Month: September 2014
Scholastic Book Club
Hey all,
I have a class account through Scholastic and if you order using my class code we will get free books for the classroom. Sporadically they will receive the little newspaper with books in it, but you can order books through it any time. If you are interested then follow the directions below.
If This Is Your First Time Ordering Online:
– VISIT scholastic.com/readingclub
– ENTER the one-time Class Activation Code JDFBC
– SHOP from a carefully curated selection of the best books, value packs, and Storia eBooks
– SUBMIT your order and earn FREE Books for our classroom
– All book orders will be shipped to our classroom so we can celebrate the joy of reading together!
Week 3
Hello Families,
A quick note for this week
The loss of our Para-Educator Karen
You have received a CSS Boom about this but it is so important that you are informed of this development. The Special Education department has determined that we are over staffed (crazy) and they will be taking one of our Paras on Wednesday. Karen is so important to our school community and she is able to serve younger students so that our other Para, Kathy, is able to serve our older students. Her assistance is imperative to a positive classroom community. Even if your student is not directly served by a para-educator they indirectly benefit from their presence. We have decided as a community to email the people making this decision so that they may understand how devastating this would be to our school. Please take a moment to send an email to those people so they know how many voices oppose this decision. This is truly a crisis at our school. We would love for their inboxes to be full on Monday morning.
Go ahead and copy this text into your email and send it to the folks below:
carolesmith@pps.net
mpearson@pps.net
bregan@pps.net
pknowles@pps.net
radkins@pps.net
mmorton@pps.net
sbuel@pps.net
tkoehler@pps.net
gbelisle@pps.net
PIcture Day
Also you should know that picture day is Wednesday, September 24th. We are scheduled for the end of the day, so if your kiddo is anything like me when I was 8, you may want to send them with the shirt you want them to wear in their backpack and they can change just before the pictures. Although my third grade pic with the spaghetti stain on it is kind of cute. I am also told we will do them outside. So that is kind of exciting.
Also you will never get an envelope. In 2 or 3 weeks they will come home with proofs and then you can order them online, if you like them. I’m sure at some point there will be retakes but I have not heard about that yet.
Have a good week!
Week 3 Here We Go
Greetings from Room 25!
We had a great 2nd week. We managed to not melt in the heat, I keep telling myself I am going to miss this weather in a couple of months. Here are a few things that we are working on.
Storyline:
While our school wide focus is not technically a Storyline I still like to call it that because it takes the place of our Storyline time and it has such a wonderful connotation in our students mind. We are working on and thinking about becoming Critical Thinkers. In the next couple of weeks we will spend time defining the 5 tenants of Critical Thinking, thinking about what it looks like when we are thinking critically and what happens when we don’t think critically. We are using Starry Messenger, a picture book about Galileo, to help us think through Critical Thinking. At Back to School night on the 25th you will be able to see the start of our work this year. We have looked at some videos about how the bravery of Galileo to challenge assumptions has lead to so many cool discoveries today. If your family would like to, you can check out OMSI’s Star Parties . They allow people to look through a telescope at the very same sky as Galileo did over 300 years ago. I have been in the past and they are so fun!
Math:
Right now in math we are working on solidifying their addition and subtraction skills so that we can move on to the coolest part of 3rd grade (in my humble opinion) Multiplication! We are working hard on strategies to make addition and subtraction easy and quick. We are playing games, focusing on specific strategies and building good math habits for the future. If you are interested, you can check out Bridges family support at the Math Learning Center. It lets you know what is happening and allows you to see what we are doing in the classroom. There are specific pages called home connections and you can play games or just read explanations of what we are working on in class. We are currently in Unit One, but we will soon move onto Unit 2 and I will post the connection again when we move onto a new unit of study. One disclaimer that I want to write is that we don’t follow bridges exactly as it was written. We have been doing it for 4 years now and we have really focused our instruction on what we think is the most important, there is not enough time in 2 years to cover every single thing. That being said it’s all good stuff and it comes with directions so if your kiddo is like, I have never seen this before in my life, you can read together and know how to do it.
Lice Prevention
As you may have heard the year is just beginning and we have already had cases of lice in the 3rd grade. It is so important that you check your student and be diligent so we can wipe this out and not have to deal with it later in the year. We will have the school nurse, Cyndi, come to our class on Thursday to discuss the do’s and don’t of lice prevention. We definitely need more hooks on our closet doors so that people have room for their backpacks and room to put their coats inside their backpacks. If you, or someone you know, is handy with a drill let me know and I will get the hooks if you will put them up on our closet doors.
Unfortunately, the chemical treatments for lice are ineffective and really the only way to get rid of the little buggers is to comb them out. I know last year families used the service Lice to Know You and were very happy with their results. This is a frustrating problem for families to have and the disruption to your family life is…well I can’t think of a better word than sucky. But if we are all diligent we can have this be a problem of the past. Is your head itching yet?
In spite of my last post, I hope you have a great weekend and a lovely week 3
Allison
The First Week
We had a great first week! Transition to 3rd grade and all the new demands that being a “big kid” can bring, are tough but this class handled it like champs. I am so excited for the year and all the new stuff we will learn. If there is anything you want to know or you are wondering about please ask in the comments. Weeks are so full of great stuff that I often find myself at a loss for what to say in these newsletters. I will do my best to only email you once a week (sometimes bi-weekly). I know that you get inundated with emails from CSS. I really hope that you can find the time to read mine so that you can know all the important details.
All School Storyline
This year our all school storyline will be using the book The Starry Messenger. It is about the life of Galileo Galilei and how he spent his life using critical thinking skills. We will spend the whole year flexing our critical thinking muscles and looking at different ways to do that. We will focus on 1) Asking Questions 2) Challenging Assumptions 3) Thinking About Thinking 4) Seeking Evidence 5) Considering Other Ideas.
Worktime
In my classroom we spend a large portion of the day in something that I call Worktime. We have 3 different sections of Worktime. Storyline Worktime, is a chunk of time where we work on Storylines, writing and exploring our passions. Math Worktime, a time where we spend learning new skills, practicing old skills and looking for ways to put our learning into practice by following what interests us in Math. Daily 5, a time where we work on what makes us better readers and writers. Students spend time reading and writing what they believe are important texts as well as working with me individually and in small groups to improve on reading and writing skills. What all three times have in common is that it is time spent with a lot of choice about what they are learning. You will find me in front of the whole class for a small period of time just pointing out the nuts and bolts of the session. Showing them where to find supplies, reminding them of due dates or showing them examples of work. The rest of the time is spent with students making choices. They have certain assignments that must get done during the week, some easy and some more challenging. I meet with individuals and small groups teaching the necessary skills to complete the assignments. This model allows me to group kids based on their needs and appropriately challenge all students for the maximum amount of personal growth in all subjects. This freedom is amazing for some students and other students find it more challenging but by the end of the year all of them will be experts of managing their own worktime.
Volunteers
Volunteers are the heart and soul of our school. We are so fortunate to have so many parents willing and able to come into the classroom to help out. The way that I use volunteers is primarily in book groups and field trips. Book groups will start in January and they are a really fun way for students to get some small group attention with an adult and learn how to interact with a book. They are super fun, some say even more fun that the book group you might have with your own friends. I will start recruiting for Volunteers in December. Field trips come on an as needed basis. Our new Principal would like to minimize Field Trips with parent drivers. I am in favor of that change as those trips make me incredibly nervous (if not for the bleach I think I would be completely gray from field trips;). We will try our best to take Trimet and School Buses if possible.If you have an idea about how you want to contribute, please let me know.
Random Notes
If you have an extra fan around your house we would love to borrow it for a couple of weeks.
They are itching to have stuff for the invention center. Although what they were able to create with extra laminate alone was pretty impressive.
Ok that got long fast, sorry I promise to be more brief in the future and please let me know if there are specific things you want to hear about.
Allison
CSS 3rd Grade 