Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!

Nature Center Field Trip

We had so much fun on our field trip today. Thank you to all the Macalaster students!

These Two Girls were Copying Me Today

News Letter

New e-mail:

       The district has switched our e-mail system. So we now have new e-mail addresses. Joe.Melde@isd199.org Lori.Gustafson@isd199.org

We would appreciate it if you would send us an e-mail with your child’s name in the subject line. That will make it easier to add you to our contacts. Thanks.

Conferences:

       Together, we will be able to help your child learn as much as they can this year. We really appreciated your time and the conversations we had at conferences. We are proud of the students for their presentations and thinking. Parents, thank you for your support and for working with us to help your child learn as much as they can this year. Students, keep working hard to reach your goals.

Math:

       We have completed our unit on graphing and have now started place value. Attached to the update are the state standards that your child will be working to learn. Some great resources to support your child’s learning at home are: http://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/ro/Pages/studentlinks/math.htm

Khan Academy and soon, assignments will be up and running in Learning Point Navigator.

Math Fact Fluency:

       In third grade the students need to be working on memorizing all of their math facts for addition and subtraction. This means that the facts are automatic; they know it without thinking about it. There are many apps and online games to help with this, along with flashcards and regular games. The better the students know their facts, the more success they will have in so many of the math areas.

Reading:

       This week have been learning about Snowflake Bently and working on making inferences and long vowels with the vce (vowel consanant vowel) pattern, like alone, space, etc. Students are working hard and learning to be independent workers during read to self, journal writing, and word work/spelling. Next week, we will begin meeting with our small reading groups. In the groups your child will be working at their instructional level. Your support with reading at home is crucial. Students need to be reading every day. You can mix up having your child read silently and reading to you. But, be sure to have them tell you about what they are reading. This helps build their comprehension, their understanding of what they read.

October 31:

       It is Mix up day here at Salem Hills. Students can mix up their clothes, hair, etc. We will also be tie dying our team shirts. So, students should bring an old shirt to wear over their clothes, or just wear old clothes this day. Sometimes the die ends up where we don’t mean for it to beJ

Fire Safety

We learned about how to get out of the house or apartment during a fire.  We learned to feel the door before you open it.  If it is hot then you go to the window.When  you go to the window you go out.  If your window is high, you throw something out or wave something.  Make sure you don't grab pets when you go. It is too dangerous to grab pets.  They might already be gone.  Smoke detectors are loud.  Don't take batteries out for toys.  Change batteries twice a year.  When you hear the smoke detector don't grab anything.  Things can be replaced and we can't.  Have a meeting place so you know who is out of the house or not.

There is an open house at the fire station this weekend.  There are hot dogs and activities. 
We have lots more information but you have to ask us about it.
From,
Room 24

Newsletter

We are getting into the swing of things in 3rd grade.  The first month of school has been a lot of getting to know the kids.  We have learned a lot both personally and academically.  

We have given the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test in reading.  This test we give in the fall and then again in the spring to measure growth.  

We have also completed the MCA Math test preview.  This test is given for a couple reasons.  First, we want to be able to measure where the kids are in math.  This test is designed to measure skills for a third grader at the end of the year.  Some skills included on the test are multiplication, division and fractions.  We have not covered that as a class yet so it is natural that this test is pretty difficult.  We will give another practice test in the winter.  At this time we will be able to compare the first to the second.  The final test is given in the spring.  This is the real test that counts.  This will be after we have covered all of the necessary skills to pass.  All of the results from these tests will be shared with you are conference time.  

Thank you all for checking over the student planners each day.  We ask the third graders to work very hard during the day and we do not want them to be doing hours of homework each day.  We will have something in the planner for them to do but we will also use the planner for communication so that you know what is coming up at Salem Hills.  Please keep asking your child to be responsible for bringing the planner home, showing you what is written and when the work is complete then you sign off on it.  

On Thursday we had a whole class conversation about recess.  We all sat down and talked about some of the things that have been happening outside during this time.  Some of the games that kids have been playing have been getting pretty rough.  We talked about the rules that are posted school wide.  We ended the conversation with the kids that had problems outside, fixing them and then all of the kids wrote out what they plan to do at recess from now on.  

As always, if you have any questions, please fel free to contact us.

Ms. G and Mr. Melde

Newsletter Week 2

Slowly but surely we are entering into routines in 3rd grade.  We have started talking about a big part of our reading time this year.  We often ask the question, “How do you get better at reading?” and the kids know that the only way is to READ.  We have talked about reading books that have a purpose, interest for the kids, that they can comprehend, and that they know most if not all the words.  If they are reading too far below or too far above their reading level then they are not getting much out of it.  Many nights in the planner you will see that reading for 15-20 minutes is a part or all of their homework.  Reading is a huge part of everything we do.  Thank you to all of you who have been reading with your child and signing the planner each night.  

Next week we will be starting a couple new things.  We will be giving each student a reading test to assess where they are so we can help them choose books that are a good fit for them.  

We will also be starting spelling.  Each week your child will have 20 spelling words.  18 of the words will come from our spelling curriculum and two will come from words tha they choose.  We believe it is important that students not only know how to spell the words on the list correctly but also become very familiar with the meanings and how to use the words correctly.  Many of the activities that we do here will have both parts.  You will see a list come home on Monday.  That list is for you to keep and practice during the week.  We will keep one here at school to practice.  The test will be on Friday.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you!

Ms. G and Mr. Melde