INTERIM REPORTS

Due to technical difficulties with our electronic gradebook, interim reports will be sent home Wednesday, December 3.  

READ TO ACHIEVE RESOURCES

Portfolio of Sample Reading Passages

http://www.livebinders.com/media/get/OTU3NjcyNg==

A Parent's Guide to Read to Achieve

http://www.wcpss.net/parents/guides/read-to-achieve/index.html

Narrated Power Point for Parents

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1326906#anchor

IMPORTANT DATES

Monday, December 1 - Interim Reports sent home

Wednesday, December 3-SPIRIT NIGHT-Sam's Pizza and Salads  5:30-7:30 pm

Monday, December 22 - Friday, January 2, 2015 - WINTER BREAK

RECYCLE GUY VISITS

On Wednesday, November 19, representatives from the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, along with one of the recycle guys came to present Michael with his $50.00 prize for being one of the winners in the 2014 America Recycles Day art contest. Students in our class were excited to meet the Recycle Guy and receive cool stickers, pencils made from recycled paper, and a coloring/activity book.

                                              





CONGRATULATIONS MICHAEL!

CHECK OUT OUR FUN SCIENCE ACTIVITY - "PHROSTED PHASES"

We had a blast today frosting vanilla wafers to look like the various moon phases that we have been studying in our "Objects in the Sky" unit.  Our activity was a bit messy, but what a fun learning activity!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations to Michael in our classroom for being one of the winners in the 2014 America Recycles Day Art Contest.  The contest allows students to spread the word about the importance of recycling during America Recycles Day.  There were over 550 entries from students in grades K-8.

Michael will receive $50.00 for being a runner-up winner.  In addition, our school will receive 2 recycle bins shaped like milk cartons, and our class will receive cool stickers, pencils, etc.

Check out the link below to see Michael's amazing poster.  We are so proud of you!  Way to go, Michael!

                        recycleguys.org

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES

November 14 - 21 - "Sir Readalot's Castle" Book Fair

(Sales begin at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 18 and run through Friday, the 21st at 4:00 p.m.)

November 18 - Literacy Night - 6:00 p.m. - Hope to see you there!

November 21 - Dress up like a book character day!

November 21 - Ms. Underwood's Class - Fall Celebration in the classroom

November 26 - 28 - Thanksgiving Holidays - NO SCHOOL

CHARACTER STUDY CELEBRATION

Students in Ms. Underwood’s third grade class have been analyzing the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual characteristics of one of their favorite book characters for the past few weeks.  To celebrate the end of our character study, students literally “walked in the shoes of their character” by dressing up and speaking like the character as they made an oral presentation in front of their classmates. 

Can you guess the names of the popular characters who visited our room?

BENCHMARK TESTING

Third grade students will be taking Score 21 (previously known as Case 21) benchmark testing in math on Tuesday afternoon.  

CHARACTER PROJECT AND CELEBRATION

This week in literacy, students will be completing a small project as we draw our character unit to a close.  Students will be choosing a favorite character from a book that they have previously read.  In class they will be completing a character description graphic organizer, as well as a character script written from the point of view of their character. These items will also be coming home in the green homework folder so that students may complete unfinished classwork at home throughout the week. (These sheets need to come back to school each day in order for students to work on them during literacy.)  Students need to have a copy of their book because they will be using evidence from the text to describe the traits, thoughts, feelings, motivations, actions, and lessons learned of their characters.  On Monday, October 27, students will come dressed as the character they chose and share a character presentation with their classmates.  Students do not need to purchase items for this presentation.  Mrs. Hill and I will be helping students at school with this project, but some of the work will have to be done at home to prepare for Monday's presentation.      

OCTOBER - BULLYING PREVENTION MONTH

During the month of October, students have been participating in activities to learn more about the prevention of bullying.  The following link is a great site that provides useful information regarding bullying prevention:

http://www.wcpss.net/parents/bullying.html

Mrs. Williams, our school counselor, also has information on her webpage for parents:

http://douglaselementarycounseling.weebly.com/bullying-prevention.html

Some additional anti-bullying activities that will take place during the month of October are:

Monday, October 20th: Hawk Thomas from the Harlem Globetrotters will be here for a special 

assembly. 10:15-10:45 3-5.

Friday, October 24th: Last day for posters and poetry contest.  Also, we will be viewing the Douglas Drama Club's video production after the announcements.

The last week in October, we will have a spirit week.  These are the following themes:

Monday, 10/27: Mustache Monday - I mustache you to be bully free (wear a mustache - get creative!)

Tuesday, 10/28: Let's shade out bullies (wear your sunglasses)

Wednesday, 10/29: Teacher workday

Thursday, 10/30: Being bully free is no sweat (wear sweat suit attire)

Friday, 10/31: Hats ON to being bully free (wear any kind of hat)

UPCOMING DATES

 October 17 - Early Release at 1:15 p.m.

 October 29 - Workday- No School

 October 30 - Science Night  6:00 - 7:30 p.m.   

OCTOBER - Bullying Prevention Month - Poster and Poetry Contest

October is national bullying prevention month, in which we focus our attention on promoting a bully free school.   We will be having a "Stand Up, Speak Up" poster and poetry contest this month. Students can choose to creatively display the theme through a poster or a poem, their choice. Poster paper and information about the contest will be available in the media center, next to the Club Hub. There will be prizes for each grade level.  Please encourage your students to participate!

READING INFORMATION

Your child's BOG scores will be coming home on Monday.  On them, you will see an estimated Lexile level for your child based on their performance on the test.  Lexile measures text complexity.  This number is useful to you because there are a wide variety of search options available where you can put in your child's Lexile score and see lists of books that are appropriate. Of course, once you go to the library and check these books out, you'll still want your student to read a page or two outloud to you so that you can assess whether they know all the words and comprehend the text by asking them questions about the pages they read.  You might find they need to go down a little bit in the text difficulty, but the Lexile level is a helpful guide to finding those "Good Fit Books."  Barnes & Noble and Scholastic also have Lexile search engines that can help you! Here's a great site to search:

https://lexile.com/fab/

Thanks for helping your child read appropriately leveled books at home.

MATH - SORTING QUADRILATERALS

In our geometry unit, we have been studying the attributes (properties) of quadrilaterals such as parallelograms, rectangles, rhombuses, and squares.  We are classifying these various quadrilaterals based upon their attributes. Quadrilaterals can be placed in more than one category.  The link below contains important information that is presented in a fun way to help your child understand the classification process.


http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/math/geometry/cla
ssify-quadrilaterals.htm


Here are some more good links on sorting quadrilaterals:

https://learnzillion.com/lessons/3513-classify-quadrilaterals-in-a-hierarchy

https://learnzillion.com/lessons/1710-classify-quadrilaterals-by-looking-at-multiple-attributes

PASTA SKELETONS

Students in Ms. Underwood's class extended their knowledge of the major bones and joints in the human body by creating a skeleton made out of various shapes of pasta.  They also labelled the bones and joints after gluing down their pasta shapes.  They really loved this hands-on and creative activity.

INTERACTIVE SKELETAL SYSTEM WEBSITE

Students have thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on activities in our Human Body unit. They have learned important ideas about our skeletal and muscular systems, as well as the skin. Listed below is an interactive website that students may want to use at home to reinforce their classroom learning. 

On Wednesday, October 1, Ms. Underwood's students will begin their social studies unit with Mr. Otto while Ms. Underwood teaches Mr. Otto's students science.


http://www.abcya.com/skeletal_system.htm

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS

Thank you for the Scholastic book orders you have submitted online.  Our classroom code for ordering online is J64DG.  If you prefer, please feel free to send your order and check (made payable to Scholastic Reading Clubs) to me, and I will place the order for our classroom.  Your book orders earn our classroom bonus points which can be redeemed for electronic books, classroom books, and other educational resources.  Thank you again for your support!  

SCIENCE - Investigating Thumb and Finger Joints

In our study of the joints of the human body, we have been exploring the characteristics of our amazing opposable thumbs.  Partners used two different methods to immobilize their thumb and finger joints using dowel rods, craft sticks, and masking tape.  Then they performed tasks such as making a paper clip bracelet, taping small beads to an index card, among others to experience what life would be like without thumbs or limited use of the fingers.  It was a blast watching them complete their tasks with immobilized joints. 

OPEN HOUSE

Thursday, September 18th is Douglas Elementary School's Open House! Please plan to attend at 6:00pm for an overview of our curriculum in third grade.  Another session begins at 6:30 which will provide information and answer questions regarding Read to Achieve, the state legislation that affects third graders based on their reading proficiency. 

 

*Please note that most grade levels offer 2 sessions of the same information.  However, third grade will only have 1 session that addresses third grade curriculum and that session will begin at 6:00. 

There will be a General PTA meeting beginning at 5:30 p.m.

 

Hope to see you next Thursday!

MATH - MR. BONES PUZZLE

In science today, students worked with a partner to identify some of the major bones of the human skeletal system as they assembled Mr. Bones.  Our class has been enjoying the Human Body unit as we have incorporated fun songs and movement to enhance our study of the skeletal system.  Enjoy the pictures of your children hard at work.  (Single click on the photograph to enlarge it.)