I hope everyone had a lovely, long Labor Day weekend!  It was such a nice little break!  We are now in our second week of the new reading/spelling program.  All of the students in our class will be working with the same spelling pattern which is so nice!!!  This week, we will be testing on the spelling pattern:  short e, o, and u.  
For math, we are moving on from rounding to the nearest ten.  We will start rounding to the nearest hundred.  This skill is very abstract and hard for the students to grasp right away.  I will be using lots of hands on and fun games to help them master the skill.  

Apple Witches:
We are starting to collect the pieces of our Apple Witches for Halloween.  Every student needs to bring a medium-sized apple to school by Monday, September 11th.  We are carving our apples on Thursday, September 14th from 2:00-3:00 in our classroom.  I would love as many volunteers that can come and help us on this day.  Also, we will 1/8 teaspoons (at least 10), and apple peelers (at least 8). If you have any of these items but cannot attend, please send them with your child, and I will make sure that they get back to you. 

Reading Homework:
Please read 20 minutes every night (M-Th) and record your minutes read on the Reading Log.  Please return the Reading Log on Friday.

Math Homework:
Please go to prodigygame.com (or click on the link to the right, under math).  Your student’s login information is the last week’s post.  Please have your child do Prodigy for at least 15 minutes (M-Th).

**Short Day every Friday at 1:30!!

I hope you all had a wonderful first week of school! We have such an adorable class! I am so excited to see what wonderful things this year will bring!!!

For your information, I will try and post our weekly classroom post on Sunday nights. Make sure you subscribe to the class blog, so you are emailed when I post to the blog. That will be a nice reminder for you, but you can expect to get it on Sunday evenings.

Math Homework:
For homework, the students need to get on www.prodigygame.com and set up their Prodigy account. I need each student/parent to use the class code:GTM29S to add to “Miss Waddell’s Class-3rd Grade”. That way, if you already have an account, I can see your login and password. If you are new to Prodigy, don’t stress. I will do an overview on Monday at school. I would love the students to explore and spend some time in Prodigy this week (15 minutes a night). I will not grade the students on their Prodigy homework this week, but next week we will start with assignments.

Reading:
Please make sure your child is reading 20 minutes each night. Please fill out the Reading Log.  Parents will need to sign the Reading Log and your child needs to turn it in on Friday (of each week).  

This Week:
*The Solar Eclipse is happening on Monday, August 21st, and our whole morning is going to be devoted to learning and watching it.  We have purchased solar glasses for all the third grade students that they will get to keep after we finish using them.  This will be such a cool and fun activity that happens every 100 years!!  
*School Picture day is also on Monday, August 21st.  I sent a form home last week if you are interested in purchasing them.  You can also purchase them online later if you love them after you see the proofs.
*We are learning Place Value in math this week, and we will be using food (saltines, pretzel sticks, and chocolate chips) for manipulatives with this skill.  Please check the blog post from last week with the food permission slip, and sill out the Google Form ASAP.  Thanks so much!
**DON’T FORGET we have early out @ 1:30 every Friday this year!!!

Well y’all, the last week of school has come!!!  I am super excited for summer break, but sad to say goodbye to everyone in our class.  IT has been a fabulous year!  You and your children have been amazing!  They have all grown so much and are SO ready for 4th grade!  Thank you, thank you for all your hard work in third grade this year!!!

Here is some important info to make note of for the week:

**I will be sending home Art Books with your children this week.  Please keep an eye out for them.  They are a book that is neatly bound with all their art projects for the year in order.  It is such a special thing for them to show you!! 🙂

*Monday, May 22nd- Dress Rehearsal for the play in the Q1 gym at 2:00 (ALL costumes and props need to be here on today please.)

*Tuesday, May 23rd- All May poems and May Great Brain Report turned in by today.  I have to lock my grades TODAY!
*Wednesday, May 24th-Performance of the play in the Q1 gym at 2:00

*Thursday, May 25th- FIELD DAY in the morning (Wear our turquoise tie dyed t-shirts this day.) and the Elementary Talent Show in the afternoon.  This is a FREE dress down day and a short day with 1:00 dismissal.

Friday, May 26th- LAST DAY OF SCHOOL–FREE dress down day with early dismissal at 1:00.  Please send your children to school on this day.  We will have a “Cast Party” where we will watch the recording of our performance with snacks.  We will also do awards and lots more exciting things as a class.

I hope everyone has a SUPER SUMMER break!! 🙂