It's Friday!

MSA Tests
I'm sure your children are going to be exhausted tonight! They have been working SO hard on their MSA tests...they are to be commended!! Don't forget...we have one more test day...Monday is Day 2 of Math, so make sure they get a good night's sleep on Sunday night and have a great breakfast before school...thanks so much to everyone for having them here on time...it makes a HUGE difference!!

Wills' Wax Museum
CONGRATULATIONS to the class! Every single student has picked a famous person to research and returned their Wills Wax Museum slip in by today! The students have picked so many WONDERFUL people to learn about. We will be working in the computer lab a lot next week...we're going to be compiling our information using a program called Inspirations. This program allows you to web on the computer, print out the web, and then convert the information into outline form...who would have thought it was possible?!?! By the end of next week the children should be ready to start their rough drafts. This is all in preparation for our Wax Museum where parents will get to come visit and watch our wax figures come to life to tell you about their lives...it should be AWESOME! By the next blog, I will have a date pinned down, so that you can mark your calendars!

New Novels
We will be working in new novels over the next two weeks and participating in Literature Circles where the kids will discuss different story elements with each other. Each day there will be a discussion piece and a written piece devoted to different indicators in the language arts curriculum.

Math
We will be working on division over the next week or so. I gave a pretest last week, and there are many students at different points on their acquisition of long division, so we will be breaking into groups in order to differentiate the curriculum.

We have about seven more students who need to pass the multiplication facts test!!! Please continue to practice these facts at home...it makes division SO much easier!

Did you see the NEW picture of Callan I posted!? Is he cute or what?!

Have a great weekend!

IT'S A BOY!!!

Callan James Huston

April 1, 2008

10:19 pm

7 lbs, 9 oz

20.5 inches

Welcome Back!

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break...I enjoyed the break myself, but was happy to see your children today! I have quite a few things I want to make sure I communicate this week...so read carefully, and as always, if you have a question, don't hesitate to email me!



MSA's

Next Tuesday, April 1st is the beginning of our MSA testing. The children have MSA's on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of next week, and on Monday, April 7th, the following week.

Please keep these things in mind:

1. Being on time to school is key to having a great start to the day and to the testing.

2. Plenty of rest is a must for test takers.

3. A full stomach helps brain power...feed your child a good breakfast!

Thank you for helping your child show what he/she knows on our state tests!



Exploratory Music

Your child has been participating in a total of five "exploratory music" classes last week and this week. These classes allow the students to experiment with different instruments they might be interested in playing in 4th and 5th grade. They seem to really enjoy these classes. Their last one is this Friday.



Arbor Day

In honor of Arbor Day, each third grader in Frederick County will bring a loblolly pine seedling home on Wednesday, April 2nd. In class we will discuss why Arbor Day is celebrated and the value of trees to our environment. Directions on how to plant the seedling will come home with the tree. (FYI...Just last month my parents moved from the house where I grew up...my 3rd grade seedling is still in that backyard and is over 30 feet tall!)


Social Studies

We were not quite finished our government unit, when we received some videos to supplement our Economy unit...so we switched gears a bit! We are very flexible!! The children are learning so much vocabulary with our economy unit...and I'm so impressed how quickly they can use it! We will stay with Economy over the next two weeks and drift back into the US government. We will be doing a biography project (mainly at school!) towards the middle/end of April that ties into the government unit. Your child will be studying a person that has made a positive impact on our country. Please spend some time brainstorming with your child some different people that he/she might be interested in learning about. More to come on this fun project!

Other news...
1. We are finishing the novel, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler this week. The children have become masters at writing summaries during this novel unit. Next, we will be delving into a different novel and using literature circles where the kids will run the group discussions themselves...should be interesting! :-)

2. Most students have finished editing their creative stories...holy moly, I'm impressed! They will conference with me, make revisions, and publish these stories in the computer lab. I can't wait for you to read them!

3. In math, we are leaving our measurement unit and heading into DIVISION...keep practicing those facts...they will make all the difference as we attack long division!!

4. LAST, BUT CERTAINLY, NOT LEAST...Mrs. Huston is still awaiting the arrival of Baby Huston. She has promised to let us know soon after the baby arrives...we are all excited about Baby Huston's arrival!!

Until next time...

Our Class "Made History!"

Today was the Frederick County History Bee...all participants should be very proud of representing their school. But we are VERY proud that the three third graders from Urbana were all from OUR CLASS!! Not only that...each one was a finalist! Katherine was the top third grade alternate in the county! Rishub and Carter were two of the fourteen finalists (they started with over 100!) And....CARTER WON THIRD PLACE IN THE WHOLE COUNTY!!!!

Congratulations to our hard working friends!!

Happy "almost" Friday!

I informed the kids today that I will not be in school tomorrow. My fifth grade son, Connor, is participating in the County History Bee and I will be there cheering him on! Keshav's Mom, Mrs. Ram, will be substituting for me.


We have had a great week! Here are some of the highlights...


Language Arts: We have been reading and enjoying From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (a book that is as old as me!) The children have been working on writing concise summary statements of certain chapters and writing responses where they make text to self connections. They have improved immensely in two weeks!

The students are writing narrative stories, focusing on the writing traits: ideas, word choice, and conventions. We hope to finish these rough drafts before Spring Break! These kids are amazing authors!


We have also been focusing on test taking strategies...our Language Arts curriculum suggests this unit be taught before the end of the third quarter...so we've been doing some activities that allow the kids to use these strategies when taking reading tests. They are quickly figuring out that it's very important to pay attention to what the question is asking!!


Math: We have been focusing on measurement for the past two weeks. Measuring length with standard and metric units, measuring weight in lbs and oz, measuring capacity using cups, pints, quarts, and gallons, measuring elapsed time, and we will end the unit measuring temperature.


Social Studies: We are finishing up our unit on Political Science. The objectives for this unit can be viewed on http://www.fcpsteach.org/docs/Gr.%203%20May%2004.doc. Tomorrow they will be going to the computer lab to "take a trip" on Google Earth visiting many different national monuments and patriotic symbols. Mrs. Cicerone has developed this entire activity based on the interests of your children...it should be a ton of fun.

We recently wrote short reports that reflect some of the learning we have been doing about the government. The children took notes after reading from our text and viewing a movie, and then synthesized that information using their "learning laptops"...I will be taking those reports home over the weekend to read...I can't wait!

IMPORTANT INFO:

1. Please make sure to review all of the graded work that will come home in the kids' Take Home Folders tomorrow. Keep them all at home and have your child return the folder empty...so we can begin filling it again!
2. Our field trip is Tuesday...as of right now I have Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Pedersen, and Mrs. Gallo. I am allowed to take more than three if there are any parents who would still like to accompany us! Please make sure you have signed the permission slip!!
3. Only two days of school next week...and then a short break...enjoy your families, and I will be back in touch after Spring Break!

Thanks!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Hello, everyone...I hope you're having a great week...we sure are! I have a few things I'd like to communicate with all of you...

First of all, it's been brought to my attention that not everyone checks this blog. This is something I need to know, so I am asking each of you to take a few minutes and email me at karen.wills@fcps.org. You can write "I read it" in the subject line and sign your name...whomever I don't hear from in a week, I will assume they need paper versions of these notes. I can just print the blog...but I want to make sure I am making a connection with each family.

Secondly, the new field trip permission slips should be coming home Friday. I need to know if the same parents are able to attend and if anyone new would like to join us. I have to bring at least four parents. Please let me know if you would like to join us...it is on Tuesday, March 18th from 9:00-11:30.

Third, I enjoyed meeting many of you over the past two days. I am constantly amazed at what your children can produce! This past Monday, we did a pre-reading activity to go along with our new novel, The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. We learned the definition of proverbs, studied some famous ones, and then wrote original proverbs. All I can say is...WOW. I took the kids to the computer lab the next day so that we could publish them. They will be hanging in our classroom once I can get a ladder...or if any of you have a free hour...please drop by, you can hang them for me! :-)

That leads me to my last request...I enjoy having parents in the classroom and I know the kids enjoy anytime their parent comes in...take today for example...Mrs. Lenard, Krasi's Mom, was part of a team of scientists from the National Cancer Institute who came in to do science experiments with the kids. In the words of Jinghan, "It was the best day of my life!" The kids really enjoyed the investigations and I know Krasi loved having his Mom there! Please email me and let me know if there are days you are available to come in and volunteer in the classroom...I will try to make some sort of schedule to allow as many parents as possible a chance to work with the kids.

Thanks for all you do. I look forward to working with you all over the next four months.

Baby Huston

Click HERE to visit Mrs. Huston's blog to see a "pre-birth" picture of Baby Huston!