Saying Good-bye to April!

Hi everyone!  I want to update you on important upcoming events as our school year comes to a close.  Midterms will be sent home on Monday.  Please sign and return your child's midterm no later than Friday, May 2nd. 

State Testing Begins

We will begin MAP/GLA testing Tuesday, April 29th.  Please be sure your child is well-rested, well-fed, and here on time each day.  3rd graders will be taking the Communication Arts portion of the test on 4/29, 4/30, and 5/1.  The math portion of the test will be administered on 5/6, 5/7, and 5/8. 

More Events for May

Please mark your calendars for the following important dates.
April 29th:  Spring Cookout!!  (3rd grade lunch time is 12:20-1:00)
May 5th:  Kindergarten Round Up (5:30-7:00)
May 6th:  PTA Meeting
May 10th:  Mercury Gymnastics Night (6:30-8:00)
May 15th:  Bowling Field Trip (white permission forms have been sent)
May 15th: Husky 5K (yellow registration form has been sent home)
May 26th: NO SCHOOL
May 28th: Field Day
May 29th: Awards Celebration (11:30)
May 30th: Last Day of School

Health Service Survey:

The Health Services department would like to invite you to complete a short 7 question survey.   If you would, please click on this link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HWHealthServices. We greatly appreciate your feedback.  Your response will be used to better provide health related information and services to our students and families. Thank you!

Have a great weekend! 
-Jodi

Happy Friday!

Hi Everyone! I appreciate all of you for speaking with your child about your expectations of them during the school day. It made a tremendous difference. I needed to give fewer redirections and the quality of work increased. Thanks, again.

I think spring has officially sprung!  Which can't help but make me smile.  Spring is such a busy time of year- so many end of the year activities and new sport schedules.  Sometimes it is hard to maintain the routines you've had in place during the year. 

Here at school, I plan to keep our routine and expectations as consistent as possible.  We've set 4th quarter AR goals, homework will continue to consist of reading and a math reinforcement page.  We still have a lot of content to cover, so my lesson plans will be full of new information, skills, and strategies for the kids to master. 

Next week, we will begin a brief Test-Prep Unit during reader's workshop.  We will be working to learn good test-taking strategies.  In writing, we will begin our Fractured Fairy Tale Unit.  Students will be comparing and ordering fractions during math.  Finally, during social studies we will begin to focus on economic concepts, such as, identifying the difference between a good and a service and naming various types of resources. 

Upcoming Events:

April 19th- Mercury Gymnastics Night
April 24th- Take Your Child to Work Day

April 28th- School Cook-Out! (during your child's lunch time)

April 28th- Mid Terms Sent Home

April 29th- State Testing Begins

Have a great weekend!
-Jodi

Monday, April 7, 2014

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had restful weekends.  The students came in very energized and glad to see their friends.  This can be good and bad- I'm happy when students are eager to see one another and share about their weekends, but this morning was so loud we needed to practice classroom expectations.  I've noticed I've had to do that a lot, lately.  Please remind your child about your expectations of them while they are at school.  The end of the year is an exciting time with lots of learning left. 

Reading

This week we will be wrapping up our mystery unit.  Students will be filling out "Detective Case Reports" as a way of showing their understanding of the mysteries they've been reading.  They have learned fun vocabulary, such as: suspect, evidence, and red-herring.  I encourage you to talk with your child about their mystery book.

Writing

I will use our writing time to build schema about "Fractured Fairy Tales" or different versions of traditional fairy tales. Each day, I will be reading a different version of Cinderella.  After the read aloud, we will focus on the variations of literary elements (character, setting, problem, solution, and point of view).  All of this will help prepare students for writing their own "Fractured Fairy Tale" beginning next week.

Math

We will continue working with fractions for the following 2 or 3 weeks.  This week, will end our work at identifying fractional parts of a group, set, or number line.  Next week, will begin our work comparing and ordering fractions.  

Science and Social Studies

Today we took our Science Terra Nova Assessment.  The students worked very hard and spent a lot of time checking over their work.  I'm sure they did great!!  Classroom instruction is still focusing on the branches of government and rights/responsibility of citizens.  At the end of this unit, your child should be able to identify each of the 3 branches and explain their role in our democracy.  Also, they should be able to list the rights and responsibilities of citizens.    

Upcoming Dates

April 19th- Mercury Gymnastics Night

April 28th- School Cook-Out! (during your child's lunch time)

April 28th- Mid Terms Sent Home

April 29th- State Testing Begins

Have a great week!

-Jodi