Weekly Info/Reminders

Hello all!

Volunteers: 

Several people have signed up, but I still would love some more people! If you would like to volunteer, please click here.

Reminder: School Picture Day is this Friday, Sept. 30th! 

Word Study/Spelling Homework:
I sent a Remind text message out last night about Word Study/Spelling homework, but wanted to post it on here as well. Some students seemed confused or unsure about what to do for the various homework assignments. To make it easier, here are some pictures of what I expect for this week's homework. Each page/homework should have the date and title of the work.

Quiz: on Friday, this week they are SPELLING words on their own also.

Monday: Sort words and write in notebook
Tuesday: Speed sort 2x, write in notebook

Wednesday: 8 sentences (any 8 words)

Thursday: Partner sort (2x) & write in notebook (only once)

Please let me know if you have further questions about this.

Volunteers and Updates!

Hello All! 

A few things to note this week! Please read below.

Volunteers:
Thank you for being patient with me! I decided to create a Sign-Up Genius of positions for you to indicate what you're interested in. If you are available for a regular position, sign up and I will create a calendar to rotate people if we have many interested members. If things turn out differently and we do not have many people interested in volunteering, I will contact individuals who are interested and work out something that works for all of our schedules! 

To sign up as a volunteer, please click here!


This week:

1. Library this week: We will have library TOMORROW, Monday, due to the Scholastic Book Fair browse happening on Friday. Also, the school library will be closed for check-out NEXT week as the book fair will be set up from Monday-Friday. Your students have access to my classroom library every day, but I encourage you to visit the Gum Spring Library as well if they are in need of extra books to read! 

2.  Ellie's Hat Drive: This week we are having a hat drive and themed dress-up week to support Ellie's Hats. This charity raises awareness, funds, and hats for children with cancer. You can learn more about the organization here. If you are able/willing, please consider donating a NEW hat or making a financial donation to our drive this week! Please remind your student that they are invited to participate in the fun by wearing the following:

Monday - PJ Day
Tuesday - Twin/Buddy Day
Wednesday - Wear a hat
Thursday - Mismatch Day
Friday - Wear gold/yellow 

3. After School Enrichment Programs: ASEP starts this week! Please talk to your student and remind them what day/club they are going to. Teachers will have a list as well, but it helps to have the kiddos know where they are going for dismissal! Please also be sure to mark your own calendars or remind whomever is responsible for picking up your child to be there this week! 

4. School Picture Day: Picture day is coming up THIS Friday, Sept. 30th! I am sending home picture order forms with your student tomorrow. Please return this form if you would like to purchase your child's picture. If not, no need to return it. Unfortunately, our picture time slot is AFTER our lunch on Friday. I will do my best to remind students to eat carefully, but you may want to keep that in mind when choosing your student's lunch for that day! (Hint: No red sauce!!) :) 

5. Watch D.O.G.S. Meeting: will be on Thursday at 6:30pm. This is an information session for dads/father figures who would like to volunteer or be present in school! 

6. Fall Festival: Saturday, Oct. 1, from 4:00-7:00pm at Pinebrook! 

Coming Up:
- Matter test Friday, Oct. 7th (starting this unit tomorrow)
- Interims sent home on Oct. 5th
- No School on Oct. 10th
- Monday Schedule on Oct. 11th


Sadly, this was not a good week for the Steelers. I see no need to comment on any other teams... :)
Hope everyone enjoyed the nice weather this weekend!

Happy Monday!

Weekly Update & News

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone saw parts of the Steelers game via replays - WOOT! Great win for us! I saw some students with Steelers jerseys on today in class! Unfortunately, I couldn't watch the whole game since the Cowboys (Redskins) game was on...

Homework/Classwork:
- NO Science quiz on Wednesday. We are going to do a lab in class and instead of a quiz I'm just going to work with the groups and see how they go through the scientific process.
- Words this week are a syllable sort. Tonight for homework your student needs to sort their words twice, and clap out the words/syllables twice. They do not need to write them in their notebooks unless they did not finish that in class.
- Syllable words quiz will be on Friday.
- Reminder that Reflex Math is for homework 2x per week (usually Monday & Wednesday). If your student is unable to get on the computer on those nights, or does not have access to a computer at home, please let me know!

Upcoming Dates:
- Thursday, Sept. 22nd @ 6:30 - Parent BYOT Information Night
- Thursday, Sept. 29th @ 6:30 - Watch D.O.G.S. Dad's Night
- Week of Sept. 25th - ASEP programs begin after school
- Week of Sept. 25th - Ellie's Hats Drive
- Friday, Sept. 30th - Fall Fundraiser packets due
- Friday, Sept. 30th - School Picture Day -- Picture forms will come home in this week's Thursday Folder
- Saturday, Oct. 1st - Fall Festival starting @ 4:00
- Week of Oct. 2nd - Scholastic Book Fair at school


Conferences:
I have a few parents who signed up for conferences - Yay! If you have not done so, please log on to Phoenix and sign up for a conference with me for the 1st quarter! This is a great opportunity to meet with me individually and discuss grades, concerns, ask questions, etc. after the first portion of the year is completed. If you need to see how to sign up, please view my Back To School Night presentation here - the information is on slides 17-19. If you are finding it hard to make one of  of the available times, please contact me and we can figure out a meeting time.

That's all for now!
Have a great week!

Smiles,
Ms. Strong :) 

BTSN Info & Remind

Hello!

Thanks to all who made it to school tonight! If you were not able to come, please make sure you browse through my PowerPoint here, and  let me know if you have any questions about how to sign up for conferences!

Conference sign-up:
-Log on to your ParentVUE
-Look for the "Conference" tab on the left
-Click "Parent scheduled conferences" on the upper right
-Click a time that works for you!

That's it! I will get a notification saying your time/date.

Also, some parents asked about signing up for Remind. In case you need the link/directions again, here ya' go!

Sign up at this link, or download the free app on your phone. You can also sign up by text message by texting "@strong3g" to the number 81010.

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Strong :) 

Back To School Night

Hi families!

Tonight is Back to School Night, starting at 6:30pm! You can find my PowerPoint HERE so you can easily follow along or refer to it at later times.

Can't wait to see you all! 

Assessments This Week

Hello all!

I just wanted to take a second to remind you all about the upcoming assessments this week. These will be our first "real" tests in 3rd grade! How exciting! I've received a few questions from parents about the upcoming SS Test and wanted to address these issues in case anyone else had similar questions.

Social Studies - Government Test on Wednesday, Sept. 14th
As you probably noticed by now, your student has been asked to take home their Social Studies notebook (green, bound notebook) every night to study. I ask them to do this so they can study their notes daily and over time rather than cram the night before the test.

Each unit has the study guide in front of the unit notes. There is a page in the very front of the notebook that shows page numbers (table of contents). Your student only needs to study notes we have already completed in class each night, and only for that unit. If you prefer to read ahead with them and study notes we haven't filled in yet, that is fine, but not a requirement.
So, your student's studying each night for Government might be looking like:

Monday - Rules & laws notes
Tuesday - Rules & laws notes, Levels of government notes
Wednesday - Review all notes so far
Thursday - Levels of Government notes, Democracy notes
Friday/Weekend - Review notes so far
Monday - Democracy notes, Diversity notes
Tuesday - Whole unit review
Wednesday - Test

I'm aware that studying may not happen every night due to extracurricular activities and - let's face it - just some plain old play time, TV time, or family time. This is just a suggestion about how to break up the studying so it's not too much at once.

Lastly, these notes are very useful but do not encompass or replace class instruction and activities. So, questions on tests will come from notes, but also from class discussion.

Please let me know if you have any further questions about this! I'm sure if you're thinking it, someone else is too!


Quiz on Friday - Grammar: Sentences, Nouns, Verbs
This Friday we will have a short grammar quiz on complete sentences, nouns, and verbs. This will be a short assessment about recognizing complete sentences, capitalizing in appropriate places, and recognizing nouns and verbs. This is not really something that you need to study for at home - we have been working on this all of last week and will continue this week. Also, these are all skills that 3rd graders should have learned before, so it is mostly review!

You will see some homework this week concerning nouns and verbs in a word study-like fashion. The students will NOT be graded on the spelling of these words on the quiz (though they likely know how to spell many of them). I am simply introducing different parts of word study this week to help them get used to the homework and expectations.

Again, if you have questions about this please let me know!


Lastly, an important note:
Penn State took an unfortunate loss on Saturday...

I'm putting my hope in tomorrow's game:
STEELERS vs. REDSKINS TOMORROW @ 7:10pm!

Weekly Update!

Hello all!

Remember, tomorrow is our Patriot Day ceremony. Parents are welcome to join us for a short ceremony starting at 8:05am at the flag pole in front of the school. Directly after, volunteers and room parents please go to the cafeteria for a welcome coffee and information session.

Volunteers:
I'm still working on my volunteer signup, but am currently looking for someone to come in a few times next week to help label my classroom library. You will need to scan books into my iPad app, and label them with a color dot inside. I will provide guidelines and show you what to do.

Since I'll need to introduce it to you the first time, I will need you to come in during our specials time on Monday which is not until 12:55pm. Then, you're welcome to come in other times the rest of the week on your own. I would say you could do this with a partner to help speed it up, however I only have one iPad and the app is not free, so I'm not sure how to share the work. Let me know if you're interested!

Homework Reminder:
Next Wednesday is our first Social Studies test on Government. Make sure to use your student's SS notebook and study guides to study each night!

Thursday Folders:
Please make sure to return EMPTIED OUT Thursday Folders with your student on Fridays! If they all bring them in, they earn 5 extra bingo points toward their class goal!

Happy 2nd Week of School!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

To sum up last week (so sorry about not posting on Friday!):
- First week of school! Woo!
- Went over expectations and rules
- Practiced working well in groups and teams
- Got to know new friends better by comparing using Venn Diagrams, and hearing All About Me bags from everyone

Pictures below: Teamwork activity. Who can build the tallest tower with ONLY index cards and tape?

  

 

   

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THIS blog post Summary:
1. Agendas - please read and sign
2. Homework
3. Social Studies/Science Notebooks and Study Guides
4. Upcoming dates
5. Volunteering
6. Reflex / Reading AtoZ

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Agendas: 
Our class is slowly getting into the habit of writing in our agenda every day! Please be patient as your student learns to use this tool effectively. Make sure to check your child's agenda every night, and sign the bottom where it says "initials" (this will come in handy when your student starts reading books at home and wants to add them to their 40 book challenge).

Homework Tonight:
- Read 15 minutes in your Just Right Spot
- Subject/Predicate worksheet
- Math (varied by teacher!) - most classes had a fact sheet tonight
- Social Studies Government test Sept. 14th, Study today's notes

Social Studies/Science Notebooks:
Your student should have come home today with a green bound Social Studies notebook. This notebook is pre-made with all study guides and notes for our class units. I ask students to bring home this notebook EVERY night, as we typically fill in new notes daily. This will allow you (parents) to see the study guide every night, see the test date on the study guide, and also study for upcoming tests on available nights throughout the week instead of cramming the night before! Please make sure your student RETURNS this notebook to school every day, as we use it in class! I talked to them about being responsible for this today in class.

You may also see all Social Studies/Science study guides on my website here. I also typically post the current unit's study guide and games on the side bar to the right ---------------->

Upcoming Dates:
- Thursday, Sept. 8th - School lock-down drill (in school)
- Friday, Sept 9th - Patriot Day Ceremony @ 8:05
- Friday, Sept 9th - Volunteer coffee -- Room Parents, please attend!
- Monday, Sept 12th - Steelers vs. Redskins Game @ 7:10 (very important!)
- Wednesday, Sept 14th - Government Test
- Thursday, Sept. 15th - Open House night (2 sessions)

Volunteers:
I promise I haven't forgotten you! So many people have told me that they would love to help out in the classroom, making copies, mystery reading, etc. THANK YOU! I promise I have things for you to do! On my to-do list is "create a sign-up genius for volunteer jobs" - I am HOPING to finish it this week. More realistically, I'll have it ready by Open House night next Thursday. Thanks for understanding :)

Reflex/Reading AtoZ
I am working on creating/setting up everyone's accounts for these two online practice sites. I had some issues with Reflex and have submitted a help request. I will let you know ASAP when these are up and running for our class.

Thanks for being awesome! As always, email me if you have any questions, concerns, or just want to send me a joke or brighten my day!

Smiles,
Ms. Strong :)