Weekly Update: February 18th-22nd

Lemme

Leopards

Hi Parents,

I hope everyone was able to enjoy their snow day. The boys ventured outside yesterday to play in the snow. They lasted about 20 minutes. Cooper (almost 2) enjoyed eating the snow more than anything else. I have heard mention of more snow, hopefully it will miss us.

Language Arts:

This past week students read the informational text, The Journey: Stories of Migration by Cynthia Rylant. Students practiced the comprehension skill of using compare and contrast to help them understand the text. Students used a Venn Diagram to help them identify the ways a locust's migration compares/contrasts to that of a grey whale's migration. We also focused on visualizing as we were reading, using the details to picture what is happening in the text.

Spelling:

This week was a review of some of our previous spelling patterns:  adding -s, -es, -ed, -ing

Math:

We started Unit 8: Fractions on Tuesday, February 19th. Unit 8 has six main area of focus:

• To explore fractional and spatial relationships
• To introduce the number line for fractions
• To find equivalent fractions
• To compare fractions using region models
• To name quantities greater than 1 with fractions and mixed numbers
• To solve number stories involving fractions

Science:
We have done more hands-on investigations with our friends, the Bess Beetles. We(including myself) also practiced picking up the crayfish. Here are a few more pictures of some of the students with the Bess beetles.

Weekly Update: February 11th-15th

Lemme

Leopards

Hi Parents,

      We had a busy and exciting week! We enjoyed Mesa Pizza on Thursday, the kids couldn't believe the size of the slices. Macaroni pizza was a new experience for me and was it DELICIOUS!! The students impress me each day with their positive behavior, I have received many compliments on what a great class we have. I truly enjoy them, I always refer to them as my fabulous 3rd graders!!!

      Our Valentine's party was a success, the students enjoyed fruit kabobs, raspberry sherbet with Sprite, and opening their Valentines from their friends. A BIG thank you to Mrs. Kucera and Mrs. Greving for all of your help with the party. Thank you also to those of parents that donated items for the party. Mrs. Michaeli your hard work was appreciated, the kabobs were great!

     Enjoy the pictures below of our pizza and Valentine's party!

MMMMMMMMMM! Mesa Pizza!

 Valentine's Day Party

Check out Mrs. Martinez' Valentine's Day mailbox. The kids loved going inside and dropping off their Valentines!!

Language Arts:

This past week students read the fantasy text, Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg. Students practiced the comprehension skill of using story structure to help them better understand text.  Students identified the setting, characters, and plot. We focused on clarifying the main problem and solution within our text, identifying main events throughout the story.

Spelling:

Our spelling pattern focused on adding -ed and -ing to base words. We discussed doubling the consonant and dropping silent e before adding -ed or  -ing.

Math: We have been taking some time to review concepts/skills taught previously this school year. We will beginning Unit 8:Fractions on Tuesday, February 19th. Unit 8 has two primary objectives:

• To review the use of fractions and fraction notation
• To help students develop a solid understanding of equivalent fractions, or fractions that have the same value

Science: We are continuing to grow our bean plants and will measure it's growth each week.
We have some new visitors in our classroom as you can tell from the picture below. The students had the chance to touch and observe the Bess beetles and the features they possess. Some students were more excited than others. I will encourage the students to touch/handle the beetles, but they will not be forced. The crayfish also arrived today, I will post more pictures next week. The students have been wanting a class pet, I told them these are our temporary class pets:)

Weekly Update: February 4th-8th

Lemme

Leopards

Important Events

On Monday, February 11th, we will have a new face joining our classroom , Sally Gessner, a practicum student from the University of Iowa. We are excited to have Miss Gessner in our classroom!

Thursday, February 14th: Valentine's Day Party from 1:05-2:00

I attached a class list to a previous email for students to use to help fill out their Valentine's cards. Students will decorate a bag here at school, they are welcome to bring in special items to help them decorate their bag. We will plan to decorate on Wednesday.

Friday, February 15th: The Optimist Good Reader Program is due this Friday! Please check in with your child to see how they are progressing to complete all nine books. I have a checklist within the classroom that Miss Karen is helping me with, feel free to contact me if you would like to know how your child is doing with their summaries and reading.

Friday, February 15th: Indoor Movie Night at Lemme! Enjoy watching the Lorax from 6:30pm to 8:30pm in the Lemme Gym.

Wednesday, February 20th: Lemme Library Fund Night at Short's Burgers. Short's Burgers will donate 15% of the evening meals to the Lemme Library!

No school on the following days:

Monday, February 18th, Monday, February 25th, and Tuesday, February 26th.

Parent Teacher Conferences:

Thursday, February 21st, Tuesday, February 26th, and Thursday, February 28th

I will send home a conference reminder confirming your date/time. Please sign these and return these as soon as possible. I will also send home a Parent survey to gain feedback from you.

Pennies for Patients Drive ends February 22nd. Please continue to bring in your change. The class that raises the most money gets a pizza party!

Box Tops for Education: Student council is collecting Box Tops for education. If we reach our goal of 1,000 or more, Mrs. Martinez will let a student feed her messy foods while she is blind folded:)

Weekly Update: January 28th-February 1st

Lemme

Leopards

Hi Parents,

I hope you have been staying warm this last week and were able to enjoy the snow day. It has been a crazy week with me out on Monday and Tuesday, no school on Wednesday, and late starts on Thursday and Friday. The boys and I took time to make Valentine's sugar cookies on our snow day together. There was definitely a lot of sprinkles used, many on the cookie and the plate underneath:) Cooper (my youngest) was our taste tester and they were a success! Now, that is all he is asking for..more cookies!

Language Arts:

This past week students read the fantasy story, Dogzilla by Dav Pikey. Students practiced the comprehension skill of identifying the cause and effect and the comprehension strategy of summarizing.

Spelling:  This past week students focused on spelling the vowel sounds heard in cook and moon.

Math:  The last part of this week we spent some time on extended multiplication facts. These are multiplication facts that involve multiples of 10, 100 and so on.

For example: We know 3x8=24 so:

                                                                       30x8=240

                                                80x3=240

                                                30x80=2,400

                                                800x3=2,400

Science: Thank you so much for your donations of fruits for us to investigate. The students were put into groups of three and were given three different fruits for their group. Each group member estimated how seeds they thought would be inside. The students were surprised to find that many fruits have a ton of seeds. Students compared the properties of seeds of all of the fruits. We investigated the pomegranate together and each student was offered the chance to try a taste test. Most students tried it, and many came back for seconds.

Reminders:

Optimist Reader Program

Students should still be working on their Optimist Good Reader Program reading and summaries, due February 15th. They are working on these in school but can also be working on these at home. The following genres are the ones that students need to be reading:

• Poetry
• Science Fiction/Fantasy
• Non-fiction (2)
• Folktale
• Historical Fiction
• Realistic Fiction
• Biography
• Award Winning

Valentine's Day

Students will be decorating a Valentine's Day bag at school (to hold their Valentine's). We have 23 students in our class, I will send out another email attaching a class list. Students can address each one individually or they can also just sign their name, either way is fine. I reminded students that if they are bringing Valentine's that they bring one for everyone in the class. I also told students if they would like to bring in items to decorate their Valentine's bags they could. Please wait to send these items until it gets closer.