Third Week of Third Grade

*Special Note: Our class is still looking for some volunteers to take the lead on Four Winds for our class this year. If you are interested please let me know! We would love to have someone (or a team of people) who can lead the activities this year! 

It has been an exciting week in third grade! On Monday we got to pick reading spots around the room in celebration of building our reading stamina to 20 minutes! We have lots of special spots to enjoy during Reader's Workshop. 

We also had our first Four Winds lesson! Thanks to Jenna's mom and her friend for helping us learn about insect life cycles. We listened to a puppet show about a grasshopper and a butterfly going through metamorphosis. 

Then we got to go outside and play two different games. We practiced the different noises that insects make as well as how they can communicate with each other. 

Lastly, we got to go on an insect safari to look for some creatures! 

Field Trip and Four Winds Volunteers

Four Winds needs you! Our class is short on volunteers and many hands make light work. The commitment is just once a month or less if more people sign up. Have fun learning about Vermont's natural surroundings. Please sign up at Open House or contact the Summit Four Winds coordinator, Casey Carmolli, at caseyLcarmolli@gmail.com. Thank you! 

On Friday, we spent some time with Mrs. Hamilton's Kindergarten class (our buddy classroom) to help them with a family project! The third graders were so helpful! We will get together with their class every other week for reading together and doing various projects! 

We had a fabulous time at Indian Brook! We got to have lunch and then Ms. Bergstrom read us a book about appreciating different elements of nature. Then we set off on our hike! We got to look for different items we might find in nature! The group I was with found lots of interesting things including an orange newt! 

Field Trip Tomorrow and New Math Game!

Reminder: We have our field trip to Indian Brook tomorrow! We will be leaving school around 11am and returning around 2pm. Please remember to wear sneakers, bring a water bottle and a lunch if you didn't order one from the lunchroom. 

We learned a new game in math today! It's called Make the Sum and it involves using our addition fact strategies to find the sum of two numbers! It is our first math workplace of the year! 

We also had another special guest reader today: Mrs. Gruendling! 

Fun Friday!

We had a busy first Friday of third grade! In math, we started off the first unit by making people glyphs and then sorting them based on different categories. Below, we sorted our glyphs based on how our class likes to represent their mathematical thinking. This was represented on our glyphs by the glasses: 1 if you like to use numbers, one if you like to use words and a dot if you like to use pictures. 

We got to explore using snap cubes during math! 

We got to have a special guest reader: Mrs. Cate! 

On Friday afternoon, we came together as a whole third grade and talked about being a "bucket filler" and a "bucket dipper". A big message we took away was when we fill up someone else's bucket, we are also filling our own bucket! Being safe, kind and responsible feels good! 

First Two Days of School

We have had two busy first days of school! We have learned a lot about each other and our classroom! Today I got to catch everyone looking and sounding like a reader! We have already built our reading stamina to 9 minutes! I can tell we had lots of kids reading over the summer! 

We also are working on some self-portraits to hang in our classroom. We have read several books to remind us that everyone in our classroom is unique and brings different strengths to our community. I particularly liked one third grade quote, "Everything has a purpose and your purpose is to be you!"

We are looking forward to a fantastic year in third grade! 

Getting Ready for New School Year!

Families from last year: This may be a good time to unsubscribe from the blog! Hope you all are having a great summer and those soon to be fourth graders are reading lots!

New families: Welcome to third grade! I can't believe it is almost August! The summer is flying by.
Just wanted to give you some dates for the beginning of school so you can get them on your calendar.

All of this information will be mailed home the first week of August!

Open Visitation Day: Tuesday August 30th from 1:00-3:00pm
This is a time to stop by and say hi and see our classroom!

First Day of School: Wednesday August 31st
We will meet out back at 7:55am on our spot! Remember to set the example! You are the third graders now!

Open House/Curriculum Night: Tuesday September 13th from 6:30-7:30pm
You will spend the first 30 minutes with your child in the classroom and the second 30 mins learning about the third grade curriculum with myself, Ms. Bergstrom and Ms. Paul.

First PTO Meeting: Tuesday September 20th at 6:30pm

End of Summer BBQ: Friday September 23
Third grade lunch will be at 11:10am.