Hopefully you received your child's report card yesterday. They were sent home in an envelope that required parent's signature. If you have not seen your child's report card, please ask him/her for it. I would also like all envelopes with signatures returned by this Friday! Remember that if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to call or email me. I did take some time to go over report cards (scoring, literacy, math, etc.) with the students so that they understood what the report card stated about them. Hopefully there were no surprises for the students.
Last week I introduced a new online program that can be used to create digital movies and video. It is a program called Animoto, and a letter was sent home to all parents explaining the program and how to use it. I also sent home my login name and password for the students to create their own videos at home through my account. We used the program in our literacy curriculum to create digital video about our theme of science and sports. The students LOVED the program so much, and it is so easy, that I see many students are making their own videos at home! Excellent! I will be sharing the Animoto videos via my blog page when they are all completed. If you can't wait, have your child log in to my account and have them show you their creations! Lots of great learning and application from our literacy reading to create a visual presentation!
3B is lucky to have a JTerm student from Luther this month. Miss Ogden joined us yesterday and will be with us throughout the month observing and starting to work with students. I have asked that she create a letter to you, the parents, introducing herself and explaining why she is here so I will not go into much. I just wanted to welcome her and be sure you knew about her if your 3B child has mentioned it at home.
Remember that if you did not return your December Book-It calendar to do so. They were due last Friday. A new calendar for January was sent home last week. The required time has gone up each month so keep reading!
We have started our new literacy theme about communities and geography. It goes nicely with the social studies studies unit we just completed so students are grasping the concepts and vocabulary very well. In writing, we are finishing up some letters to our pen pals, doing a creative writing activity with similes about our family members (look out!), and will be moving into writing realistic fiction pieces that focus on word choice and organization. We have also started our new science unit titled Force and Motion. This also is good transition from our last literacy theme of science and sports. (Isn't it nice how everything blends together???? :) The students loved the start of our science unit as they had a chance to play with toys and talk about how they work. Super fun!
Enjoy the sunshine and gorgeous day today. I hear cold weather is coming, but we really can't complain can we? It is January. Have a great week!
