January 30 - February 3

Academia

Handwriting: Cursive Lesson 7

Writing: Writing a Formal Letter

Spelling:  Compounds

Math: Measurements

Reading: The BFG & Fiction vs. Non Fiction

*No Social Studies or Science due to ACUITY testing.

Progress Reports

This Friday marks the middle of the 3^rd Quarter. Progress reports will be sent home with your child.  Students have until Friday to get all work in.

Love of Reading Week

Next week (February 6-10) is “Love of Reading Week”. If any parents want to come in to read a short book to the class, we have two slots on Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30pm. This will be first come first serve.

Valentine’s Day Party

Tuesday, February 14^th will be our class Valentine party. Please send your child to school with a small Valentine for each student in the class (class list on back). They will exchange Valentines and have the party at 2:00pm.

Social Studies States Book

This quarter we will be creating a book on 25 of the 50 states. This is a big Social Studies grade! This is an in-class assignment, NOT homework.

Heritage Project

This quarter students will be working on a project about their heritage and ancestry. This is also a big Social Studies grade! This is a homework assignment, not an in class assignment.

         Spelling List 

1.     without             11. birthday

2.     himself             12. backyard

3.     upon                 13. bedtime

4.     cannot              14. classroom

5.     outside             15. daytime

6.     within               16. myself

7.     themselves       17. nobody

8.     maybe              18. overdue

9.     itself                 19. whenever

10. yourself           20. playground

Janary 23, 3012 - January 27, 2012

Academia

Handwriting: Cursive Lesson 6

Writing: Adjectives & Writing a Friendly Note
Spelling:  Contractions
Math: Geometry
Reading: Flat Stanley
Social Studies: Resources

 Talent Show

Students can sign up for the talent show this month. Now is a great time to be practicing! Sign-ups are at the front office.

100^th Day of School
Monday, January 23^rd is the 100^th day of school. Students may bring in a zip lock bag of 100 small items of their choice. They are also challenged to wear 100 of something, and it will be a free dress down day.

Geometry Show and Tell
This Friday, please bring in any object from home that represents one of the 3 dimensional shapes we have learned about in class. (i.e., cube, rectangular prism, cone, sphere, pyramid, cylinder, etc,. )

Social Studies States Book
This quarter we will be creating a book on 25 of the 50 states. This is a big Social Studies grade! This is an in-class assignment, NOT homework.

Heritage Project
This quarter students will be working on a project about their heritage and ancestry. This is also a big Social Studies grade! This is a homework assignment, not an in class assignment.

        Spelling List

1.     you’re               11. isn’t
2.     I’m                    12. won’t
3.     she’ll                13. wasn’t
4.     that’s                14. let’s
5.     we’ve               15. couldn’t
6.     I’ve                   16. can’t
7.     doesn’t             17. I’ll
8.     aren’t                18. didn’t
9.     wouldn’t            19. it’s
10. we’ll                 20. don’t

January 17, 2012 - Januart 20, 2012

Re-enrollment

Don’t forget to turn in your re-enrollment forms to guarantee that your child has a spot next school year!

Academia

Handwriting: Cursive Lesson 6

Writing: Nouns and Verbs

Spelling:  Continental A

Math: Geometry

Reading: The BFG

Science: Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers

Talent Show

Students can sign up for the talent show this month. Now is a great time to be practicing! Sign-ups are at the front office.

Spelling Bee

Congratulations to Esai and Alyssa, the winners of our classannual Spelling Bee!

They will be participating in the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade Spelling Bee on Friday, January 20^th.

Social Studies States Book

This quarter we will be creating a book on 25 of the 50 states. This is a big Social Studies grade! This is an in-class assignment, NOT homework.

Heritage Project

This quarter students will be working on a project about their heritage and ancestry. This is also a big Social Studies grade! This is a homework assignment, not an in class assignment.

          Spelling List

1.     all                     11. warm

2.     walk                 12. called

3.     also                  13. false

4.     talk                   14. wanted

5.     always              15. warning

6.     almost              16. quarter

7.     already             17. August

8.     water                18. because

9.     small                19. fault

10. watch              20. drawings

January 9, 2012 - January 13, 2012

Re-enrollment

Don’t forget to turn in your re-enrollment forms to guarantee that your child has a spot next school year!

Academia

Handwriting: Cursive Lesson 5

Writing: Parts of a Story

Spelling:  Sight words

Math: Combinations

Reading: The BFG

Science: Life Cycles of Plants

Talent Show

Students can sign up for the talent show this month. Now is a great time to be practicing! Sign-ups are at the front office.

Spelling Bee

LPA is having our annual Spelling Bee. Students were given a list of the words that will be used. They should study hard! Each class will send 2 students to the school bee. Our class will have our bee on Thursday, January 19^th!

Social Studies States Book

This quarter we will be creating a book on 25 of the 50 states. This is a big Social Studies grade!

Heritage Project

This quarter students will be working on a project about their heritage and ancestry. This is also a big Social Studies grade!

          Spelling List

1.   young              2. earth

3.   sure                4.enough

5.   bought             6. hour

7.   eye                  8. move

9.   once                10. fought

11. father               12. whose

13. thought            14. brought

15. mountain          16. early

17. learn                18. often

19. heard               20. friend

New Behavior Plan/Communication with Parents

January 9, 2012

Dear 3^rd Grade Parents,

            I have had several parent requests for a daily form of communication about their child’s behavior in class. Because of this I have decided that it would be a good idea to do this with all of my students. I have explained the new plan to the students and would like to take time to fill parents in as well. 

As many of you may already know, each day the students in our class start out on Green (think of a traffic light). Every day they start fresh on Green, no matter what the behavior was the day before.  If they have a great day, follow directions when asked, stay on task during class work, are not talking when they should not be, etc. they will stay on Green for the day. If this is the case they will bring home a slip of paper stating that they had a great day and ended up on GREEN. Feel free to reward this behavior at home as well, so as to increase their motivation.

If a student is talking when the teacher is talking or when they are supposed to be working quietly, if they are shouting out in class without raising their hand, talking back to the teacher, playing instead of working, etc. they may get their color lowered to Yellow. This is a warning to the student that their behavior is unacceptable. When this happens they will bring home a slip of paper explaining that they ended the day on YELLOW.

If the student has to be spoken to repeatedly (3 or more times), they will get their name lowered to Red. When this happens they will bring home a slip of paper stating that they ended the day on RED, and this time it will require a parent signature.

If a student continues to have problems after being lowered to Red, they will be sent to “Think Time” in a 7^th grade classroom where they will fill out a “Think Time” sheet of paper. This will be sent home and will require a parent signature as well.

If you have any questions or concerns about this new form of communication please feel free to ask me at school, by phone, or by email.

Have a great week!

Miss Bidwell

hcbidwell@comcast.net

missbidwellsclass.blogspot.com

January 2, 2012

Welcome Back!!!

Academia

Handwriting: Cursive Lesson 3

Writing: Punctuation

Spelling:  Trigraphs and Quadrigraphs

Math: Probability

Reading: Big Friendly Giant (BFG)

Science: Life Cycles of Plants

Reminder-No Makeup This Quarter

Due to the amount of extra paper being used, I am no longer going to be accepting makeup work this year. Late work will still be accepted, however, but not for full credit. 

Cursive

Most writing, reading, and spelling assignments will be done in cursive only for the remainder of the year. The students have been practicing hard and should be ready for this step.

No School-MLK Day

There will be no school on Monday, January 16 in celebration of Martin Luther

King Day.

Social Studies States Book

This quarter we will be creating a book on 25 of the 50 states. Look for the rubric sent home today. This is a big Social Studies grade!

Heritage Project

This quarter students will be working on a project about their heritage and ancestry. This is also a big Social Studies grade! See rubric on back. 

           Spelling List

1. right                   11. pitched

2. night                  12. scratching

3. might                 13. snitch

4. bright                 14. stretching

5. catch                 15. twitch

6. edge                  16. judge

7. eight                  17. ledge

8. itch                     18. pledge

9. matches             19. smudge

10. patch              20. trudge