SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM ROOM 117!

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REMINDER

Christmas gift exchange presents are due on TUESDAY the 21st. Our gift exchange will be on Wednesday, the 22nd.

Wishing everyone in the Keystone community a wonderful holiday season!

ACADEMICS (DEC. 13-17)

READING

We are taking a break from our basal reader and are reading Jan Brett's The Wild Christmas Reindeer this week. Skills we will be working on include: character/setting, and problem/solution.

ENGLISH

We are moving on to singular possessive nouns after finishing up common and proper nouns. Wish us luck with these!

MATH

We are continuing to work on estimating sums and differences. We have estimated to hundreds and now we are estimating to tens.

ROCKET MATH

We have almost a week of Rocket Math subtraction under our belts and the students are off to a fine start!

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week we are continuing to study urban, suburban, and rural communities. We are comparing and contrasting these communities and discovering many similarities and differences. We have just been introduced to the urban community of New Orleans, Louisiana and the jazz music of Louis Armstrong!

ROCKET MATH

BRAVO to Jessica for being the first student in our class to pass the letter Z!

Congratulations to Marcus, Alyssa, Paige and Kayla for also completing Rocket Math!

WELL DONE! BE PROUD!

REMINDER:

The last day for Rocket Math addition is Wednesday, Nov. 24th.

ACADEMICS (NOV. 8 - 12)

READING

We are continuing our story, Dream Wolf, this week. It is a Native American tale retold by Paul Goble. In the story, two Plains Indian children become lost, and take shelter in a wolf's cave. They place their trust in the friendly wolf, and are cared for and guided safely home by him. Upon their return, the wolf is honored by the Plains people for leading the children back home.

Skill include: cause and effect, compare and contrast, and using an encyclopedia. The story assessment will be on TUESDAY, NOV. 9th.

ENGLISH

Nouns are our new topic and we are currently learning about the different types of plural nouns. We'll then move on to common and proper nouns, and then possessive nouns; that's when things get a little tricky:).

MATH

We are wrapping up our place value chapter with a review on Monday, followed by the chapter test on Tuesday. Then, our chapter on addition will follow. We'll learn about the properties of addition and how addition and subtraction are related through fact families.

Be sure to keep working on your ROCKET MATH facts. Some of you are getting close to the top! Keep up the great work! Rocket Math for addition will be closing right before Thanksgiving vacation.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We will begin our study of communities; urban, suburban, and rural. We'll learn what makes up a community and how each type of community is special.

CLASS NEWS

We will be celebrating Halloween on Friday, October 29th. Students are encouraged to dress in their favorite team jersey to support our Red Ribbon Week theme: "Team Up Against Drugs."

Students may bring in a Halloween costume to dress up for our Halloween parade in the afternoon.

Third grade will be having a pizza party after the parade and we are asking each student to donate $1.00 to help cover the cost of the pizza. Thank you for your support!

PUMPKIN CONTEST

Our class will be decorating a pumpkin for our schoolwide pumpkin contest. If anyone has a pumpkin to donate for this project it would be greatly appreciated! We would need it to be brought to school by Tuesday, October 26th. Just send in a note with your child to let me know if you have one. Thank you in advance!

CLASSROOM READ ALOUD

Our read aloud that we are enjoying this month is Andrew Clements', "Frindle". It is about a creative fifth grader named Nick who likes to make class time exciting. His English teacher, Mrs. Granger challenges him to think about who makes the words that are in the dictionary. Nick's creativity goes to work and he decides to make up his own new word, and renames the pen, "frindle." Before you know it, every fifth grader is using his new word! Mrs. Granger is NOT happy and keeps over 200 students after school for detention! And that is only the beginning... Stay tuned for future updates!

BOOK IT!

October officially marked the beginning of the Book It reading program! Participation is voluntary, but it is a wonderful way to get your child excited about reading! When your child has met the goal for the month, just send his/her "Book It" pizza form back to school, and your child will receive a certificate for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut! These forms were sent home at the beginning of the

month. HAPPY READING!

RED RIBBON WEEK 2010

October 25th – October 29th
“Be a Superhero: Have the Power to Say No to Drugs & Alcohol”

Theme Days:

Monday, October 25th: “Rally in Red … Don’t be Silly … Don’t Use Drugs Day!”
(Wear red, silly bands, and silly socks)

Tuesday, October 26th: “Drugs Will Mix You Up Day!”
(Wear mismatched clothes and shoes)

Wednesday, October 27th: “Shade Out Drugs Day!”
(Wear hats and sunglasses)

Thursday, October 28th: “Drugs Will Make You Crazy Day!”
(Wear crazy hair)

Friday, October 29th: “Team Up Against Drugs Day!”
(Wear a team shirt or jersey)
*Traditional Halloween costumes will be acceptable for Grades K – 4 during afternoon parties.

ACADEMICS (Oct. 11-15)

READING

Our story this week is "City Green", by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan. It is a wonderful story about a little girl who works with her neighbors to turn a vacant lot into a beautiful community garden. This visit to Marcy's city neighborhood shows that kids can make wonderful things happen if they put their minds to it. Skills include: cause/effect, using a telephone directory, drawing conclusions, and using context clues.

ENGLISH

We have finished up compound and run-on sentences, and are now studying time-order words and main idea.

MATH

Number patterns, and even/odd numbers have been our topics this week, along with rounding numbers to the tens. We learned an "army type" song to help us with rounding rules. (Rounding numbers is so fun, we will do it till we're done...)

SOCIAL STUDIES

Each student is to design a compass rose for homework this week. This assignment is due on Fri. Oct. 15th. A rubric and explanation of this assignment was sent home on Monday.

We have been looking at landform maps this week and will be working with grid maps next week.

DATES TO REMEMBER

Oct. 9: Gavin's birthday!

Oct. 25-29: Red Ribbon Week


Oct. 27: Apple Crunch Day

ACADEMICS (Sept. 27 - 30)

READING

This week, our story is a Time for Kids selection entitled "Champions of the World." It details how three players led their Toms River, N.J. Little League team to victory over Japan in the Little League World Series. The players were met with a parade upon their return and were instant hometown heroes.

Skills include: problem/solution, story elements, using an index, and compound words.

ENGLISH

Our chapter study of sentence structure continues. We have learned about complete sentences, sentence fragments, the four types of sentences, and subjects and predicates! Quite a bit for the first month of school! Compound sentences will be on our upcoming agenda.

MATH

After studying place value, we have moved on to comparing numbers using greater than and less than, and ordering numbers from greatest to least and least to greatest. Our next move will be working with these topics with numbers in the thousands.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Our study of maps continues with working with cardinal and intermediate directions, along with map keys and symbols.

Constitution Day was celebrated at the flag pole on September 17th. Songs were sung and fifth grade recited a poem to honor the signing of the Constitution in 1787.

ACADEMICS (Sept. 20 - 24)

READING

Our story this week is "OPT, an Illusionary Tale". Students will discover that seeing isn't always believing, as their eyes will play tricks on them! Skills we will be working on include: steps in a process, table of contents, and prefixes.

ACADEMICS (Sept. 13-17)

READING
Our story this week is "Phoebe and the Spelling Bee". Phoebe would rather do anything than study for Friday's spelling bee. She prefers to fold her spelling list into a paper airplane, and even pretends to have a stomachache. Phoebe finally uses her wonderful imagination to remember tough spelling words. Skills we will focus on are: problem/solution, making predictions, prefixes, and using a glossary. We will be having our own spelling bee, just for fun, at the end of the week. The test for this selection will be Friday, Sept. 17th.

MATH
Our first chapter focuses on place value. We are currently studying ways to use numbers, and learning how to write numbers in the hundreds, using standard, word, and expanded form.

ENGLISH
We have learned about sentences, sentence fragments, statements, questions, and commands, and are now moving on to exclamations! Following that we'll study subjects and predicates.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Our first unit of study is map/globe skills. We are learning about the 7 continents and 5 oceans using our maps and songs! We'll soon be moving on to compass rose directions and map symbols.

SCIENCE
We have begun studying life cycles, which include complete and incomplete metamorphosis examples. Students have brought in lots of caterpillars and we are anxiously awaiting their transformation into beautiful monarch butterflies!

Our First Read Aloud

The students are enjoying listening to the first Judy Moody book. Judy is a third grader who is starting a new school year, and she has LOTS of attitude!

Dear Families,
Our class is collecting SunnyD UPC labels! If we collect 20 UPC labels, our class will receive 20 free books! YEAH! For every label beyond that, SunnyD will donate 10 cents to the Kids In Need Foundation. It is a win-win situation for everyone involved! See below to see what products qualify for this event.

*Sample UPC - When removing label for submission, please be sure your barcode remains intact.





VALID PRODUCTS INCLUDE:
(*Not limited to products shown here)
Bottles: 128 oz, 96 oz, 64 oz, 48 oz, 20 oz and 16 oz
6 PACK OUTER WRAPS: 11.3 oz and 6.75 oz
24 PACK OUTER WRAPS: 11.3 oz and 6.75 oz
8 PACK OUTER WRAPS: 6.75 oz
CARDBOARD CASES: 12 packs 6.75 oz bottles, 12 or 24 packs 12 oz cans
1, 2 & 3 LITER BOTTLES

PRODUCTS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS PROMOTION:
Individual UPC labels from 11.3 oz and 6.75 oz bottles, 8 oz and 12 oz cans.

You can send in your labels as you collect. All labels need to be in by November 3oth. Thank you for your participation in this fun, worthwhile event!

Sincerely, Mrs. Rhoads

Grandfather's Journey

READING
Our first story this year is Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say. It is about his grandfather's journey from Japan to America, and how he came to love both places; as his life takes him back and forth between the two countries. Skills we are working on include: story elements(character/setting), making predictions, compound words, and table of contents. The vocabulary and comprehension test will be on Friday, Sept. 10th.

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT

Tuesday, September 14th at 6:30 P.M. is our Third Grade Back to School Night. This is the perfect opportunity to meet your child's teacher, learn all the ins and outs of third grade, and ask any questions that you may have. Join me in Room 117 at 6:30 P.M. Hope to see you there!

THIRD GRADE OLYMPICS

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Third Grade Olympics are taking place this week. Each student had the opportunity to sign up for four events of his/her choosing. Events include: egg toss, 50 yard dash, softball throw, team relay, wheelbarrow, long distance run, team obstacle course, shuffleboard, and tug of war. This is a chance for students to participate in some fun and low-key individual and team competition. Third graders look forward to the Olympics every year!

Students are to wear tennis shoes and appropriate clothing. A water bottle and suncreen are HIGHLY recommended.

SPELLING BEE RESULTS

Congratulations to Alex (center) for winning the Third Grade Spelling Bee! Well done! Emma (left) finished second and Emily (right) was third. This year's bee went 50 rounds! Lots of great spellers and lots of words! Congratulations to all twenty participants!

DATES TO REMEMBER

May 20: Last Spelling Test

May 21: Field Trip to Cook Forest

May 25: Lighthouse Awards

May 25-27: Third Grade Olympics

May 28: Last Day for Multiplication Challenge

May 31: NO SCHOOL

June 2: Awards Assembly

June 3: Last Day of School for Students!

SPELLING BEE PARTICIPANTS

CONGRATULATIONS to Jessi, Kami, Cameron, Dawson and Luke for qualifying for the Third Grade Spelling Bee! A spelling bee (using words from previous tests) was held in our classroom to determine the top five spellers, who then moved on to participate in our grade level spelling bee.

The Third Grade Spelling Bee will be held on Friday, May 14th at 1:30 p.m. in the elementary gym.

Great job ladies and gentlemen! HAPPY STUDYING!

MOVE IT OUTSIDE

Everyone at KES will be participating in PANA's "Move It Outside" schoolwide event on Monday, April 26th at the KHS track. It is scheduled from 1:40 - 3:00, weather permitting. Be sure to wear tennis shoes and be ready to move! Let's hope Mother Nature cooperates!

ACADEMICS (April 19-23)

READING

This week's story is Animal Fact/Animal Fable, a non-fiction selection by Seymour Simon. It is a collection of common beliefs about various animals that are presented in the form of a guessing game.

Skills include: Fact/non-fact/opinion, reading a newspaper, summarizing, and using context clues.

ENGLISH

After studying helping verbs last week, we'll be moving on to linking verbs this week.

MATH

To start off the week, we'll be working on time to the minute and elapsed time.

NATIONAL TV TURNOFF WEEK: April 19-25

National "TV Turnoff Week" is April 19-April 25. The purpose is to encourage children and adults to turn off the television and other screen devices and to promote a healthier lifestyle!

Yes that means computers and handheld games. You are encouraged to participate!

PowerPoint Presentations

Just a friendly reminder that we (Rooms 116 and 117) will have our Whale PowerPoint presentations on Monday, April 12th at 2:00 in the Group Room.

The children have worked hard on these and learned a lot and want to share their expertise!

Family and friends are invited to attend. Hope to see you there!

PSSA WEEK

• There will be limited homework during PSSA testing week.

• This is a perfect opportunity for your child to get some extra practice with his/her Rocket Math and multiplication facts, and to READ for fun!

IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS

April 7-9, 12-14 - PSSA Testing

April 12th - Whale PowerPoint presentations by Rooms 116-117: 2:00 in Group Room
(note time change)

May 7th - 3rd Grade Musical Program

May 14th - Third Grade Spelling Bee (participants yet to be determined)

May 17th - Last day for Rocket Math

May 21st - Field Trip to Cook Forest

READ ALOUD

We are in the middle of our read aloud, The BFG, by Roald Dahl, and the children are hooked! Orphan Sophie has been snatched from her bed by the BFG and has been taken far away to Giant Country. She is having quite an adventure! We just read the funniest chapter! Ask your son/daughter what a whizzpopper is! (Hopefully they will tell you.)

ACADEMICS (March 15-19)

READING
This week we will be taking our Unit 4 test and working on whale reports and activities. We will also be reading J.J.'s Big Day, a Time for Kids selection about a gray whale, and some other whale stories. There will be no story vocabulary or test this week.

ENGLISH
We will focus on future tense verbs this week, and will distinguish between past, present, and future tense verbs, and when to use them. We will also be learning how to combine sentences when the subjects are the same and the predicates are different.

MATH
Our multiplication fact challenge has begun! Your child should have brought home his/her 0's and 1's flashcards to practice, and a parent letter that is to be signed and returned that explains how the challenge will operate.

We'll continue to work on subtracting across zeros and will also be learning how to subtract money problems.

DATES TO REMEMBER

MARCH 30th: Third marking period ends

APRIL 2nd: Good Friday - NO SCHOOL

APRIL 4th: HAPPY EASTER!

APRIL 7-14th: PSSA Testing

We had a GREAT day celebrating Dr. Seuss' 106th birthday! First we all designed and colored a birthday cake for him and made a beautiful display in the hallway. Then, we read the first book he ever wrote, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, and wrote and illustrated what WE saw on our way to school. The students were very creative and our display in the hall is entitled, And to Think That I Saw It on Huston Avenue!

In the afternoon, our guest readers, Mrs. Hurrelbrink, Mr. Rhoads, and Miss Myers shared some wonderful stories with our class! We thank them for visiting and spending time with us on this special day!

CLASSROOM NEWS

Because of the snow day on Friday...

Our reading test for Cactus Hotel will be given on March 1st, along with the spelling test, and...the SOCIAL STUDIES TEST on pages 36-43 (Communities and Geography). Remember to study!

SPRING PICTURE DAY!

Thursday, Feb. 25th is Spring Picture Day. Bring your BEST smile!

ACADEMICS (Feb. 16 - 19)

READING

Our story from last week, In My Family, will be extended through this week because of the snow days we had. Our test will be on Friday, Feb. 20th.

Last week we got to try empanadas that our reading aide, Mrs. Kurtzhals brought in. The children were glad that they were filled with apples instead of sweet potatoes or squash, like they were in the story! YUMMY!

This week we will be trying nopalitos (cactus), the food of last resort. We will also be sharing our family stories with our classmates.

ENGLISH

We will be taking our Chapter test on nouns this week, and will then move on to our verb chapter.

MATH

Time for our chapter test here, too, after a review. Topics include addition properties, find a rule, and estimating sums and differences to hundreds and tens. Our next chapter will have us regrouping in addition and subtraction with double and triple digit numbers.

Have you filled a bucket today?

CARING ASSEMBLY

Sixth grade students in Mrs. Clover's class performed a skit at our Caring assembly last week. The assembly focused on remembering to be kind to others. Students who have been caught being kind were recognized at this time. When you are caught, a special grade level symbol is displayed in the cafeteria for the entire month. Third graders receive a "soccer ball" to color and display. At the end of each month, a winner is chosen from each classroom to receive a special treat from the cafeteria. Ask your son/daughter if they have been caught being kind this year!

VALENTINE'S DAY

We will be celebrating Valentine's Day on Friday, Feb. 12th. Students are to bring in their valentine boxes and valentines by that date.

The BFG

Our new read aloud is The BFG by Roald Dahl. When orphan Sophie is snatched from her bed by a Giant, she fears he is going to eat her. Although he carries her far away to Giant Country, the Giant has no intention of harming her. As he explains in his own unique way of talking, "I is the only nice and jumbly Giant in Giant Country. I is THE BIG FRIENDLY GIANT. I is the BFG!" The BFG tells Sophie how he mixes up dreams to blow through a trumpet into the bedrooms of sleeping children...

And the story continues... The class is enjoying this book, and are as quiet as a mouse when I'm reading! What will become of Sophie and the BFG? We'll keep you posted! This is one of my favorite children's books and authors.

OUR SUPER CLASS!