Christmas Programs this Week!

Due to the overcrowding at the Christmas Program, the Ellis students will be performing at three different times during the week.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009: 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM
Wednesday, December 16, 2009: 9:30 AM

We have been practicing as a third grade team, and the students sound wonderful. Come and enjoy the performance.

Housekeeping:

• Christmas Programs
• Room #1 Christmas Party: Thursday, December 17, 2009
• PLC Day: Monday, December 14, 2009
• Christmas Break (starts this Saturday) Students will be back in school Monday, January 4, 2010
• End of next 6 -week grading period: Friday, January 8, 2010
• HAVE A WONDEFUL HOLIDAY!!

Language Arts:

This week our Incredible Story is a Italian Folktale, written and illustrated by Tomie de Paola.

The story is called: The Incredible Giant of Barletta

The students will be learning about endings -est and -er, verbs (action words) and exact verbs. They did a wonderful job last week on their writing pieces. Thank you so much for working so hard in class.

Spelling List concentrates on the vowel + r sound:

girl clear her turn dark work smart word

hurt serve north third hard tornado morning scurried

Math:

Wow! We are moving right along. The students will interpret data this week to fill in graphs and tables. They will also read for information in order to solve 2-step problems.

Sience:

Our class will wrap up the Unit on energy, light, matter, and motion. This week we will review important concepts, do a Sciene Experiment with liquids and have a quiz on the Promethean Board.

LAST QUESTIONS OF THE YEAR 2009:

What language is spoken the most on our planet? About How many people speak it? What continent is this country on?

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Parents! The weather is getting very cold, especially in the mornings. Please send your children to school with adequate layers in order to keep them warm (gloves, coats, hats, scarfs and boots if necessary). Following is a list of upcoming events for the month of December.

Monday, December 7-11: Penny Wars at Ellis School
Monday, December 14th: PLC Early Release
Christmas Program: Tuesday, December 15th at 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM
Christmas Program: Wednesday, December 16th at 9:30 AM
December 19th -January 3rd: Christmas Break! See you back to school on January 4th, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010: End of the third six-week grading period--AR Goal deadline

LANGUAGE ARTS:
This week is a reading-writing workshop. The students will be making up a story--it can be true of make-believe (fantasy). They will come up with their own characters and be responsible for a beginning, middle, and ending. Their story will have a plot, it will have proper paragraphing, and the students will use spicy adjectives to create a more detailed story. Writing is tough for all of the class when we do it at the same time, but we know our students will do a marvelous job.

Spelling List: Frequently Misspelled Words:
and
said
goes
going
some
something
you
your
friend
school
where
myself
tonight
lying
field
enough

MATH:
Rounding has gone very well for our students this past week. We will conclude our rounding exercises today and move onto reading and completing tables with information, story problems with extra information, story problems with not enough information, and 2-step word problems. Please look for homework to come home this week.

Science:
The students will continue to study the properties of matter and how it can change or remain the same. We will also discuss the concept of gravity and how motion can affect matter.

Question of the Week: If there are 24 hours in one day, how many hours are there in 5 days?