14 Days and Counting...Down!

First and foremost, thank you all so much for attending our amazing "Poetry Blooms" recital on Friday!  I love how the kids totally ran the show with respect and care!  I always feel like I'm doing something right when they take the reins and lead.  Go third graders!

It's this time of year that I feel like the weather channel: constant updates!  We've got a lot going on and I will do my best to be sure that you're fully informed.  I sent home a list of upcoming dates today.  Here are the events again just in case:

The events you may want to add to your calendar are the following.

 Thursday May 22 – Land Trust presentation for the whole third grade in Bobby’s class at 9.

Friday May 23^rd – Presentation by Dr. Gloria Beim about her experience as the official Team USA doctor at the Olympics in Sochi Russia. This will be in the Multi-purpose room at 9:00. Please join us. 2^nd through 4^th will be attending.

Last Week of School:

Tuesday June 3^rd Field Day and Summer Birthday party. We start at the Town Park at 11:30 to celebrate summer bdays, then return to school Field Day from 12:30-3:00. If your child has a summer bday, contact me or look for a note soon!

Wednesday June 4^th - Happy Birthday Ben Barney and our annual 3^rd grade hike on the Upper Loop. If weather and snow conditions allow. It’s looking good!

Thursday June 5^th- Rain date for our hike or field day if needed. Otherwise out last full day together!

Friday June 6^th 11:30-12:00 Last day and 3^rd grade award ceremony. Take a coffee break from work and come join us as each child in our class is recognized for strengths and contributions throughout the year.

Dismissal on the last day is at 12:15.

Also, this will be the last week for spelling.  We will be wrapping up and reviewing all concepts in reading and math.  For writing, we have started a newspaper.  I still haven't decided what the final product will be.  More on that later!  

Speaking of later, I'm not sure what your summer plans are, but I am running an adventure camp and would love for your child to participate!  You should have received an email today explaining the details.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.  This adventure camp is open to all current 3rd-5th graders (or future 4th-6th graders) so feel free to spread the word!

For more info, check out my other blog http://melissassummeradventureclub.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much for all that you do and for reading!

Spring Time in the Rockies

What a wonderful weekend filled with dance performances and...snow?  Even though it feels like winter outside, we are in full spring here in our amazing third grade class!

Here is what we'll be up to this week:

Reading:  This time of year is all about book clubs and reviewing all the skills and strategies that we've learned so far this year.  This week we will revisit character traits and supports with our book clubs and self-selected books.  We will also be reading some more Junior Great Book stories in class.  I have some older additions that have a few more stories yet to be enjoyed!  These readings and discussions will be just for "in-class" only as I don't have enough copies to go around.

Poetry:  As you know, we will be reciting poetry in our class this Friday at 2:45.  We hope that you can join us for this wonderful celebration.  Please be sure to be on time as you don't want to interrupt the performers.  

Writing:  We wrapped up our poetry unit and are moving on to an end of the year newspaper unit.  This is a fun and meaningful way to reflect on our year together and also review non-fiction features, leads, details, and conclusions.  I'm not sure what our end result will be (maybe a blog, electronic newspaper, old-fashion hardcopy, or something I haven't thought of yet),  but I'll keep you posted!

Math:  We just finished up our unit on fractions and we expanding our knowledge on multiplication and division. In this unit, we will learn about partial-products algorithm for multiplying 1-2 digit numbers and strategies for mental multiplication.  Wondering what a partial-products algorithm is?  Here's an example:

That's all for now.  As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to contact me with any questions, suggestions, and/or concerns.

Melissa

Let the May-hem Begin!

It's already May people!  Happy Cinco de Mayo and early Mother's Day!  This time of year is action-packed here in third grade.  Here's a little peek at our upcoming week!

We had such an incredbile time building our volcanoes last week!  What a fun way to learn more about geology and teamwork!  This was a whole-third grade activity which gave students the opportunity to work with students in the other three classrooms.

This week we will be painting our volcanoes and then EXPLODING them! Woohoo!  We will also learn about the parts of a volcano and will begin exploring the three types of rocks.

Reading:  We will continue on with asking Thick Questions this week due to our short week last week.

Writing:  Poetry continues this week as well.  We will be turning our focus toward our marvelous mothers as Mother's Day is this Sunday.  Yay Moms!  Thank you for all that you do!  We will also be choosing a famous poem to memorize for our Poetry Recital.  Our Poetry Recital will be held in our classroom on Friday May 16th at 2:45- 3:20.  I will send home more information this week.  

Math:  We will be wrapping up our unit on fractions this week and will be moving on to more multiplication and division.   In our next unit, we will focus on mental multiplication, exploring two-digit multiplication, number stories, and remainders.

Special Events:  The high school National Honor Society students will be hosting Safety Day at the end of the day on Thursday.  This is a great way for the students to learn about safety in all sorts of situations like biking, rafting, crossing the street, and more!

Heads Up:

-We will be having another round of MAP testing this week.  We will be testing on Monday and Friday from 10-11:20.  

-Next week we will be heading to the Trailhead Museum on Tuesday May 13 for a fun some fun hands-on scientific explorations!  I will be sending a permission slip home with more details this week.

As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read this.  I so appreciate you attention and support.  Only four more entries to read after this!