We had a great AR Celebration!!

We decided to have our "Matilda" party in connection with our AR celebration. The girls braided their hair; we spelled d-i-f-f-i-c-u-l-t-y; we ate chocolate cake; Mrs. Shore braided her hair and Mrs. Graham dressed up like Ms. Trunchbull; and noone got thrown in the Chokey! The students traded all of their tokens in at the auction for various prizes and treasures. We will start new tokens on Tuesday, January 19, 2010. They will be the color of blue. The best way to earn tokens is to bring your AR reading log back every day and follow all of the class rules.

Report cards will be sent home this Wednesday. The 4th six-week grading period started on Monday, January 11, 2010. Each student has new AR goals for the next 6 weeks. Keep reading and studying your math facts. Multiplication starts in one week. How glorious.

The story for this week is a comparison between two adventure stories:

Fugitive on Four Legs and Dinosaur Bob and the Family Lazardo. It is a short week because of the Martin Luther King Holiday. Skills to be reviewed are Past and Present time, prefixes -un, -dis, and -non, homophones, and use of the Thesaurus. The spelling list for the week is a review of the past 5 spelling lists. The words are as follows:

sound

crown

word

her

crack

orange

hear

our

also

girl

dark

clear

squeeze

second

here

new

soft

turn

north

skin

gym

jeans

hour

knew

lawn

officer

scurried

insect

seen

scene

This week in Math we are working on finding repeated patterns in geometric shapes. There are three lessons in this unit and a unit test on Friday. Make sure you pay attention closely this week, we have a lot of information to cover.

Last week we learned about Martin Luther King. This week we will start our Arctic and Inuit Natives Unit. The students will be learning about a region of the world that is unfamiliar to them. The land of the Polar Bear and the Inuit. This is a great unit of study about some more of our Native American people, their culture, traditions and way of life.

Have a GREAT WEEK. We hope you enjoyed your Holiday. Mrs. Shore and I think we have one of the brightest third grade classes of all time. We sure enjoy our students and what we do.

Question of the Week!

What was the name of the motel where Martin Luther King was shot. What city and state was it located in? (This is a three-part question!!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

What a great 2-week vacation. I hope all of the boys in our class got my postcards from my Holiday vacation. I have a treasure for all of the girls when we get back to school on Monday. Now we are back to school for some great fun and learning!!







Housekeeping:

• AR deadline: last day is January 8, 2010. The students need to be at 100% of their goal by this date.
• End of the third six-week grading period: January 8, 2010
• January 11, 2010: Winter IRI starts
• January 11, 2010: PLC Early Release
• January 18, 2010: No School: Martin Luther King Day

Language Arts:

The story we will study this week is Raising Dragons by Jerdine Nolan. We will concentrate on making predictions and also focus on words ending in -y and -ly. The spelling list for this week is as follows:

• large
• gym
• skin
• quick
• picnic
• judge
• park
• jeans
• crack
• orange
• second
• squeeze
• rock
• job
• courage
• insect

Math:

The students are right on track in our Math Unit. We will be concluding this Unit at the end of next week. For the next several days we will be looking at tables and graphs to find information to help us solve problems. Keep up the good work. On January 18th we will have a quick week learning section on shapes and how they can be moved (flip, turn, slide). On January 25, we will start our Multiplication Unit--Hooray! the kids can hardly wait.

Social Studies:

One week of study will be dedicated to Martin Luther King and his life and goals. After this week, we will begin our Arctic Unit and study the Inuit Native people, their customs and way of life and we will get involved in the Iditarod in March. It will be great fun!

Question on the week?

What is the largest and smallest state in the United States? (Remember to consider all 50 states).

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?

Hope you had a great Holiday!

Welcome back to school! We have three busy weeks before the next Holiday Break. Following is a schedule of the upcoming events:

• AR deadline: January 8, 2010. Please read over the Holidays


• Awards Assembly: Thursday, December 3, 2010 at 9:00 am


• Canned Food Drive November 30th thru December 4th


• Penny War: December 7th thru December 11th


• Monday, December 14, 2009: PLC Early Release Day

The third grade classes are starting a new Theme this week. It is called Incredible Stories. This is one of the students' favorite themes. Our first story is Dogzilla by Dav Pilkey. The spelling list concentrates on the vowel sound in clown and lawn. Following is the list:

clown lawn talk sound cloth would also mouth crown soft count law town small bounce officer

*Skills the students will be working on: Using context to find the correct definition of a word.

Possisive nouns, Apostrophes

Math:

We concluded our brief section on similar and congruent shapes and naming polygons. It only took us one week. The next unit (Unit 5) will cover rounding, multi-step problems, graphs, tables, pictographs and money. We should complete this unit after the Christmas Holidays. Please be on the lookout for homework once to twice a week. It is due the following day for full credit.

Science:

For the next several weeks we will continue working on energy, motion, mass, properties of matter and light. We have done a few experiments in class that would be appropriate to do at home.

Question of the week: According to our classroom experiment, what conducts heat better--wood, metal, or plastic?

Good Morning Third Graders!

Dates to Remember:
Monday, November 23, 2009: PLC day. One hour early release
Wednesday, November 25, 2009: Two Hour early release (Thanksgiving Holiday)
Thursday, Friday, November 26-27: No School Thanksgiving break
Friday, January 8, 2010: End of the Third 6-week grading period

Language Arts:
This is our last week on Theme Two. Our class will be studying "Trickster Tales"--focus on Genre. There are three trickster tales we will focus on:

• Hungry Spider
• Rabbit Races with Turtle
• Aunt Fox and the Fried Fish

Spelling words for the week concentrate with the vowel sound found in "join" and "boy"

join foil

joy voice

boil coil

noise broil

spoil coin

choice boy

soil enjoy

point rejoice

**The test will be given this Wednesday due to the short week.

Math:

Hurray! We finished the unit on addition and subtraction word problems. Next we are off to symmetry. Please don't forget--Math Homework is always due the next day for full credit.

Science:

We started our Science Unit last week. We will learn about the properties and states of matter, motion, and physical and chemical changes.

Have A Great Holiday Weekend and stay safe.
Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Shore

Question of the Week: Give me an example of the three states of matter. You can use normal everyday objects.

NEW READING GOALS START THIS WEEK!

Dates to remember:

• AR Celebration: Friday, November 20, 2009



• Thanksgiving Holiday: Early Release on Wednesday and then a two day break



• Report Cards will be coming home before the break



• Next 6-week grading period ends on January 8, 2010. This includes the Christmas break so make sure you keep on reading!

This week we are concluding Theme 2: Family Traditions.

We will read two stories, Miss Rumphius and Chinese Celebration. The spelling list is quite large and recaps the lists you have had over the last 6 weeks:







speak spread

feel mind

seem might

most lay

both leave

know own

street row

lie wrap

need patch

paint tie

hold wild

float bright

three needle

tomorrow program

kitchen design

Spelling Test Friday, November 20, 2009

MATH

We continue working on addition and subtraction as it is used in word problems. Keep your eye out for homework and keep up the good work.

Social Studies:

We are also approaching the conclusion of our Native American Unit. The students have learned a lot about different Native people who lived long ago and their ways of life.

Question(s) of the Week:

What are the 5 parts of writing a friendly letter?

Where in Idaho do our Pen-Pals live?