Week of 2/19

Odds and Ends:

*Thank you to the wonderful parents who made our Valentine's party so much fun! The students enjoyed all of the treats and games. Happy Valentine's Day to all!
Here's my little Valentine, Liam!

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

* Mon. 2/18:  No School President's Day

*Wed. 2/19: Prefix/Suffix Graded Review
Math: Ch. 16 and ch. 22 Graded Review
Reading: Final non fiction power point presentations due

*Thurs. 2/21: Spring Picture Day

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We have been spending a lot of time in the computer lab learning all about powerpoint, as we turn our non fiction research into a final presentation. The presentation will be due on Wed. 2/20.

* English: We are finishing up our prefix/suffix unit. The graded review will be on Wed. 2/20. Please have your child study the packet and review sheet to help them prepare. They will need to know the meanings of the prefixes and suffixes in the packet, as well as identify prefix, suffix, and root word in a word.

* Spelling: We will take another week off from spelling lists as we work on prefix suffix.

*Social Studies: Next unit: Chicago!

*Science: We are working on ch 14 as we focus on heat, light, and sound.

*Math: We will be reviewing ch. 16 and ch. 22. The following concepts will be tested on: solid figures, faces/edges/vertices (corners) on solid figures, perimeter, area, and volume. The test will be on Wed. 2/20. Look for a study guide that was sent home Friday.
The next unit will be ch. 7 probability.

Have a great, long weekend!

Mrs. Olsen

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

We had a blast at the party!!! Thank you to all of the parents who helped or sent in food and drinks. We heart our class!

The delicious and beautiful heart and red themed snack! Yummy! 

Week of 2/11

Odds and Ends:

*Valentine's Day Party: Thanks to many of our helpful parents, we have a great party lined up for Thurs. 2/14. The party will begin at 1:30 and go until 2:20, when we get ready for dismissal. If your child chooses to pass out valentines, please have one for each student in the class. We have 25 students. To make distributing the valentines much easier, please have your child sign only their name and please  do not write the name of each of their classmates on the card. Thank you!

*Scholastic Book Order: If you would like to order any books, please have your order turned into the classroom or online by Fri. 2/15.

*Water.org Donation: I am so proud to say we collected and donated $100 to water.org. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this worthy cause. Now several people will have access to clean water for life thanks to our help!

*PBIS: PBIS is our positive behavior incentive system that we work on at school. We practice being safe, responsible, and respectful each and every day. Please visit our social work website created by Mrs. Amedeo for great tips about PBIS behavior!  Click here to check it out:
 http://amedeosocialstars.blogspot.com

UPCOMING EVENTS:

*Tues. 2/12: Social Studies: Ch 3 Test
Dental Hygiene Presentation for Dental Hygiene Month

*Thurs. 2/14: Valentine's Day Party

*Fri. 2/15: Scholastic Book Order Due

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Reading: We will be wrapping up our fiction guided reading group. We will continue reviewing non fiction text features and reading non fiction books as part of a research project. We will work in the computer lab as on creating a finished project to share with our class about our research.

*English: We will continue to focus on our prefix and suffix unit. Coming up soon...adjectives and expository/informative writing.

*Spelling: There will be no list this week as we focus on our prefix and suffix unit.

*Science: We will work on ch. 14: heat, light, and sound.

*Social Studies: The students did an outstanding job on their culture day projects! Thank you for all of the hard work at home to complete this activity! I remember doing the same activity when I was in grade school and one of my fondest memories is interviewing my grandpa and having him get down a box of dusty old photographs. He was so proud of telling me about his history and sharing memories through pictures. He told many stories my mom and aunts had never even heard! I hope this activity was a bonding experience that your child will cherish forever.  Our ch. 3 test will be on Tues. 2/12. A study guide was sent home this week.

*Math: We are moving right through geometry. We will work on ch. 16 and 22 together as we learn about solid figures, perimeter, area, and volume. It will be a combined test that is tentatively scheduled for the week of Feb. 19th. More information will be sent home as the date approaches.

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Olsen

Matter Matters

The students enjoyed our in class field trip as a scientist from High Touch High Tech visited our classroom and talked to us about matter. We had so much fun doing our experiments together!

Spelling Bee

The students enjoyed watching the grade level spelling bee on Monday, January 28th. We were so proud of our classroom spelling bee winners, Matei and Brendan. Way to go!

All of the 3rd grade spelling bee contestants. 

They picked number 1 and 2 and were the first 2 spellers in the bee. 

Anxiously awaiting the start of the spelling bee. 

Coming to America!

The students were able to experience what it was like to immigrate to America in the early 1900's with a fun, interactive activity during social studies.

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