Wild About September...

     

We made it through the first week of school and I can already see my class changing from end-of-year second graders into third graders! As I stated in my Welcome letter last week, 3rd grade is a year full of transitions. Students take on more responsibility for taking care of, and organizing, their materials and time.

Headphones/earbuds: We will be using Chromebooks in the classroom. Each student will need to bring their own earbuds or headphones to school.  If you prefer, I have some at school that I purchased from the Dollar Tree, so you may send a dollar to school to buy one of mine.

Home/School folder aka Important Folder: This is one item that really shows how students are taking on more responsibility. Students need to remember to take these home each night and bring them back each day.

Homework: Your child works hard at school. I believe that children should have time to enjoy being a child, exercise, play, help with chores, and spend time with family. Newberg’s policy is that 3rd graders should have 30 minutes of homework a night. To that end, for the next couple of weeks your child will have basic homework with flexibility. However, homework is the student’s responsibility even though they may try to convince you otherwise. Here are some key things parents can do to help.

• Have a set homework time
• Have a place for keeping/doing homework
• Have a system for making sure the Homework/Important folder is returned everyday-especially on Friday.

Homework, for the next couple of weeks, consists of:

• Reading: students may read whatever they like, please have them record their efforts. See Ideas in their Important folder for ideas.
• Math Facts: I cannot stress how important it is that students know their math facts. For the first few weeks this is addition/subtraction fluency. We move quickly into multiplication, fluency in adding/subtracting makes fluency in multiplication/division. They may study using flashcards or on the computer. I have seen flash cards at Target and The Dollar Tree for $1.00.  This past week I set up their new Mobymax. Username and password are your child’s first name. I will change this to their district username and password as soon as I have access to printing information cards for the class. I will let you and your child know when the change has been made.
• Spelling: For the few weeks students should review and study the most common English words list. The best way to do this is to give your child a pretest on the words and have them study any they missed.  (I know it is a long list. Just do 10 or 20 a night)

Supply Night

Supply Night was a great event-we started a little early and went a little late. That's okay with me because it means I got to meet more parents and students! 

Here is a great place for me to explain about classroom supplies. At the beginning of the year all students start with these supplies only in their desk:

• pencil box

• 3 sharp pencils

• sharpener

• eraser

• glue stick

• crayons/markers/colored pencils

• 1 pocket folder

• 2 spiral notebooks

Any other supplies go into the classroom supply box. We have a set of class scissors, so if your child brought a pair they have the choice to keep them in the class box or take them home.

Not on the list-but welcomed:

• personal calculator

We will not be using them in class, but I feel that students need to feel comfortable using them, that calculators encourage more thinking, reduce math fear, and at appropriate times are a great toy. During certain times students will be allowed to "play" with them and explore higher level math concepts with them.

For those of you who were able to make it to supply night-Thank you, it was nice to meet you.
For those of you who were unable to make it to supply night-I'm sorry we didn't get to meet. Please stop in before or after school to say, "Hi." I look forward to meeting you.

Welcome to the 2015-2016 classroom!

Welcome!
More information coming soon.

Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve

My group watching an American Robin. After the bird flew away we tried to identify the different types of feet we saw in the sand. According to our station guide, this is one way they track the birds at the Preserve. We returned to discovering which beak type works best for which food for the birds. This was a highly interactive and very interesting field trip.

Comparing life cycles....

As an ongoing part of our cooperative learning about birds, we compared/contrasted the life cycles of plants and birds. This comparative life cycle is the culmination of this work.

Keeping the learning happening up until the end...

Welcome to May!

Where we are wild about learning~Let the learning rumpus continue!

Wow! It is hard to believe, but these not-quite-3rd graders-at-the-beginning-of-the-year are now almost-4th graders. Students have continued learning new curricula while showing what they know during Smarter Balanced Assessments. Students have done a good job focusing and doing their best and parents have done a great job supporting them by ensuring they’ve gotten plenty of rest and a good breakfast. Thank you and keep up the good work! We have this week and next week of scheduled testing for our class. Students who are not finished will have the time to finish up as needed.

Homework

Students have done a good job of remembering their homework. This shows how they have grown as independent learners. Homework will continue in paper form, however if you wish to have the option of online MobyMax only homework please email me and I will set up a plan for your child.

Birds!

You may have noticed a new obsession with your child-a specific bird or just birds in general. The third grade unit on native (and introduced but now naturalized to the area) birds has begun. Each student has been given their own bird to research, write a report on, and then present to the class. We are truly becoming bird brains!

Upcoming events

We have two field trips scheduled this month.

May 19th-Jackson Bottom Wetland Preserve. We have plenty of room for parent volunteers so please feel free to sign up or send me an email if you have returned the permission slip, but didn’t sign up to come along.

May 29th-Chehalem Cultural Center

Water Bottles-Reminder

Standing in line at the drinking fountain can waste a lot of time. I encourage students to bring a water bottle to school. They should take the bottle home on Fridays to wash.

Have you noticed?

We have an amazing group of students in this class and we are continuing to learn alongside each other.

I know I have covered this before, but reading is so important in the growth and self esteem of our students. This article is from:
http://www.edudemic.com/skipping-your-reading-homework/

The Long-Term Effects of Skipping Your Reading Homework

By Pamela DeLoatch on April 14, 2015

  

 

                                               Spring Conferences


                                                                  

Just a reminder that conferences are this Monday and Tuesday, April 6th & 7th, and there will be no school. If you have not reserved your spot to hear about your child’s accomplishments please call the office and make an appointment (503-538-4650). I look forward to meeting with you.

Thank you!

Mrs. Soumokil

Parents, here are a few ways to help your child excel in spelling....

January 2015

Welcome back to school and welcome to the New Year!

3rd grade has jumped backed into learning. This first week back at school we started by revisiting expectations in the classroom and around the school. We reviewed our pillars of success:

• Be Safe
• Be Responsible
• Be Respectful
• Do Your Best

We also reviewed what that looks like in different settings.

One big change in the classroom has occurred. We are moving to The Daily 5 for Language Arts (reading, writing, spelling, grammar) and The Daily 3 for Math (once Daily 5 is up and running). The Daily 5 is a literacy structure that teaches independence and gives students the skills needed to create a lifetime love of reading and writing. It consists of five tasks that are introduced individually. When introduced to each task, the students discuss what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to engage in the task independently. Then, the students work on building their stamina until they are successful at being independent while doing that task.

These five tasks are:

• Read to Self
• Work on Writing
• Read to someone
• Word Work
• Listen to Reading

When all five tasks have been introduce and the students are fully engaged in reading and writing, I am able to work with small groups and confer with students one-on-one. This structure is effective, the results are amazing, and your children look forward to Daily 5 time.

We have been learning some new behaviors and building reading stamina. Our goal is to be able to Read to Self for 20 focused minutes. While we build our reading stamina we are learning foundations for success such as:

• What the students’ job and the teacher’s job is during Daily 5.
• Three ways to read a book
• Read the Pictures
• Read the Words
• Retell the Story
• Choosing a Successful Spot for Daily 5
• Learning to Self-Assess behavior based on the proficiency scale 1-4
• “I Pick” Good Fit Books

I Pick Good Fit Books

This is a valuable strategy that we not only learned, but we also built an anchor chart for the classroom. In order for students to get the most of their reading for fun, they need to read books that are a good fit-the right balance between too easy and too hard and interesting. Please use this strategy to help your child pick Good Fit books at home and at the library.

I PICK

I - I select a book and look it over inside and out.

P - Purpose Why might I want to read it?

I - Interest Does it interest me?

C - Comprehend Do I understand what I am reading?

K - Know Do I know MOST of the words?

Ask your child about Daily 5 and see what he or she has to say. I anticipate that your child will tell you about the class stamina success and how we are working toward independence. You also might hear about some of the fantastic things your child has written, read, or listened to during our Daily 5 time. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Thank you for your continued support and happy reading!

Mrs. Soumokil