What a talented bunch of third graders!

The talent show was great; we had about 16 kids participate. We had dancers, magicians, rock collectors, singers, pianists, and gymnasts. Thank you for participating. We look forward to seeing all the combined talents this coming Thursday in the school cafeteria.

Our first annual "Technology" Night was a big hit. About 15 students came over with their parents. Each student showed their parents a slide show they have been working on over the past six weeks. The slide show was informational, telling the parents about what their third grade student has been doing this year and what he/she enjoys doing.

The final Magic Tree House book we will work on this week is called "Tonight on the Titanic". Did you know one remaining survivor is still alive today from that fatal night almost 100 years ago? She was only 2 months old the time she took the voyage. She was the youngest passenger on board. The students will be learning about the Titanic and her maiden voyage from South Hampton to New York. I know I have much to learn.

We will continue to work on scenery for our "Great Kapok Tree" play which we will present this Friday. We will also be painting our paper mache' puppets and doing a play review for the third grade classes. Hope to see you this Friday for our culminating literature event.

Math has been a large review mostly learning different multiplication strategies. This week we will finish up our Multiplication Math packets. Please continue to work on multiplication facts with your student this summer. It is a very foundational skill they need to master in order to have future mathematical success.

In Science, we will wrap up our life cycle exploration of plants and animals. We have learned so many cycles this year, environmental and living cycles. It has been interesting to see how the circle of life continues when it is not upset. It ties in quite nicely with our study on the Rain Forests of the world.

Upcoming dates to remember:

• Thursday, May 21, 2009--combined third grade talent show (8:45 am in the school cafeteria).
• Friday, May 22, 2009--third grade field trip to the Community Recreation Center. Please bring $2.50 and a lunch for the trip. We will be back around 1:00 pm
• Friday, May 22, 2009--Great Kapok Tree play when we arrive back at the school. Parents are invited to attend
• Monday, May 25, 2009--Memorial Day--No School
• Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 9:30 am--Awards Assembly for K-3 grade
• Wednesday, May 27, 2009--Field and Fun Day (Third Grade starts at 1:00 pm)
• Thursday, May 28, 2009--Last Day of School

Question of the Week:

What causes the loud cracking sound you may hear in the Rain Forest?

A BLOG CLOG

I need to fix a date I gave to all of our followers:

Thursday, May 14, 2009: Room #1 Technology Night from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. Come and see a slide show put on by your child.

Friday, May 15, 2009 (2:00 pm): Room #1 Class Talent Show. Many of our students have signed up. It promises to be an entertaining show.

Thursday, May 21, 2009 (8:45 am): Combined Talent Show for all third grade classes. We will meet in the school gymnasium.

Friday, May 22, 2009 (9:30-1:00 pm) Third Grade Field Trip to the Community Recreation Center. Have your students bring thier swimsuits and $2.50 for the entrance fee.

Friday, May 22, 2009 (2:00 pm) "The Great Kapok Tree" Rain Forest play. This will be held back in our room

Yes! We are Finished!

This week is a busy one with lots of different activities and a new story.
First of all, congratulations on your fine work on the ISAT exams and the IRI assessment. Our final ISAT was in math and our class was 96.2% proficient or advanced.

This week we are beginning a new Magic Tree House Book titled: Night of the New Magicians. We will be doing some fun science "magic" in small groups and learning about the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

The spelling list list this week is words from the story:

whirl
twirl
invent
lightbulb
telephone
evil
germs
medicine
iron
cloak
dark
world
fair
Paris
France
magic

In Math we continue to work on multiplication strategies using our new math series. We will be working with some new math mats with dry erase markers.

Our butterflies all emerged from their chrysalis this past week. Some of them made it and some did not. In Science we will continue to learn about the life cycles of plants and animals.

One of our upcoming projects is a class play about the rain forest. It is called the Great Kapok Tree. Each student has been assigned a part in the play. We are making paper mache animals and will paint them as soon as the animals dry. The students have had a great time so far making their animals. Hope to see you at the play.

Some upcoming dates for your calendar:
Room #1 Technology evening: Thursday, May 14, 2009 5:30pm-6:30pm--come and see the slide show presentations your child has been working on.

Friday, May 15, 2009 2:00 pm: Individual class talent show.

Thursday, May 22, 2009 8:45 am Combined third grade talent show.

Friday, May 22, 2009 End of the year field trip to the Community Recreation Center and Class Play. The play will begin as soon as we come back from field trip.

Question of the week: Name 5 solid figures we have studied in class (hint: a cylinder is one).

One More to Go!

This weeks marks the last testing week for ISAT's as well as our Spring IRI. The spring IRI will be given tommorrow at 10:00 am. We encourage all students to read their best. We have made so many gains since we took it in the Fall. On Tuesday, we will wrap up our ISAT testing with the math portion of the assessment. This will begin as soon as we check in for school. The students will be allowed to take a sharpened pencil and some extra paper down to use when figuring and solving problems. Again, Good Luck and get a good night's sleep and a good breakfast before you come on Monday and Tuesday.

We have completed our reading anthology and will focus on three books from the MAGIC TREE HOUSE series. The first story we will focus on is Afternoon in the Amazon. Each story will take a week to complete and comes with plenty of activities. Mrs. Shore and Mrs. Graham's class do a play at the end of the year about a tree in the rain forest. Each student will create a paper mac he' animal and use it in the play. It is great fun and the students always enjoy participating. We will start creating our animals at the end of this week.

The spelling words for this story concentrate on the /s/ sound in face and city. It is the soft c sound:
face
city
pencil
place
center
dance
race
circle
nice
once
princess
circus
silence
excitement

Each student has been working on a technology presentation about their experience in third grade. We would like to share these presentations on a "Technology Night". We know the end of the year is getting busy, but have planned the sharing for Thursday, May 14, 2009 from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm in the evening. Hope to see you there. The students have been working hard.

In Math we will again concentrate on Multiplication and Division for the next couple of weeks. We are hoping for a great showing on the Math ISAT on Tuesday.

Our caterpillars have woven themselves into a tight chrysalis. We are patiently awaiting the transformation. We have placed the chrysalis pad into a butterfly house so they can have more room when they transform into the Painted Lady Butterfly. After each caterpillar has changed, we release them altogether.

In Science we continue to learn about life cycles of living things.

Housekeeping:
Monday, May 4, 2009: Spring IRI
Tuesday, May 5, 2009: Math ISAT
Thursday, May 14, 2009 (5:30 pm to 7:00 pm) Technology Evening
Friday, May 15, 2009 (2:00 pm) Individual Class Talent Show

Question of the Week:
List the Multiplication/Division Fact Family for 8x3. Remember their are four different facts in the family.