Happy National Education Week!

We had a wonderful week full of mystery readers, science fair projects, report cards, and finished writing pieces!! Read on to find out more!

This week was a bit different than most weeks...we spent two days enjoying the kids' science fair project presentations...WOW is all I can say...what a wonderful job your kids did on their projects!! This, of course, led up to Thursday's UES Science Fair...if you haven't seen the post previous to this one...take a look...I uploaded a picture of each student with proud grins in front of their projects...its a fun 2 minute video...enjoy!

This week we also finished two writing projects. The "Ella" stories are FINALLY finished...and I'm so excited to read them this weekend! I hope to share them with you at conferences...we'll see if I get them graded in time! The kids also finished a persuasive letter...it is to you about their bedtimes...the funny thing is...they don't want you to read them! Many of them knew that in order to provide evidence in support of their opinion, they needed to write about having you lengthen the amount of time they sleep or not change their bedtime at all...when really, they all want to stay up later!! They are wonderful letters, but I am here to tell you that they are not "for real"...so please don't hold your child to it!! ;-)

On Tuesday we celebrated education by putting a spotlight on reading...the kids enjoyed readers from our PTA during lunchtime and then we had three mystery readers in the afternoon. I had given them clues in the morning so they could guess which parents were coming and what book they were going to read...they loved trying to solve the mysteries!! Mrs. Wolcott, Nicky's mom, arrived first and read an exciting chapter from the first Harry Potter book, The Sorceror's Stone. Then Mr. Buchholz, Emma's dad, came to read a hilarious story called, My Cat, the Silliest Cat in the World. Then Mrs. Sobocienski, Sarah's mom, came and read the wonderful story The Giving Tree. We enjoyed all three mystery readers so much...I think we should make this a monthly event! If you are interested in coming into the classroom as a mystery reader...please send me an email. You can pretty much name the time...unless we're in specials or lunch, we'd LOVE to have you! You can choose the book or I'd be happy to suggest one, so just let me know!

On Wednesday we had CAREER DAY...it was SOOO fun! Each student had the choice to share his/her paragraph describing the career they were interested in, why, and how education will help them persue that career. Many of the kids dressed up as their chosen career. It was really neat to see and hear all of their ideas...a new favorite day of mine!!

Also this week we took the CSA's, worked more with fractions, took a Quarter Two Math pretest, found even more WORD NERD words, and took a two day break from homework! I got an email from a Dad who said that his son had come home and told him that we were taking a FIVE WEEK break from homework! I got a good laugh out of that one...so just to clarify...it was a TWO DAY break from homework. They needed it and so did I!

The next two days of school are crazy ones...please remember that on Monday the kids come to school FOUR hours late...so our school day is 12:30-2:30. On Tuesday the kids will be in school from 8:30 - 11:00...they are dismissed 3 and 1/2 hours early. I am looking forward to sitting with each of you and filling you in on your child's progress so far in third grade. Our conferences are limited to 15 minutes, so if I do not get all of your questions answered, we can schedule another meeting or communicate through email...whichever you choose.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your kids. See you next week!