Dinner and a Movie

I wanted to congratulate those students who returned their Book-It every month!  Great job of reading 3B!   To celebrate, those students who made the goal every month will eat their lunch in the classroom with me while we enjoy a short movie together.  I will also have a little something extra for dessert for these students!   We will have our "Dinner and a Movie" this Friday!

So congratulations to those students who met their reading goal every month!  I am very proud of you!

Camp Read S'more

Just a reminder about the upcoming "Camp Read S'more" this Friday, May 23, 2014.  I have about 8-10 parents signed up to come in and read with their 3B student.  If you are unable to make it, your child will be partnered up with someone else who does not have a parent volunteer available.  We will make it work for everyone.  If you have not returned your sheet but plan to attend, please let me know.

Camp Read S'more will be held from 2:30-3:00 at school.  Please come to your child's classroom.

Hope to see you Friday!

Field Trip is Fast Approaching!

Our field trip to see the eagles and toy museum is fast approaching.  Hard to believe it is the end of the month next week.  Our trip is planned for Friday, May 30th.  Information will be sent home this Wednesday with everything parents and students need to know.  Look for it as it as lots of facts, details, etc.

Thank you again for all the parents who volunteered to chaperone.  I was saddened that I could only take five of you, but I was also touched by how many volunteered to help out.  Thanks again.  Those parents who are attending should have received a letter last week from me confirming their name was drawn to go.  If you were a parent selected to go but can not make it, please let me know ASAP so that I can find a replacement.

Lark Toy Museum 

Sack lunches from school have been ordered for those parents who selected that method for lunch that day. Students can not change their minds after this point so whatever the parent selected (sack lunch from home or from school) is what each student must stick with.  We had to turn in our school order last Friday so there can not be any more changes as far as lunches go.

Reminder (and the notes on Wednesday will review this) that we plan to leave early that morning (around 7:45 AM) and return around 3:15 PM.  It is important that if a students rides a bus to school normally in the moorings, he/she needs an alternative way to get to school so that we can dismiss at the necessary time.  We will NOT be waiting for students that are late.

I am excited about the trip as it is usually a great time!

Look for important papers this Wednesday with details.  Any questions, feel free to call or email me.

Field Trip Chaperones - Decision Tomorrow!

All the forms for interested parents wanting to help chaperone our field trip at the end of the month were due today!  All I can say is "Wow!".  Thank you so much for the support as there are 12 parents who would like to help out that day!  Super!

Sadly, we can only take 4 of you (possibly 5).  So to keep it fair, I will be putting all names of parents interested in going in a hat tomorrow and drawing the lucky 4-5.  That seems to be the best way to approach making the decision.  We have had to do this in the past.  I wish I could take everyone along but that just won't be allowed!

Thanks to all who volunteered!  Information will be sent home tomorrow on the names that were drawn to go along.

Heroes……Special Guest

The students are really enjoying our current literacy theme on heroes!  The stories are engaging, and the  we can't seem to get enough.  I love hearing the students beg to continue reading when I say that it is time to stop!!!!! We have read aloud heroes in stories, local heroes, and heroes in myths.

One of the heroes in our readings last week was Sadako.  She was a little girl in Japan who got leukemia from the Atomic Bomb and tried to make 1000 paper cranes before she died.  The students were introduced to her, curious about her, so I decided to also read the chapter book titled Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. It was a wonderful yet sad story about hope and belief.

One of our students, Elyse, was talking about Sadako at home with her family.  Elyse's aunt, Brenda, recently beat cancer (yeah Brenda!).  Brenda was given a 1000 paper cranes from her sister in law who is originally from Japan in the tradition of hope and positive thoughts. She contacted me and was gracious enough to bring in her 1000 paper cranes today to share with the class!  They are beautiful!

Thanks Brenda and Elyse for sharing about your fight with cancer and your 1000 paper cranes!!!!  We all decided that Brenda was a hero to us as well!!!!

Arbor Day…Big Success!

Strange as it was with the weather to start the day off, the 3rd graders throughout the district did enjoy a fun afternoon at Vernon Springs in celebration of Arbor Day.  Of course the morning was crazy as the school district had a 2 hour late start due to fog (We can never catch a break in NE Iowa when it comes to weather can we?).  Even with the late start, the weather turned great, students enjoyed the stations at the Nature Center learning about different aspects of our earth, and hopefully got their new trees home safe and sound.

Thank you to Shannon Hurd and the Howard County Conservation team for organizing and planning such a great afternoon.  Thank you to all the volunteers as well who share their knowledge with the students!

Here are a few pictures from some of our stations.  Students learned about tree identification from Jed, plants in the wild from Connie, and about how to plant their new tree for Arbor Day.  Other stations, not shown, were animals of Iowa and the watershed areas around Cresco.

Cadet Store is Open for Business!

The students finally got to spend some of their "Cadet Dollars for Character"!  They were so excited as we were suppose to go "shopping" a week ago but the store was not ready for business.  Well, last Friday it finally opened and the students could not spend their money fast enough!  I am sure many of the parents saw the fun items students purchased and brought home!

Students will continue to earn Cadet Dollars when they are showing good character and making good choices.  This activity teaches students a lot about having good character, but also about managing their money, saving vs spending, planning, and being responsible not to misplace their money as they have to keep it in a safe place.  There is also a ton of math involved with this when the students go to the store and determine if they have enough money, how much more they will need, and what do they have left! Great activity all around for the students!

We will be heading back to the Cadet Store this Friday and once or twice more before the end of the year!  Keep earning those Cadet Dollars 3B!!!

Statue of Liberty????

I wanted to share this cute picture of my students with their "Statue of Liberty" crowns on and their paper torches.  The crowns were gifts I brought back for them from my recent trip to New York City and the Statue of Liberty.  They thought we should take a class picture so they created their own torches quickly.  This bunch just makes me smile!

Go the Distance Day!

We finally had some sunshine and nice weather to enjoy time outside, which was perfect as it was "Go the Distance Day".  This is a time where students, staff, and faculty are suppose to take 30 minutes out of their day to go for a walk, run, work out, or just get moving!  We all want to live a healthier life right?  We enjoyed our time over at the high school track!  We "went the distance"!