Christmas

Hi parents! As a class, we decided to do a Secret Santa project this year. This week, students will draw names. Then, on Christmas week (December 12 - 16) each student will bring a small gift each day for the student they chose. Gifts do not have to elaborate - it can be a candy bar, bag of chips, or small toy (i.e. yo-yos, bouncy balls, etc). It's a fun activity and the kids are excited about being sneaky! On the Friday before Christmas break, the secret Santas will be revealed.

If you have any questions about this activity, please let me know!

Also, don't forget that Friday students need a coffee mug / teacup with their name on it and 2 boxes of cookies for the tea party. Thank you!

Friday's Tea Party

Hi parents! This Friday, we will be having a British-style tea party at BDS. I am so excited as I love tea and cannot wait to share the tradition with the students. Here is what the third grade students need to bring:

Each student needs to bring a mug / teacup with his or her name on it. Tea is just not the same in a plastic cup!

Our class is bringing biscuits (cookies). I would like each student to bring a couple of boxes of British-style cookies (shortbread, digestives, ginger snaps, jam-filled). You can find these types of cookies at Corner Market, Walmart, and Target. Or, you are welcome to bake something if you like. Basically, they can bring any fancy cookie, just not chocolate chip, Oreo, etc. We want them to try new things!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch! Friday is going to be so much fun!

Newsletter November 28 - December 2

Hi parents! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We have only 2 weeks left of the Shakespeare unit, and we have something exciting things planned for the students. We are planning to have tea party on Friday; I will email and create a blog post either Sunday or Monday to let you know what our class is bringing.

I will also be sending home information about the family tree project. It will not be due until the last week of the unit.

News to Know

• Will Brett is this week's snack helper. Luke Weathersby is next week's helper.
• Students need to bring their shoe boxes by Tuesday, if they haven't already done so.

Language Arts

We will continue reading The Shakespeare Stealer. We will also begin our writing project for this unit, which will require students to describe an object they love. I will send home more details about this project on Monday or Tuesday. We will also continue discussing verbs, particularly subject-verb agreement. In centers, we will make rapiers and try to write as quickly as we can, as the protagonist of our story has to write quickly. We will also take a practice comprehension test together and discuss how to answer questions with details from the story.

Math

We will continue Topic 7 this week. This topic focuses on division as a concept, not division facts yet. We will be exploring division from several angles. It is a short topic and we will finish on Thursday. I will send home study guides on Thursday, we will review on Friday, and take a test on Monday. I do not normally give Monday tests, but I am hoping to get through Topic 8 before Christmas. That way the students will be finished with division and can start on something new when we come back from break.

Conceptual

On Monday, we will be making our quills and hornbooks. We will be using our shoeboxes on Tuesday to design our own playhouses. This week we will also learn about sonnets, Shakespeare's clever creation of words, and his use of figurative language.

Science / Social Studies

We will continue our topic of forces shape the land and experiment with weathering and erosion this week. We will also work on our class timeline.

Newsletter November 21 - 22

Hi parents! I hope that everyone has had a nice weekend. We started our Shakespeare unit last week and it's off to a great start. The hallway looks wonderful - thanks to the parents who helped put it together. The kids seem eager to learn about Shakespeare. We also had our first play performance this week; the kids were excellent and I cannot wait to see the rest.

We have a fun two days planned this week before we begin our holiday. We will be doing some fun Thanksgiving activities and crafts. We will be discussing the history of Thanksgiving and things for which we are thankful.

For this unit, students will be completing a family tree project at home. I will be sending home more information on the project, but kids may want to talk to some relatives this week while they are visiting. While the trees do not have to go back further than grandparents, I have encouraged the children to see how far back they can go.

Please remember to send a shoebox with your child after Thanksgiving. We will be doing a project.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am thankful for all of my students!

Newsletter November 14 - 18

This week we begin our last full unit before the Christmas holidays. I cannot say much about the unit yet, but we have some great things planned for the students. This unit is one of my personal interests, and I cannot wait to share it with the kids.

Thank you to all of the parents who helped out during the Medieval unit. It was one of the best units we've had at BDS and I cannot thank everyone enough for being so wonderful. The teachers and parents all worked hard to make this unit so fun, and all of the kids had a great time and learned a lot.

News to Know

• The snack schedule has been updated. Please check it and make a note of your child's assigned week.
• This week's snack helper is Luke Antinnes. We do not have a helper for the week of Thanksgiving as we'll only be at school for Monday and Tuesday and should have enough leftovers.
• For our centers on Wednesday, students need to bring pictures of themselves when they were younger and current pictures. We will be using different verb tenses to describe ourselves. Please send pictures that you do not mind being glued to card stock.

Language Arts

We will begin reading our new book. Students will need to read chapter 5 for homework on Tuesday night. We will begin our descriptive writing project for the unit. We will also be discussing verb tenses and have a grammar quiz on action verbs and verb tense on Thursday.

Math

We will wrap up Topic 6 this week and take a quiz on Thursday. We will begin division on Friday. Students have now worked through all 12 time tables and should be studying them at home each night. It is important that students master their time tables for division and 2-digit multiplication.

Conceptual

We will take a pretest this week and get familiar with our topic of study. There are some exciting things planned for this week.

Science

We will continue discussing how forces shape the earth. This week we will be discussing and experimenting with weathering and erosion.

Newsletter November 7 - 11

Wow! It's hard to believe the third unit is almost over and the holiday season is about to begin. This year is flying by! I hope that everyone has had a great weekend.

As we close out this unit, I want to thank you all for all your help and sending materials. This has been one of our best units and the kids have been so excited to learn. Thank you for all that you do!

News to Know

• Emmy is this week's snack helper. Luke Antinnes will be next week's helper.
• If you would like me to order you a book for the next unit, please send $7. I will be ordering the books on Tuesday.
• On Friday, students will be allowed to wear their favorite team jersey / t-shirt.

Language Arts

We will finish reading The Whipping Boy and take a test on Friday. We will continue discussing verbs and verb tense this week. We will also be writing in our journals about Medieval life.

Math

We will start Topic 6 on Monday. We will be learning the rest of our times tables for this topic. Please remind your child to study his/her times tables each night. It is important that facts are memorized now, as it will be helpful when we do 2-digit multiplication later in the year.

Conceptual

We will be closing out our Medieval unit this week. Mr. Trent has some great things planned!

Science / Social Studies

We will begin learning about different landforms this week and discussing the major landforms in the United States. We will have a short landforms quiz on Wednesday and a quiz on the continents and oceans on Thursday. Study guides will be sent home.