Circle Letter 12/12/15

Dear Families,

Big round of applause to our Thursday night concert performers.!!  Great songs and music!  What an incredible turn out!  We sure hope you enjoyed the show… the singing, the readings and especially the ukuleles!  Woohoo let’s hear it for the Hokey Pokey. Thank you for coming out and sharing the evening with our Mitchell School kiddos.

Our class has worked well on a variety of projects this week… a new weather unit, persuasive commercial writing, nonfiction text feature hunting, but the best one being our classroom door decorating.  Swing by and check it out.  We also said farewell to Clara… we will miss her!

At long last the Report Card will be placed inside the portfolio, which will be coming home on Monday. We hope you find the portfolio informative and interesting. Lots of “evidence” of learning, thinking, working, and creating. Please take time to go through it with you child!

We will have a small holiday celebration the afternoon of 12/23 in our classroom.  We are asking for each student to bring in a small classroom “supply gift” for the kids to use in the classroom in 2016.  Items like fine tip dry erase markers, Sharpie markers, art supplies, glue sticks, glitter, pencils, erasers, soft tissues, paper towels, books, cards, stickers, a read aloud coupon from a parent, big snack bag to share etc… Please wrap/bag the gift, as we do a pass-a-long game for an unknown person to open. Lastly, we would love to have some holiday fruit and homemade treats to offer to the kids for that Wednesday afternoon. Interested??!  Please send in a note or an e.mail in anyway you might be able to help. And as always, thank you for your support! And thanks also for participating in our Rice Public Library fundraising… we collected $62.00 and will present it to our awesome library this weekend!                          Enjoy the weekend…

Ms. Lantz’s Class

Upcoming Holiday Events

Volunteers and/or Contributions

Needed!

*Grade 3-winter solstice celebration 12/23, 8:45 – 10:30

Volunteers needed

Donations needed:

bag of birdseed needed

sandwich baggies

*Holiday Party 12/23

Fruit (Clementine’s)

homemade holiday treats contributions.   (Peanut free)

Holiday small plates

*Small classroom supply gift,

wrapped, that the class can use in the New Year.

See Circle Letter for suggestions.

Gift exchange on 12/23.

Please send an e.mail or a note if interested in

 helping in anyway

Circle Letter 12/04/15

Dear Families,

            Welcome back after our Thanksgiving Holiday It sure was nice to see the kids again after our long break. And we have had a great week together… busy doing a variety of different things… persuading, non-fiction reading, multiplication, and beginning our annual  “holiday door decorating”. J  We also started the week with an unexpected surprise.  Our Kittery Rotary Club came to Mitchell and presented a dictionary to each and every third grade student, with the hopes it will help promote a life long love of words and learning.  They come home today…!

            Our introduction to persuasive writing has taken on a community twist.  You will hear all about it in a “speech” your child has written.  Please find time over the weekend to listen and mull the idea over.  We thank you in advance for your support!   And in reading we have moved into a nonfiction genre study.  In addition to picking great informative books on a variety of topics (animals, space, Titanic, Roman Life…!)  we will also be having conversation about growing our minds and perceptions. 

                        Our classroom door, along with many doors here at Mitchell, will begin being decked out in winter creativity, as part of a Mitchell School Spirit activity.  There is nothing to report out as of yet, but again stay tuned by next week we should have a clear vision of our theme.

                        The Report Card and Portfolio will be coming home soon and so we are taking time to be reflective learners as “evidence” is put into the portfolio.  And on Thursday I completed the fall formal reading assessment. This allows for an extended amount of one on one uninterrupted reading time together.  I really appreciate and enjoy this opportunity. It’s a great class we have!

            And Ollie’s dad is coming in today for our first “Awesome Parent Job” presentation.  Be sure to learn more about it from your kiddo

Circle Letter 11/20/15

Dear Families,

            Wow, what a wonderful turn out for our Grandparent luncheon.  There were over 100 visiting grandparents!  And a big shout out to Jackie and the kitchen staff who prepared the luncheon and clean up… without a working dishwasher.  Yikes!

            It has been a fun week filled with many opportunities for small group work. In math we continue working on different 3 digit addition and subtraction problems, as well as data, graphing and analyzing results.  I am observing that some students are not fluent (automatic) with their basic facts. We continue (occasionally) to do math games and activities to help practice the facts.  It would be great if your kiddo would practice both addition and multiplication facts and/or play math games over Thanksgiving break. Look in red folder for suggestions… and remember the Everyday Math on-line games.  There are some good ones.

            This week in writing students are sharing their final copies of Personal Narratives!  It has been wonderful to listen to each story and receive positive feedback from the audience.  And lucky you…!  The stories are coming home for you to hear too.  Please fill out the comment sheet that is included and afterwards return both story and response to put into student portfolio.    Our next writing unit is persuasive writing. This will be a great opportunity to grow opinions and beliefs .

            We are also wrapping up our study of the human body.  After a fairly in-depth study of the digestive system, this week we broke up into small group research teams to learn about another body system.  Each team presented their findings to the class.  Get the scoop from your kiddo.  And… Happy Thanksgiving to you all.   I hope the food will be delicious and plentiful !

Circle Letter 11/13/15

Dear Families,

 Happy Friday the 13^th…!  Although not generally suspicious of things we, as a class, are on the look out for any unusual-out-of –the-normal happenings for today.  We shall keep you posted.

It was a real treat to have a mid-week Veteran’s Day break.  It has certainly made for a fast week… but also a productive one!  Especially during writer’s workshop time.  I am so pleased to share that all of our writer’s have now begun typing the final draft of their personal narrative.  Everyone has gone through most of the stages of writing: drafting, drafting and drafting… revising, editing, revising some more, crafting a catchy lead and a clever ending…!  Wow, it’s a lot of work and time and effort.  Watching each writer take pride in one of the last stages of writing…. typing… is quite meaningful. Big round of applause to our writers!  

It has also been an interesting week with our math work.  As you have seen from the home links, we are working on multi digit addition and subtraction. EveryDay Math teaches a variety of methods. (Perhaps your student had to teach you a method…) I encourage our students to try all of the methods being introduced.  However, in the end rest assure, that each student will choose the methods that work best for him or her.  We will continue this work into next week.

And a shout out to Ginnifer and Evin, who were selected to be “Color Guards” at the Veteran’s Day recognition on Monday morning.  The morning was beautifully sunny and crisp, as we all gathered in our front circle to pay tribute to Veterans. Looking ahead, we have a full week together before the Thanksgiving holiday.  And FYI: Book Orders are due next week…!