LIGHTHOUSE AWARDS

On November 16th, The Knox Civic Club presented Lighthouse Awards for the first grading period.

A special thanks to this group of community women, who four times throughout the year, take time to recognize students for their attitude, work ethic, and citizenship.

Congratulations to our Lighthouse Award winners for the first grading period:

Best Friend and Helper: Jordan and Peyton
Random Acts of Kindness: Rori and Maddie
Most Hardest Working: Sylvia and Terry

CLASSROOM READ ALOUD

Our new read aloud is The World According to Humphrey. Humphrey narrates this delightful story about a very likeable hamster that becomes a classroom pet. We have read the first chapter and the students are hooked! They can't wait to hear more from Room 26's class pet! Stay tuned...we'll keep you posted!

ACADEMICS (Nov. 16 - 22)

READING

Our story until Thanksgiving Break is "Moses Goes to a Concert", by Isaac Millman. Moses is a deaf boy who learns about playing percussion instruments from a talented, deaf musician, when he and his classmates attend a concert.

The story is told in words, as well as American Sign Language, introducing hearing children to the signs for some of the key words and phrases. At the end of the story there are two entire conversations in sign language, and a page showing the hand alphabet.

Skills include: main idea and supporting details, summarizing, using a diagram, and context clues.

ENGLISH

We have been focusing on singular possessive nouns after completing our study of singular/plural nouns, and common/proper nouns. Plural possessive nouns are next and that's when the FUN begins, along with a little confusion!

MATH

After learning the three forms used to express numbers (standard, expanded and word), we are moving on to comparing numbers in the hundreds and thousands using the greater than (>), less than (<), and equals (=) signs.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Our community unit has begun and the three types of communities (urban, suburban, and rural) will continue to be our focus.

SCIENCE

Our study of roles of living things continues. The students completed a camouflage activity where they got to "hide" a camouflaged moth to show how animals adapt to their environment and protect themselves.

ACADEMICS (Nov. 7- 10)

READING

Our story, Spider's at Work by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith, continues through Wednesday this week. This non-fiction selection inform us about how spiders use their unique abilities to survive in the natural world. The dangerous black widow and the tarantula are among the spiders featured. Skills include: important and unimportant information, using a dictionary, drawing conclusions, and antonyms and synonyms.

ENGLISH

Our study of nouns continues. We are currently working on common and proper nouns and will be moving on to possessive nouns in the near future.

MATH

We have begun our chapter on place value. We are learning how to write numbers in the hundreds three different ways: standard form, word form, and expanded form. We have also learned about ordinal numbers and that numbers are used to: count, locate, measure and name.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We are wrapping up our study of maps. We are reviewing on Monday and Tuesday of this week and will have our culminating map unit test on Wednesday, Nov. 9th. A study guide and vocabulary cards were sent home last week.

SCIENCE

Our "Roles of Living Things " unit has begun. Topics will include: relationships among living things, how living things are adapted, and living things in the environment.

APPLE CRUNCH DAY

October 26th is Apple Crunch Day. We will be joining together with Mr. Zerbe's class to do some apple centers and activities.

Be sure to ask your child what he or she did to celebrate Apple Crunch Day.

WELCOME BACK!

I want to welcome you back to a new school year. It's hard to believe that summer vacation is over. I hope everyone had a fun-filled summer, whether you played in your backyard or took a family vacation! Now it's time to make new friends and learn lots of interesting things. I'm looking forward to a GREAT year in Room 117!

2011 - 2012 HERE WE COME!

Your Third Grader

Parents, follow this link, http://school.familyeducation.com/third-grade/parenting/36066.html?detoured=1 and discover what goes on in a typical third grade classroom. Use these academic skill-builders to encourage your child's development at home during the upcoming school year. Help your child deal effectively with social and peer pressures, and find out what you can do to promote his/her happiness and safety.

SCHOOL'S OUT!

Our last day of school was yesterday.

We've worked hard and have had a very busy year! Some of our fun included: Walk to School Day, Apple Crunch Day, Fall Festival, Movie and Popcorn Day, Red Ribbon Week, Go for the Greens, Salute to America program, Third Grade Spelling Bee, and our Cook Forest trip. Now it's time for some fun and relaxation!

Be kind to others, enjoy the outdoors, read a book, get some exercise, learn how to do something new, and turn off the TV, computer and video games.

Have a safe and happy summer!

See you in late August!

ACADEMICS MAY 16 - 20

READING

Our story, The Many Lives of Benjamin Franklin, will continue through to the end of this week. We will continue learning about the many great accomplishments of this famous American statesman, and will be working on a special project to share what we have learned.

Skills include: main idea, making judgments and decisions, following directions, and root words. The selection assessment will be on Friday, May 20th.

ENGLISH

We have just finished learning about subject and object pronouns and will now be moving on to possessive pronouns.

MATH

We are in full swing with our geometry chapter, as we have learned about lines, line segments, rays, angles, triangles, polygons, and quadrilaterals. This week we'll focus on flips, slides, and turns, and then finish up the chapter learning about perimeter, area, and volume.

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week, we are wrapping up our chapter about Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America, as we check out Jamestown Settlement and a Powhatan village.

THIRD GRADE FIELD TRIP

We will be heading to Cook Forest on Wednesday, May 25th. Please be sure to dress for the weather and bring a sack lunch. We will be leaving for the forest around 9:30 a.m. and will be returning for the regular student dismissal time. Students will be participating in a variety of interesting, hands-on, outdoor activities. Let's hope for warm weather and lots of sunshine!

THIRD GRADE PROGRAM

Family and friends are invited to attend our musical program, "Salute to America", on Wednesday, May 18th at 2:15 P.M. in the elementary gymnasium. Hope to see you there!

SPELLING BEE PARTICIPANTS

Congratulations to Alyssa, Kayla, Raegan, Ethan, and Troy for qualifying for the Third Grade Spelling Bee!

The Spelling Bee will be held on Friday, May 20th at 1:30 p.m. in the elementary gym. Family and friends are invited to attend.

Hope to see you there!

ACADEMICS May 2 - 6

READING

Our story this week is Two Bad Ants, by Chris Van Allsburg. He is well known for his story, The Polar Express. The story allows the reader to experience the world through an ant's point of view. When a troop of ants are sent to a kitchen to get sugar crystals for the queen, two of its members get a little greedy and stay behind in the sugar bowl. The next day, there is nothing but trouble and dangerous situations for the two "bad" ants!

Skills include: drawing conclusions, context clues, and author and title search.

Author and storyteller, Robin Moore, visited Keystone on Tuesday, April 5th. His family has lived in the Pennsylvania mountains for two hundred years. Since 1981, he has presented thousands of programs and workshops at schools, museums, and festivals. His program combined traditional and original North American stories with a demonstration of old-time living skills, and was enjoyed by all.

READING

Our story this week is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett. It is about the town of Chewandswallow where the weather comes three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but in the form of food and beverages! The students will have fun creating some wacky weather forecasts, after reading this story!

Skills include: judgments and decisions, root words, summarizing, and reading and identifying signs that inform or persuade; as well as recognizing propaganda.

ENGLISH

We have been studying helping and linking verbs, and will be moving on to commas in a series, and combining sentences.

MATH

We have finished up telling time to the minute and elapsed time, and will be moving on to bar graphs and line plots.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We have been working long and hard on natural resource powerpoints with our partners, to wrap up our geography unit. There will be a special presentation of these for parents on Friday the 15th, at 2:30 p.m. Next up is our Jamestown colony unit of study.

WE DID IT!

Room 117 has survived the PSSA test! We took our last test this morning. As a reward for working hard and doing their best, the children had the opportunity to have read and feed this afternoon.

Way to go, Room 117 students!!!

BALD EAGLES IN THE WILD

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, in partnership with the Norfolk Botanical Garden and WVEC, is providing a rare glimpse into the life of two bald eagles and their offspring. There are currently three eaglets in the nest that the parents are taking turns watching and feeding . The last eaglet is Irish, having hatched on St. Patrick's Day!

The following link will take you directly to the eagle cam. Happy nest watching! http://www.wvec.com/marketplace/microsite-content/eagle-cam.html

LEARNING MULTIPLICATION

Learning multiplication and third grade go together. It is a big thing for third graders, and when they get done learning their facts, they feel like they have really accomplished something.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? Many eager parents go out and buy flash cards or some cute math game for the computer and have their child start practicing. But wait…

Before your child starts memorizing the multiplication facts, he/she needs to understand the concept of what multiplication is.

Here is how you can help:

Decide on an object (I used footballs) and put the same amount in equal groups. I made three groups of two footballs. You can use buttons, pennies, cereal, or anything you have at home.


Ask your child to make an adding problem to find the total. I did 2+2+2 = 6.

Then have them write it in words. Three groups of two equals six or three groups of two footballs equals six footballs.

Finally, show them the multiplication way: 3×2 = 6

They also need to know, and realize, that you can change the order of the numbers in the multiplication problem, and the answer (the product) will be the same. This is the commutative property of multiplication.

They are really learning two facts at one time!

We have gone over all of the above steps during our class introduction to multiplication.

A great site to help your child learn and practice his/her facts is multiplication.com.

PSSA Testing

FOUR TESTS DOWN...TWO TO GO!

We have survived our first four days of PSSA testing...YAHOO! The children have all worked hard and are trying their very best! We are confident and prepared.

A special thank you goes out to the parents who made a contribution so we could enjoy healthy snacks during our testing.

Remember to get a good night's sleep and eat a healthy breakfast before our last two days of testing.

GO FOR THE GREENS

March 17th is Go For The Greens Day!

This day is designed to help remind students of the importance of healthy eating. If you wish to donate vegetables or fruits to our classroom for this event, please send them in by March 16th. Your welcomed donations (any colors will do, not just green) will be used for some healthy snacking during our PSSA testing.