Hello wonderful parents, we have a busy week ahead of us!

Teaching
Monday, Tuesday: Mrs. Alexander; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: Mrs. Goldsberry

Important Dates:
Tuesday (9/26): Magic School Bus Webinar!
Wednesday (9/27): STEM Lab
Thursday (9/28): Library, STEM
Friday (9/29): Dollar Dress Down Day, Short day, Scholastic Book orders are due!

Supply Donations
Thank you to all who have paid the $20 classroom supply fee! If you haven’t yet paid for your child’s classroom supplies, you are still able to do so at the front office. We know that offering this service is very helpful to many of you, especially during the busy back-to-school days, and we hope to be able to continue to do this. However, we will not be able to do so if we cannot recover the cost of the supplies that we purchased for students.

Scholastic Book Orders
There was a misprint on the Scholastic flyer that went home with your child. Friday, September 29th is the last day to submit orders for Scholastic books. If you’d like to place an order, there is still time!
You may place your book orders online using the class code: H3H9F
Every purchase made using this code helps our classroom earn free books!

Weather
Fall is my favorite time of the year! Beautiful colors, cozy sweaters, and FOOTBALL! Our weather is, undeniably, getting cooler. Please make sure your child comes to school ready for the weather. We will go outside in the snow or light rain. We will only stay inside if it is raining hard enough for students to get soaked, or if the temperature is below 20 degrees. If your child needs to stay inside from recess, please send a note to school daily. We monitor the Air Quality Index, and sensitive groups will be allowed to stay in during days of poor air quality.

Homework
READING: You guessed it- 20 minutes of reading! During the week, students need to log on to Google classroom and tell us about the book they are reading. Students should also include at least two questions that they have asked themselves about the book while reading.
PRODIGY:  Last week, Prodigy accounts were created for students who did not have one or were locked out of existing accounts. The kids have their log on information, so please “play” Prodigy for 15 minutes, at least 3 nights during the week.  

Bloomz
Bloomz is the best avenue for quick communication. Messages go straight to our phones, so we will be able to get back to you quickly. If you need any assistance downloading the app or accessing the website, please let us know.

I hope you all had a restful weekend! 
Work hard, be kind

In order to help with homework, here are the instructions of how to get to Google Classroom.

1)  Go to Google.com
2)  Click on Sign in
3)  User name is first.last@qackids.org
4)  Password is your usual password with rams at the end  example:  ii###rams
5)  Go to classroom.google.com
6)  Click on the classroom Cool Kids and you’re in the classroom.  I hope that helps.

Teaching:  Monday:  Mrs. Alexander  Tuesday-Friday:  Mrs. Goldsberry

Important Dates:

Mon. Sept. 18th   Cookie Orders are Due (Please send any cookie orders you have to school)  Thank you for your support in this fund raiser!  We do believe that our class surpassed the 150 bucket goal due to all of your support!
Wed. Sept. 20th   STEM 
Thur. Sept. 21st Library
Fri.   Sept. 22nd   Short Schedule
Sun. Sept. 24th Happy Birthday Payton! (We’ll celebrate on Monday!)


Our apple witches are starting to shrivel and dry out.  It’s amazing that these use to be yummy edible apples.  I don’t think too many of us would want to eat them now.  Check out the video of them here:




Classroom Supplies
If you have paid your $20 for school supplies, we thank you!  If you have not had the chance to do so, please do.  We purchased all of the supplies out of our pockets and will receive a reimbursement  check based on what our parents pay.  We would love to continue this service in the future, but will not be able to if we are not supported by our parents.  This can be paid to the front office.   Thank you for helping us with this matter.  

Book Orders
We are sending home book orders today.  They will be submitted a week from Friday.  All book orders are done online at Scholastic.  You can set up your account, or sign into your account and connect to our classroom by clicking here:  Scholastic Books.  Our class code is H3H9F.  Each student will have 2 flyers about the books available this order, and there are more available online.  This is a great way to encourage reading at home, but is not a required activity.

Email Subscription
If you have not taken the opportunity to subscribe to the blog, please do so by entering your information on the right hand side of the blog window.  By subscribing, you will receive an email anytime we update the blog. This is a great way to get information any time we update the blog.

Weather
The weather is changing and we go out in all types of weather.  We go out if it’s warm, cold, windy, snowy and drizzly.  We do stay in if the children are going to come in sopping wet, or it’s below 20 degrees.  Please send the appropriate outer wear for your child daily.  It they need snow snow boots, please send a pair of inside shoes they may change into.  Snow boots are wet and sweaty and tend to smell horribly by midday.  If you feel your child needs to stay in, we need a daily note.  We do keep track of the Air Quality Index and plan accordingly for sensitive groups.

Homework

This week, we would like you to read 20 minutes a night.  I’ve told our class that everyone only needs to read on the days they breathe.  During the week, please log onto the Google Classroom 2 different nights.  The first time you log on, tell us about the book you’re reading.  The next time you go on, comment on 2 other people’s posts.  This will be done as comments under the Assignment called Reading Homework.

Prodigy:  If you do not have a Prodigy account, linked to our classroom, we will be creating new accounts at school.  We will link them to our class, and send this account information home so everyone will show on our dashboard and we can see how everyone is doing with math homework.

Remember the best way to contact us is through e-mail, calling the school or Bloomz.  We do not check the blog for comments on a daily basis. 

Have a great week and thanks for always supporting your child and our classroom!

Hello Wonderful Parents!
I wanted to pass on some information regarding homework.

Prodigy

There has been a bit of confusion for some students getting logged in and connected to our class. Here are a few steps to take to make sure that your child is working on the correct content.

1.  Your child most likely already has a Prodigy account from last year. If you and your child do not know the login/password, then it’s completely fine to just create a new account. 

2. Once logged into the account, you will need to connect to our class. If you are using an account from last year, there will be a message asking is you’d like to UPGRADE and link to a new class. Click on upgrade, and use the following code to connect: 96F4A1

3. Now that you’ve connected to our class, your child will be able to work on skills that we are working on in class. All the problems that we have assigned will be incorporated to the Battles!

We encourage students to play Prodigy for 15 minutes, at least three times per week.

Reading

At this point, we are not requiring students to fill out an official reading log or reading response form. Students need to read for 20 minutes, at least five nights per week. We will be doing a variety of reading responses that are incorporated into our Writing instruction in class. Occasionally, students will have online reading passages assigned through Wonders, or specific responses assigned in Google Classroom. If, at any time, there is a specific assignment we will make sure to put that information on the blog. 

Thank you, for all of your support!

Mrs. Alexander

Teaching~ Mrs. Alexander

Important Dates:

September 11:  Please take time to remember those that were lost on 9-11-01.

        As many of you know, my husband is in the Air Force. Even though we were both still in school on 9/11, the events of that day had an immense impact on how his military career would play out. During one of his many deployments to the middle east, my husband was able to take an American flag with him on the jet and fly it during a combat mission. This week, I will share the significance of this flag with the students, and then we will have the honor of hanging it in our classroom for the remainder of the year. 

September 15: Short day, spirit shirts!

September 18: Cookie Dough Fundraiser ENDS
You still have time to sell some cookie dough! The money raised will help fund school clubs, sports, field trips, and field day. Checks should be made payable to POQA. Online ordering is also an option! Use the following link: Online Cookie Fundraiser Sales, and use the code: 5027545
Do you want to support the school, but really don’t want to have cookie dough in your home? Consider buying a tub or two and donating them to a local soup kitchen!

Classroom needs:

School Supplies: If you have not yet paid the $20 school supply fee, you may still do so at the front office. We hope that, by purchasing and labeling all of the necessary supplies, we were able to take some of the stress off of your shoulders. Unfortunately, if we do not receive enough money to cover the cost of the supplies, we will not be able to continue to offer this option to parents.

Water Bottles: After a few weeks of experimenting with different approaches, we are still having water bottle difficulties. Our classroom is full of technology, texts, and other resources that cannot afford to be wet. Because of continued water spills, it is now necessary that we require SPILL PROOF water bottles. Water bottles with straws, or open mouth pop-tops will no longer be allowed.

This week in class

Reading: We are moving right along in our Wonders program. This week we are starting week 3 of unit 1. We are continuing to learn about traditions, cultures and communities. In writing, our focus will be on composing informational pieces, supported with text evidence.

Math: Addition Strategies are the focus! In class, we will work on learning several different strategies for adding 2 and 3 digit numbers, with and without regrouping. These strategies are important to establish an understanding of the addition process, before teaching students the addition algorithm. I will be sending home a guide that will explain the different strategies that we are using.

STEM: Apple Witches are carved and students will be making predictions and beginning their observations. A big THANK YOU to those that were able to come and help out with this fun activity. It was a busy morning, and the extra help in the classroom kept us on schedule!

Homework: Please continue with 20 minutes of reading each night. Math homework will be continued by using  www.prodigygame.com . Problems correlating with skills we are working on have been assigned to students, and will be incorporated into students’ battles.

Thank you, all, for your continued support. We have an incredible class and we’re enjoying our time with them so much.
Work hard, be kind.

Click below for Scoot Pad

https://www.scootpad.com/956377

Teaching: Mrs. Goldsberry

Important Dates
Sept. 4th  Monday          Labor Day   No School!
Sept. 6th  Wednesday    STEM
Sept. 7th   Thursday       Medium Size Apple for Apple Witches Due
Sept. 8th  Friday             Dollar Dress Down for Houston Texas
                                            Apple Carving
                                            Short Day Schedule


School Supplies
Those of you who have paid your $20 for school supplies, we greatly appreciate it.  If you have not paid for your child’s school supplies, please do so as soon as possible.  This may be paid at the front office.  This was a very convenient way for you, as well as us to obtain the items we use in class and have them labeled and ready before school started.  We appreciate your support!  We would like to continue to provide this service, but we do need the support of our families in order to continue this service.  Thanks in advance!

Water Bottles
Please remember, water bottle may only have water in them.  We are also having trouble with open spout water bottles that tend to spill all over the students’ desks, papers, folders, computers and many other items when they tip and the lid falls off or open.  If possible, please send bottle with pop tops that if spilled won’t spill ALL of the bottles contents out.  Thank you for your help with this.

Apple Carving
On Friday, we will be carving apple witches.  In order to have this go smoothly, we will be asking for volunteer parents on Friday, from 9:00 to 10:30 (We may get done before then).  There will be a sign up on Bloomz.  If you have not yet subscribed to Bloomz, please e-mail me if you would like to join us and help the students carve, no previous experience needed.

This Week and Homework
We will be learning several new websites that your child will be able to access from home.  Please take the time to see what they are doing.  
One of these websites is the new reading program Wonders.  I have assigned a short reading book that goes hand in hand with the skills we are learning in class.  Please have your child read this book as part of their 20 minutes a night of reading, it shouldn’t take much more than that to read.  We will be referring to this book on Thursday of this week.

For Math Homework, your student has been assigned math problems that include place value, and rounding at www.prodigygame.com   This is a very fun website, but a lot of time can be wasted just wandering around.  Please remind your student they should go in and battle so they get the practice that will help solidify what we’re doing in class.

We really appreciate the support that you have given us so far this year and look forward to getting to know you and your student even better.

Teaching: Mrs. Alexander

Important Dates:
Friday, September 1- Spirit Day! Students may wear Quest spirit shirts to school. Uniform bottoms are still required.
Monday, September 4- LABOR DAY- No School. Enjoy the long weekend!

As we continue to work our way into this new school year, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Bloomz
If you have not connected with us on Bloomz, please take the opportunity to do so.  Each family received the instructions of how to do this on a purple paper last week.  If you have misplaced this paper, just follow the steps below:
 1. Download the “Bloomz” app from the AppStore/PlayStore and click “Create Account”. If browser, go to bloomz.com and click on “Join Bloomz” 
2. In the text box, enter EHTCX7
3. Create your account

Water Bottles
We encourage students to bring a water bottle to school. Staying hydrated is important to a healthy lifestyle and learning. Please ensure that bottles have only water in them. Spills will happen! Other beverages are difficult to clean up, and may attract pesky critters to our classroom.

Coming up this week:

Reading
We will continue with our study of Character Traits. Students are learning to identify adjectives that describe what a character is like on the inside. They will also be making inferences about Character Traits based on a character’s words and actions.

Math
We are moving right along with Math, and will begin a unit on rounding. Students will learn to round to the nearest ten, and hundred. Make sure to ask your child about the rounding roller coaster!

Homework
Continue with 20 minutes of reading, nightly. Keep up the practice of Magic- we can see the improvement!

Looking Ahead

Students will need to bring a medium sized apple to school by Thursday, September 7th for a fun, class project. More information to come!

Thank you all, for everything that you do to support us.
Work hard, be kind!

Teaching:  Mrs. Goldsberry

Important Dates for August 21-25
Monday  Aug. 21st      Solar Eclipse
                                        Picture Day
Tuesday Aug 22nd      First Day of our New Reading Program
Friday   Aug 25th        Dollar Dress Down Day

We had a wonderful start last week and we are so excited to be a part of your child’s life.  They are a very well behaved class and have already shown us that we will be able to do many engaging activities throughout the year.   Make sure you ask them how to tell if you’re a fairy.  Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your 3rd Graders life!

Picture Information
Picture day is Monday and every student will have his/her picture taken for ID tags.  The packages available for purchase can be found online, by doing the following:
*  Go to www.bellphoto.com 
* Click on the Prepay tab at the top
* Enter the school code: Questacad2017
* Choose the package you want for your child
*  Choose to either pay online (send the receipt to school) or write a check and send it with your child, with the package you would like to purchase on Monday.
*  This is a voluntary activity. 

Eclipse
We are so excited about the opportunity to share the eclipse with our class.  The sun is part of our Science Core and we have purchased glasses for each of the 3rd graders at Quest.  We have already stated learning about how the eclipse will take place and we will be talking about the proper way to watch the eclipse.  We will be outside on Monday for quite a while, so we can watch the different phases of the eclipse.  

Bloomz
If you have not connected with us on Bloomz, please take the opportunity to do so.  Each family received the instructions of how to do this on a purple paper last week.  If you have misplaced this paper, just follow the steps below:
 1. Download the “Bloomz” app from the AppStore/PlayStore and click “Create Account”. If browser, go to bloomz.com and click on “Join Bloomz” 
2. In the text box, enter EHTCX7
3. Create your account

Math
Each student in our class has learned a magic trick that is a part of our math.  In order to practice this amazing trick at home, they will need a standard deck of cards, with all face cards and 10’s removed.  You may also use Uno cards, Krypto cards, Skipbo etc, as long as they have 4 of each number 1 – 9.  They are so excited to practice, and eventually share their magic trick with you.  

Reading
We are starting our first reading unit this week and working with Character Traits and how authors develop characters.  We will have many opportunities to describe various characters and write about them.  

Homework
Please have your child read 20 minutes each night.  We will discussing the characters they’re reading about, as well as the ones from the various books we read in school.  
Magic is also a part of their homework.  If they practice this game each night, they will be prepared for our assessment on Friday.

Thanks for supporting us, and remember, work hard, be kind

I need to apologize!  I failed to pass out the Picture Day notice on Friday.  The pictures are on MONDAY!  I will be posting a link where you can see package options and a picture of the paper I should have sent home with the students, tonight (I’m not home right now).  Please accept my sincerest apologies!  Mrs. Goldsberry