Week of February 14-18

Odds and Ends:
Valentines Day: We encourage all students to bring in a valentine for each student in the class. We have 23 students. Please do not have candy/tattoos with the valentine. Also, please have your child sign the valentine cards, but do not write any other name on the card.(It will be quicker when passing out)
If you are interested in Six Flags tickets please keep reading and get you sheet in by February 17th.
A letter was emailed to families asking that you send in a letter of encouragement for your child during IAST week. The letter can be sealed in a white envelope and addressed to Miss Millbrandt. I will distribute the letters when ISAT's begin.
Our In-school field trip on Matter is February 14th we can't wait!

Upcoming Events:
Valentines Day/Party on February 14th
Matter Presentation on February 14th
Reading Class: Word Master competition scheduled for February 18th
Math: Graded Checkpoint on Friday February 18th

Reading:
This week in reading we will be focusing on Prefix and suffix. We will continue reading books about Influential African Americans and do a project on the book. We will also be working with extended responses.

Spelling:
There will be no spelling words for this week, instead we will be practicing our Word Masters words for Friday.

English:

We just finished friendly Letter Writing and we mailed our letters out! It was a blast. We hope that many people will write back so we can continue practicing writing. We will move on to expository writing!

Science:
We will be reviewing over CH12 Lessons 1 and 2 and starting Lesson 3 this week. The students have been working hard on categorizing types of Energy!

Social Studies:
We will be finishing up our in class book called Tut's Mummy this week. We will start reviewing all of Egypt.

Math:
We are finished with chapter 14. We are starting chapter 15. There will be a graded checkpoint on Friday February 18th

Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!

Miss Millbrandt

Week of February 7-February 11

Odds and Ends:

I hope everyone enjoyed their 2 days off!
If you are interested in Six Flags tickets please keep reading and get you sheet in by February 17th.
Due to the snow day, our in class field trip about matter has been moved to Monday February 14th from 9:00-10:00 am. Again the cost of the field trip is covered from last years canceled field trip.

Upcoming Events:
Friendly Letter Test Friday February 11th.
Reading Class: Spelling test Friday February 11th.
Math Students: X8 test Friday February 11th.

Spelling:
We will be working on lesson 16 for this week. The final test will be on Friday February 11th.

Reading:
We are finishing our novel, Snow Treasure early this week. There will not be a final test, instead we have things that have been graded throughout the novel. We will transition from our novel to working on extended responses. We will also be reading several books about influential African Americans in connection to Black History Month. Please continue to read each night for 20 minutes!

English:
We will continue to work on friendly letter writing. There will be a test on friendly letters on Friday February 11th.

Social Studies:
We will continue studying Egypt! We are reading King Tut in class.

Science:
We have finished Lesson 1 of Chapter 12 Energy. We will move on to Chapter 12 Lesson 2 this week.

Math:
We are finished with chapter 21:Metrics. We will begin Chapter 14 Line Segments and Angles. Also, we will be studying X8 this week. Please keep practicing X8 with your child!

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

Week of 1/3-1/7

ODDS AND ENDS:

*Welcome Back and Happy 2011! I hope everyone had a wonderful, restful, and happy holiday break. Happy New Year!

* Thank you to everyone for the generous classroom gift of the digital camera! It will be great to take photos of the students so easily as well as use the camera for the new baby! What a thoughtful and generous gift. I was so surprised! Thanks!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

*Mon. 1/3: Classes Resume

*Tues. 1/4: No Reading: AIMSWEB Benchmarking tests

* Fri. 1/7: Spelling: List 12 test
Math: 10's multiplication test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

* Spelling - We are on list 12: words with the vowel sounds plus r. A pretest will be on Monday. Homework will be given Monday and due Friday. The final test will be on Friday.

*Reading - We will start working on the strategy of monitoring and clarifying as we read using the story "Nights of the Pufflings". We will then extend our strategy use while working on a novel study. All the while, we will also be distinguishing fact and opinion. As always, we will continue to utilize strategies from previous weeks.

*English: We will continue to work on narrative writing as we complete our final drafts.

*Social Studies: We will begin our unit on Ancient Egypt! If you have any books, videos, or objects about Egypt your child would like to share with the class, please feel free to send them in at any time.

*Science: We will begin ch. 11: matter.

*Math: We will continue to work on multiplication facts. We will be on 10's this week. The test will be on Friday. We will begin ch. 6: data and graphing.

Thank you for checking out my blog!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of 12/13

*Odds and Ends:*

* Bowling Field Trip: We will go on our bowling field trip Wed. 12/15 from 9-11 am. You can send your child with money if they would like to buy one treat at the bowling alley. We will still have lunch when we return.

* Tivoli Field Trip: We will go the How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Fri. 12/17 in lieu of classroom holiday parties. If you have not sent in the permission slip and $3 please do so by Monday, 12/13.

*Don't forget about our Holiday Service Drive. We are looking for donations such as new toys, new games, toiletries, and food for the needy families in the Darien area. All donations are due on Monday, December 13. Thank you for opening up your hearts to help make the holidays a happy one for those who are less fortunate. Thank you to those families who have already sent in a donation. It is very appreciated!

*UPCOMING EVENTS:*

* Tues. 12/14: Social Studies: Culture Day Presentations

*Wed. 12/15: Bowling 9-11 am

Math: Ch. 5 Time Checkpoint

*Thurs. 12/16: Social Studies: Ch. 3 Test

*Fri. 12/17: Spelling: List 11

Science: Ch. 4 Test

Tivoli: Field Trip

*A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: *

* Spelling: We are on list 11: words with the vowel sounds in "clown" and "lawn". A pretest will be on Monday. Homework will be given Monday and due Friday. The final test will be on Friday.

*Reading: We will continue to learn about evaluating text and visualizing as we read. We will continue to use the story Dogzilla as well as other novels and text as we apply these skills. We will also work on strategies from previous weeks.

* English: We will continue to work on narrative writing. We will work on revising and editing our papers and writing final drafts.

*Science: We will be finishing up chapter 4. We will take our final, cumulative chapter test on Fri. 12/17. We will review in class. A study guide was sent home today.

*Social Studies: The students will be finishing ch. 3 this week. We will share our culture day presentations on Tues. 12/14. The final chapter test will be on Thurs. 12/16. A study guide was sent home today.

*Math: We will work on ch. 5 time this week. We will take a graded review on Wed. 12/15 or Thurs. 12/16. I will announce this next week and your child will write the date in their assignment notebook. We will also work on 5's multiplication. The timed test on 5's multiplication will be on Thurs. 12/16. We will not have math on Fri. due to the field trip.

Thank you for checking my blog. Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Mrs. Olsen

Week of 12/6-12/10

Odds and Ends:

* Paper Retriever Bins: Please remember there is NO CARDBOARD allowed in this bin. We have to go in and remove any cardboard placed in the bin as the company will not collect the paper and we won't get our fundraising money if cardboard is in the bin. Please help us out and only place PAPER products in the bin. Thank-you!

*Remember to send in any toys, toiletries, and non perishable food items in for our winter holiday drive. We will be collecting items until December 13th. Thank-you for your help this holiday season!

*Fall Conferences: Thank-you to all of the parents for meeting with me to discuss their child's progress at conferences this week. It is always nice to talk about the successes of our children! I am looking forward to meeting with the rest of the parents next week. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns that come up, please do not hesitate to email or call. Thanks!

*Bowling Permission Slips: Please turn in your child's bowling permission slip if you have not already done so. We will be bowling Wed. 12/15. There is no charge, however, if your child wants to purchase one treat at the bowling alley, you may send in money to do so. Keep in mind we go from 9-11 and then have lunch when we return, so we don't want them to fill up on treats at the bowling alley. Thank you!

*Thank you to Mrs. Vanni for coming into school on Wed. and doing a fabulous presentation on quilting for all of the third grade students. Her work is beautiful and she did a fantastic job explaining the history and importance of quilts and how they are made. Thank you so much!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

*Fri. 12/3: No School

*Mon. 12/6: Math: Ch. 5 Money Checkpoint (changed from Thurs. 12/2

*Fri. 12/10: Miss Galloway's Last Day

Spelling: List 10 Test

Math: 2's multiplication test

Reading: Wordmaster Meet #1

*Wed. 12/15: Bowling 9-11

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Reading: We will begin a new strategy focus as we learn about evaluating text and visualizing as we read. We will use the story Dogzilla as well as other novels and text as we apply these skills. We will also work on strategies from previous weeks.

Also, Mrs. Olsen's reading class will compete in their first "wordmaster" meet on December 10th.

*Spelling: We are on list 10: words with the vowel sound in "join". A pretest will be on Monday. Homework will be given Monday and due Friday. The final test will be on Friday.

*English: The students will continue to work on narrative writing, focusing on showing, not telling about their feelings, transitions, organization, and word choice. Ask them about their chosen topic!

*Science: We are working on ch 4: animal habitats and ecosystems.

*Social Studies: The students are learning about culture and immigration. A culture day project was given to the students this week. Their idea sheet is due Mon. 12/6. The presentations will be on Tues. 12/14. Please refer to the packet for more information. Please email or call with any questions! This is a great opportunity for students to share their culture with their classmates!

*Math: The students spent an extra day practicing counting back change, so our math checkpoint was moved to Mon. 12/6. We spent Thurs. reviewing for this graded review. We will begin ch. 5 Time on Tues. 12/7. We will also work on 2's multiplication next week. Expect a ch. 5 homework assignment as well as multiplication each night. The graded test for 2's multiplication will be on Fri. 12/10.

Thank you for checking out the blog this week. Stay warm this long weekend!

Mrs. Olsen and Miss Galloway