Week of May 4-8

Important Dates:
*Cinco de Mayo 5/5
*Miss Griffin's last day Friday 5/8
*Boat trip permission slip and money due Friday 5/8



Classroom Chatter

Field Trip: The Chicago boat tour field trip will be on Tuesday, June 2nd. We will only be able to take 4 parent chaperons per classroom with us on this trip. Each chaperon will be required to pay an additional $6 charge. You will need to be able to meet us at Prairieview at 9am on June 2nd. You'll ride the buses down with us, and you will be responsible for a group of 4-5 students (including your own.) The buses will return to Prairieview at approximately 2pm. If you are interested in this job, please email me. Space is limited, so the first 4 parents to email me will be awarded the job. As was the case last year, chaperons often cancel. If you are not one of the first 4 to email me, you will be put on a waiting list in the order in which you have emailed me. Please keep in mind that space is very limited. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Additionally, the student permission slip for this field trip will be sent home on Monday, May 4th. Please make sure your child has returned the signed permission slip with $6 in cash by Friday, May 8th.



Science
This week we will focus on the inner and outer planets of our solar system. We also will study the constellations. I have the space test planned for Wednesday 5/13. A study guide will come home on Wednesday. It will be in the science folder.


Social Studies
My Kind of Town, Chicago...as Frank Sinatra sang to us last week on CD! Last week we talked about Chicago's Flag and what the symbols stand for. This week, we will learn about Fort Dearborn, Chicago Stockyards, and how Chicago becomes an industrialized city.


Spelling
L. 26 are the words for this week. This is a review unit of lessons 19-25. On Monday a "practice" test will come home. It will be in the spelling folder. It looks like Friday's test, but with different words. This week's workbook pages are 136-139. They'll be due on Thursday. The test is Friday.


English
We will begin unit 6 on pronouns. This is our last grammar unit. This week we will learn about subject and object pronouns, pronouns and verbs, and writing with pronouns.


Math
This week in math we will be taking a division 12 mad minute. The following week we will take a mixed mad minute on division facts. We will be "all done" with mad minutes in 2 weeks, HOWEVER, your child should continue to practice multiplication and division facts. We will start double digit multiplication after our decimal unit and finish up with long division!

Week of April 27-May 1

Important Dates:
Miss Griffin's last day 5/8 :(


Classroom Chatter:
We are going to enjoy these last 2 weeks with Miss Griffin. We will miss her very much!


Science
This week we will learn about the planets of our solar system.


Social Studies
We will begin our study of Chicago. This week we will begin learning about the history of Chicago.


Spelling
L. 25 words are spelled with -igh. There will be a pretest on Monday and the test on Friday. 131-134 are this week's workbook pages. They're due on Thursday. ABC order will come home Thursday.


English
We will finish up typing our autobiographies. This week we will begin our final grammar unit. Unit 6 teaches us on pronouns.


Reading
This week we will begin a fairy tale unit. There will be some vocabulary words that come home on Monday. There will be a quiz on these terms on Friday. April book reports on poetry are due Thursday 4/30. Next month's book reports have to do with fairy tales. I'll send home information on Friday.


Math
This week we will continue with decimals. We will discuss place value, ordering and comparing of decimals, problem solving, and estimation of decimals. There will be a checkpoint on Thursday. Thursday's checkpoint can be found on page 404. We also will be taking a mad minute in division 11's.

Week of April 20-24

Important Dates:

*Skating Party Tuesday 4/21

*Progress Reports 4/21

*Early Dismissal Friday 4/24

Classroom Chatter:

It was so wonderful to see all my students and their families at Open House! Thank you for taking the time to come visit! It's so sad to think we have 7 weeks together till summer!

Science

We will finish up lesson one by learning about day and night. We will begin lesson 2 this week about the earth and moon.

Social Studies

Next week we will begin our unit on Chicago. We will begin with the history of Chicago.

Spelling

L. 24 words this week are spelled with -ear. The pretest is Monday and the test will be Friday. The workbook pages will be assigned on Tuesday. Pages 126-129 will be due Thursday. ABC order will come home Thursday.

English

We will begin a writing unit. Students will be writing their autobiography.

Reading

This week we will be presenting biographies. Students will also have another opportunity to play their games they made. They will come home Friday.

Math

We will be taking a checkpoint from pages 378-379. The test on chapter 9 is scheduled for Wednesday. We will review on Tuesday for the test in class. This week's mad minutes are on division 10's. Due to no school Friday, we will take mad minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday if need be!

Week of April 13-17

Important Dates:

Spring Open House and Book Fair Thursday 4/17

Classroom Chatter:

I apologize in the delay of Scholastic Book Orders. Those of you who ordered books, I submitted the order on Thursday 4/9. My apologies. I must have forgotten about the order, since I had them due that Friday before we had Spring Break. They should be in next week. Again, I appreciate your orders and apologize for the error.

Please come and join us Thursday from 6:30-8:00 pm for Spring Open House and Book Fair. Third grade's theme is Ancient Egypt. We look forward to showing off our hard work!

I'm excited to announce that our classroom received the school's first Mimio board. Has your child to you about it? This is a wonderful tool that uses technology to project the computer screen onto our whiteboard (which replaced our chalkboard). With the use of a special pen, students and teachers can move, highlight, write, and much more on the whiteboard.

Science

We will begin chapter 10 Space this week. In lesson one, we will learn what causes earth's seasons.

Socia Studies

We will be having the Ancient Egypt test on Friday, April 17th. A study guide went home last week.

Spelling

L. 23 words this week. These words are spelled ending with -er and -est. There will be a pretest Monday and a test on Friday. The workbook pages are 121-124 and are due Thursday. There will be an ABC order sheet that will come home Thursday.

English

We will take the Unit 5 Correct Sentences test on Wednesday. A study guide went home last week.

Reading

We are finished with biographies. Next week, students will be sharing them and have the option to dress up. We will decide on a schedule of presenting them this week. This week I want the students to share their games from last month's book report. Students will have an opportunity to plan them as well. Also, this week, we're beginning a poetry unit, since April is poetry month. Students will have a quiz on Friday on the 6 vocabulary terms. Those words will come home on Monday.

Math

We will finish up fractions this week. The test is scheduled for Wendnesday 4/22. The checkpoint will be Monday 4/20. We also will be taking a mad minute in division 9.

Week of April 6-10

Important Dates:
*No school Tuesday 4/7 Teacher Institute
*No school Friday 4/10
*Spring Open House and Book Fair Thursday 4/16

Classroom Chatter
I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing spring break. We look forward to seeing family next week at our Spring Open House!

Science We will begin chapter 10 on space next week!

Social Studies This week we will start reading Tut's Mummy. In this book we will learn in more detail about King Tut. Don't forget the Egypt Mobile is due 4/14. Students may turn them in early.


Spelling We will not take a pretest this week due to the shortened week. L. 22 are the words this week. The test will be Thursday. Workbook pages 116-119 will be due on Wednesday. ABC order will come home Wednesday.

English This week we will be learning about quotation marks and writing good sentences. The english test is planned for Wednesday, April 15th.

Reading We will continue working on our biography scrapbooks. When we are finished with the scrapbooks, students will present them to the class. They will have the option of dressing up like their person on the day of their presentations.

Math
We will continue with our study of fractions. This week we also will be taking a mad minute on division 8. Due to the shortened week, we will have a mad minute on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.