Week of 2/4

Odds and Ends:

* Scholastic Book Order: Book orders are available for Jan and Feb. Please have orders in online or send a check to class by Fri. 2/15. Each book purchased helps earn points, which I can then use to order new books for our classroom. Thank you for helping build our classroom library!


UPCOMING EVENTS:

*Mon. 2/4: Abe Lincoln Assembly
English: Verbs Test (ch. 3)

*Tues. 2/5: District Spelling Bee

*Wed. 2/6: Math:  Ch. 15 Graded Checkpoint

*Thurs. 2/7: Culture Day Presentations
100th Day of School

*Fri. 2/8: Culture Day Presentations


A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Reading: We will continue to work in our guided reading groups. We are also working on researching non fiction topics that relate to our books. The students are also busy writing extended responses to questions about their guided reading books.

*English: We will finish up our unit on verbs with a test on Mon. 2/4. We will focus on expository writing and prefix/suffix for the upcoming week.

*Spelling: We will spend the next few weeks focusing on prefix/suffix/root word in place of a spelling unit.

*Social Studies: We will continue to study ch. 3 as we learn about immigration and culture. Your child should be working on their culture day presentation. I reviewed their ideas and they look awesome! We can't wait to learn more about each others' cultures. The presentations will be on Thurs. and Fri of next week. If your child is bringing in a food sample to share, please send a list of ingredients or recipe used. Also, you can send the food in that morning. I can keep the food cold, but if your food needs to be warm, please plan on dropping it off in the office at school by 11:45 on the day of your child's presentation. We will be presenting both days starting after lunch at 11:45. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

*Science: We will begin our unit on ch. 14.

*Math: We are studying ch. 15: exploring shapes and solid figures. We will discuss congruent and similar shapes, slides, flips, and turns, among other geometry topics. This is a very short chapter. We will take a graded checkpoint on Wed. 2/6.

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of 1/28

Odds and Ends:

* Grade Level Spelling Bee: The 3rd Grade Spelling Bee will be on Mon. 1/28 in the morning. Congrats to our classroom bee winners Matei and Brendan . We are so proud of you!




UPCOMING EVENTS:

*Mon. 1/28: Grade Level Spelling Bee

*Wed. 1/30: Early Dismissal at 11:00

*Fri. 2/1: Six Flags Reading Sheet Due
Spelling: List 16 Test
Math: Chap. 14 graded checkpoint

A LOOK AHEAD AT OUR WEEK

*Reading: We will continue to work on our guided reading books. We will also explore some non fiction topics that relate to our novels. We will focus on the skills of questioning and marking our text as we read.

*English: We will continue to study ch. 3 Verbs. We will be finishing up this unit soon and the final test is tentatively planned for Mon. 2/4.

*Spelling: We will work on list 16 this week. We will have a pretest on Mon. Homework will be due on Thurs. The final test will be on Fri.

*Social Studies: Your child received information about our upcoming Culture Day that will take place on Thurs. 2/7 and Fri. 2/8. Their idea sheet in due on Mon. 1/28. Please email me with any questions! This is always a fun and educational activity for our 3rd graders! We will continue to study ch. 3 this week as we learn about early immigrants and Ellis Island and Angel Island.

*Science: Coming soon...

*Math: We will continue to learn about circles, triangles, and plane figures. The graded quiz for ch. 14 will be on Fri. 2/1.

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of 1/21

Odds and Ends: 

* No School Mon. 1/21 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.  Enjoy your day off!

* Spelling Bee: We will be holding our classroom spelling bee Tues. and Thurs. of next week. Your child received a list of words gr. 3-8 that will be used. The final top 2 spellers in our classroom on Thurs. will advance to our grade level bee.

*Water.org Donations: Thank you to all who donated to water.org. I have been collecting all of the money and will make the donation on Thurs. 1/24. Total collected will be announced soon! A donation will be made in Liam's honor for his 2nd birthday and in honor of each student in the classroom. We can make a difference in the lives of others!

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

* Mon. 1/21: No School

*Tues. 1/22: Spelling Bee Practice
Math: Ch. 21 Checkpoint

*Thurs. 1/24: Spelling Bee: Top 2 students advance to grade level bee
Liam's 2nd Birthday :)

*Fri. 1/25: Spelling: List 15 Test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

* Reading: We began our guided reading groups. Students will work on their fiction novels, as well as conduct research on non fiction topics related to their novels. We will have mini lessons on story elements and questioning this week as we apply our skills to the books we are reading. Each book has vocabulary that goes along with the chapters. Please help your child review the words that they find tricky each night to prepare them for the quizzes (which will be announced at a later date...check their assignment notebooks in the upcoming days.)

* English: We will continue our study of verbs.

*Spelling: Due to the shortened week, there will be only 2 homework assignments this week. The homework will be due on Thurs. The test will be on Fri. Also, we will have our classroom spelling bee on Tues. and Thurs. of this week (moved from Fri.). All students will participate at the classroom level. The top 2 spellers from Thurs. bee will advance to the grade level bee, which will be held on Mon. 1/28.

*Social Studies: We will continue our study of culture and immigration (ch. 3). Be on the look out for information coming home regarding our culture day activity.

*Science: We will take a short break from science as we focus on social studies.

*Math: We will take our ch. 21 graded review on Tues. A study guide was sent home this week, as well as some review guides. We will begin ch. 14 on lines and angles on Tues. We also have finished our 7 weeks of multiplication review. I am so proud of the students work with their facts!  If you child did not pass the test today, please review the problems they missed. Retakes will begin on Tues.

Have a great, long weekend! I will be celebrating a special birthday with the cutest soon-to-be 2 year old I know...Liam!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of 1/14

Happy New Year!!! Welcome back to school and Happy 2013!  I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season together with family and friends.

Odds and Ends: 

* Matter Matters: We will have our Matter Matters presentation on Mon. 1/14. This will be a great review before we end our unit on matter.

*MAPs Testing: The students did a great job this week on MAPs testing. A reading goal setting worksheet with their new RIT score and lexile number were sent home this week. Please review with your child. I am so proud of each student! They worked hard and it shows!

Upcoming Events: 

*Mon. 1/14: Matter Matters Presentation
Science: Insulator project due

*Wed. 1/16: Science: Ch. 11 Matter Test

*Fri. 1/18: Spelling: List 14 Test
Math: Multiplication facts test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We will focus on features of non fiction text. We will also begin our guided reading groups. In these groups we will work on novels as well as non fiction books that cover the topics discussed in the novel. Your child also received 5 vocabulary words this week (a yellow worksheet in their reading folder). We are working on dictionary skills and context clues as we acquire new vocabulary. I will be individually quizzing the students on their words on Thurs. 1/17.

*English: We will be focusing on ch 3 Verbs.

*Spelling: This week we will work on list 14. Homework will be due Thurs. The final test will be on Fri.

*Science: We will be wrapping up our unit on matter this week. A study guide was sent home this week. The final test will be on Wed. 1/16. We also have Matter Matters this Monday, which will be a great way to review before the test.

*Social Studies: We will work on ch. 3: culture and immigration. This unit will give us the opportunity to learn more about our own ancestors and cultural background.

*Math: Students began ch. 21: Metric Measurement. We will focus on this unit next week. We will also be wrapping up our multiplication in 7 weeks unit. This week we will focus on all of the facts we have learned. Please identify the facts that are most difficult for your child and practice those. The test on Fri. will be covering all of the facts!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Olsen

Holiday fun!

Happy Holidays!

Thank you to everyone for the generous gifts! The gift cards are wonderful and much appreciated! 

The students are so excited to play with the classroom games and usually the winter brings many indoor recesses, so they will get a lot of use. 

I am so lucky to have such caring, thoughtful students and parents. My wish for you is to have a safe, relaxing, and fun winter break! See you in 2013!!!

Enjoy the pictures of some of our holiday activities below! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sharing our Holidays Around the World Posters

Look at the mess our Elves made! They are ready for Winter Break: ) 

Thank you our board members (and student's parents!) Mr. Motuelle and Mrs. Murphy for visiting our classroom as community leaders. The students loved learning about your important jobs and many responsibilities as board members! 

See you in 2013!!!

Mrs. Olsen 

Bowling fun!

Students had a great time bowling on Monday! STRIKE!

Week of 12/17-12/21

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and magical holiday season! 
I can't wait to spend it with this little fellow!
 Enjoy your time spent with your family and friends. 
From our home to yours, Happy Holidays!


Odds and Ends: 

* Paper Recycling: Remember to recycle your paper in our districts yellow and green Paper Retriever bin and help us raise money and help the environment at the same time! This includes all of the wrapping paper that will be used during the holiday season!

* Help Our Furry Friends: We will continue to collect items for local pet shelters through the end of next week. Thank you for your donations!

* PBIS: Please check out our new PBIS website : http://prairieviewpbis.blogspot.com/ to learn more about our PBIS program at school. Thanks!

 

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

*Mon. 12/17: Bowling 9-11 (Please send in a sack lunch that day)

*Tues. 12/18: Social Studies: DG and Ch. 12 test

*Fri. 12/21: Don't Forget: December Reading Calendars are due TODAY!
Spelling: Winter Word Test
Math: 4's multiplication test
 Tivoli Movie: The Polar Express
Winter Break Begins!!!

AFTER  BREAK EVENTS: 

*Mon. 1/7: Happy New Year! School begins in 2013

* Tues. 1/8: MAPS Testing: Reading

*Thurs. 1/10: AIMSWeb Reading Benchmarking Tests

*Fri. 1/11: MAPS Testing Math

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We will be finishing up our inference character bags. We will also focus on authors message, purpose, and theme. We will work on inferring vocabulary by using context clues. We will continue to work on our reading blogs. Students will also read about Holidays Around the World and share their findings in cooperative groups.

Also, December Reading calendars are due 12/21. I will also hand our January calendars on Thurs. 12/20 so students can record any reading they do over break on the calendar. This calendar will not be due until the end of Jan.

*English: We will begin Verbs after break. I will be pretesting the students next week to assess their prior knowledge about verbs, which will help me plan our activities.

*Spelling: Next week we will work with a shortened list of winter words. There will be no pretest. The final test will be on Fri. 12/21. Homework will be sent home on Monday and due Thursday.

*Social Studies: We are wrapping up our study of Downers Grove and ch. 12 local governments. We have been so honored to invite the mayor of Downers Grove into our school to talk to his about his job, as well as our very own superintendent, Mr. Arnold, into our classroom. We loved talking to our community leaders. Thank you! Our next unit will begin after break. We will study ch. 3: Culture and Immigration.

Mr. Arnold visits our classroom to teach us more about his job as our wonderful superintendent! 

Thank you for visiting our classroom! 

*Science: We started ch. 11: Matter. We will continue to work on matter next week. We will also work on this unit the 2 weeks following break.

*Math: The students have been busy making their own graphs. They created a question, surveyed their classmates, made a pictograph, and spent time in the computer lab learning about to make a bar graph on the computer. They did a great job applying their learning to this project. We will begin ch. 20 on customary  measurement next week. We will also focus on 4's multiplication tables. The test on 4's will be on Fri. 12/21.

Downers Grove Mayor Tully Visits

Week of 12/10-12/14

Odds and Ends: 

*Book Order: If anyone would like to make an online order to Scholastic books, I can still submit an order before the holidays. Please let me know if you make an order so I can submit it and get the books on their way. If you want to order any books as gifts, I can hold onto them for you to pick up in the office.
Thanks!

*Bowling: We will go bowling on Mon. 12/17. We go in the morning and students often get snacks at the bowling alley. When we arrive back at school, it is time for lunch and often the hot lunches go to waste since students just ate at the bowling alley. On this day, please send your child with a sack lunch. Thank you!

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

*Tues. 12/11: Math: Ch. 6 Data and Graphing Test

*Fri. 12/14: Math: 3's Multiplication timed test
Spelling: List 12 Test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We will focus on character inferences and cause and effect as we finish up our book buddy projects. We will also work on making visualizations while we read and story elements (character, setting, plot) and how they are used in stories. We will begin guided reading books with the theme of winter as well.

* English: We finished up our unit on nouns. We will begin ch. 3 on verbs before we leave for break, as well as work on some writing activities. DOL is also completed. DOL is aligned with ch. 5 of our English textbook, so I will be doing some review of these concepts before and after break as we prepare to take a cumulative review of all concepts covered in DOL (ch 5).

*Spelling: We will work on list 12: a pretest will be given Monday. Homework will be due Thurs. The final test will be on Friday.

*Social Studies: We will begin to look at ch. 12: local government as we connect the lessons to our study of Downers Grove. We will be completing this unit of study before break. Look for test information coming home next week.

*Science: We completed ch. 4 ecosystems. We will begin ch 11 Matter. We will focus on this unit before and after break.

*Math: We are working on data and graphs. We will take our test on Tues. 12/11. We will work on making graphs with cooperative groups. We will begin ch. 20: Customary Measurement following our graph making. We will also focus on week 4 of multiplication which is 3's facts. Please see the green note your child received on Friday to see what facts they need to know next week. The test will be on Fri. 12/14.

Learning about bar graphs as we graph our shoes in math class. 

Check our our shoe bar graph! 

REST

We are busy learning about local governments and what they provide for their communities. The students created skits to show recreation, education, safety/security, and transportation - R.E.S.T. What fun!!!

Transportation Group

Safety Group

Education Group

Recreation Group