They did it!

Our class did so well with the reading ISAT's. Way to Go! Our proficiency percentage was 96%. We still have a few kids that need to finish up on Monday. Thank you for taking your time and reading slowly as to understand the passages and the questions. We have one more ISAT exam on May 5, 2009. This is our Math ISAT. A really good WEBsite to visit for more ISAT practice is the District Website at www.d25.k12.id.us. You can click on the Parent tab and then go down to Curriculum and Testing. This should give you options on several tests including the ISAT exam. Of course we want our kids to all be proficient in Math. They need to be in between 190-201 on the RIT score practice portions. There are about 12 questions per section. We did several of them in class for reading practice. It gives the students a good idea how the questions will look and be worded. It also gives them excellent practice. We will be going to this Website all week next week. Keep up the good work.

The weather is warming up and encourages a lot of playground time at recess. Remember the school rules and always be safe and make good choices.

Report Cards will be sent home on Tuesday. Keep taking your reading logs home and get them signed by your parents. This counts as your reading grade. New AR goals have been made. The AR deadline is Friday, May 22, 2009. This is the day the librarians would like all books checked back in. If your child has missing books, please locate them and bring them back to our wonderful library.


Language Arts:
Our literature selection for the week is Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary. Did you know this wonderful author did not even like reading until she was in third grade? I find that amazing. She has written dozens of fantastic books for children.

The spelling for this week concentrates on contractions:

• I'm
• he's
• aren't
• couldn't
• won't
• o'clock
• wouldn't
• weren't
• she's
• wasn't
• I'd
• shouldn't
• can't
• isn't
• let's
• who's

Make sure you get that apostrophe in the correct place.

MATH

Another week of reviewing concepts from the beginning of the year and also introducing new concepts. We will be going out to the district Website daily and getting extra practice. Each morning we will work on geometry concepts on our Promethean Board. Pay attention so you can get every little bit of help you need to do well!

SCIENCE

Our third grade class continues to learn about food and nutrition, eating balanced meals, and what happens when we eat the correct way. Our caterpillars are growing and getting fat. They should be attaching themselves to the top of our jar sometime this week. They are amazing little critters.

Congratulations to our Young Author Representative: Mr. Brennan Anderson. He wrote a descriptive piece on Pizza. Nice Job Brennan!

Congratulations to our two students who had the hightest increase in their Math multiplication test scores and percentages. These two students are Taylor Sanchez and Donald Rowberry.

Question of the Week:

This is an opinion question: "What did you like most about being in Third Grade?

ONE ISAT DOWN!!

The Ellis Elementary Third Grade has met and exceeded their proficiency goal on the Language Usage ISAT assessment. Next week all third graders will be taking the Reading portion of the ISAT exam. Remember to have a good breakfast and a good night's sleep. Our class will take the exam on Friday, April 24th at 8:40 in the morning. Take your time and read slowly through all the questions. You can do it!! You have already done so well!!

Our story this week is one of my favorites. The title is Poppa's New Pants, by Angela Shelf Medearis. It has a surprise ending--wait and see what happens in the story, you will love it. Also, on Monday, we begin the last six-week grading period. New AR goals will be made. They will not be as lofty because we have less than 6 weeks to meet the goal. Please continue signing the reading logs every night. The reading log is part of their reading grade. The spelling list for the week concentrates on the spelling words that begin with a and be.

• begin
• again
• around
• before
• away
• about
• alive
• because
• ahead
• between
• behind
• ago
• they
• want
• awhile
• beyond

For the next two weeks in math, we are going to do a comprehensive review on math concepts. Some concepts will be a review, others are math concepts we are in the process of learning. Please continue reviewing basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts with your child. These are things that will appear on the Math ISAT assessment. Following is a list of concepts we will be reviewing:

• basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication strategies
• using time and temperature as a measurement
• angles, symmetry, area, and perimeter
• graphing and organizing data
• fractions
• division
• counting money and counting back change

In science, we are starting a health unit and also beginning to watch the life cycle of a painted lady butterfly. We have the caterpillars in a jar and they are hungrily eating their way into a fat, healthy chrysalis.

We have sent out notices for our classroom talent show. We would love everyone to participate. A permission slip was sent home for parents to sign. The individual talent show is scheduled for Friday, May 15th. The combined talent show is scheduled for Thursday, May 21st.

Questions of the week:
What is the difference between an auto-biography and a biography?
What is the difference between fiction and non-fiction?
What is realistic fiction?

HAPPY EASTER!!

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter Weekend.

Ellis Elementary is beginning ISAT testing this week. Mrs. Shore/Mrs. Graham's class will take their first ISAT test this coming Thursday. Make sure your child has a good night's sleep, a healthy, balanced breakfast and remind them to take as much time as they need on the test as possible. We don't want any "happy clickers".

This coming Friday (April 17th) marks the end of the 6-week grading period. It is also the deadline for the AR goal. The entire class has almost reached their individual goals. Way to go!!

This week we start a new reading unit called "Smart Solutions". The first story is about a little girl who speaks both English and Spanish. She is bilingual. The title of the story is Pepita Talks Twice. Following are the spelling words from this story concentrating on the word ending with -er and -le:

• summer
• winter
• little
• Ocotober
• travel
• color
• apple
• able
• November
• ever
• later
• purple
• flower
• people
• thermometer
• mumble

In math we continue to work on multiplication math facts and will begin mulitiplication by tens this week. Keep working on those facts--and keep bringing your reading logs.

Social Studies discussions this week will include the law making process and how laws help our communities build trust and keep us safe.

As the days warm up and the sun continues to shine, we still want to give our students a gentle reminder we come to school to learn, participate, and do well. Please encourage your child to continue following the rules of the school and of the classroom. They are put in place for safety and a positive learning experience. Thank you for all you do!

Welcome Back from Spring Break

This is the fastest plane ever made. It can fly from San Francisco, California to Washington DC in about an hour. It takes a regular plane about 5 1/2 hours to do this. I saw this plane in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Hey! (interjection) Did you lovely students get my postcards? I hope so.

Mrs. Love, our other 309 student, started her sequence last Friday. She will be assisting the students with the writing process as they complete a descriptive writing piece. As we score and grade these writings we will be looking for an exceptional piece to be submitted to represent our class for the Young Author's Conference. Mrs. Love is going to teach you some fabulous writing techniques. We are so lucky to have them in our classroom. They have helped the students in our class so much. Thank you for all you do.

Math: Yes! (Interjection) We finally started multiplication. Last week we constructed arrays and wrote multiplication sentences. Remember a multiplication sentence consists of the factors 3 x 4 and the product (answer) = 12. To write a multiplication sentence correctly it should look like this 3 x 4 = 12. Don't forget to write the complete sentence. Mrs. Shore and I will be teaching you multiplication strategies to help you remember the facts. You should also be practicing on your own time at home.

Keep reading every evening. We check the reading logs every day in class. This is part of your reading grade. The AR deadline in Friday, April 17th. So many of you have already reached your goal and many of the rest of you are exactly where you need to be. GOOD WORK!

We have started Social Studies again and will concentrate on communities and government within a community. We will learn how a law is created and passed.

Looking forward to seeing and teaching you next week.

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK:

What is the capital of Idaho?

Who is Idaho's governor?

What is one famous river that runs across the lower part of Idaho?