BURR! It's Cold Outside!

Old Man Winter decided to make his appearance early this week!  Wow!  It is chilly!  Just a quick reminder to make sure students are dressed appropriately for this weather, especially for the mornings before school.  I have had some students come without coats this week, and I have had to hunt down extra coats or things for them to wear.  Please help them be responsible as well as warm enough outside for the upcoming weather.  I also suggested to the students to throw an extra pair of socks in their bag in case the ones they are wearing end up getting wet.  We had a lot of wet socks in 3B yesterday so having extra socks and gloves/mittens is a good idea.

Some students have turned in their interviews and research for our first Inquiry Projects. Thank you so much for being responsible.   Information about the project and your child's part of the project were sent home on Tuesday.  Please remember to help your 3B student complete his/her portion of the project as they are due tomorrow, Friday, November 11th.  We will then start putting together the different information gathered and start developing our small group presentations.  Students are very excited about this type of learning!    I am anxious to see what they come up with for presentations.

"Busy" is a perfect word to describe 3B lately.  We are working through a variety of activities, and the days are flying by.  Students are amazed when I say it is time for lunch, and they haven't even realized how quickly the morning has gone by!  It is wonderful!

In math we started our new unit on measurement. Students have been introduced to measuring to the nearest half, whole, and quarter of an inch, as well as by foot and yard.  We also ventured into the metric system and have looked at millimeters, centimeters, and meters.  They have been measuring all over the room and having a great time doing it!  Next week we will start looking into perimeter and area as well as continuing to review measurement. Even though we may not be working on addition and subtraction, it is a good idea to keep reviewing basic facts at home.  Students need that constant review to get them down quickly.

Last week I showed the students how our new literacy series, Lead 21, has a "chat area" in which I can post a question or comment and the students can respond with one another via the computer.  They thought they were so cool and some said they felt like they were on Facebook.  :)  Well, it is not Facebook but it is a way I will start posting thoughts and questions for students to think about and respond to.  Information will be sent tomorrow about how to log in to Lead 21 so your child can continue to play our vocabulary games, reread material, and start "chatting" with me via the computer.  If your child does not have the Internet at home, don't worry.  I am going to make arrangements for those students to stop in in the morning and jump on a computer either in the classroom or our Discovery Center.  We will work that out so that no one is left out or can't utilize the technology that comes with our literacy series.

Just a reminder that we have a small quiz over the oceans and continents tomorrow.  A note and study sheet was sent home yesterday, on Wednesday, with information.  Please review the oceans and continents with your child (even though I think they know them very well) so they are ready for the quick quiz on Friday.

I hope everyone is handling the homework that is being sent home.  As I told parents at conferences, homework will be sent home more often than it was in the first quarter.  While it is often small and not too time consuming, some activities that are going to start next week take a little more time.  Continue to help build that responsibility in your child encouraging them to get any homework done.  I appreciate your help and support!

Last comment is about book orders.  Last week I sent in the book orders that students recently returned.  While I usually do them online so they get sent to us quicker, I had to mail these orders in due to the fact that many checks were made out to Scholastic and not me.  That is fine, it just makes it so I can't order online.  Please remember that it is easier to write the check to me as I use my credit card to order the books online so they arrive quicker.  Any questions, feel free to contact me.  Hopefully the books will be here by the end of next week as it takes longer with mail in orders.

Have a super week and stay warm!

Great Conferences!

Thank you so much to everyone for making it to conferences! It was wonderful to touch base with everyone and continue to build that home to school connection! Remember that if you ever have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me through email or a phone call.

Burr....it is suddenly very cold outside! I think we were spoiled by the warm weather and now fall/winter is fast approaching. Please remember to have your child come to school dressed accordingly as many are coming with not enough layers and freezing outside before school starts. Hats and mittens now would be a great thing as well as many are saying their hands or faces are chilly! I always hate to talk about this topic as I hate winter, but I guess we have to deal with it living in Iowa!

After a nice three day break and Halloween thrown in there we are back at it! Hopefully you all had a nice break. I jetted to New York City for three days with my family and had a wonderful time....even if it did snow on us Saturday. Luckily they only had 2-3 inches where we were and it was melted by Sunday morning so we could still take advantage of the sites of the city. We had a super time, and I hope your 3B son or daughter enjoyed eating their big lolly from Dylan's Candy Store. Yumm!

I will be sending home your child's unit 2 math assessment next Monday as there are a few yet to finish. We are jumping into measurement this week and will be on that topic for a while. We made our own class measurement tool called a "Bruno" so we can understand the reason to have standard types of measurement. The students used their "Bruno" to measure various things in the classroom and had a super time with it!

If you haven't noticed, there has been a little more homework sent home this week. I hope the students can get used to it because it probably will continue. While most are not big task to complete, there will be a larger activity sent home next Monday that connects to at home reading. I talked to many parents about this at conferences and stated that it would be sent home this week. I have decided to start it next week so look for that information next Monday or Tuesday.

Have a great week!