Welcome Baby Liam!

Hello 3rd Graders and Families!

We are overjoyed to announce that Liam Jack Olsen was born on Monday, January 24, 2011 at 5:00 am. He was 7 lbs 13 oz and 20 inches. We are home and doing great! He is even sleeping through the night! What a sweet boy!

Thinking of you!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of January 31st-February 4th

Odds and Ends
We have had a fantastic first week together!
Congratulations to one of our students for competing in the District Spelling Bee! You did GREAT!
Also, we had a special guest come in and share some awesome hieroglyphics with our class!
If you are interested in the Six flags tickets, please continue to fill out your reading log and get those in by February 17th.
As we finish up our chapter about Matter, we will have an in school "field trip" about matter on Wed. 2/2 about matter. The cost of the presentation will be covered with the money from last years canceled field trip (when your child was in 2nd grade).

Upcoming Events
We have a Chapter 4 English test on Monday January 31st.
Math Students: Chapter 21 Test on February 2nd and x7 test on February 4th.

A Look at Next Week:

Spelling
We will be working on Lesson 15 in Spelling. The pretest will be Monday and we will test on Friday.

Reading
Our focus this week is main idea and supporting details! We will continue with our novel Snow Treasure while focusing on main idea and details.

English
We are done with Chapter 4 in English! We will be stepping away from our textbooks and focus on a writing unit, starting with friendly letter writing.

Science
As we close chapter 11 in our Science books, we will open Chapter 12: Energy! There will be three lessons we will cover in this chapter including; What is Energy, Can energy be Used, and Why is Energy Important?

Social Studies
We are continuing our study on Egypt. We will be focusing on King Tut for awhile. The students will be doing many engaging activities and are having a blast learning about Egypt!

Math
We have started Chapter 21: The Metric System. We will have a mini quiz on Monday January 31st over Metric Length and Metric Capacity. Our Chapter 21 Test will be on February 2nd covering lessons 1, 2,3,4,6. Please be reviewing your X7; the test for x7's will be on February 4th.

Have a WARM weekend!

Week of 1/24-1/28

Odds and Ends:

* Matter Presentation: We will have an in school "field trip" about matter on Wed. 2/2 about matter. The cost of the presentation will be covered with the money from last years canceled field trip (when your child was in 2nd grade).

*Spelling Bee: Congrats to Emily and Demetri and all of the other fantastic 3rd grade spellers in this year's grade level spelling bee! Congrats to Demetri who advanced to the District level spelling bee, which will take place on Tues. at 10:00 am. Parents and families are welcome to attend!

*Scholastic Book Order: January orders are due online or in the classroom on Jan. 28th. Thank you for helping our classroom earn free books with each of your orders!

*Baby Olsen Update: No news yet! The "official" due date is today, 1/21/11. Now it's a waiting game. I am set to work until 1/28/11 unless my doctor advises otherwise or the baby arrives sooner than that. We are all so excited to meet the baby!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

* Tues. 1/25: District Spelling Bee 10:00 am

*Wed. 1/26: Math: Ch 20 Customary Measurement Graded Checkpoint

*Fri. 1/28: Spelling: List 14 Test

Reading: Snow Treasure Ch 10-25 Vocab Quiz

Science: Ch 11 Matter Test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Reading: We will continue to work on our novels as we practice the strategy of making connections.

*Spelling: This week we will focus on List 14: homophones. The homework will be sent home Monday and due Friday. The graded test will be on Friday.

*English: We will continue to study adjectives and adverbs in ch. 4. The test is scheduled for Mon. 1/31.

*Science: We will continue to study matter (ch 11) this week as we focus on lesson 3. The test is scheduled for Fri. 1/28. A study guide was sent home today. Please look through your child's science folder to see quizzes, review guides, and notes which will all help him/her study for the test.

*Social Studies: Pyramids, mummies, Cleopatra...oh my! We are busy learning about Ancient Egypt. We will focus on Cleopatra (and making inferences!), hieroglyphics, and King Tut next week.

*Math: The students began ch. 20 this week: Customary Measurement. We will continue this next week with a graded checkpoint on Wed. 1/26. Then we will begin ch. 21: Metric Measurement. We will also work on 6's multiplication facts. Get a head start and begin practicing them this weekend!

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Mrs. Olsen

Week of 1/17-1/21

Odds and Ends:

*Spelling Bee: We had our classroom spelling bee today. Our classroom winners are: Emily Leatherwood and Demetri Kling! Way to go!

Great job to all of the students on their hard work and dedication! The 3rd grade spelling bee will be Tues. 1/19. The top 2 spellers in 3rd grade will continue onto the district spelling bee on 1/25.

*Maternity Leave: I am happy to share that my maternity sub has been selected. Miss Melissa Millbrandt will be taking over my leave until May 5th. My "official" due date is Jan. 21st. We have met several times to provide a smooth transition. She will do a fabulous job!

*Music Homework: Please have your child practice the following with their recorder in time for their next music class, which is next Friday: breathing, posture, left hand on top, right hand on bottom, and note B. Thanks!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

*Mon. 1/17: No School: Martin Luther King, Jr's. Birthday: Do something kind for someone else in honor of this great man!

* Tues. 1/18: Spelling: List 13 Pretest

Math: Ch 6 Test

*Wed. 1/19: Grade Level Spelling Bee

*Thurs. 1/20: Reading: Snow Treasure Vocab Quiz ch 1-9 (date changed: originally set for 1/19)

* Fri. 1/21: Baby Olsen's Due Date =)

Spelling: List 13 Test

Math: 4's multiplication Test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Spelling: We are back to our normal spelling routine next week with Lesson #13. We will pre-test on Tuesday and assign the corresponding homework. The spelling challenge students will only have to pick two assignments from the list and all other spelling students will have a shortened assignment as well due to the 4 day week. The homework will be due on Friday and we will have the test that day also!

*Reading: As we begin/continue our novel studies this week we will be targeting the reading strategy of questioning. As always, we will also continue to review and refine our work with the other strategies that we have already introduced, but will highlight questioning this week.

We are reading Snow Treasures. This can be a challenging book. We will work together to read and comprehend the story. Your child will be asked to pre read the chapters or re read the chapters that we discuss in class. We will read the chapters together in class as well. Thank you!

*English: The students did an excellent job on their narrative picture books. I am so proud of their hard work and final products! We began unit 4: adjectives and adverbs. Look in your child's English folder for their pretest on this chapter.

*Science: We are continuing to study matter (ch 11) and lesson 2: states of matter.

* Social Studies: We will continue to study Ancient Egypt this week, focusing on pyramids, mummies, and Cleopatra.

*Math: The students will take the ch. 6 test ( on graphing) on Tues. 1/18. A study guide was sent home. The types of graphs students need to be familiar with are tally charts, bar graphs, pictographs, line graphs, line plots, mode, and ordered pairs. We will begin ch. 20: customary measurement next. We will also work on 4's multiplication this week. Get a head start and begin practicing these facts over the weekend!

Thank you for checking out my blog. Enjoy the long weekend! GO BEARS!!!

Mrs. Olsen

Week of 1/10-1/14

Odds and Ends:

*Spelling Bee: A word list was sent home with your child this week to help them prepare for the spelling bee. We will have a "practice" bee on Tuesday and our classroom spelling bee will be on Friday. The top 2 spellers will advance to the grade level bee, which will take place on Wed. 1/19. The top 2 spellers in the third grade will then move onto the district wide spelling bee which will take place the week of 1/24.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

* Tues. 1/11: MAPS Testing: Reading

Practice Classroom Spelling Bee

* Wed. 1/12: Juggling Assembly

*Thurs. 1/13: Math: 3's multiplication timed test

* Fri. 1/14: MAPS Testing: Math

Classroom Spelling Bee

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Reading: We will continue to work on the reading strategies of monitoring and clarifying what we read as well as distinguishing facts and opinions while concluding our work with the story Nights of the Pufflings or starting a novel study. We will also be reviewing various other reading strategies to comprehend our reading materials.

*Spelling: Due to MAPs testing this week, we are working on synonym practice during spelling. We will not have a test this week or spelling homework. We will be working on a unit of "snowy synonyms". We will be back to working on Lesson #13 the following week.

*English: The students are doing a fantastic job on their personal narratives. We will continue to work on creating our narrative picture books. Our next unit is ch 4: adjectives and adverbs.

*Science: We are learning about matter in ch 11. We will finish up lesson 1 and begin lesson 2.

*Social Studies: The students are busy learning about Ancient Egypt. We will focus on the Nile River and the afterlife this week.

* Math: We are working on ch. 6: Data and Graphs. The test is tentatively set for Tues. 1/18. A study guide will be sent home this week for the test. We will also work on 3's multiplication facts. Please study these facts with your child each night. The test will be on THURS. 1/13 this week due to no math on Friday due to MAPS testing.

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Mrs. Olsen