classroom! But, please remember that we are a tree nut free classroom, as well as vegetarian friendly. It’s vital that you talk with me a few days before you plan to send in any food treats so we can go over more specifics. Also, remember that birthdays can be celebrated with non-food treats like stickers, pencils, tattoos, etc... If your child has a summer birthday, and would like to celebrate early in June, that’s fabulous. Pick a day that works for you, and let me know a few days ahead of time. I would just like to avoid celebrating two birthdays on the same day if possible, so each child has their own special day.

We had our town meeting kickoff today for our One School, One Book program. This year we are reading the book, The World According to Humphrey. One child from each family at Toffolon will be bringing home your family’s book today. We have a school website for our One School, One Book project, which has our in-school reading schedule, resources, and a fun blog by Humphrey about his visits at Toffolon.

New pics from March and early April will be added to our class photo album by the end of the weekend. Look for an announcement on our class Twitter page!

Here's what we'll be learning about next week:

• Reader’s Workshop: Using accountable talk to discuss fiction books we read
• Writer’s Workshop: Persuasive writing - Saying more
• Spelling: Unit 27 - Words home on Monday, test on Friday
• Math: Finish up geometry and hopefully start perimeter
• Science: Force and Motion

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. Together we are partners in your child’s education!

Math Facts Achievement Luncheon

Congratulations on your achievement with addition and subtraction math facts!

Nov. Math Madness

Congratulations for completing your November Monthly Math Madness!

Weekly Update

Today your child is bringing home their report card. We discussed how they are graded, and what they are graded on, but I did not let them look at their report card. I’d like them to look at it with you. Your child also filled out a blank report card in class today. It’s their view of how they think they are doing. They’ll use it to set two goals for themselves for the next trimester. I’ll share their self-evaluation report card with you at their conference, as well as their goal.

Do you know about the website, multiplication.com?  It’s free and has fabulous games for students to practice their multiplication facts. Now that we are well into our study of multiplication, your child should be including multiplication into his/her fact practice at home. As a reminder, we only go up to the 10’s in third grade, although I go ahead and teach them the 11’s, and strategies for the 12’s. Also, as you may have discovered, the math program we use does not teach the facts in sequence. Unit 5 covered 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10. Unit 6, which we just started, will cover the rest. After that, we move on to division!  

One of the things that I do on an almost daily basis is place extra copies of worksheets and papers in our "extra copies" box. This way there's always an extra copy in case something gets lost. At the end of each trimester I let the children who like to play school take home any of these papers. So, if you see a lot of blank papers come home next week don't think it's work your child needs to catch up on, it's just for fun.  :)

On Friday (Dec. 12) we’ll celebrate the hard work and tremendous learning that’s gone on so far this year with with PJ Day, popcorn, and a movie! On that day your child may wear school-appropriate pajamas, and even bring their favorite socks/slippers to wear in the classroom. One stuffed animal friend is also welcome for the day!

Here's what we'll be learning about next week:

Reader’s Workshop: Main idea and supporting details
Writer’s Workshop: Information research and writing
Spelling: Unit 13 - Words home on Monday, test on Friday 
Math: Topic 6, Multiplication

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. Together we are partners in your child’s education!