Reminder about TOMORROW!

Tomorrow is our PE Lab Field Trip to the Millstone in Barre for hiking and rock climbing!  The weather looks good, but chilly.

Students need:

• Proper, sturdy hiking/climbing shoes
• Layers to wear-hats and mittens are a good idea!
• A healthy snack and lunch-unless you've pre-ordered from the EMES cafeteria
• Water bottle
• Please do not send candy as snack!

If you are joining us as a driver and/or chaperone, please be at EMES by 9:00 a.m.  Mr. Blanchard will meet with us before we head to Barre.  We expect to be back at EMES by 1:00 p.m. 
Thank you, we're looking forward to a great PE lab!

News for the Week!

Tomorrow is the PTNO sponsored MONSTER MASH!

6:00-8:00 p.m.  $5.00 per family!

We've had a very busy week here in CC3.  Hopefully you will find a Parent Conference Confirmation note in your child's Friday Folder.  If you do not find one,  you will find another sign-up sheet as we are waiting to hear from you.

PE Lab Day!
Next Wednesday is our PE Lab Day!  We're excited to take students to the Mill Stone in Barre with Mr. Blanchard.  We are grateful for those of you who have signed up to chaperone and/or drive.  We should be all set.  A few things to remember:

• It's apt to be chilly.  Students need to dress in layers to be prepared for any conditions.  Proper footwear is a MUST!
• Bag lunches are necessary, unless you have already reserved a lunch from the EMES cafeteria.
• We will be leaving EMES around 9:20 and returning around 1:00 p.m.
• Please send in a booster seat with your child if he/she requires one.

Literacy News

This week in reading and writing workshop we have shifted our thoughts to reading nonfiction text.  We are also searching text for facts and then putting these facts in our own words in reading notebooks. We've learned an important strategy for this work.  READ-COVER-THINK-WRITE.  Ask your child to explain this strategy for you.

In partnerships, students have been reading books about the seven continents.  They will be sharing their learning with the rest of the class next week.  Following that we will focus on reading about the regions of the USA and eventually students will get to pick a state to research and learn more about.

Spelling News

We continue our work learning about behaviors and strategies to help us all be better spellers.  We are currently learning about the six syllable types and how they help us spell and read better.  We have covered open and closed syllables to date and are currently working on r-controlled syllables.

Here is a quick review of our work:

• Breaking words into syllables help us become more accurate readers and spellers
• All syllables must have at least one vowel.
• Closed Syllables: has one vowel, the vowel is followed by one or more consonants, the vowel has a short sound.  Examples: hap-pen, muf-fin, gal-lon
• Open Syllables: has one vowel, the vowel is at the end of the syllable, the vowel has a long sound Examples: re-mind, de-pend, mo-tor
• R-Controlled Syllables-a syllable that has a vowel followed by the letter r, the r controls the vowel sound, it is often referred to as "bossy R".  Examples: tur-nip, car-rot

October Kindness Project

Our October Kindness project launched this week.  We will be sponsoring Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF.  We have created posters and distributed collection boxes.  Next week as the boxes trickle in, we'll sort and count the money in math class.  

Here are two great, short videos that describe Trick or Treat for UNICEF!

UNICEF Supports Recent Tragedies

UNICEF History

UNICEF Cartoon and Song (warning this might get stuck in your head!)

Halloween

As we all know, Halloween is next Tuesday, October 31st.  We know this is often an exciting annual event for students and families.  We will have an all-school PBIS celebration the last half hour of the day next Tuesday.  We hope students will then enjoy the evening with their families.  Please don't allow your child to bring candy treats to school next week.  It is hard for us to monitor the amount students might eat!  Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

Parent Conference Sign-Up!

We're still working on getting our Parent Conference Schedule set up for Thursday, November 9th and Friday, November 10th.  We have only received seven parent responses so far.  Please send your form in as soon as possible.  If you need another one, it is below.  We'd like to confirm your time by the end of the week, so thanks for sending us your information.  It is fine to email us!  Thank you!

  October 19, 2017

Dear Families,

It is time to schedule our Friday, November 10th parent conference.  Please indicate a time frame that is best for you below and return this to school.  Put a #1, #2, #3 beside your first, second and third choice.  If you already have a conference scheduled for a sibling, write that down and we’ll do our best to coordinate with that time.  You may also email us your choices at kchristy@u32.org  and cchristiano@u32.org.  We will send a confirmation notice/email home as soon as we get your information.  

Thank you!

Christine Christiano and Kathy Christy

Student Name:  ___________________________________________

Parent/Guardian Name:  ____________________________________

_____  Thursday, November 9th  3:45-6:30 pm

_____  Friday, November 10th  8:30am-12:00 pm

_____  Friday, November 10th   1:00pm-3:30pm

_____  Please email me at _______________________ to set up an alternative time.  

Thank you and Parent Conferences

We were so happy to see so many of you last night at Open House.  It was a wonderful celebration of our amazing third graders.  They were all so proud of what they have accomplished to date, and were eager to share their work with you!

Last night, many of you received our upcoming Parent Conference sign-up sheets.  If you did not get one, we put one in your child's Friday Folder, today.  Here is a copy of it as well.  We have many, many students with siblings this year, so we'll do our best to coordinate times with other teachers.  There are occasions when this is just too tricky, so we hope we can all be flexible in figuring out a schedule.  This first parent conference will be for teachers and parents/guardians.  Our April conferences will be a student led conference.  Thanks for sending us your choices as soon as you can.  Just a reminder, November 10th is a day off for students so that we may conduct conferences.

Have a great weekend!

                                                                                                        October 19, 2017

Dear Families,

It is time to schedule our Friday, November 10th parent conference.  Please indicate a time frame that is best for you below and return this to school.  Put a #1, #2, #3 beside your first, second and third choice.  If you already have a conference scheduled for a sibling, write that down and we’ll do our best to coordinate with that time.  You may also email us your choices at kchristy@u32.org  and cchristiano@u32.org.  We will send a confirmation notice/email home as soon as we get your information.  

Thank you!

Christine Christiano and Kathy Christy

Student Name:  ___________________________________________

Parent/Guardian Name:  ____________________________________

_____  Thursday, November 10th  3:45-6:30 pm

_____  Friday, November 10th  8:30am-12:00 pm

_____  Friday, November 10th   1:00pm-3:30pm

_____  Please email me at _______________________ to set up an alternative time.  

October 13, 2017

October 13, 2017

In today's Friday Folder, you will find a permission slip for our first PE Lab.  On Wednesday, November 1st, we will be going to The Millstone in Graniteville.  We will be hiking, rock climbing and exploring the outdoors.  We are in need of parent drivers/chaperones.  If you can help us out as a  driver/chaperone please let us know ASAP so we can plan accordingly.  We will leave school around 9:30 am and will return to school around 1:00pm.  This is sure to be an awesome experience!

You will also find a new book order.  If you would like to place an order, you can do so online or with the flyer and an attached check made payable to Scholastic Book Clubs.  All orders must be in by Monday, October 23rd to be included in this month's shipment.

Picture Retakes are THIS MONDAY, OCTOBER 16th.  If your student missed picture day or needs a retake, please let the office (and us) know.

This Thursday, October 19th is EMES Open House.  Please come visit your child(ren)'s classroom(s) from 6-7 p.m.  We’re sure students will be thrilled to share with you all that is happening in CC3!

Math

We have been working on building (with Base 10 blocks), reading, and writing 4-digit numbers.  We have dabbled in numbers up to the millions!  Students are writing numbers in standard form (457), semi-expanded form (400 + 50 + 7), and word form (four hundred fifty-seven).  Students have also been introduced to writing numbers in expanded form ((4 x 100) + (5 x 10) + (7 x 1)).  They are also making comparisons using <, >, = (less than, greater than, equal to).  We are currently adding and subtracting numbers up to 1000 using our knowledge of place value, including using an open number line.  

This week we also began investigating the first two (out of four) models of multiplication: repeated addition and groups of.  Students showed their math thinking with Cuisenaire rods.  

For example: If I visited the candy jar five times on Monday, and each time I ate 3 pieces of candy corn, how many pieces of candy corn did I eat on Monday?  

Students would show 5 rods each representing the value of 3.  We would then use our representations to write equations such as, 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 =15.  Multiplication is a major focus of third-grade mathematics.

Global Citizenship 

(Social Studies)

We are continuing our work in geography this week focusing on landforms and bodies of water.  Students began brainstorming (with partners) a map of their own original country.  Their country must have a national capital, at least two states each with at least two cities or towns, landforms, bodies of water, natural resources, and borders.  Some students were talking about including mountains on their maps for protection from storms and for the freshwater run-off, or valleys with plants and animals, other teams wanted to include an ocean and a fresh water source.  It will be excited to see what they create using their geography knowledge.

In the next couple of weeks we'll be launching a study of the regions of the USA and learning about particular states of interest for individual students.  This work will be included in our literacy classes and focus on nonfiction reading and writing.

Reading and Writing Workshop

We'll be wrapping up our first reading and writing units of study within the next week or so.  This week, students have been polishing up final drafts of narrative writing pieces.  These pieces are being published by CC~3 Publishing, and shared formally via microphone with classmates. Students have demonstrated a lot of pride when sharing their pieces.  They have also been thoughtful about providing specific feedback to peers.  Students will be able to share these pieces as well as other writing accomplishments next week at our Open House.

Our reading work has continued to focus on getting to know characters well, envisioning, predicting and retelling.  We're finishing up a read aloud of the book, The Hundred Dresses. This is a timeless story about friendship, bullying, and kindness.  Please ask your child to tell you about the book.  We're also working on strategies for dealing with hard words that we come across during independent reading.  

Have a great weekend!  We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, the 19th!

Writing Conferences

This week we have been working really hard on final drafts of narrative pieces.  An important part of this work is to receive feedback from writing partners.  To do this effectively students use a checklist that helps them focus on the important elements of narrative writing.  On Tuesday, we focused on the the STRUCTURE and DEVELOPMENT portions of our writing checklists.  Structure includes:  lead, transitions, ending and organization of the piece.  Development includes: elaboration and author's craft.  

 

Please ask your child to tell you about this work.  We  are very proud of  the quality of students' collaborative conferences!