Week of November 29-December 3

Important Dates:

* Mon. 11/29-Wed. 12/1: Conferences after school

* Thurs. 12/2: Spelling: List 9 Test

*Fri. 12/3: No School

Classroom Chatter:

* Fall conferences will be held the week of 11/29-12/1. Please be on time for your conference...they are only 15 minutes long and it is very easy to get off schedule! Thank you in advance for your cooperation! I am looking forward to meeting with parents and discussing your child's progress thus far in 3rd grade!

*Paper recycling: Don't forget to take advantage our our Paper Retriever recycling bin in Lakeview's parking lot. This is a great way to recycle and help our schools earn money. Thank you!

*Reading: We will be focusing on author's point of view and purpose next week as we read The Keeping Quilt. If you have a quilt at home you can send it in with your child.

*Spelling: We will work on list 9: long i sound. A pretest will be given Monday. Homework will be sent home Monday as well. The final test and homework is on Thurs.

* English: We will begin our unit on adjectives.

*Science: We will continue with our study of planets.

*Social Studies: We will begin a new chapter on culture and immigration (ch. 3).

*Math: This week we will focus on measurement with the Metric System. We will be taking a mad minute in x6.

Week of November 22-26

Important Dates:

11/23 English Test

11/24-11/26 No School Thanksgiving break

11/29-12/3 P/T conferences

12/3 No school Friday

Classroom Chatter

*I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Enjoy your time with your family!

*The students of Project Challenge grades 3-5 are participating in a Lion's Club Holiday Drive. We are looking for donations such as new toys, new games, toiletries, and food for the needy families in the Darien area. If you wish to participate you will need to bring the donations in by December 13. Remember that some of these families live right here in Darien. So let's help these families have a happy holiday season.

*Paper Recycling Fundraiser Comes to Prairieview: We are happy to announce we can now raise money for our district by recycling paper! You can help us out, too! Please collect any paper you are going to throw away or recycle (office and school paper, newspaper, magazines and catalogs, and construction paper---no cardboard!) and send it in with your child to school or drop it off at the green and yellow Paper Retriever bin in the Lakeview parking lot (near the fence by the Prairieview playground). The bin is available for drop offs 24/7. The more paper we recycle, the more money we can make! Do something good for our schools AND the environment! Thank you!

Spelling

No spelling this week. We will pick up with Lesson 9 next week.

English

We will finish up our verb unit with a test on Tuesday.

Reading

We will be doing some reading activities with a Thanksgiving theme. These activities review the different skills and strategies we've been working on this year.

Science

We will learn about the planets.

Social Studies

We will begin chapter 3 on culture next week.

Math

We will take a check your progress on lessons 1-5 in chapter 6 on Tuesday. Next week we will start x6 mad minutes.

Week of November 15-19

Important Dates:

*Report cards Tuesday 11/16

*Thanksgiving break 11/24-11/26

*Parent/Teacher conferences 11/29-12/1

*No school Friday 12/3

Classroom Chatter

We had a great field trip to Downers Grove on Friday, 11/12. Thanks Mrs. Nicholson for coming on our trip. Here is a picture of us at Prince Pond.

On Friday, your child came home with a Parent/Teacher Conference Notification form. Please review the date and time. Fill out the bottom portion and return to me. You can either confirm our conference or reschedule. Most of you signed up for the date and time at Curriculum Night at the beginning of the year. If you did not sign up, I just assigned at date and time. Please get this form back to me asap so if there are any conflicts, I can reschedule appointments asap! Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to meeting with you all very soon!

Spelling: We will continue to focus on synonyms and antonyms analogies this week. There will be a graded review on Friday.

Reading: We will continue to focus on our reading strategies as we apply them to our reading. We will focus on making inferences, summarizing, predicting, using background knowledge, and applying our knowledge about synonyms and antonyms. We also will focus on character traits, problem/resolution, and setting as we finish up our novel study.

English

We will continue with our verb unit. We will finish up this unit before Thanksgiving break with a test on 11/23. A study guide will come home this week. It'll be in their English folder come Tuesday.

Science

We will still be working with the moon. We also will begin studying about the planets.

Social Studies

We are going to read in chapter 12 about communities and relate what we read to the community of Downers Grove.

Math

We will take a mad minute in x5's. We will continue with chapter 6 working with measurement. We will be looking at capacity. We plan to have a "check your progress" on Tuesday 11/23

Week of November 8-12

Important Dates:

*Roller skating Monday 11/8

*PE test Wednesday 11/10

*Veterans' Day Thursday 11/11

*DG field trip Friday 11/12

*Book Orders due Friday 11/12

*Picture Retakes Tueday 11/23

Classroom Chatter

Students attending the roller skating party on Monday, 11/8, will need to report to school at 3:45 pm to check in and have their hands stamped before boarding buses. Students should bring in their fast pass with them at check in, which will go home with them on Monday. Please remember not to park in the bus lanes when dropping and picking up your child. Thanks.

A study guide came home today for the PE test. It is on Wednesday.

Don't forget no school Thursday for Veterans' Day.

Book orders came home today. The deadline to order books will be Friday, 11/12. I encourage everyone to try online ordering. It is safe, fast, and easy! Plus, it gets the classroom FREE BOOKS! Thanks in advance!

Friday we will be takin our field trip to Downers Grove. If you are a chaperone, information will come home Monday with your child as to what time to arrive and your field trip group and a schedule of the day. Please dress for the weather. We will be outside for half of the field trip. Don't forget you can send your child with $5-$8 for spending money at the shops in DG after lunch. Parents, if you are not chaperoning and would like to meet us for lunch, we will be at Giordano's at 12:15 or shortly after.

GUESS WHAT? Our class collected the most BOX TOPS labels for third grade! That means we won a pizza lunch party! Way to go!!! Our lunch pizza party will be Tuesday 11/23. Congrats and good job well done!!!! Now, keep those Box Tops and Tyson labels coming in. There's a second contest in the spring!!!

Tuesday, 11/23 will be picture retake day. Any student that did not have their picture taken prior to this date may do so. They will be required to have a picture envelope with money to have a picture taken. Any student that wants a picture retaken will have to return the original packet for a retake.

Spelling:
We will continue our study of analogies. This week and next, we will focus on synonym and antonym analogies. Therefore, we will not have a spelling test this week nor next week. We will have a graded assessment on analogies the following week.

English

We will continue with verbs. This week we will study the verb be and helping verbs.

Reading

We will continue with our novel study while focusing on character traits, problem/resolution, and setting as well as predicting, summarizing, and making inferences as we read!

Science

We will be learning about the moon.

Social Studies

We will continue with our study of present day Downers Grove. Our Downers Grove field trip is Friday!!

Math

We will take a break from mad minutes this week. Please continue to study facts. The week of 11/15 we will start x5. This week, we will begin chapter 6 on time and measurement.