Just Plain Thankful...

Hello Friends,

 I cannot begin to express my thanks to you for such lovely and thoughtful gifts. I am one very fortunate teacher. I sincerely appreciate your gifts and your support. I love your children and our little family in room 212. I wish you all a happy and safe holiday filled with snuggles and laughter. Y'all make me smile.

Beth :)

Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.

Zig Ziglar

The Countdown to Vacation Has Begun!

It's been a crazy busy week...as usual! MAP testing is over and now the excitement for holiday gifts, activities, and family visits is setting in. I hope we can get some work done next week!

Updates:
1. No RRJ due on Monday! (The children know this...but I wanted to keep y'all in the loop)
2. Math HW was due tomorrow but I told the children that they can bring it in and we will finish it in class tomorrow!
3. I apologize if  I put the wrong date on the Government test. We took it yesterday. I think everyone did quite well. It's really more of a measure for me to see where/what I need to re-teach. Government is a tough and complicated concept for 8 year olds. (and 40 year olds!)
4. There is no community circle tomorrow but we will have it next week.
5. Our Winter Brrr....eakfast is next Friday immediately following Community Circle. I will ask Ms. Lofstrand for a procedure so that y'all aren't standing around waiting to sign-in. I'll get back to you on that.

Even though we had testing..we still managed to learn about Non-fiction text features, we began looking at text structures, we dug for minerals in our cookie rocks, and discussed area and perimeter. The students also managed to learn about Pompeii...which was not part of my plans, but they were super interested in it after reading a text about volcanoes!


We have also started reading The Mighty Miss Malone  by Christopher Paul Curtis.  If you want to know more about the book click HERE for a review and synopsis.

AND....Here they are!

Check Out the ROCK WALL..............................

We wrote what we knew already.......

We did some reading and added to our knowledge...

In case you are wondering about DIVISION....we are not learning to use long division yet. (That's 4th grade) This is how we solve division problem. If the dividend is not evenly divide then we have a remainder. 

Cookie Rocks and Minerals!

Mr. Soons and I at a MADMEN Party last weekend

The Plan for the next 11 Days!

First, I'd like to say THANKS SO MUCH for the book. I literally balled my eyes out as I read it! What an amazing gift! I am so happy and lucky to get to teach your children and hang out with them each day.

  We did some furniture moving and altering this week. I think it's working well. The children never liked sitting at their tables and spent most of their time sitting or laying on the floor so we "chopped" off some of the table legs and WE LOVE IT! (There is still regular seating available just in case!)

 I also decided to let the kids use the tables as a writing surface for a spelling rules lesson...they LOVED that too. I heard things like,"This feels so wrong, but it's so cool!" and "Is she serious?" LOL!

UPDATES AND INFO:

Math: We added another row to the math homework sheet...but don't worry if it seems difficult. Your child should be able to use a strategy to divide but may not yet know how to actually divide using the OLD SCHOOL way...I prefer if they use repeated subtraction, pictures or opposite operations/fact families to solve. Also, it's not a big deal if they don't get it yet. We are still in thick of learning our Multiplication facts! Please continue to work on the facts at home each night. We've tested on 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's. Tomorrow we will do 11's and 4's for those students who are ready. We keep track using our class chart. 

  We are also making our own X and / board games this week and next week! We will be playing the games next week with Mrs. Yoo's class.

Social Studies: We are currently combining our Non-fiction reading and writing unit with learning about 9 historical figures. They are all important to our history because they exhibited similar key traits. These traits are part of the 3rd grade standard. Your child needs to able to identify and discuss the meaning of the traits as well as discuss how the figures exhibited some or all of the traits. We will be working hard on this throughout January. 

  FIGURES

Paul Revere

Frederick Douglass

Susan B. Anthony

Thurgood Marshall

Mary Mcleod Bethune

FDR

Eleanor Roosevelt

Cesar Chavez

Lyndon B. Johnson

TRAITS

Liberty

Justice

Tolerance

Cooperation

Diligence

Courage

Leadership

Freedom of Conscience of Expression

Respect and Accept Authority

*****We will also be taking our GOVERNMENT TEST on December 10th. Please encourage your child to study, practice the sort activity, and watch some of the videos listed on the study guide that was sent home on Monday.*****

Science: We will be working on Rocks and Minerals and doing experiments and activities all next week. Mrs. Yoo and I are planning some fun things to provide a break from all of the MAP testing we will be doing next week.

Reading & Writing:  Non-fiction! We are reading and writing NF texts. If you have any old National Geographic magazines or Time etc...please send them to school. We will be looking for NF text features and making a book from the clippings. (For example: graphs, charts, time lines, captions, etc)


ELA:  We are working on plural spelling rules, using commas, and we will start root words, prefixes and suffixes soon.

I am surely forgetting to tell y'all something........I'll post again if need be. Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions.

IMPORTANT INFO!! PLEASE READ!! :)

Well...we have a mascot and as you (should) know, your child's lips are sealed! We will be revealing the new Westchester Mascot tomorrow at Community Circle. There will be a video presentation and a short song...I will send you the movie tomorrow via email in case you cant' make it.

*PLEASE HELP YOUR CHILD DRESS UP FOR THE OCCASION! We voted on our attire and 'FANCY' was the majority rule. (I was hoping for jeans but sadly, we will be 'FANCY')

Homework for Next Week:
* Your child will be bringing home a rubber band NF book on Frederick Douglass. Make sure you ask your child what they learned about him by reading the book. Please remind your child to bring it back to school after break.
*There will only be ONE Reading Response due on December 1st when the children return from Thanksgiving Break.  It can be any of the following responses:

1. Write about your favorite moment this year so far....
2. Write about what you are grateful for and why.
3. Write facts about Thurgood Marshall, Susan B. Anthony, Paul Revere, and Frederick Douglass.
4. Read any NF book and write 10 facts you learned about the topic.

* Please encourage and help your child to learn his/her multiplication facts with fluency. We need to move further into Division and then Geometry....and knowing the facts is extremely important! :)


We are finishing up our unit on government. We added leaves to our tree to show what each branch of government does.

     Here are our super creative turkeys!! We have an FBI Agent, Rapper, Snowman, Ninja, Lawyer Sean Simmons, Turkey-ham Lincoln, Origami Foot Soldier,  Lionel Messi, Javier Martinez Turkey, The Legend of the Christmas Pickle, 2 Pumpkins, a bush, an apple, an Alabama Football Player, a cheerleader and Rosie Turkey.  * The stories and disguises are super creative!

Finally THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR THE GLUE!!! :) I know it may seem silly, but I feel super lucky to have the supply of glue we now have in the glue drawer! Y'all are the best. I really appreciate your help, support, and kind words!

I wish you a safe, restful and delicious Thanksgiving with your families and friends. I am thankful for my job and for my sweet class. Your children inspire me everyday. They make me laugh, they drive me crazy, they push me to be better in every way!

The Case Study is Underway!

Hello Friends,
  Another great week has passed and we've learned a great deal. This week we have been working on:

Reading: We started learning about non-fiction as a genre and non-fiction text features. We are currently reading about Thurgood Marshall. He is one of 9 historical figures that we will learn about over the course of the year as a part of our Social Studies standards. (Paul Revere, Susan B. Anthony, Fredrick Douglas, Mary McCleod Bethune, Lyndon B. Johnson, FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, Cesar Chavez, and  are also in coming up)
* We will also start to introduce rocks and minerals in reading in the month of December in order to integrate reading and Science standards.

Writing: We finally completed publishing our personal narratives and we will begin informational writing on Monday.
Language Arts: We've been working on plural spelling rules, linking verbs, comma usage, and next week we will continue to review and practice all of these skills.

Math: We are working hard to learn multiplication facts with fluency. PLEASE HELP YOUR CHILD PRACTICE !!! :) We are also working on division and fact families. Today we worked to write our own division and multiplication problems using fact families. This is an especially difficult concept for the children to grasp. If they learn their facts, it will be very helpful to them.

Science: Rocks and Minerals are next....

Social Studies: We are working on our Case Study on choosing a school mascot. The students have developed traits that they feel will represent WE as a school and possible mascot candidates. We held a primary election and tomorrow the students will announce the final 2 candidates that will be included in the school-wide vote! In addition, we are continuing our study of the levels and branches of government.

Take a look at what we've been up to:

MASCOT POSTERS FOR THE CAMPAIGN

PRIMARY BALLOT

POSTER DRAFTING

MATH FLUENCY CHART!!

PERSONAL NARRATIVES

NON-FICTION READING AND NOTES

COLE'S BIRTHDAY PRESENTS