Reminders for this Week

Christmas Lunch for grades 3-5 will be this Thursday, December 9. Reservations and money are due TOMORROW (Tuesday, December 7). No late reservations will be accepted.

Ornaments are due tomorrow, Tuesday, December 7. This will count as a 100 point Social Studies grade. The winner will get 10 bonus points, and that ornament will be on display on the tree in the front foyer.

Our class will go to the Santa Shop on Tuesday and Thursday this week. If you child would like to do some Christmas shopping, please send money to school with them on either of those two days.

It's Christmas!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our classroom and school! We decided to take a class picture by our school tree today, and it turned out great! I sure have a good looking bunch of third graders! We also had a surprise visitor arrive in our classroom today...Jingle Bells the Elf is back! He will be with us until Christmas, watching over the class and reporting what he sees back to Santa each night. Hopefully he will be able to report that all of my students have been nice!






Our class will go to the Santa Shop next Tuesday and Thursday, so if your child would like to shop, please send money on either of those two days.

News

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break and enjoyed having the week off. I sure did! This year, I have lots to be thankful for. I am so thankful to have a wonderful family, great friends, and an AWESOME job! I am very thankful for each and every one of my students. This year I have something else to be very thankful for...I am expecting my first child! I am sure most of you have heard from your children, but I wanted to confirm ;) because we all know not to believe EVERY thing we hear from children! I am due June 29, so hopefully I won't miss any time away from your children!

Field Trip

Here are some pictures from our field trip to American Village. The class had a great time!

Happy Veteran's Day!

On Tuesday, we had a very nice Veteran's Day program at school. We are all very thankful of the brave men and women who serve, or have served our counrty. Here is a clip from the news that tells about our program.



We will be out of school tomorrow, November 11 for Veteran's Day. All of our regular Thursday testing will be done on Friday.

Please remember to send can food items to school Friday with you children. For every 5 cans your child brings in, they will get 5 bonus points to add on to any test grade!!! This is a great way to help others as well as help some grades!!!

Pumpkins

I'm sure you all have heard about all the cute pumpkins we have in our "Pumpkin Patch"! I have below pictures of our class pumpkin, Wilbur from Charlotte's Web, and all of the other WONDERFUL characters that will be auctioned off on Friday. Bidding started at $10.00 on all pumpkins. You can come in at any time and bid on your favorite one. Winners will be announced at the Fall Festival on Friday.

Reminder - All students MUST purchase a $10 wristband to attend the Fall Festival. This money must be turned in by Friday morning. All students who do not attend will be dismissed at the annex Friday afternoon.

There will be NO gym on Friday!!! Please make other arrangements.

80's Fun Day

Author SKYPE

Today our class had the opportunity to Skype with an author, Terry Pierce. During the call she read her most recent book, "Blueberry Banquet" to the class, and also gave students time to ask her questions about being an author. This was a very fun activity for the class and I really appreciate Ms. Pierce taking time to speak to us. I have posted some pictures, and will try to post a video of the call on here very soon.

I will post some pictures of pajama day over the weekend!

Technology

What a great day we had today!!! I added some FUN technology to one of our reading stations, and we even had time for all students to go to at least one math station today! Our school was able to purchase a set (around 12) of iPod touches, and I checked some out to use with my class. Hopefully we will be able to use these on a regular basis. If you have an iPod touch or iPhone, there are TONS of free apps that are GREAT resources for children. Students used the voice recorder today at a reading station to record themselves reading a passage, and then listened to the recording. Some were very surprised at how they sounded. This is a great way for them to hear how fluent they are reading, and work on improving fluency. We also used the iPods to play math facts games and used dice to make our own math sentences. Here are some pictures from today!

I have a few important reminders -
Next Friday is 80s dress up day (We are celebrating Mitchell's 60th B'day). This will be a lot of fun!
This Friday is the end of the 1st Nine Weeks, and Report Cards go home the following Thursday.
Coupon Books were due today, Tuesday, October 5. You MUST either return the coupon book, or send $20 to pay for that book. All other orders are due at this time as well.

Homecoming Week Fun

Here are some pictures from Homecoming Week. Sorry I am a little late posting them! I thought our door was soooo cute, and I loved the saying on it! Thanks so much to Melanie Nelson, our sweet room mother, who took time to come decorate the door for us.

I hope everyone has enjoyed not having to study for spelling this week. I have seen some GREAT cursive handwriting this week from homework and morning work. We are working to move to all cursive, so keep up the hard work! If I made notes on your child's paper, or corrected letters, please continue to practice those letters at home. Practice makes perfect! :)

This week has been a review week in reading, so I have focused on week areas and retaught those skills. Hopefully grades will continue to go up. One thing I have noticed is that many of my students are in a HUGE hurry to finish any, and everything they do. I really believe that is why some have low grades, so we have also practiced checking our own work this week and looking back to find correct answers if we don't remember. I have stressed this week the importance of ALWAYS doing your best, so please talk to your children about that too. That is all I will ask of them this entire year - Do your Best!

Thanks for all you do!

Homecoming Week

This week we will be celebrating GCHS Homecoming. We will have dress up days, a pep rally, and early dismissal on Friday for the parade!!!

Dress Up Days are the following:
Monday - Inside Out/Tacky Day
Tuesday - Crazy Sock Day
Wednesday - Crazy Hair Day
Thursday - School Spirt Day (Titan Day)
Friday - Dismissal at 11:30

I will post pictures from the week so be sure to check the site daily!

Thanks to Melanie Nelson for decorating our classroom door! It looks great!!! I will post pictures of it too!

Last Chance For Bonus!!!

Tonight, Thursday September 9, is the last night students may submit their sentences for bonus points. They were suppose to write 3-4 sentences about what they would do if they had a million dollars - see post below for directions. Please leave a comment on that post with the sentences, be sure to include child's name so I will be sure they get points.

Great job so far J.J., Alexis, Savanna, and Mitch!!!

Owl Pellet Fun!!!

Today in Science we spent the day digging through owl pellets looking for bones! The class really enjoyed this, and did a great job! Some were a little slow to touch, but I had a few girls who jumped right in using their hands. I let those who wanted to bring a few of the bones they found home to share with parents, so please be aware they had that in their folders today.

Congratulations Abby!!!

Congratulations to the 3rd Grade Student of the Month...ABBY COKER!!!

Rounding Practice

Here is a great website for rounding whole numbers. This would be great practice for students at home. I have really noticed that many struggle with rounding, and that is one of the math skills that follow students up through the higher grade levels. It is very important that this skill is mastered during 3rd grade. So, any extra time spent on this would really benefit your child.

http://www.aplusmath.com/Flashcards/rounding.html

Thanks!

Look for pictures later today from last Friday's Alabama/Auburn Day, and a picture of the 3rd Grade Student of the Month (she was from our class)!!! I can't post pictures from my school computer.

Team Spirit Day

Roll Tide!!! I think the class had a great time wearing their team shirts on Friday, and I had a lot more Alabama fans than Auburn!!! This must be a smart group! :) Just kidding Auburn fans...my husband is an Auburn graduate, so they are not so bad! ;-)

BONUS POINTS

I have had some parents express concern over some grades you have seen come home, so here is a bonus point activity for students!

This week our story was "If You Made A Million", and it taught us about things like interest, checks, and money. For 5 bonus points in Reading AND Language, students can post a comment on here (this post) telling what they would do if they had a million dollars. It MUST be 3-4 COMPLETE and correctly written sentences.

All you have to do is click on comment, and choose to post as ANONYMOUS (you don't have to have google account to post). I look forward to seeing your comments!!!

Don't forget your name on your comment!!!

Happy Wednesday!!!!

This MUST be submitted by Thursday, September 9, this will get the points added in before midterm reports go home!!!

Rounding Fun!!!

Today we learned a song to help us remember how to round numbers. They did a great job, so I wanted to share!!! We rounded to the nearest ten and hundred today, and some students had homework tonight to rework some of the problems they missed. I had them bring home the words to the song and a football field - these were two tools we used today while learning our rounding rules. Hope this helps as you reinforce what we have learned today at school. Thanks for all your help!

Sorry - the video is a little blurry... I had to use my blackberry!

Bone Dance

I know some of you are overwhelmed trying to study for the bone test on Friday, so here is a fun video to watch! The class loved watching it today, and I wanted to share it on here so you can watch it again. We are getting more into our regular routines at school, so hopefully grades will continue to improve as children adjust to being back in school and on a schedule.

Thanks to all the parents who came to PTSO Open House last night. I really appreciate you coming!

PLEASE check your child's folder daily - sometimes, homework may be added depending on how the day goes, and if extra time or practice is needed at the last minute.

Friday Fun!!!

This week we started a unit on the human body in science. We have been talking about how bones hold our body together to give us shape and protection, and help our body move. So, we went outside to jump rope! While doing this, we worked with partners and watched them jump rope looking to see how many parts of our body move while jumping rope. The class had a great time! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

I hope you all have a great weekend! Remember, Monday night is PTO meeting at 6:00, I have only had about 7 parents join PTO so remember to send your $5 on Monday. All students who have at least one parent join will get 10 bonus points on any test. Hope to see you all Monday night!