It was nice to see a lot of smiling faces when students returned this week after an eventful Spring Break. Hope it was restful for parents as well!
Students were asked last week to decide on a mammal they would like to research for the upcoming animal report. A sign up sheet was sent around on Wednesday and most students seemed pretty eager about what they wanted to study. They were taught the attributes of a mammal in science last week, and should have selected an animal with those characteristics. Over the weekend, please help your child find either a book or internet article (at their reading level) to bring in on Monday. I asked that all students read their article and/or begin reading their book so that Monday we could begin this project. It is very important that they come to school prepared. Otherwise, it is hard for them to get started. It was very difficult during Biographies to get to everyone when students did not know the information. A letter will be sent home this week describing the project more in detail. We would like to have this project due by Tuesday, May 11. That should give ample time to present to each other and display during open house.
The spelling packet for Poppa's New Pants will go home Monday, due Friday. Students will continue in their Houghton Mifflin (HM) math books. We wrapped up probability and will work on 2-3 digit multiplication. Students may have additional Excel review pages for homework as well. A reminder that Lit Circles are due every Tuesday. We are still missing many leveled books, so if you find one at home, please send it in.
Looks like we have just enough drivers for our field trip to the MAH on Thursday, April 29. We have another field trip to the Agricultural History Museum on Thursday, April 6. Permission forms have not been sent home yet, hopefully this week we'll get them out.
We'll also begin drawing this Wednesday with the Spectra Arts teacher. She will be with us for the next 5 weeks. I'm sure your child will have some nice pieces to display.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Wish List: wipes and pencils
Friday, April 16, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
April 12-16, 2010
Hope everyone is enjoying Spring Break. It couldn't have come at a perfect time! As we return from break, with only 8 weeks of school to go, there's a lot of upcoming events.
This week a spelling packet will go home for Pepita Talks Twice, due on Friday. For math, we will continue with probability and begin reviewing past concepts for the upcoming CST. We only have 2 weeks until the testing window begins, so we have a lot of work to do. If you haven't turned in your parent education level form, please do so this week. We will let students know if we haven't received it yet.
The next big project will be a mammal report due sometime before Open House in May. The 3rd grade team will come up with a time line and directions for this project. A letter will be sent home either this week or next about the project. Students were asked before Spring Break to THINK of a mammal they are interested in. It was made clear that they are not supposed to do a report over break. We will begin shortly in class.
We have 2 upcoming field trips. The first is to the MAH in Santa Cruz on Thursday, April 29 from 8:30-11:30. We still need 1-2 more drivers. Please let us know if you are available. The cost of this field trip is $2.00 per child. Also, we have another trip scheduled for Thursday, May 6 to the Agricultural History Project at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. Permission slips for this field trip will go home later this week.
Thanks again to Mrs. Feldbrugge and Mr. Esche for taking time to video the biographies. They were wonderful!
Have a nice weekend and see you soon!
This week a spelling packet will go home for Pepita Talks Twice, due on Friday. For math, we will continue with probability and begin reviewing past concepts for the upcoming CST. We only have 2 weeks until the testing window begins, so we have a lot of work to do. If you haven't turned in your parent education level form, please do so this week. We will let students know if we haven't received it yet.
The next big project will be a mammal report due sometime before Open House in May. The 3rd grade team will come up with a time line and directions for this project. A letter will be sent home either this week or next about the project. Students were asked before Spring Break to THINK of a mammal they are interested in. It was made clear that they are not supposed to do a report over break. We will begin shortly in class.
We have 2 upcoming field trips. The first is to the MAH in Santa Cruz on Thursday, April 29 from 8:30-11:30. We still need 1-2 more drivers. Please let us know if you are available. The cost of this field trip is $2.00 per child. Also, we have another trip scheduled for Thursday, May 6 to the Agricultural History Project at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. Permission slips for this field trip will go home later this week.
Thanks again to Mrs. Feldbrugge and Mr. Esche for taking time to video the biographies. They were wonderful!
Have a nice weekend and see you soon!
Friday, March 26, 2010
March 29-April 1
Happy Friday! Your children have done such an amazing job on their speeches. We are very impressed with what we have seen so far and look forward to hearing more biographies this week. Speech grades will probably go home this week, but we'll need Spring Break to review their reports. On Tuesday, we will be going to the 1st grade play from 8:20-8:50 and will resume speeches when we return to class. Sorry about the time change, but we made the speech schedule before we knew the time of the play. If you plan on observing your child that day, please come in around 8:50. We will start right away when we return to class.
Due to the short week (no school on Friday), there will be no spelling packet going home. Students will continue with math homework and Lit Circles. Also, please send in the field trip form to the Museum of Art History (MAH) along with $2.00. This field trip is on Thursday, April 29 from 8:45-11:45.
That's all for now! Have a nice weekend!
Due to the short week (no school on Friday), there will be no spelling packet going home. Students will continue with math homework and Lit Circles. Also, please send in the field trip form to the Museum of Art History (MAH) along with $2.00. This field trip is on Thursday, April 29 from 8:45-11:45.
That's all for now! Have a nice weekend!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
March 22-26, 2010
What a wonderful break from the rain! Hope you are all enjoying the gorgeous weekend.
The spelling packet that was passed out for Trapped by the Ice last week is due this Friday. A reminder that Lit. Circles need to be completed every Tuesday. Sometimes students will read a few chapters one week and a few the next, so please check the page numbers written on their job. Also it is important that books are turned in on time. It's unfortunate when book sets are not complete because students fail to turn in the book.
This Thursday students will begin Biography speeches. A schedule was sent home last week with the day each student needs to present. Attached to the schedule was a 4 point scoring rubric that will be used to determine their grade for the presentation. Mrs. Feldbrugge and Mr. Esche have kindly offered to video students who would like to be on video. Parents are welcome to come in and watch their child. We're excited to see the enthusiasm of the students.
A field trip form to the Santa Cruz Museum of Art History (MAH) was also sent home last week for April 29th. If you are interested in chaperoning, please fill out the attached chaperone form. The cost for this field trip is $2.00 per student.
Thanks again for all your support this year!
The spelling packet that was passed out for Trapped by the Ice last week is due this Friday. A reminder that Lit. Circles need to be completed every Tuesday. Sometimes students will read a few chapters one week and a few the next, so please check the page numbers written on their job. Also it is important that books are turned in on time. It's unfortunate when book sets are not complete because students fail to turn in the book.
This Thursday students will begin Biography speeches. A schedule was sent home last week with the day each student needs to present. Attached to the schedule was a 4 point scoring rubric that will be used to determine their grade for the presentation. Mrs. Feldbrugge and Mr. Esche have kindly offered to video students who would like to be on video. Parents are welcome to come in and watch their child. We're excited to see the enthusiasm of the students.
A field trip form to the Santa Cruz Museum of Art History (MAH) was also sent home last week for April 29th. If you are interested in chaperoning, please fill out the attached chaperone form. The cost for this field trip is $2.00 per student.
Thanks again for all your support this year!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Spelling Packet Error
Hi all! I made a mistake with the spelling packet that is due next week. The words are for the story Trapped by the Ice. We already did Across the Wide Dark Sea. Sorry for the mistake.
Friday, March 12, 2010
March 15-19, 2010
A big THANK YOU to all who contributed to Mr. Harris' gift for Kaleidescope. He has done a wonderful job with the students and will be missed very much. It was nice having an extra teacher in the classroom for the past 2 months.
Biographies have come along nicely. All students should have their completed report turned in by Monday, March 15. Since we really want students to focus on their speeches over the next week and a half, the spelling packet for Across the Wide Dark Sea will be due in 2 weeks on March 26th. Speeches will begin on Thursday, March 25. We will have about 6 speeches a day, ending on Wednesday, March 31. Mrs. Feldbrugge has kindly offered to video tape on Monday the 29th and Tuesday the 30th. A sign up sheet will go around on this week for students to sign up the day they would like to present. Once all students have signed up, a copy of the schedule will be sent home along with a Speech Scoring Rubric. We hope this has been an enjoyable learning experience for your child.
On a side note, erasers and pencil squishies/grippers have become a hit in our classroom. Students are coming with several(10 or more), of these items. They are causing a distraction during class time and we are asking that these items stay at home. We are fine with 1-2 erasers at the most, but when kids begin trading, it breaks school rules. If we continue to see an abundance of these in/on a child's desk, they be collected. We had a problem with this earlier in the school year and now it has become a problem again. We don't want to punish students for these items, so it would be better for them to just stay at home. Thanks for your support on this.
Also, Jogging for the Arts raised almost $7500. Thank you for all of the donations!
Biographies have come along nicely. All students should have their completed report turned in by Monday, March 15. Since we really want students to focus on their speeches over the next week and a half, the spelling packet for Across the Wide Dark Sea will be due in 2 weeks on March 26th. Speeches will begin on Thursday, March 25. We will have about 6 speeches a day, ending on Wednesday, March 31. Mrs. Feldbrugge has kindly offered to video tape on Monday the 29th and Tuesday the 30th. A sign up sheet will go around on this week for students to sign up the day they would like to present. Once all students have signed up, a copy of the schedule will be sent home along with a Speech Scoring Rubric. We hope this has been an enjoyable learning experience for your child.
On a side note, erasers and pencil squishies/grippers have become a hit in our classroom. Students are coming with several(10 or more), of these items. They are causing a distraction during class time and we are asking that these items stay at home. We are fine with 1-2 erasers at the most, but when kids begin trading, it breaks school rules. If we continue to see an abundance of these in/on a child's desk, they be collected. We had a problem with this earlier in the school year and now it has become a problem again. We don't want to punish students for these items, so it would be better for them to just stay at home. Thanks for your support on this.
Also, Jogging for the Arts raised almost $7500. Thank you for all of the donations!
Friday, March 5, 2010
March 8-12, 2010
Mr. Harris' first week of his solo went very well. Students continued to work on their biographies and made a lot of progress. We will continue working on completing the report in class. Our goal is to have the final typed or hand written report due on Thursday, March 11. This should include a cover page with the title of their report and at least 1 picture. Most students have already started this in class. For those who need additional time, reports will be accepted until Monday, March 15 at the latest. Once the reports are turned in, students will have about 2 weeks to practice their speech and gather up either a costume or props for their project. In the past we have required students to memorize their speech, in first person (for example: I am Benjamin Franklin. I was born on ...), or use note cards. We don't want the students to simply read their report word for word in front of the class. We would like everyone to be prepared and ready by Thursday, March 25. We will begin that day for those who are ready and will go into the week before Spring Break. We will listen to 4-5 speeches per day. ALL speeches will be completed before Spring Break vacation. Mrs. Feldbrugge has offered to video tape those who would like to be video taped.
We apologize if the deadlines for this project have not been clear. You never know how long something like this will take a class to complete, especially with so many more students this year. It's been a challenge supporting everyone, and we appreciate the help you have done at home.
Since we are completing the biographies, there will be no spelling packet this week, only math homework and reading logs. Also, on Tuesday we are having a GATE icon lesson presented to our class and will hold Lit. Circles from 9:00-9:25. If you are a volunteer, please come at this time if you can. Again, some students are consistently forgetting to bring in their Lit. Circle job and book to class on Tuesdays. When their assignment and book is not turned in it can affect the whole group. Someone even turned in one of the books to the Aptos Branch Public Library. If you notice a book that is unfamiliar, please check to see if the book belongs to our classroom first.
Thank you again for all of your support this year! Have a nice, hopefully dry, weekend.
We apologize if the deadlines for this project have not been clear. You never know how long something like this will take a class to complete, especially with so many more students this year. It's been a challenge supporting everyone, and we appreciate the help you have done at home.
Since we are completing the biographies, there will be no spelling packet this week, only math homework and reading logs. Also, on Tuesday we are having a GATE icon lesson presented to our class and will hold Lit. Circles from 9:00-9:25. If you are a volunteer, please come at this time if you can. Again, some students are consistently forgetting to bring in their Lit. Circle job and book to class on Tuesdays. When their assignment and book is not turned in it can affect the whole group. Someone even turned in one of the books to the Aptos Branch Public Library. If you notice a book that is unfamiliar, please check to see if the book belongs to our classroom first.
Thank you again for all of your support this year! Have a nice, hopefully dry, weekend.
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