Welcome back from your holiday!  Hope everyone had a peaceful time off.

Now that we are all rested, it is time to get back to working.  The following is what we will be doing over the next month and into the next month of February.

Reading – Whole group reading of Stuart Little;  Then in February Mr. Popper’s Penguin (purchase by February 1);  Guided reading in small groups.

3rd QTR book report will be completed in class again.  Watch for flyer the first week of 3rd QTR.

Spelling – Sound of /s/, /j/, plurals, and homophones.

Creative Writing – working on Treasure Book poems

English – Finish Chapter 7, then start into Chapter 8 – direct object, verb-transitive and Pattern 2 sentences.

Tutoring will be changing 3rd QTR

Monday – at 7:20-7:50am

Wednesdays – at 3:30-4:00

I will pull the students  who need some extra help on Mondays and Wednesdays at lunch time.

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I want to wish all students and parents a Happy Thanksgiving and also Happy Holidays!

November-December-January Class Information

Spelling – Unit 3 Lessons 13-18.  Words with ed or ing, spl, spr,str, double consonants, contractions, and easily misspelled words.

English – Chapter 6 – Helping verbs, coordinate conjunctions.

Chapter 7 – Interjections and possessive nouns, eight parts of speech, homonyms,  and contractions

Writing – expository essay – book report for 2nd quarter – all work will be completed in class

- we will be working on our Treasure Books – poems

Reading – Book reports – non-fiction books

- Whole group reading  and guided reading groups.

* December 14, 2011 – field trip to St. Joseph’s Residence.  If you are planning to be a chaperone you must check with the front office.  You have to be Safe Environment cleared to be a chaperone.

* December 16, 2011 – Christmas Party for 3A & 3B.

* If you are having a birthday party for your child and you send invitations to school, you must send for all students (or you must mail).  Please check the parent/student handbook.

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October has arrived and we have had a great start to our school year.  The following is what we will be doing for the rest of the month.

ITBS Testing week of October 10-14, 2011

Reading – Week of October 17-28, whole group read – Bunnicula.  We will be doing many fun and interesting activities with this book.

November – Small group reading.

Spelling/Phonics – Week of October 17-21, 2011 – Lesson 8, /ou/ sound.  Test on 10/21/11

Week of October 24-27, 2011 – Lesson 9, o spelled o, aw, au.  Test on 10/27/11.

November – Lesson 10, 11, 12.

Creative Writing – continue with steps of writing using creative writing.  We are also working on our Treasure Books of poetry.

November – continue with Treasure Books, Journal writing, creative writing, expository writing.

Grammar – Week of October 17-21, 2011 – Chapter 4 , Lessons 1-5.

Preposition, Object of the Preposition, Prepositional phrases, subject-verb agreement, identify a/an choices, end the week with a check up.

Week of October 24-27, 2011 – Chapter 4, Lessons 6-9

Discuss publishing (including Treasure Books), write expository paragraph, different writing forms, point of view.

November – First week Chapter 4 Test, start chapter 5, pronouns

I hope to see you at the carnival, October 22, 2011

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Welcome back to a new school year.  I hope everyone had a exciting summer.  But now back to work!

Reading – Both classes started off reading the Unit of Friendship in the Open Court reading program.  Phonics was a review of last year and will continue throughout the month.  Staying with the concept of friendship, both classes will read, The Kids in Ms. Coleman’s Class – Spelling Bee.  If I could have 7 parents volunteer to purchase one book it would complete the set.  As the years have gone  by,  7 of the books have grown legs and walked out the door.  If you would like to help out the class, please email me.  We will need them by the 19th of this month.  Starting next month, I will set up small group reading and one whole group read.

Handwriting and Creative Writing – Well, we started cursive, but have had to slow down.  We are taking baby steps until we accomplish simple motions.  In creative writing, the classes will start their Treasure Book of Poetry.  They will be learn about drafts, editing, and publishing over the next couple of months.

English – Hooray!  We received NEW Shurley books.  The students will enjoy the concepts that are taught throughout the book.  Again, we started with baby steps and will end the year with a bang.  Chapter 1 started off with organizational skills and we went into Chapter 2 with sentences labeling.  Next test: September 14, 2011 (Chapter 2).

Thanks to all the parents who took time on the night of the 8th and came to school for Third Grade Parent Night.  We hope you enjoyed learning the day of a 3rd grader!

Keep up with new and exciting updates on the web site.  Over and Out………………………………….

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I can’t believe the end of the year is here.  I want to thank all the students for coming to St. Elizabeth’s and being in my third grade class.  I wish all students the best for the summer and up coming school year.

On June 1, 2011, we go on the last field trip for the year.  If you have not paid and returned the fee and permission slip you still can.

Have a safe and fun summer.  See you next year!

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Third grade will be participating in the Living Stations of the Cross on April 21 at 8 A.M. in the church.  We hope to see you on this special day for the class.  On April 26, Tuesday, will be the Easter Egg Hunt.  Watch for details before the Easter break.

Classroom:

Math – Division and Multiplication will continue, followed by Geometry.  The 4th quarter project will be in Geometry. Watch for details at the end of the month.

Grammar - Continue with parts of a sentence and writing paragraphs.

Reading – Storytelling (fables, folktales).  4th QTR Book report – information sent home on March 31, 2011. Due date: April 27, 2011.

Religion – Stations of the Cross – Living Stations – April 21, 2011 at 8 A.M. in church

Social Studies – Chapter 7 Test on April 5, 2011.  Chapter 8 – Technology Changes Communities

Science – Meteorology – Water cycle, clouds, wind, recording weather patterns.

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Now that the weather has finally made a turn for the better, we will be back on track in all of  our classes.

Upcoming information by subject for March (always due to change)

Math – Finishing Chapter 8 with a unit test on March 7, 2011.  Starting multiplication and division again.  Practice multiplication and division facts nightly.

English/Grammar – Continue with sentence structure, helping verbs.  Introduce inflectional endings and subject/verb agreement.

Reading – Continue with Open Court units.  Whole class reading of the book, Maggie, and the Search for Devildust, by Judy Alter.  Readers Theater-Three Greek Myths- this will be performed for Young Authors Day (more details to follow)

Social Studies – Finish Chapter 6 – Places Where Communities Started- chapter test on March 1, 2011.  Start Chapter 7- Histories of Communities

Science – Finish Physics with unit test on March 9, 2011.  Start Meteorology

Religion – Preparing for Lent/Easter.  Jesus is Risen, Jesus Christ is Lord and King, and Jesus Gives the Spirit to the Church.  On April 21 at 8am, our class will present the “Living Stations of the Cross” in the church.  We will prepare in class for this special event.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Spring Break.  I will be in Florida enjoying the sun and beach!!!

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Welcome back from your Christmas Break!  I want to thank all the parents and students for all the wonderful gifts I received.

We have a busy month planned.  Below are some of the upcoming lessons:

Math - Test on Chapter 5 when students return from the break.  After the test, Chapter 7 will be about graphing.

Grammar – Continue with pronoun types, sentence structure.  This will carry over into Creative Writing for the Treasure Book each student will write (poems)

Reading - Part of the month will be Guided Reading (groups will have different books) and Open Court

Religion – Quiz on Chapter 12 the first week back from break – John the Baptist.  In the middle of the month, we will look at the Seven Sacraments, and finish the month with an  in-class project involving the sacraments.

Science – Unit test on Periodic Table the first week back, followed by Physical Science.  The 3rd Qtr project will be the science project.  This will be due on January 28th so they can be displayed for open house.

Social Studies - Chapter 5 will take up most of the month.  This chapter talks about communities and where they are located, climate, growth, and the physical environment in communities.

Remember to check the class web page daily for updates and changes.

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Events for the month of December – Field trip to St. Joseph’s.  Bring all items to take by December 3rd.  Items to bring: tissues, lotion, baby powder, toothpaste, pill boxes, socks, and wrapping paper.

Classes information for December:

Math- Finish division up to 5, then start multiplication up to nine.  Three digit multiplication will be at the end of the month.  Chapter 5 test including chapters 1-4 will be on December 1, 2010.

Grammar/English- Possessive Pronouns, and review of subject pronouns, and 8 parts of speech that we have learned so far this school year.

Spelling- Lesson 13, ed and ing endings of words. Lesson 14, spl, spr, str blends.  Lesson 15, double consonants.

Reading – Small group guided reading: Ben’s Trumpet, Amber Brown is not a Crayon, Day of the Blizzard, and There’s a Hamster in my Lunchbox.  Assessments will be on December 13th, 2010.

Religion- We will finish the ten commandments during the first week.  God Created People to Share His Life, Preparing the World for Jesus, and Jesus Brought the Kingdom of God to Us; plus, Advent and what it means to each of us.

Social Studies – Chapter 4 – Celebrations of Cultures and across our nation.

Science- Elements and the Perodic table.  We will be doing simple experiments during the month using the elements.

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Important 2nd QRT projects:  Book Report for the Quarter will be a biography

Religion Project – Parables

Watch for information in your student’s Red folder the 1st week of the 2nd quarter.  Check the class web site for updates.

Religion – Unit 2 – God is Great will be the focus for the month.  The Apostle’s Creed oral test will be the first part of the month.

Language Arts – In October we read in whole groups and in Guided Reading Groups.  We read a biography in October so students will understand how to do the 2nd QTR book report.  Homework will be assigned for Guided Reading this month.    Writing – The class has written 2 poems that will be part of their Treasure Books. In November, we will write more poetry.  Plus students will write to their families what they are thankful for in their lives.

Spelling/Phonics – Lesson 9 – /o/ sound spelled, o, aw, au.  Lesson 10 – double consonants.   Lesson 11 – el (le at the end of words) sound.  Lesson 12- Review of 7-11.

Grammar - Continuing with labeling sentences.  Prepositional phrases, object of the preposition, capitalization, punctuation.

Social Studies – Unit One test (Chapter 1 & 2) will finish out the month of October.  Unit 2 – People in Communities.  Students will learn how people move from place to place and celebrations.

Science – We will finish the Solar System and the planets and have a assessment before Thanksgiving break.

Math – It’s finally here.  Multiplication.  We will start working on memorizing facts.  Practice at home with flash cards.  Continue to practice addition and subtraction at home also.

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I want to welcome back all the students to St. E’s.  We got off to a good start for our third grade class.  I enjoyed learning about each student through the “Read all About Me”.  The following is classroom information by subject for the upcoming months.  On the Scholastic class web page you can find daily updates.

Social Studies - Our Community – this unit will include culture, geography, location, and life.  Chapter 1 test was on September 21.  It continued (Chapter 2) with rural, suburban, urban, and the big city.   Students are working on the 1st semester project in the class room.  They will be finished by October 11, 2010.

Science - Third grade is using the Nancy Larson science lessons.  The first unit consists of the Solar System; the sun, moon, and phases of the moon.  This unit test was on September 29,2010.

Religion – The first unit in our books was a review of 2nd grade, God Calls Us to Faith.  For the next couple of weeks we will be saying the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.  During this time we will be learning some of the prayers we say for the rosary plus some extras.  We will also act out some of the parts of this mystery.

Math - We finished place value and are working our way up to “Multiplication”.  But we will review addition and subtraction (with grouping, regrouping, & rounding).

Grammar - For the next month we will review all of the parts of speech. Through creative writing, the students will work on sentence structure.

Language Arts – For the last two weeks the students have been in guided reading groups.  Each group has read a different book while learning how to complete a story map.  I included vocabulary from within each book to increase vocabulary skills for each group.  They completed each book with a unit quiz.  For the last day, each group will present the book they read to the class by a short skit, rap song, comic strip, and puppet play.

Reading Counts – we are still working out the kinks.  Please be patient.

Book Reports – 1st quarter will be any mystery at least 60 pages of the students choice.  Due date will be; 10/18/10.

In October I am planning to get a Readers’ Theater program started in the classroom.  Watch for more details to come.

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It is almost the end of the 3^rd quarter.  The school year will be coming to an end before we know it.  Keep studying hard to keep those grades in the A’s and B’s.  The following is what we will be doing in our subject areas:

Math

Finish money and time.  Begin Measurement (length, height, perimeter, inches, feet, capacity – cups, pints, and quarts weight – pounds  centimeters, liters, kilograms, temperature, and seasons)

Social Studies

Unit 4 – Our Earth, Our Resources Kinds of Weather, Time Lines, Land and Water, Our Earth’s Resources, Farm History, Caring For Our Resources.

Religion

Continue our study of Lent, Stations of the Cross, Finish Unit 3 – Jesus Shows us He is Good.  Begin to study about Parables.   March 12^th 1A will host the Mass and on March 26^th 1B will host the Mass.

Guidance

Continue lessons from Second Step series about Empathy Training.

Health

Start with a quiz on Nutrition and  end with Basic First Aid.

Science

Will have a test on Zoology, and then will start a new unit on Parts of the Human Body.

English/Grammar

Review nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns.  We will start more capitalization, and punctuation.

Language Arts

Review the sounds of /oo/, /ow/, long o, /aw/, /au/, /n/ spelled kn, comparatives, /oi/ spelled oi & oy,  /r/ spelled wr,  and /f/ spelled ph.  We will complete all of our decodable books by the end of the month.  In class we will be reading from a book (Open Court) that will stay in the classroom.  The focus will be on comprehension for the rest of the year.  First grade students should be reading at least 50-60 words per minute by the end of the 3^rd quarter.  Keep reading at home every night.

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Math

We will cover Chapter 4 this month.  It will consist of data and graphs.  Graphs will be comprised of Venn diagrams, tally charts, real graphs, picture graphs, pictographs, and bar graphs.  We will conduct simple surveys then organize and interpret the results of a survey.  Then using sets of data, we will find and use the range, mode, and median. We will have a test over Chapter 4 on Thursday, December 17^th.

Religion

We will study about the Advent Season.  This will include discussing that Jesus is our Savior, Adam and Eve, the Holy Family, the story of Jesus’ birth, our families and parish families.  We finish the month performing the Nativity Story at the 7:00 Children’s Mass on Christmas Eve.

Social Studies

We will finish Unit 5 before the Christmas break.  We will talk about holidays we celebrate, Abraham Lincoln, choosing our country’s leaders, and Eleanor Roosevelt.  After the break, we will review Unit 5 and have a test on Thursday, January 7^th.

Science

The field trip has been rescheduled for December 16, 2009.   For the month the topic will be water and how it changes, how we need to conserve water, how we use water, and soil.  Unit test will be on December 15^th, 2009.

Health/Guidance – Empathy will be covered for this month.

Language Arts

Phonics- sound of /y/ and long /a/.  Grammar – continue with sentences, nouns, verbs, verbs with /ed/ endings, and pronouns.  Word families of /og/ and /un/.  Read with you child every night for at least 20 minutes.

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Important Information for November

• Field trip money and form must be returned by November 12th

• Pow Wow – November 24th at 11:00 in the cafeteria – all families are welcome

Social Studies – Native Americans will be the topic for the month.  This will include: customs, clothing, and symbols.

Science – Deciduous and evergreen trees, seasons, conifer, cones, and fruit that is produced by trees.

Math – Subtraction will continue throughout the month.  Practice addition and subtraction facts to sums of 12.

Religion – November is the month of saints.  We will pick a boy and a girl to represent our classroom saints for the Mass on November 20th (8:00am).  Teachers will supply the costumes.

English – Nouns, pronouns and sentence types will be tested on November 18th.

Language Arts – We will continue with oral reading tests on Thursdays or Fridays but will not tell you what book of the week will be testing on, so practice all books.  We are starting to blend more sounds – these blends are all part of your decodable and spelling words.

Spelling – Added to your list of words is now a sentence.  It is made up of spelling words and frequency words.  Your child will have to practice writing this sentence at home and it will be read during the test.

We wish you and your families a Happy Thanksgiving.

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Wow, we have been in school for 7 weeks already. The students have enjoyed meeting all their new classmates and teachers. The following is what we will be covering over the month of October:

Math
Continue addition problems with sums to 12. Also, adding 3 addends together (3+2+1=6). Watch for Chapter 2 test review in the upcoming weeks. Subtraction will follow.

Social Studies
“In My Community” will be the next unit. We will learn about buildings, diverse ethnic origins, customs, and traditions of people of our neighborhoods. We will discuss differences and similarities between life in city, town, and farm communities. Lastly, we will finish the month with maps and map keys.

Religion
October is the Month of the Rosary, so we will be making rosaries in the classroom. This includes the prayers and parts of the Rosary. K-3rd grade will be having a Living Rosary on October 7th at 2:00pm in the church. Please come and join us.

Science/Health
We will start a new unit on plants. Students will learn what a plant needs to live and identify parts. Students will finish the month learning about trees and shrubs, leaves and parts.

Health
October is Fire Safety Month. We will talk about fire and make an exit plan to get out of your home safely if you have a fire. We will have a special guest on November 2 who will visit the school to talk about Fire Safety.

English
What is a telling/question sentence, what is a noun, and what is a verb, will be covered for the month. This unit comes from the Shurley Method English System. Students will also learn to label a sentence.

Language Arts
We will start off the month with the following sounds; /r/, /u/, /g/, /k/, /f/, /e/, and end with blending /sh/. Short vowel sounds will be reviewed throughout the month. Remember to read all decodable books and keep at home. We will tell you what test will be given at the end of the week. In writing, students continue writing in their Daily Journals and we are learning the writing process in the classroom.

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