Skyward Grading Program

Today we had a meeting with the district about our new grading program. In the past we have had a separate grade for reading and writing. With Skyward they have combined it all into one grade for Language Arts. When you view the grades online, (Starting the 2nd week of January) you will see 6 different categories under the subject of Language Arts. To give the most accurate grade, the 3rd grade team has weighed the different categories as follows:

SUBJECT -- will be known as -- percent of grade

Cursive - LAB - 5%

Spelling - TESTS - 10%

Homework - HOMEWORK - 10%

Writing - PROJECTs - 30%

Reading - QUIZ - 30%

Grammar - ASSIGNMENTS - 15%

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Home Reading Library

Parents and Students,

The home reading library will be collecting all of the books on Friday December 18th. They will start sending them home again on Monday Jan. 4th. If you have a lost book, please send in the $5.00 replacement fee so they can replace it.

Thanks to all of the parents who help out in the home reading library. And keep reading!

*** Also please send all library books to school that are past due.

{Self Portrait, Christmas Style}

For Fun Friday last week, we drew pictures of ourselves. We then added our own personal Santa hat and a letter to Santa.

The kids did an amazing job and I was very impressed with their skills.

{Look who joined our class!}

After some really good behavior, our class earned a class pet. He is a Beta Fish and his name is Spikey! The kids are really excited about Spike and we are glad he has joined our class. He is looking for a home for the Christmas Break. If you would like to have him stay with you, please send a note to school and I will put it in a drawing. Thanks!

{Funding for next year}

On Thursday I sent home a a couple of important papers. There was a yellow and white paper stapled together from Mrs. Allan. These papers are very important. Please read through them and send them back to school ASAP.

Our school needs to have a count of free and reduced lunch in order to get extra funding for next year! Please fill out the papers and send them back with your students.

You only need to fill one out per family, but send the yellow note back with each child so we know it has been turned in with another student.

Thank you!

{It's Cold Outside!}

Please remember to send your child to school wearing the appropriate clothing for the weather. It is getting cold, and most days it will be outside recess. Coats, boots, gloves, and scarves will make recess a little warmer!

{Sorry it has been a while}

It has been a few weeks and I apologize! I hope that everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break and are ready for Christmas break. (It will be here before we know it.)

The week before Thanksgiving we wrote fictional and fantasy stories based on Thanksgiving. We celebrated our writing by eating Pumpkin Pie and reading our stories to the class. We have some amazing writers in our class. Each story gets better and better as the year progresses and I am very impressed!

We also used the letters from Give Thanks, to find as many words as we could. It was a great holiday activity to get the students minds thinking!

Multiplication Mania

This month we started learning our multiplication facts. To start out the unit we learned a few different strategies to get the answers.

3x4=12
3 equal groups of 4 = 12

Drawing pictures

Repeated addition
3+3+3+3=12 or 4+4+4=12

Drawing Arrays

Fact Family
3x4=12
4x3=12
12 divided by 4=3 (no division sign, haha)
12 divided by 3=4

We have started passing off our facts and have passed off 0's, 1's, and 2's.

Tomorrow we will be passing off our 3's.
Thursday we will be passing off our 4's.
Friday we will be passing off our 5's.

When we get back from Thanksgiving break we will be passing off 6-11's. Please make sure your child is practicing their facts each night for at least 10 minutes. We will be continuing to practice our facts for the rest of the year, but are passing them off by Christmas.

Here is a free download for a multiplication game on the computer that helps with 2's-11's.
http://www.bigbrainz.com/Download.html

"I Am Not A Turkey!"

What do you get when you give your students a blank turkey, and tell them to disguise the turkey?


You get some of the following:
Miley Cyrus
A Police Woman
A Snowman
A Army Dude
A Raven
A Soccer Player
A Strawberry
A Pumpkin
President Obama
and more.... Take a look at these awesome "Turkeys"

Making Arrays

Another way we have been learning how to figure out multiplication answers is by drawing and making arrays. We took a 6x8 array, and cut it into 2 pieces. We had a bunch of different arrays, but when put together, they all equaled 48.

Multiplication Game with Dice

Our class loves playing math games, and it is a great way for the students to discover the answers on their own. If you have some dice at your house, play this game for some extra practice! (It will count towards your 10 minutes of practice each night.)

You can pick a number to times by, we picked 3's yesterday. And then roll one or two dice and times the number you rolled, with the 3.

{Halloween Party, Part 3}

Bella's mom came with games and prizes! At her rotation the students were able to play Halloween Pictionary. The kids did a great job drawing Halloween pictures and guessing.

{Halloween Party, Part 2}

Trent's Mom came and helped out with the treat station. The class was able to take a plain sugar cookie and transform it into a sugary invention. The students loved the bright orange frosting and the sprinkles and treats they added to their cookie. Most of the class didn't have time to eat it during class and were able to take it home for an after school treat!

{Halloween Party, Part 1}

We had an awesome Halloween party put on by parents in our class. We had 5 different stations, and I had students telling me, this was the best party ever! Thank you so much to the parents who came, brought things, and helped entertain the class. It was awesome!

Part 1- Slime! Henry's mom came with a craft for the class. Working together they mixed ingredients to make some green slime. The kids were amazed with the final product and couldn't stop playing with it. It was a huge success!