Mrs. Adkins’ Class

Third Grade Newsletter

Volume 7, Number 19                     sadkins@pennoyerschool.org                          March 20, 2009

Hello Parents! This is Miss Wierzgac writing to you! I have been teaching all day for the past two weeks now! My goodness, time seems to by flying by for me but I am definitely having a wonderful experience here at Pennoyer School! I absolutely love working with your children and developing good relationships with them! So, having that said, this past week was a bit mixed up. We had to change some things around for St. Patrick’s Day and because of the Variety Show that is taking place today! By the way, if your child came home trying to show you some Irish Dancing moves, it was because I used to Irish Dance with the McNulty School of Irish Dance and I wore my wig and showed them some cool moves! Aside from that, here’s what’s been happening in their different subjects:

Reading ~ Our story this week was a historical fiction story called, Boom Town. The story takes places in the colonial era and it’s about a family that moves to a frontier in California and creates some exciting changes! The story was quite long so we were not able to finish it during our reading time. It really seemed like all the children did a great job of finishing the story at home so, thank youJ. While reading the story, we really tried to pay attention to the sequence in which events happened. When we met in our centers this week, we focused on the idea of sequencing a bit more. In one of the centers, the students had to put a story in the correct order. They seemed to struggle with this concept so I decided to change it up a bit for the next day. When they did the sequencing again, I had them read a very short story using clues in the story to help them place the events in the right order. They did much better! In addition to this, when I got to meet with them one-on-one in the reading corner, we read some short stories that were informational nonfiction and had the same settings as our story in our reading book.

Language Arts ~ For our grammar this week, we focused on singular pronouns, plural pronouns and pronouns. The students worked on creating sentences that demonstrated the different kinds of pronouns. In order to this, they picked a card from a box that had several different cards in it. On the cards were things such as, singular pronoun, pronoun, plural pronoun, or examples like “they” “me” “you” etc. They then used construction paper to create sentences and draw a picture to go with it. They did great! Aside from this, during our writing time, we were really working on brainstorming for our Narrative writing that we will begin after spring break. In order to do this, we used different scents to help provoke memories. Each day we would smell two different kinds of scents. All of the kids had to write down any thoughts or memories that came to them when they took a sniff of each smell. Ask your child what kinds of unique scents they smelled this week!

Math ~ This week in math we did not have anyone pass the timed multiplication testL. However, there were some students who were very, very close! I keep telling them, “You’ll get it next time!” So, hopefully they can practice their flashcards over spring break and be ready to pass when they come back. They have had two months to learn their multiplication facts and it seems as though some of them are not taking time to study their flashcards at home. Make sure that your child is practicingJ.  Aside from this, we finished up chapter 20 this week and the students took their test on Thursday. I am hopeful that they will all do well. They seemed as though they really understood the material. Also, since our schedule has been a bit goofy, we had some time in the afternoon on Thursday to play a multiplication review game. It was very fun! We got the chance to change things up a bit and we went down into the multi purpose room. All of the children were VERY excited and VERY engaged! They were all shouting and cheering! It was super fun! Ask your child about the game and how they enjoyed it! 

Science ~ In science this week, we have continued to learn about heat by investigating and reading through the next section in our chapter. All of the students were able to conduct and experiment to figure out what kinds of materials get hot. We used typical household utensils such as a wooden spoon, metal spoon, plastic spoon and several different cups. We had to be very careful because we were placing hot water in the cups and the students all had to touch the different spoons and cups to compare them. Luckily, they all did a great job of being safe and listening to the directions! In addition to this, we read through our second section and our vocabulary for this week was conduction, conductor and insulator. The students were able to connect the words really well with the experiment and identify the different materials that we used as either a good conductor or an insulator.

Social Studies ~ This past week in social studies we read about a fictional character such as Robinson Crusoe and how he created a new community.  We learned that geographic locations affect the way people live.  We saw pictures on how Crusoe modified the physical environment so he could survive.  Your child created a map which showed Crusoe’s island.  Ask your child about this activity.  Regarding our biographies, we read about Joan of Arc and her courage that helped her take on England and saving the King of France.  Finally, please look for your invitation regarding the Wax Museum.  We hope you could come and see the hard work the 3rd graders have done. 

Other Areas of Interest:

• Today is the last day of the third quarter.  Any corrected work must be turned in by Tuesday, March 31 at the latest.  Report cards will go home on Friday, April 3.
• The final Book-It is due after spring break on Tuesday, March 31.  We have had 100% participation in this program so far this year, and I hope we can keep it up for our final month.  They should have lots of time for reading over spring break!
• Remember to come to our Wax Museum if you can on Friday, April 3.  Please take time over spring break to help your child settle on an appropriate outfit to wear for this special event.

That’s it for now!  It looks like we are in for beautiful weather this weekend and next week during our spring break.  Yay!  It sounds like some of you are planning to travel, so please be careful out there, especially if you are planning a trip to Mexico.  We wish you all a wonderful weekend and spring break, and remember to keep your child reading!

Miss Sarah Wierzgac

Mrs. Sarah Adkins

Third Grade Newsletter

Volume 7, Number 18                  sadkins@pennoyerschool.org                 March 13, 2009

Hello Parents!  What a relief for all of us that the ISAT tests are over!  Yay!  We tend to have a more relaxed feeling in school now that these high stakes tests are over, especially in math.  I would like to thank all of you for getting your children here and on time for each day of testing.  It is so nice to not have to deal with any make-up tests in our class!  Hopefully the students used their many strategies that they have learned this year and exceeded the state’s standards.  Miss Wierzgac is now teaching the full day, and she has been doing a great job.  I will hand the rest of this Newsletter over to her.  Here’s what’s been happening:

Reading ~ Our story this week was a realistic fiction story called My Very Own Room. Our focus while reading this story was to monitor our comprehension by making predictions and reading to see if they were right. When I met with each group in our centers on Tuesday, we used our story to continue with the idea of making predictions. Now, even though they already knew what was going to happen, and they finished the story, I decided to ask the children to make predictions about how the story could continue and what could happen to the girl now that she has her very own room. So, while we were talking about this, we also discussed the importance of imagery and how it helps us understand the reading. If the illustrations weren’t there, could you create an image in your mind to help you? Next time you and your child are reading at home, try covering the images in the book and begin reading. Take the paper off as you go to see if the images, which your child created in their mind, were similar to the ones in the book!

Language Arts ~ The grammar lesson this week dealt with comparing words, words that end in –er or -est.  The kids each created a mini book using words and pictures in magazines, and each page had to have at least one –er or –est word in it.  The children also created a story during their reading centers using contractions. Aside from this, we have begun a new topic in writing. We are now talking about Narrative writing and we have been brainstorming in different ways to provoke memories. Narrative writing can be a bit tricky. The children should think about their life and choose an experience or a story to write that they remember. Most of the time, the kids will tell me stories randomly and they start off by saying, “When I was a baby I remember….” I usually tell them that they really can’t remember stuff from when they were a baby, someone told them that story. So, the activities that we have been doing and will be doing will help them think of times in their life that they ACTUALLY remember! J

Math ~ Congratulations to Matthew for successfully completing his timed multiplication test this week! He completed 100 problems in 5 minutes. The rest of the children in the class keep getting super close!! I bet next week we will see a few more names on here! In math this week, we continued a chapter that we started prior to the ISAT tests. We are working on chapter 20, which is mostly about decimals. We did different activities such as writing decimals that are greater than one, deciding whether an answer is reasonable or not and comparing and ordering fractions and decimals. Ask your child about the different ways that we explored these concepts! Also, we left our classroom and did something extra special today!

Science ~ We started our new chapter on Heat. To start off the week we investigated the idea of how to get thermal energy. Your children used simple everyday items such as buttons, wool, paper, and pennies to figure out how thermal energy works.  Try this at home! Ask your child if they can show you what they learned from how they did their experiment! In addition to this, we read through our first section of the chapter and covered three new vocabulary words, thermal energy, friction and heat. Most of the children thought that the words were easy! That’s good! Next week we will be conducting an experiment and reading the second section of the chapter.

Social Studies ~ This past week in social studies class we read and discussed different biographies about many historical figures.  Some figures we read and talked about were John Glenn (astronaut) and Betsy Ross (designed the first American Flag).  We will continue next week with different literatures on famous historical figures.  Be sure to ask your child about this.  Your child has turned in the slip declaring who he/she will be for the Wax Museum.  As a reminder, the biography report is due on March 30th.  If your child should finish the report earlier, they could hand it in immediately.  The Wax Museum is on April 2nd and April 3rd.  You will be able to come April 3rd anytime between 1:00 – 2:20.  Please make sure your child is well prepared for the museum with his/her costumes and props.  If you are not sure about something, feel free to email me at rmichaels@pennoyerschool.org. 

Other Areas of Interest:

• The last day of the third quarter is next Friday, March 20.  Since that is also the last day before spring break, report cards will not go home until Friday, April 3.

That’s it for now!  It looks like we are in for a warming trend in this weather, thank goodness.  Spring fever is in the air!  Please remember to have your child practice their multiplication flash cards regularly and they should be reading every night.  We wish you all a wonderful weekend, and remember to keep your child reading!

Miss Sarah Wierzgac

Mrs. Sarah Adkins