October 30, 2019

Announcements

In the Friday folder this week, you will find your conference date and time. Please let me as soon as possible if this will not work for you so we can reschedule. Thank you in advance for helping me reach the goal of meeting with 100% of families!

We had a wonderful collaboration with the City of Columbia and Ameren these past two weeks. On Monday, October 21, we had an employee of each come give a presentation about electricity and safety.

Our field trip this week to the Water and Light substation was so much fun! Students got to see them fly drones, climb the poles, experience what it is like to close and open the fuse, and try on their equipment. We also learned more about electricity and safety.

In the Classroom

In math, we have been studying estimation and addition strategies. Students are being asked to use their knowledge of place value to solve 2 and 3 digit problems. 

In reading last week, students focused on providing text evidence while reading various articles. We learned how to answer questions in a complete sentence and use words from the question in our answers. 

Students worked on partner revisions last week for their personal narrative. We also started editing. We will work on typing or rewriting the pieces next week in order to showcase them during conference week.

We started our new Social Studies unit of Geography last week. Students discussed where they would go if they could travel anywhere in the world. We also learned about compass roses and maps.

Upcoming Events

No School-October 31 and November 1

Storyteller Andy Irwin-November 11

Parent Teacher Conferences-November 11-14

No School-November 15

Orchestra Field Trip to Missouri Theater-November 21

No School, Thanksgiving Break-November 27-29

Early Dismissal at 12:50-December 4

Winter Open House-December 20

Winter Break Begins-December 23

School Resumes-January 6

October 18, 2019

Announcements

It is already time to discuss Fall Conferences! This year, conferences will be held on Tuesday, November 12th and Thursday, November 14 in the evening. Please fill out the blue form in the Friday Folder to let me know some times and dates that work for you. It is a Paxton Keeley expectation that I hold a face-to-face conference with every family. Please help me reach this goal! You will be receiving your conference confirmation time on Wednesday, October 30th.

Students will be attending a field trip on Monday, October 28th to the City of Columbia Water and Light station. Students will be seeing demonstrations by city workers outside at their training facilities. Please make sure to have students dress appropriately for the weather and wear closed-toed shoes. The field trip is for an hour in the morning, and we will be back before lunch. Parent volunteers are not needed for this field trip.

The annual Paxton Keeley Food Drive will begin next week. Our class has set a goal of 150 items to donate to the Central Missouri Food Bank. Please consider donating non-perishable items of food. You may also donate money (each dollar equal 4 items of food). Checks should be made out to the Central Missouri Food Bank.

Weekly Journals were not completed this week because of our Sick Day celebration.

On Wednesday, we got to see the 5th Grade Vocabulary Parade! Each 5th grader chose a vocabulary word and created a hat to demonstrate its' meaning.

In the Classroom

In math this week, we completed our 2nd unit. Students did lots of work with number stories, multiplication, and division. We also studied patterns. We will begin Unit 3 next week, as well as take our trimester assessment.

We have been focusing on predictions in reading this week. We are using our read aloud book to practice this skill with a fiction text. Each student is taking part in a guided reading group to practice predicting with non-fiction texts. Our main goal is to provide evidence to support our predictions.

We have been loving the Global Read Aloud book! We do a Kahoot game each week to check our comprehension.

We have also been using Padlet to connect with some other 3rd grade classes at Paxton reading Stella Diaz.

In writing this week, students chose which personal narrative they would like to take through the publishing process. Students rewrote their story on drafting paper and worked on revising this week. Next week, we will continue revising with partners and an adult. We will hopefully have these published and ready for you to see by Parent Teacher Conferences.

In science this week, we discussed fossils. Students "dug" for fossils to analyze how they give clues to scientists about changes in habitats. We will assess over this unit next week and begin our next Social Studies unit, Geography.

Each of our ecosystems grew grass! We had a few fish and worm casualties, but the students loved observing the living parts each day.

Upcoming Events

Field trip with City of Columbia-October 28
Fall Room Party, 2:15-3:00-October 30

No School-October 31 and November 1

Storyteller Andy Irwin-November 11

Parent Teacher Conferences-November 11-14

No School-November 15

No School, Thanksgiving Break-November 27-29

Early Dismissal at 12:50-December 4

Winter Open House-December 20

Winter Break Begins-December 23

School Resumes-January 6

October 4, 2019

Announcements

Thank you so much to everyone who donated to our dog basket for the Comet Carnival! It turned out great.

With the changing weather, please make sure your student comes prepared for outdoor recess every day. 

We are having quite a few students who are forgetting their homework folders, notebook, or initials. Please help students with this routine each night. Students should be reading at least 15 minutes each night, and your initials are how I know they completed this part of the homework. If you need me to send home appropriate reading material for your third grader, please let me know. 

Be on the lookout for the Success Ready Checklist in the Friday Folder next week. 

In the Classroom

So far in Unit 2 of Math, we have done lots of work with story problems. Students have been asked to solve both one and two step problems by using a series of problem solving steps. These include reading and understanding the problem, making a plan, solving using an efficient strategy, and checking to make sure the answer is reasonable.

We have been studying story elements in reading. Students learned about problem/solution and setting during shared reading. In guided reading, our focus continued to be character traits. This week, students were asked to provide text evidence to support their character trait analysis.

We also started Global Read Aloud this week! Please see the note in the Friday Folder for more information. As part of this project, we did a Mystery Hangout with a class that is also participating. We asked them yes/no questions to figure out their location while they did the same. Each student had a job, and we loved being able to connect with them! They are located in Winnipeg and we will be connecting with them at other points during Global Read Aloud. (Our photographer, Yeonu, did a wonderful job taking pictures during the Hangout!)

Each student has been given a personal narrative writing goal. Please check with your third grader to see if they know their goal. We have been focusing on adding details to our stories through sensory details, shows and tells, and appropriate transitions.  

We began our Ecosystems unit in Science by exploring the different components; plants, animals, decomposers, and non-living. For a real world application, we created our very own ecosystems! (Thank you for the bottle donations.) Each table created an ecosystem that has fish, worms, and grass. We will observe them for the duration of our unit.

Upcoming Events

Comet Carnival, 5:00-8:00-October 4

Picture Retake Day-October 17

Flu Shots-October 18

Fall Room Party, 2:15-3:00-October 30

No School-October 31 and November 1