Parents, 
We do not have anyone planning our Halloween Celebration for next Friday.  If you would LOVE to be in charge of putting together a party that would go from around 10:15 to 11:30, please let me know ASAP.  If we would like to have food at the party, I need to submit a food in the classroom request by Friday.   Thanks for considering the idea of being the party planner.

Dates to Remember:
24th  Professional Development Day,  No School for the Students

Reading and Language
Halloween is slowing creeping upon us and we are continuing projects that meet the core while using this eerie time of year to add a twist of fun to the learning.  This week we are going to be using adjectives in grammar and need your help.  It won’t take your time, but we do need an old white t-shirt or piece of scrap muslim (like an old muslim baby blanket that is no longer being used).  If possible, please send these to school by Wednesday.  These scraps will be used to wrap our mummies for language.  In reading, we will be using Stellaluna to learn about point of view, and character change.  We will also be reading non-fiction books about bats and writing about their unique characteristics.


Math
Multiplication Madness begins today!!!!! Every student will be given 10 problems to pass off in one minute. Multiplication facts are a huge part of the third grade math core curriculum. The students will have to spend time at home working on these facts in order to pass them off  all facts by mid January.  The students will have the opportunity to pass off their multiplication facts as many times as they can before the celebration.  We will focus on one fact a week..   Our Multiplication Madness Banana Split Celebration will take place on Friday, January 15th from 2:00-3:00.  
**During Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break, students will need to spend time studying multiplication facts so they are prepared.  Weekends are a great time to work on multiplication facts (since there is no homework).**

Each part of the Banana Split is one of the multiplication facts that needs to be passed off. You will get that part of the Banana Split ONLY if you pass off all facts for that number.
0′s – Placemat
1′s- Napkin
2′s – Bowl
3′s – Spoon
4′s – Banana
5′s – Scoop of Strawberry Ice Cream
6′s – Scoop of Chocolate Ice Cream
7′s – Sprinkles
8′s – Strawberry topping
9′s – Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream
10′s – Chocolate Fudge topping
11′s – Whipped Cream
12′s – Cherry on Top!!!

Continue with Frontrowed.com  it is helping fill in where students are weak and build further understanding in concepts being taught in school.

We are also starting the meaning of division this week.


Reading and Spelling
Please continue to read 20 minutes a night.  Please remember you can read a variety of things and they all count.  

Spelling Sorts are as follows:
Red Group:  yellow sort 30
Green Group: green sort 7
Orange Group: green sort 34
Blue Group: green sort 51

Classroom News

October 13th  Happy Birthday Iris!
October 13th  Witch Dressing and Interview
October 14th  Short Day Schedule (Not a dress down day!)
October 14th  McKinlee will be bringing her dog.  If your child requires an alternate activity, please e-mail me.
October 14th  Library Day
October 15th – 17th  Fall Break (No School)

We have come such a long way from where we started.  Everyone will have their witch dressed by the end of today and each witch will have a profile page completed.   It is a short week and it ends with a short day on Tuesday.  As you go about your Fall Break plans, please remember to be safe in all you do.

Homework

Reading  20 minutes of reading per day.  Please remember to record your time at the end of the week.  Anything you read counts!

Math:  New Xtra math accounts have been set up and each student will bring a new login code home on Monday.  This code will put them into Multiplication.  They may still log in and do addition and subtraction.  We will be starting Multiplication Madness on Monday the 20th, and practicing will help prepare them for this activity that will last 2 and a 1/2 months.  Please watch for the post about it next week.

There will be no Word Sorts this week due to Fall Break.

Class News:

* Happy Birthday Levi October 11th (We’ll celebrate on Friday)
* We are still collecting all the Box Tops, Coke Caps, etc.  We would love to earn more dress down days and a Movie with a Pizza Party.
* October 10th Witch Materials Due
* October 13th is Witch Dressing Day.  If you would be able to come help dress witches I would really appreciate it.  Please read more information below. 

Show and Tell
The kids have been begging for a pet show and tell day, which could potentially be very dangerous, so here’s the deal.  Pets are always welcome to come to school with a parent who will help show the pet, and then take it home. Please let me know a day in advance, if possible, that you will be brining a pet. Please note: The kids know I’m allergic to cats, so they’re afraid they can’t bring their pet cat in. You can bring a cats, I just won’t get close and the students will all wash up to their elbows if they pet it. 

Food Permission
We are starting multiplication and I would like your permission to use Skittles and/or M&M’s during math the next couple of weeks. Please fill out the form below. I will not be sending home a paper permission slip unless you request it.

Witches:
All students will be bringing home a pattern for a witch dress TODAY, Monday October 6th. Please cut out and if possible sew the dress with right sides together, and then turn it right side out. Cut out the hands, and hat from felt, or any other material you think will work, and glue the hat so it looks like a witch hat.  Place all items in a baggie, marked with your child’s name.  Please read the paper that will be attached to the pattern, it has more information on it.  It also has a place where you can volunteer to come help us dress witches on the 13th.

Homework:
Math
We have started multiplication in math.  This means that not only do we need to be fluent in multiplication, but we also need to master what it means and understand when to use it vs. addition.  With this in mind, I am going to change homework to include Frontlineed.com once a week.  This site is individualized to meet the needs of your child while reviewing concepts that we have already completed.  Go to www.frontrowed.com and log in with the student’s first name and last initial using 7jdh56 as the classroom code.  Select one of the areas of Operations and Algebraic Thinking (CCOA) and Numbers and Operations in Base Ten and then click  the adaptive practice.  Since we have added Front Row, please feel free to take 1 night of Xtramath.org away.  

Reading and Spelling
Please continue to read 20 minutes a night.  Please remember you can read a variety of things and they all count.  

Spelling Sorts are as follows:
Red Group:  yellow sort 29
Green Group: green sort 6
Orange Group: green sort 33
Blue Group: green sort 50

Note of Interest:
If a student receives a score that he/she would like to improve, he/she may correct the paper and turn it in to receive up to 80% of the score toward his/her grade. 

I can’t believe we’re almost through September! We have now completed 2 chapters of math and we’re well into our third chapter. We’ve completed our first writing project, we know a lot about inference, character traits and the sun!

A few notes of interest:

Dates to Remember:
Tuesday:  Library (We will be checking out this week!)
Thursday: SEP Conferences
Friday: Early Out and Dress Down Day for $1 (They haven’t announced who gets the free dress down day yet. Maybe it will be 3rd grade!) 

Book Orders
Several of you have asked about book orders and what books I would suggest for your child to read. There are some wonderful books available on the book order this time around, so I have will keep a book order open for the next two weeks. Please click on this link:  https://clubs2.scholastic.com   Our classroom code is H3H9F  Entering this code will connect you to my account, and any purchases you make help us add points to purchase books for our classroom.

I am excited that Shannon Hale (a Utah Author) has two series in this order  The Spirit Animals and Ever After High
The students love the I Survived Series too.
You can’t go wrong with Dan Gutman’s series My Crazy School
There are several other books available, and honestly if your child is eagerly reading that’s the whole goal!

Mistake on the Blog
Every week there is at least one mistake on the blog.  This can be a misspelled word, an incorrect answer to a problem or some little thing.  If your child finds it, please have them message me with what the mistake is.  I’m attempting to get your children willing and comfortable with giving constructive criticism and being able to challenge things when they have a different answer.  Last week a math problem had an incorrect answer.  One student brought this to my attention and received 2 punches for it.  

Apple Witches
Our apples are dehydrating and looking fabulous, I don’t think anyone comes in the room without commenting on how cool they look and how much they are starting to look like witches.  In your travels, keep an eye out for material that might make an awesome witch dress.  You will need a piece of fabric that is about 9″ X 22″.  I will be sending home a pattern next week. 

Homework
Reading:  20 Minutes of reading 5 times a week

Math:  You’ve played Addition Pig,  now play Subtraction Pig.  You play it just like Addition Pig but you start with a number in the 100’s and subtract from it.  You want to get to 0.  You also need to do Xtramath.org. 

Words  Their Way:  
Red Group: yellow sort 27  
Green Group: green sort 4
Orange Group:  green sort 31
Blue Group: green sort 48

Today is National Dot Day.  Please talk about the activities we did with this very fun book.  You can watch this book here:

The Dot



A HUGE  Thank you goes out to all the parents to came and helped carve apples on Friday!  Our apple witches are carved, and we’re ready to begin our writing unit about them.  Our first assignment will be about how to carve an apple witch.

We are still collecting Box Tops, Bottle Caps, Coke Product Codes, Campbell Soup labels and Tyson Chicken labels.  Third grade is rocking this competition and want to continue doing so.  

Homework for this week:

Spelling Sorts
yellow sort 26
green sort 3
green sort 30
green sort 47

Math
Xtramath  
We are still working on deciding when to add and get the actual total and when to  estimate, which means we round, round and then add to get the estimate.  Please trey these three problems and see if you get the answers that are posted on the homework reporting page.  

1) Mrs. Goldsberry drove 234 miles the first day of her trip and 168 miles the second day.  About many miles did she drive in all?

2) The first week of the competition, our class brought in 467 Box Tops, and  Miss Wadell’s class brought in 384 Box Tops.  How many Box Tops were brought in the first week by the two classes?

3)  There are about 27 students in each of the 3rd grade classes. There are 5  third grade classes.  About how many students are in 3rd Grade?

Have a great week!

Fall is trying to sneak up on us and it’s doing a great job.  We’ve had a great start in our school year and we’re already halfway through our second unit of math.  We’ve completed our first reading unit and will be working on a fun writing project that connects to the reading unit we just finished.

ALERT:  We have a very fun activity coming up and we will need your help! 
       1) Each student will need a medium size apple by Friday.
             (Small apples are hard to carve and large apples do not turn out well)
       2) We will need parent volunteers Friday afternoon to help carve the apples.  We need you to be at the school at 1:00                                         and plan on staying until all the apples are carved.  If you can come help us, please leave a comment below and I will add you to my list of volunteers.

Birthdays:
September 6th Kiren G
September 7th T.J. Z

Homework:
SPELLING
We are starting our first individualized word sorts in spelling  and you will find your child’s list below.  Please remember that as you do sorts at home we will be tested on these words, as well as words that have the same pattern that aren’t in the sort.  We want your child to be spellers for life, not just a week.  Each student knows what color sort they are and which sort is theirs.  

yellow sort 25
green sort 1
green sort 29
green sort 46

On the homework report, please record which sort you do which night.  

MATH
Xtramath.com (We are rocking our math fluency).  3 of the students have completed addition and are working on subtraction)  If your child is finding the facts difficult, make sure they’re taking the time to look at the problems they miss and tell them not to worry about beating the teacher and take their time, it’s more important that they get it right, the speed will come after mastering the fact.
PIG
This week your child will be playing a game called Pig.  Your child will need someone to play the game with, and three dice.  This is a great way to practice adding problems up to 1,000.

READING
20 minutes a night as usual.  This is the most important part of homework.  If you are not enjoying your 20 minutes, you are not reading the right thing.  Come talk to me and let’s find something that you really want to read.

Happy Labor Day!!!!   My own kids think that Labor Day means they have to work all day, please don’t tell them any different!   

This weeks news:

Happy Birthday
Sept. 1st Kayleigh
Sept. 2nd Trinity

Everyone will be bringing home our first unit test of Math on Tuesday.  Please look it over and see how well we are all doing with place value and rounding.  If a concept was not mastered, we will continue working with that student on that concept, but we will also be moving on to the next unit.  As we approach this unit, we have varying degrees of proficiency.  With this in mind, all students will be given the introductory lessons on all concepts.  After this lesson, some will go to practice centers, while others work on mastery.  We will be learning several activities that may be used as practice at home.

We will also be starting spelling sorts at home.  The entire class will be using the same sort this week.  Spelling groups will begin next week.  The sort and assigned homework to go with it will be on the homework tab.  

As for reporting homework, please scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter all homework in the form provided there.  Please remember to insert the student name in the name box, the total time read in hours and minutes in the reading box and click the boxes indicating which nights reading was done.  You will also record your sorts here.  

If you have not signed up for the text reminders, please feel free to do so at your earliest convenience.  This really is an easy way for me to get messages to you and your family.

Here’s how to sign up, if you haven’t already done so.

Send the message @c1bcb  to  (385) 215-8343

Thanks for all you do!






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We are in full swing and learning content as well as procedures.  This week will be full of new adventures in our room as I will be having a guest teacher (Mrs. Ruby) on Wednesday and Thursday.  

A few things to note:
Homework:   * 20 minutes of reading 5 times a week.  
                        This is best reported on the the blog under homework.  Please make sure the student’s name is entered so                         that I can give the student credit for their weekly reading.  This does not need to be recorded until Saturday or Sunday night.

                          *Xtramath.com  at LEAST 3 times a week.
                          Each child has been given a paper that explains how to access their xtramath accounts.  Please do not set up a new account as this account allows me to see where you are and how many times you have practiced during the week. 

                         * Spelling Sorts  4 times a week
                         These will not start until next week.  We are training on sorts this week.  These too will be reported on the blog.  

A couple of notes.  If you have not signed the disclosure online please do so as soon as possible.  Also, if you are planning on donating $5.00 towards your child’s school supplies please do so as soon as possible so I can turn in receipts and get that closed out.

Thanks for a great beginning to the year!!!!!