Mrs. Adkins’ Class

Third Grade Newsletter

Volume 7, Number 23                    sadkins@pennoyerschool.org                          April 24, 2009

Hello Parents!  Well, I would like to announce that I am finishing my time here at Pennoyer School and next week will be my last week! I will be leaving on Thursday, April 30, 2009. I will then be graduating from Concordia University Chicago on May 2^nd 2009. My degree is in Elementary Education with an Art Specialty and Middle School Endorsement. As much as I am happy that I am finishing my degree, I am very sad that I am leaving Pennoyer School! I had an AWESOME time here at Pennoyer and I will DEFINITELY miss all of the kids in this class!! I plan on coming back and visiting during different times before the end of the year! I also want to show all of them pictures from my wedding! So, since I am finishing here soon, I am lessoning my teaching time and Mrs. Adkins is taking back some of the teaching. So, her voice and mine are both in this newsletter! Here is what has been happening this week:

Reading ~ In reading this week, we read an informational nonfiction story called, Animal Homes.  This story talked about several different animals and their homes and how they construct their homes. While reading, the skill that we focused on was description. All of the students filled out a description chart that went along with their story. Doing this helps students comprehend and summarize the story. While in their centers, the students worked on this skill as well as details that are in stories. During our small group time, we read some other stories that were related to the reading. It was great to see that while we were reading the other stories; some of the students were recalling details or information from our text book reading. They always do such a good job over there!

Language Arts ~ Our grammar this week focused on contractions and apostrophes. However, we also focused on identifying synonyms, antonyms and analogies. During our literacy centers we had the art center set up with lap tops! What they did first was work together to figure and practice some different analogies. Then they paired up and played several different games on the lap tops that dealt with analogies! They all had a great time at that center!  Aside from this, during our writing time this week, all of the children where able to finish their final draft of their Narrative writing! They all did a great job; very good stories!! I have graded all of their papers and they will be going home with them next week instead of this week. We are doing this because we decided that it would be fun to share all of the stories in class today and MondayJ Be sure to ask your child how they did on the presentation of their story.

Math ~ It was unfortunate that no one passed their timed test this week! Again, most of them are SO close! I bet we will have some individuals pass next week! Some of the students keep saying to me, “Mrs. Wierzgac, I’m going to pass today, I know it!” So, I am hopeful for them, they seem to be confident and encouraging themselves to pass, which is good! All of the kids should be practicing their multiplication facts at home so they can memorize each fact! Aside from this, during the week we mostly talked about using different ways to divide and we worked on word problems. We did some fun activities this week and the kids were really exacted on Wednesday! We did a crazy activity so be sure to ask about it!  Their chapter 10 test on division will be next week on Thursday.

Science ~ I (Mrs. A) introduced the bridge project to the kids this week!  Hopefully you got the letter I sent home on Monday.  The kids have three weeks to get this bridge done, and they will need to meet outside of school with their partner to complete it.  Bridges are due Wednesday, May 15.  I told the kids that they will need some help from parents (driving places, buying materials, possibly using power tools) but that the majority of the work needs to be done by them.  Please do not do this project for your child as that will rob them of this unique opportunity to create something themselves with a friend.  Please contact me if you have any questions.  The kids gave me their partners yesterday, and they spent time in class brainstorming ideas for their bridges.

Social Studies ~ This past week we celebrated Earth Day.  Your child participated in many hands-on-activities which enhanced learning.  Your child created mini tree books with information they were required to collect from home on a state tree.  Also, we held class for one hour without using any electricity.  Finally, we went outside to clean up the playground and field area.  The 3rd graders worked very hard this week and were engaged with real-life conversations and exciting practices that have motivated them to care for the earth.  The students of Pennoyer did a fantastic job this week in celebrating Earth Day.  I hope that you continue to reuse, reduce, and recycle.

Other Areas of Interest:

• Next Friday, May 1, progress reports will go home for the fourth quarter.  Your child will receive one if they are earning a grade less than a C- in any subject.  Please look for this next week, sign, and return to school as soon as possible.
• I want to thank all of you for your kind words and thoughts about my car accident I was involved in last week.  My car is totaled, but everyone walked away, fortunately.  My daughters were in the car with me, but they were unharmed and it became more of an adventure for them if anything.  I was awfully sore and bruised up from the air bag last weekend, but I feel much better now.  It was a relief for me to know that Miss Wierzgac was here taking care of things for me.  It was such a nice feeling to come back to school on Monday to find so many concerned people and the lovely card Miss Wierzgac and the kids put together for me.  Anyone know someone who is trying to sell a car? J

That’s it for now!  Thank goodness the weather is finally turning warm!  I hope you are able to enjoy the good weather with your families this weekend.  We teachers are learning about the new Pennoyer web site this afternoon, so that should be up and running shortly.  I am excited!  We are all sad that Miss Wierzgac’s time with us is coming to an end, and we will miss her dearly.  Her creativity and love for the children has been appreciated by all of us.  We wish you all a wonderful weekend and remember to keep your child reading!

Miss Sarah Wierzgac

Mrs. Sarah Adkins

Third Grade Newsletter

Volume 7, Number 21                     sadkins@pennoyerschool.org                          April 9, 2009

Hello Parents!  This was a shortened week! Since Good Friday is tomorrow, the school is closed. However, remember that school WILL be in session on MondayJ. Earlier in the week on Tuesday, Pennoyer School had the gymnasium open to the public for voting. They utilized the playground blacktop as parking space for the public. We had indoor recess all day on Tuesday. It was funny because I don’t think that some of the kids knew about it and so when they looked outside and saw the cars they were shocked. They said things like, “What!? There are cars on our playground!” I got a kick out of it! So, except for all the fantastic learning (Yay!) not too many other exciting things happened this week. But here’s what’s been going on:

Reading ~ Our story this week was a nonfiction article called, A Carousel of Dreams. It was a good story to relate to the kids because the children in the story were around their age and it talked about carousels, which most kids are familiar with. We had a shortened week, so we were only able to have two days for our literacy centers instead of our usual three.  When we were in our centers I had some good discussions with the students about fact and opinion, which is what our focus was for our reading. For some of the groups, I had them look through their book and find sentences from the story that are either a fact or an opinion. There were a lot of facts in this last story that we read! Also, it was funny, while we were talking in the reading corner; I had asked the students, “Wouldn’t it be cool to draw a design for a carousel!” And a lot of them said no! Instead, most of them thought it would be a better idea to design images for a roller coaster!

Language Arts ~ This week in grammar we focused on possessive pronouns.  During our literacy centers, we worked on this at the back table in addition to understanding apostrophes. I placed some newspaper and construction paper at the back table and had the kids look through them finding words with apostrophes. When they found a word such as, “Chicago’s,” they had to use it in a sentence and tell me whether the apostrophe was showing that it was possessive or a contraction. All the kids seemed to really love this activity! Aside from this, during our writing time, we focused on getting our four square graphic organizer all filled out. I was really happy to see how many of the students were able to get all their ideas down on their paper and quickly too! I feel that because this is narrative writing, telling a story from a real life experience that happened to them, they are having an easier time filling out their four square. Not only was the four square done, but some students even had their rough draft completed! So, they seem to be doing well so far!

Math ~ Congratulations to Jessica for completing her timed multiplication test in 5 minutes!! Woo-hoo! Along with some other individuals, Jessica was super close each time and she finally got it! I am excited to see who will pass it next week! Just a few left! Also, even though most of the children have passed their timed multiplication test, make sure that your child is practicing their flashcards each and every night! It is important that they are able memorize their facts! Aside from this, this week we worked on multiplying three digits numbers. We did some fun activities so be sure to ask your child about the different things that we have done! Their chapter 21 test will take place on Tuesday next week.

Science ~ In science this week we finished up our chapter on Heat. We read through our last section in the science text book and we finished up our vocabulary. Today we watched a School House Rock video and I gave the students the chance to get started on their review questions. Next week the children will play their review game and take their science test on Heat on Thursday. We will also be going to Annetti’s Pizzeria just down the street!  It will be a nice end to our Unit!

Social Studies ~ This week in social studies class we went back to the books.  We have started Chapter 5,”A Community’s Geography.”  The students learned the correct terminology to describe landforms and bodies of water.  The students learned to classify landforms, including highlands and lowlands and to explain the significance of climate. 

Other Areas of Interest:

• For our field trip to Annetti’s on Wednesday next week, the kids will be exposed to how a pizzeria is run, with an emphasis on heat.  The kids will learn interesting facts about their rotating oven and hot boxes.  The kids will then be able to make their own pizza!  Kids will partner up to make a pizza for them to then eat.  We teachers will supply juice boxes for everyone, and we will also provide a snack for the kids to eat in the lunchroom at 11:45, our usual lunchtime.  Please do not send a lunch for your child that day. 
• Next Friday, April 17 is our annual Family Pizza Lunch event.  The third graders will be eating at 11:25, going outside for recess at 11:45.  I hope to see many of you there!

That’s it for now!  Despite the snow everywhere Monday morning, the weather is finally warming up.  Hopefully for good!  It looks like decent weather this weekend for Easter egg hunts!  I hope you are able to enjoy the extra time with your families.  We wish you all a wonderful weekend, happy Easter, and remember to keep your child reading!

Miss Sarah Wierzgac

Mrs. Sarah Adkins

Third Grade Newsletter

Volume 7, Number 20                    sadkins@pennoyerschool.org                          April 3, 2009

Hello Parents! So this week was a very important week! All of the third graders participated in the Wax MuseumJ. Parents, thank you so much for preparing your children with what ever they needed! It was super fun and exciting to see what each one of the students wore for their costumes! They were all so creative! By they way, on Monday, I was really happy to hear about all of the student’s spring break vacation and what they did. I too had a great break! I announced to the children that I became engaged over spring break! They all clapped for me! I thought that was so cute! I also heard that some of your children told you that I was engaged and that you told them to congratulate me, thank youJ. So, aside from this, here is what has been going on this week:

Reading ~ The story that we read this week was a narrative nonfiction story called, Beatrice’s Goat. It was about a girl and her family who lived in western Uganda and could not afford to send her to school. What was so great about this story is that Beatrice would do anything just to be able to go to school and often times most children do not realize how privileged they are to be able to attend school. This is something that was brought up in our guided reading groups during our literacy centers. I am pleased to say that I had some wonderful conversations with your children about how thankful they were for having the opportunity to come to school everyday! J  The story really put this in perspective for them. While reading the story, our skill that we focused on was cause and effect. The students worked on cause and effect in one of their literacy centers. They had to think about their day at school and events that happen throughout their day that involve a cause, action that makes something happen and the effect that happens because of the action. They did a good job with this, maybe you can ask your child about what they wrote down for their cause and effect!

Language Arts ~ Our focus in grammar this week was on subject and object pronouns. It seemed as though most of students in the class had a hard time understanding pronouns. So, during literacy centers I took some time to explain this concept a little more. They then did an activity to go along with this. I was happy to see that they did a better job! In addition to this, we did an activity with word families. At the back table, students cut out words and glued them on a poster with other words that were in the same word family. I absolutely loved the posters that they made! There were so many word families on there! They did such a great job!  Aside from this, during our writing time, we focused on organizing ideas into a four square graphic organizer. I took an exceptional amount of time to model and explain how to properly complete this particular four square graphic organizer just because it is very different from the persuasive four square graphic organizers. I just wanted to make sure that the students were very clear on the format.  The persuasive papers are in your child’s Friday papers they took home today, along with their rubric that explains their grade.

Math ~ Unfortunately this week, none of the remaining students passed their time multiplication testL. However, just like before, there were several students who were very, very close! Some of them only had about 5 or 10 left! I just keep encouraging them to practice their flashcards and that they will get it next time! I do hope that your children are taking some time each night to practice their flashcards. It is very important that they dedicate time to work on their multiplication. It can be easily forgotten if not practiced. Aside from this, we started a new chapter in math. This week we talked about multiplying two digit numbers with one digit numbers. In order for the students to understand this material, we did a variety of actives such as using base-ten blocks, finding multiplication problems around the room and rounding them and playing a game. Be sure to ask your child about our game that we played today!

Science ~ In science this week, we have continued to learn about heat by experimenting with tools that are used to measure temperature. The students did a great job in their investigations! I was happy when I read through their worksheets. They all had really good information about what they learned and they used their data to explain it! We did not get a chance to read through the last section of our chapter because of the Wax Museum. Next, week we will read the section and finish up our unit on heat!

Social Studies ~ This past week in social studies class we have completed our unit on Biographies.  On Monday, your child had turned in the biography report, which in turn, was graded and returned back so that he/she could practice memorizing the important information for the Wax Museum.  It was then time for your child to appear as a historical figure, dress up as their famous figure, and display their costume and themselves as a wax figure for you and the students of Pennoyer to view.  If you were able to make it, I hope you enjoyed the 2009: Third Grade Presentation of the WAX MUSEUM.

Other Areas of Interest:

• Report cards went home today.  Please look for them, keep the report card, sign and return the envelope to us next week.  If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s grades, please contact us to set up a conference.
• Please read the letter that is included with your child’s report card.  It has a reminder that school is in session on Monday, April 13, and it also asks for volunteers for our big circus day in May.
• There is no school next Friday, April 10.  Reading, spelling, and grammar tests will be given on Thursday, and Friday papers will go home that Thursday as well.

That’s it for now!  Tomorrow is supposed to be a gorgeous day, so I hope you are able to get out and about.  This week has either been rainy or too windy, and the kids are craving a nice day outside.  Fabulous news – everyone in our class has completed all 6 months of our Book-It program!  We have never had 100% participation from a class, and we are very proud of the kids and all of the books they have read.  We wish you all a wonderful weekend, and remember to keep your child reading!

Miss Sarah Wierzgac

Mrs. Sarah Adkins