We are going on our first field trip on Wed., Sept. 24 to the Parklands. We are going to be supporting our science curriculum to learn more about Kentucky habitats and the animals and plants that live there. The students will need to bring (or order from the cafeteria) a SACK lunch (please try to send a completely disposable lunch). They need to wear clothes that can get dirty and old tennis shoes that can get muddy. Depending on the weather and your child, you might need to apply sunscreen and/or bug spray. We are going to be outside most of the day (heaven for second graders!) and we want everyone to have fun. It looks like the weather is cooling off, so it sh
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Well, this week is it! Testing will begin on Wednesday and run through next Wednesday for Hite. Third grade has Reading A and B on Wednesday, Reading C on Thursday, Math A and B on Friday, and Math C on Monday. Fourth and fifth grades test on Wedndnesday, 5/21. There is no school on Tuesday, 5/20, for election day. Our lunch those days will be from 11:25 - 11:50 and special area from 12:00 - 12:50. The order of special areas will not change.
On Thursday, 5/22, we will go back to our regular schedule through the end of the year. There is no school on Memorial Day, Monday, 5/26, but we are in class through June 6 (Friday). We are working on some fun projects and units for the third grade for after testing! It has been an unusual year (too much snow), but we are winding down finally! I have been glad to have had your child in my class this year; we have all learned and grown! We are on the final days before testing starts. We have begun reviewing our math and reading skills from all year and practicing our skills. I know that everyone in our class is capable of doing well; they just need to focus on what they know.
Please make sure your child gets a good night's sleep every night before testing and has a good breakfast. We will have a different schedule on those days for lunch and special area times (the special area class order doesn't change). I will update those when we have the final schedule. After the end of testing, we still have some end of the year projects and learning to do! We will finish our science unit and get ready for next year as well as some other fun projects. It has been a very odd year with all of the snow days, but we are finally back in a learning rythm. We still have until June 6, but have May 20 and May 26 off for Election day and Memorial Day. I hope everyone had a great Der We only have 11 more school days until testing (including today), so we are really reviewing and working on all of the concepts we have learned all year. We are also working on testing norms and strategies so that we can all be successful. I know that the weather is beautiful, but we do need to stay focused on school for a little longer until that summer break.
With that said, we are off this Friday and have our annual Crusade for Children walk this Thursday afternoon. We walk a mile and the students bring in money to support this worthy cause. This mile does go toward our 100 mile goal which we should achieve soon. We also get to watch the kindergarten float parade on Thursday right before the walk. We will discuss and do some work focused on the unique Louisville Derby events during social studies this week. This is definitely part of our culture in this city! I hope everyone has fun at the events this week and this weekend and we will keep working toward the end of third grade! It seems that many in our class have spring fever. Please take time to reinforce behavior norms with your child. When a couple of students start acting loud and silly, it distracts the whole class from learning!
State testing (K-PREP) will begin on May 14 and run through May 21. Please try not to schedule any doctor appointments on these days. It is a difficult period for all third graders and it is even harder when you have to test alone. As a related matter, we are going to be mixing up the third grade classes for focus groups on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons for 30 minutes (3 - 3:30) to help review and work on testing skills so that all students are and feel prepared. In math, we will be covering temperature and geometry for the next couple of weeks. We will continue to review elapsed time and money. In reading, we will finish The Tiger Rising and continue to work on finding evidence to support our answers. We will have district proficiency assessments in both reading and math next week. We will finish light in science in the next few weeks and will continue to work on culture in social studies (including Derby, a Louisville tradition). Please continue to make sure your child completes their homework. There will be NO homework during Well, we have one week until Spring Break. The week will end with the staff vs. student basketball game; only students who had completed the first 2 weeks of Reading Madness by Friday were eligible to enter to play or cheer. We had 12 students who did not turn in their sheets last Friday! This week is a team challenge - 80% of the third grade team must have met their goals for the team to get a playground pack. Please send those in this Friday.
We will be finishing Because of Winn-Dixie this week; after break, we will read The Tiger Rising by the same author to compare and contrast the two works. We will also continue to work on area and perimeter all week. We will have counseling with Mr. Hall on Tuesday after lunch. We will work some more on sound and discuss music and culture, starting with spirituals in early America. I hope everyone has a good break and comes back ready to finish the year with great focus and strong skills! March certainly came in like a lion - let's hope it goes better the rest of the month! We are switching our focus to literary reading and our own point of view as opposed to that of the author. We will finish measurement in math with the test on Tuesday, and move on to graphs and data. Science will move to sound, light, and heat for our final subject and we will also finish up economics in social studies!
Currently, the last day of the grading period is Tuesday, March 11 and report cards go out Thursday, March 20. Reading madness will run for the next three weeks with the final celebration being the Staff vs. Student Basketball Game at 2:15 on March 28. Please make sure your child is reading challenging books! We were so sorry to say goodbye to Miss Greer today. She has been a great help and mentor to the students! Chick-Fil-A night is Monday; if you are eating out, please stop by and support Technology. I hope to see some of you on Tuesday for When I Grow Up day; it is always fun. Remember to wear Spirit Wear and donate to WaterStep on Friday! Well, we can add two more days until the end of school. Report cards will go out two days later now. We will have the spelling test next Wednesday on this week's words and will have the science test tomorrow. Class pictures are still on Friday, though. Please send in your field trip permission slips and money as soon as possible, too!
We have started on the metric system now and should be finishing measurement and moving on to data and graphs soon. In science, we will move on to light and heat in another week; next week, we will focus on economics since we have missed so many Mondays and Tuesdays. Well, no party this year. We will still exchange valentines on Monday morning. I also have some cookies for everyone. We will also have the Spanish test, the spelling test, and the fractions test on Monday. After that, we will move into measurement in math. We also have district proficiency tests in math and reading next week.
Spelling and reading are still due Monday. We will have no spelling words next week, but have another reading packet for reading homework. We plan to have a full week with 2 nights of math homework. I will try to get most of this posted later this morning (I came in to get things prepared). It looks like our last day of school will be June 10. Let's hope that there are NO more snow days! It is the end of January, and I hope the weather will also improve. We are continuing our work on fractions and our homework is a review of word problems using data. We are still working on finding information in passages and are writing our restaurant reviews. Science stays focused on the weather and social studies will work on economics.
This Wednesday night is Dad's Club night at Mark's Feed Store. Please take the voucher in and support them. Math Night is this Thursday at 6:30; please RSVP if you are coming so we have enough pizza! Miss Greer, our student teacher, will be helping with the children's activities. There is a Valentine's Day project coming home that is going to be due that day; it is a box to collect valentines that day. The graded part is a scale drawing of the box from the front, top, and side with a list of materials used. This should be a fun project! That day is also our party at 2:30. |
Beth KolodeyA second grade teacher in Louisville, KY and her team. Archives
September 2014
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