100% at Parent Teacher Conferences!!

Hello fellow students!! It has been a week of much sickness at our school and in our community. If you are not feeling good or have a fever--please stay at home so we can keep the germs at bay. We would like all students to use hand sanitizer before and after using the in-class computers. We are also trying to wipe off desks and tables each day to help keep the germs out of the classroom. Be safe, drink lots of liquids, get plenty of rest and and sneeze into your elbow or a Kleenex.

Language Arts:This week is a Writing Workshop. During our last writing workshop, we wrote about family adventures. These are the stories we will publish in our class books. This week our writing workshop focuses on "Writing Instruction". We will have a mini-lesson on writing instructions on Monday. We will brainstorm ideas on Monday and work on a title and an introduction and the first step of our instructions. On Tuesday we will work on the middle steps of our instructions. On Wednesday we will work on the final step of our instruction and a conclusion to our writing. Thursday we will polish the finished product and also put our Family Adventures onto the nice publishing paper. Please watch for a great quilt project on the Blog next week. Mrs. Shore and the students made a lovely construction paper quilt and tied in into our last week reading anthology: "The Keeping Quilt".

This week our spelling words concentrate on words that are frequently misspelled:

now off for almost also can't cannot about always

today until again

*Challenge Words: February January Saturday Wednesday

Math: All of the third graders are learning a new concept. It is called math mountains. You may have heard this concept before, except we use to call it fact families. The numbers we are using are a lot larger than the basic Math Facts, but they are still related. Continue to watch for homework. It comes home at least once a week; also remember to listen to your child read at home and mark their reading log. Thank you for all of your support.

Social Studies:

The students created a Community Compact for their Memory Books. They titled their illustration "How I Can Be a Great Community Member". You may want to ask them what thoughts they came up with. As we conclude our efforts on Communities, we will begin our Native American Unit where we will learn about several different communities and Native American peoples.

Dates and Special Events:

*November 13, 2009: End of the second six weeks and AR deadline.

*Thursday, November 5, 2009: Class Field Trip to the ISU Museum and Craft Shop.

*Friday, October 30, 2009: Class Halloween Party

Question of the Week: In our story "The Keeping Quilt", what is the edge of the quilt called?