YUM! YUM! SNOWMEN!!!!

Parents,

 The snowmen must have melted before they made it home to you so here are a few pics for you to enjoy. Thanks again to Mrs. Kucera and Mrs. Michelson for volunteering their time and donating the supplies to make these yummy snowmen! The students loved them!!                                                                       

Sorry, this picture is so blurry:(

Weekly Update: December 3rd-7th

Lemme

Leopards

Hi Parents,

As I am writing this, I am seeing the first snowflakes of this winter fall from the sky. My boys are thrilled about this as they have been talking about it for weeks. I hope you are having a great weekend!

Language Arts:

This past week students read the informational text, Aero and Officer Mike. Students practiced the comprehensions skills of summarizing and determining author's purpose. We discussed the four main reasons authors write; to entertain, to persuade, to express feelings/thoughts, and to inform. We also spent large/small group time summarizing parts of the text we were reading. When summarizing, we focus on telling the important parts of the text in our own words. We also differentiate the difference between retelling and summarizing.

Grammar and Writing:
This week's focus is an extension of last week's subject-verb agreement.  We are now applying our learning to pronouns and verbs.

We also focused on the prefixes im- and in- which mean not. It was important for students to see that a prefix can help us determine the meaning of unknown/new words.

Examples: incomplete-not complete    imperfect-not perfect

Spelling: This past weeks' spelling words had the /är/ sound spelled with ar and the /ôr/ sound spelled with the letters or or ore.

Math: Students will be taking their Unit 5 Math Progress Check on Wednesday, December 12th. Students should be bringing home a review sheet on Monday, December 10th. The challenge this unit has been students learning the place value of decimals. This is a concept that we will come back to again throughout the rest of the school year. 

Science: This past week students observed surface tension by seeing how many drops of water could fit on the surface of a penny. We also observed what effect soapy water and salt water has on surface tension, learning that soapy water breaks the barrier and salt water has little to no effect. Students also made their own versions of a thermometer (pictures to come) and watched what happened as their "thermometer" was submerged in hot and cold water.

Reminder: We increased the reading log minutes to 15 minutes a night for a goal of 300 minutes a month. Thanks for your support with this at home, I appreciate it!

Weekly Update:November 26th-30th

Lemme

Leopards

Hi Parents,

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I have been away from the classroom more than I would like to be this past week. I have attended two science trainings, one on Tuesday and another on Friday. The science trainings provide me with an excellent hands-on experience  to gain a better understanding of what we want to students to learn from each particular science unit. It is great to be able to compare and contrast with the students my learning experience to their own. I will have my last science training this coming Tuesday. I have been very fortunate to have Janet Galbreth(a former Lemme teacher) as my substitute over these past few absences.

Language Arts:

This past week students read the legend, Yonder Mountain. Students practiced the comprehensions skills of comparing(how they are alike) and contrasting(how they are different) the characters within the story.

Grammar and Writing: Subject-verb agreement is our topic this week.  Students learned that if the subject is singular in a present-tense sentence, the verb needs either an -s or an -es added on the end. We also focused on adding -es to verbs that end in -ch,-sh,-s, or-x.

Spelling: This past weeks' spelling words were contractions. Your child will get their spelling test back on Tuesday instead of Monday this week.



Math: Students began Unit 5: Place Value in Whole Numbers and Decimals on Monday, November 26th. In Unit 5, students will review place value up to five digit whole numbers. They will read, write, compare, and order before they begin to explore larger numbers. For real life application, students will study population data about the U.S. cities.

Science: Students began their new unit of study, Water. The Water Unit consists of four investigations in which students explore properties of water, changes in water, interactions between water and other earth materials, and how humans use water. On Wednesday and Friday, students observed how water interacts with four different surface; aluminum foil, a paper towel, a piece of paper, and waxed paper. Students used a dropper to put the water on the four different materials. They had a great time, we didn't realize this was going to be so cool and exciting:) I will be sure to add pictures throughout our science unit.

Reminder:
Reading logs are due Monday, December 3rd. Please help your child total the number of minutes that they read and sign it at the bottom.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy

Thanksgiving

Hi Parents,

We had a nice couple of days together. The kids were great even with the excitement of having a break. We were able to practice and present a reader's theaters. The kids did a nice job, it gave us the opportunity to practice our fluency including out smoothness, expression, rate, and phrasing.

We also made a turkey craft and a turkey snack. The snack was a little messier than anticipated, but the kids seemed to enjoy making them. I wanted to take a picture of the whole class with their special snack, but most of us couldn't wait to gobble it up. I was able to catch a few students with their turkey snack. Here are some pictures from Tuesday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Weekly Update: November 12th-16th

Lemme

Leopards

Hi Parents,

I hope you have been able to enjoy the wonderful weather this past week. I am looking forward to this coming week, being able to spend some quality time with my family. We will be heading up to Northeast Iowa to my parent's home in the big town of Garnavillo, Iowa. The boys love running around with their cousins and don't seem to stop moving from the time we get there. I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving break and some special time with your family.

Language Arts:

This past week students read the realistic text, The Science Fair. Students practiced the comprehensions skills of determining the story structure; naming the setting, characters, and plot of the story. They also practiced the comprehension strategy of visualizing, using text details to create a clear picture of what is happening in the story in their mind.

Grammar and Writing: Students worked on identifying more proper nouns within sentences. We reinforced that proper nouns always have a capital letter and name a specific person, place, or thing.

Common nouns- crayons, city, school, girl

Proper nouns- Crayola, Iowa City, Lemme Elementary, Grace

Spelling: This past weeks' spelling words were composed of homophones. Students not only had to be able to spell the words correctly, but also be able to use the context of the a sentence to understand the meaning of the spelling word. Please sign your child's spelling test on Monday and return it with your child on Tuesday.

Math: Students will be taking their Unit 4 Progress Check on Monday, November 19th. We have spent this past week going over multiplication and division and using a multiplication/division diagram to help organize the numbers from the word problems and solve them. Students should have brought home their review sheet on Friday. We went over the answers together as a class. I also gave them another review sheet to complete in class on Friday, they may have brought this home as well. Please be aware of circled problems as those were the ones that they missed.

I mentioned sending home math facts sheets in a previous email, but our copier was not making double sided copies. I wanted to create a packet so you didn't have loose papers everywhere so I promise I will work on getting these to you, let's hope the copier is fixed soon. I also tried to attach them here to my blog, but it doesn't seem to like PDF's so I will try to send a couple via email. I just am worried about the amount of space they will take up on your email so I will send a couple at a time. You may want to open and save them, then deleted them from your email.

Social Studies: This week students reviewed cardinal directions; north, south, east, and west. We also discussed intermediate directions; northeast, southwest, northwest, and southeast. We had fun singing a song and facing the direction the song told us to. Lastly, we located and labeled Iowa and Iowa City on a map.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving Break!

Weekly Update: November 5th-9th

Lemme Leopards

Hi Parents,

I wanted to thank you all for coming to conferences and discussing your child's progress. I appreciate the great conversations and always enjoy meeting with each of you! I also appreciate the great support that you provide for your child at home, working on homework, studying spelling words, and helping your child complete their reading logs each night. This support at home is valuable in order for your child to be successful. I feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful group of third graders that work so hard each and every day.

Curriculum Updates

Reading and Writing:

Reading:

This past week students read the biography selection, Jump which is about one of my favorite basketball players of all time, Michael Jordan. Students practiced the comprehensions skills of being able determine the difference between fact/opinion. It caused for interesting discussion, because even though we were reading a biography with many factual pieces of information about Michael Jordan, the author was able to tie in his own opinion about Michael and his abilities. Students looked for key words within sentences such as; best worst, and greatest.

Grammar and Writing: Students spent time changing singular nouns to plural nouns. Here are some of the things we have discussed:

• Most nouns, you can simply add -s or -es (Ex. pencil/pencils)
• Some nouns stay the same (Ex. deer/deer)
• They may change completely (Ex. mouse/mice)
• Change y to i and add -es Ex. (berry/berries)

Spelling: Students spelling words were sorted into two categories based on the /oy/ sound. Students sorted their words by the spelling patterns, oi and oy. Students did take their spelling test on Thursday so they will receive their tests back on Monday like normal. I just started having students get their spelling tests signed and returning them to me. I like to know that parents are seeing them. Students are going to begin to individually graph their Post test scores so they can see their progress. These will not be posted in the classroom. Students will bring their signed spelling test back home on Fridays.

Reading logs: Students received their new reading log for the month of November. Your child is expected to average about 50 minutes per week for a goal of 200 minutes by the end of the month. Please have your child read to themselves, to you, or to a sibling. It is important to talk to your child about their reading as well to make sure they are comprehending what they are reading. We are really working during library time to make sure we are choosing just right book. Students are expected to choose two just right books out of the five that they can check out for the week.

Everyday Mathematics: Students were introduced to multiplication and division this past week. Here are some of the concepts/skills we worked on during math:

• Practiced division by solving equal-sharing and equal-grouping number stories
• Formed arrays with counters and drew pictures of arrays
• Completed multiplication/division diagrams and wrote number models to solve division number stories

Social Studies:

Students have worked on locating key features on a map of earth; the equator, the prime meridian, the four hemispheres, the four oceans, and the seven continents. Students will continue this coming week to identify the countries on a map of North America and identify states and communities on a map of the southeastern United States.

Reminders and Other information:

Veteran's Day:
Students worked this past week on making cards for Veteran's Day. We will be having an assembly in honor of Veterans on Monday, November 12th at 9:30 a.m. Please remind your child to wear red, white, or blue for this special assembly.

Weekly Update: October 29th-November 2nd

Happy

 Halloween!!

Hi Parents,

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! I think my boys will have enough candy to last us until the 4th of July parade!!!

The students had a great afternoon on Wednesday, showing off their costumes during the parade and enjoying their snacks afterward. A BIG thank you to the parent volunteers that helped students get into their costumes, prepare snacks, and help clean up, we appreciate it so much!! Thank you also to those of you that provided the snacks, drinks, or sent in a special treat. Below are the pictures I was able to snap, I am hoping I got everyone. Enjoy!

 

Lemme Staff as 101 Dalmations

Curriculum Update:

Literacy:

This past week students read the biography, Young Thomas Edison. Students practiced the comprehensions skills of determining the main idea and finding details to support it.   Students also worked on the comprehension strategies of categorizing and classifying.

Grammar and Writing: Students spent time substituting nouns with pronouns.

Spelling: Students' spelling words were sorted into four categories based on the /o/ sound.  Students put them into the following categories; au, aw, al, o. Students receive a copy of their spelling words at school each Monday. They should be bringing this list home to study. Students take a spelling test each Friday. They will bring home their scored tests on the following Monday. There are six challenge words at the bottom of each list, these are optional for students although I encourage all students to try them. 

Reading logs:

The October reading log was due Thursday, November 1st. Please have your child turn it into me as soon as possible if they have not done so already. Students should have received their new reading log for the month of November. Your child is expected to average about 50 minutes per week for a goal of 200 minutes by the end of the month. I was so impressed with the reading logs that were turned in, the students are surpassing the expected amount of minutes by leaps and bounds!! They are motivated and excited to share with each other how may minutes they have read for the night, week, and month:) Please continue to encourage your child to read to you, to a sibling, or to themselves.



Everyday Mathematics:

I have decided that I will keep the Unit 4 Progress Check until your child's conference as I am using them to help explain your child's report. If I have already had your child's conference, I will send it home on Monday. Please sign and return the Progress Check.

Other:
No school on Friday, October 9th due to conferences.