THANK YOU!

Dear Families,
We are so grateful for the beautiful dahlias and gift cards that we received on the last day of school.  We were incredibly touched by your generosity and kindness.  The gift cards will be put to good use during our summer break as we enjoy sharing them with our families.  We hope you all have a wonderful summer.  Enjoy your family time. Thank you! 
With love and gratitude,
Christine & Kathy

Keyboarding Code

If students would like to keyboard over the summer, they can access Keyboarding Without Tears via student links on the EMES website.   Here is the code they may need, 5747C9! 🙂. They will alos have to know their own personal code for the site.

Last Day!

Dear Families,

It is truly hard to believe that we have reached the last day of school for 2017-18!  It was just 180 school days ago that we greeted your children with much anticipation and excitement for the year ahead.  Today, we send them off!  It has been an amazing year!  We are so incredibly proud of this wonderful group.  They have worked so hard and learned so much about themselves, their community and their world.  Thank you for sharing them with us, they have truly been a CC3 "Dream Team". As we venture into new roles next year here at EMES, we'll remember this last CC3 group fondly.

We are so grateful to all of you for the wonderful gifts you bestowed on us today. We are appreciative of your kindness and generosity and so touched by your thoughtfulness, to the point we are currently both in tears!

As you prepare for the summer ahead, just a few tidbits and reminders.

Your children are amazing readers, writers, mathematicians, inventors, collaborators, technologists and problem solvers.  We hope their summer will be filled with plenty of rest and relaxation, family time and outdoor adventures.  We also hope they'll continue to read, write and figure a bit to keep up the tremendous gains they've made this year.  We thoroughly enjoyed their 3rd grade reflections that they recently shared and were in awe of how much they recognized in themselves.

Report cards will be mailed home at the end of this week.  We find that the font size for comments on the report cards can be quite small, so we've created a bit of a "cover sheet" with our comments that we hope will be easier on the eyes!  You will also notice a separate sheet for art.  Students reflected on their art experience, due to the fact Mrs. Morse was on leave at the end of the year, there are no additional art grades on report cards. The same comments from us, are also embedded within the report cards.  The cover sheet will also have your child's classroom placement for next year.

Please remember, there are numerous factors that are considered when creating balanced class lists.    Our EMES placement team has painstakingly paid careful attention to your "Thoughtful Placement Forms" as well as other factors when creating the 4/5 classes for 2018-19.  The process was thoughtfully done, keeping the best interest of every child in mind. Placement is always challenging, no matter the circumstances, but we feel we have done our job and trust that you will agree with and support the team's decisions in regard to your child.

And...that's a wrap!  Thank you for sharing your kids with us. Thank you for supporting us in our work, and supporting all that happens here at EMES.  We are truly fortunate to work here.  Have a wonderful summer!   We've truly enjoyed the journey!

All our best,
Christine and Kathy

This week and next!

We've had a busy week and have accomplished many great learning goals.  First, we're really excited and ready for EMES Tech Night!  Students will have an opportunity to share with family and friends three different integrated technology projects.  In our classroom we will have set-up Lego Robotic Pull-bots and Book Creator Traditional Tales.  Next door, in the Reteach classroom will be the first public viewing of our East Montpelier~Past, Present and Future video interview project!

Tech Night Schedule~Tuesday, June 12th~5:30-7:00 p.m.

• 5:30-6:00 student presentations in classrooms
• 6:00-6:45  Learn how to...sessions run by the Tech Club in the library 
• 6:45-7:00  Enjoy cake in the cafeteria.
• 7:00 Door prize drawings in the gym

* We realize this time of the year is very busy for families, we'd love for all of our students to come to Tech Night, but totally understand if it doesn't work out.

East Montpelier Tour Field Trip, Wednesday, June 13th

We're all set for chaperones and drivers.  Thank you for helping out families!  We need to leave school by 9:10 a.m. on Wednesday morning.  We'll make seven stops on our tour, ending up at our students' future at U-32, where we'll enjoy our bag lunches in the courtyard (or in the building if raining).  Lunch will be a bit later than we are used to, so please help your child remember a good snack, we'll have time for snack along the tour!  We'll plan to be back at EMES by about 1:45ish. 

Our other stops will be:

• Morse Farm
• The Old Meetinghouse
• Fairmont Farm
• The Fire Station
• The Town Clerk's Office
• Four Corners School

We're grateful for all the community members we'll meet, greet and learn from on the tour!  This trip will happen rain or shine! 

Things to ask your kids:

• What book are you doing for your character study poster?
• What is the difference between plot and theme of a story/book?
• What are you most proud of in regard to your technology projects?
• Have you finished your June homework 3rd grade reflection sharing?

Have a great weekend, we hope to see you at tonight's TALENT SHOW!  6:00 p.m.!

News from CC3

We've had another busy week here in CC3!  Here are some highlights!

Golf at The Country Club of Barre
The weather for Wednesday's trip to the golf course could not have been more perfect!  We're grateful to Mr. Blanchard, parent drivers and chaperones, and local PGA Professional John Goodchild for helping us with this event.  Students had a chance to try out their golf skills on a real course, learn about the golf business, golf etiquette and how golf can be a lifelong sport.  Many students showed some real enthusiasm for learning more about the game of golf.  Information about golf camps at the course this summer went home with students who requested it.

East Montpelier Unit and Field Trip
This week we finished up our "green screen" interviews.  Now, we've turned all of our footage over to our 5th grade Tech Club members for editing!  This has been a great project, and we're grateful to the East Montpelier Community members that volunteered their time.  The final project will be able to be viewed at Tech Night on Tuesday, June 12th.

Mrs. Christy apologizes for the date confusion on our "Tour Around Town" Field Trip Information form!  This time of the year brings with it many moving parts, numerous events, dates, meetings, etc.  Needless to say, something got mixed up in a generally smooth running machine!  For clarification, our EM Tour will take place on Wednesday, June 13th from about 9:00-1:30 p.m.  Thank you to the families that have already volunteered, we should be set with drivers and chaperones!

Literacy Updates
We've nearly finished our Traditional Tales writing unit.  This week students have worked hard on inputting their stories into the Google App, Book Creator.  Ms. Arlyn, has been integral in this work, and we're so proud of the progress students have made this year using the Google platform.  They will be well equipped to enter fourth grade!

We are continuing thinking deeply about characters in reading workshop.  Please ask your child to tell you about the book Shiloh  and the many challenges the main character, Marty faces.  There are many life lessons in this book that can be great discussion starters at home.  You might ask your child to retell you the book thus far.  Then, have them explain to you some of the big  problems Marty is dealing with, and what their thoughts are on Marty's behavior.  The book presents the challenge and struggle between telling the truth or lying to protect someone or something you love.

Math & Science Updates
We have officially wrapped up our Magnetism unit with the final presentations of poster projects.  Everyone did a beautiful job and clearly put in a lot of hard work at home.

During math this past month, we have focused on multiplying 2-digit by 1-digit numbers, finding the area and perimeter of polygons (primarily rectangles), gaining fluency with the remainder of our basic multiplication facts, adding and subtracting numbers within one thousand, estimation, and building flexibility with numbers using our place value knowledge.

You can see all of this hard work in action if you ask your son or daughter to find the area and perimeter of a rectangle with the dimensions 32 and 5 (32 X 5).  Your child will need to multiply the 2-digit number (32) by the 1-digit number (5) to find the area and add the four sides (of the rectangle) to find the perimeter.  When finding the area of the rectangle, his or her understanding and application of strategies to fluently multiply will be of a great help.  Once he or she have multiplied the digits 5 X 2 to find the ones, they will use their place value knowledge to solve 5 X 3 tens.  Your child will know the product is 15 tens which is also called 150.  They will then find the total product (area) by adding the ones and tens together.  Once he or she has solved for the area and perimeter, they will probably also be able to tell you if they calculated correctly based on their estimates before multiplying or adding.  Our third-grade students have been working hard!  We will finish the year by revisiting fractions.

Calling all books!
The EMES library is trying to get all borrowed books back so that Summer Book Bags can be filled.  Please have a treasure hunt around your home for any books on the loose.  It's a great time to check bookshelves, coffee tables, underneath beds, in tree houses, etc. for both school and classroom library books.  We love to have students borrow our books, and we also love to see them come back!

Upcoming Events
Thursday, June 7~EMES Talent Show 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, June 12~EMES Technology Night 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 13~ CC3 East Montpelier Tour Field Trip
Friday, June 15~EMES Field Day (Rain Date-Monday, June 18)
Wednesday, June 20~Last Day for Students-dismissal at 12:30 p.m.

CC3 is a BUSY Place!

Dear Families,
WOW, we sure do have a lot going on in CC3! If you think we're winding down on the school year, think again!  We've got many exciting projects in the works, keeping track of everything at this busy time of the year is challenging!

First of all, our East Montpelier Unit is moving along splendidly.  We are grateful to guest speakers and interviewees that have recently visited.  They include: Michael Duane, Burr Morse, Rosie Laquerre, Seth Gardner, Bruce Chapell, Carolyn Pastore, John Hall and Clara Ayer. We are grateful to them for coming in and sharing their East Montpelier stories with us.  Students have also done a fabulous job with their "green screen" interviews.  Each of our guests complimented students on the quality of their questions as well as their attention during presentations.  Over the course of the next couple of weeks, video footage will be edited by our 5th grade tech club friends and a final video production will be unveiled at our EMES Tech Night on June 12th!

Our writing of traditional tales is also progressing nicely.  This week, students were introduced to the Google application, Book Creator.  Students are in the process of uploading text and illustrations to complete their original books.  It's amazing all the transferable skills that are integrated into this reading, writing and technology work.  We're sure the finished products will be amazing!  They too, will be unveiled at Tech Night!

During reading workshop, we're continuing to work on our character study unit.  On Friday, we celebrated the fact that students filled 5 PBIS chip buckets with a viewing of the movie "Because of Winn Dixie".  The film is a great connection to the book, which was really fun for us to discuss.  We are now reading the book Shiloh, this is another great character study book and will surely become another class favorite. Please ask your child to tell you about Shiloh so far, and what connections there are to Winn Dixie.  Students are doing much deeper thinking when it comes to analyzing characters, envisioning, and predicting.

In Discovery, we have finished our unit on magnetism.  Students are enjoying sharing their magnet poster homework assignments with classmates.  We've seen some real creativity in this work.  The remainder of our "Discovery" classes will be spent on our East Montpelier Unit.  It's great to see students take such an interest in their home town!

Upcoming Events:

• Monday, May 28~No School-Memorial Day
• Wednesday, May 30~PE Lab to The Country Club of Barre 9:00-1:00 p.m. 
• Tuesday, June 12~EMES Technology Night 5:30-7:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, June 13~East Montpelier Tour Field Trip 9:15-1:30 p.m. Please see the PINK information sheet in your child's Friday Folder for chaperone/volunteer information.
• Friday, June 15~EMES Field Day-Raindate-Monday June 18
• Wednesday, June 20~Last Day for students-dismissal at 12:30 p.m.

Reminders!

Just a few reminders:

• Summer Book Bag forms are due back to the library asap.
• Our K-3 concert is this Thursday, May 24th at 2:15 p.m.  CC3 students need to remember their recorders!
• If you'd like to submit one, Thoughtful Placement Forms for class placement are due on Friday, May 25th.

Updates for This Week

SBAC
We are incredibly proud of all of our students and the effort they put forth the past two weeks in regard to SBAC testing.  As third graders, this has been their first venture into this type of assessment and they clearly rose to the occasion.  Students worked hard, stayed focused, persevered and remained optimistic.  WELL DONE CC3!  For the most part students are all done!  A few students need to make-up due to illness.  That will happen with Ms. Arlyn on Monday. 

Speaking of illness, we've been hit with a variety of illnesses this week, mostly colds and fevers, but we also know a stomach bug has been around.  We're trying to be diligent about hand washing and cleaning surfaces so that hopefully everyone is healthy or feeling better quickly.  Thank you for keeping your kids with questionable health home.

East Montpelier Study
We're excited to launch our study of the town of East Montpelier~Past, Present, Future, next week.  We'll be learning about the town's history, landmarks, settlers, current landscape, and even take a glimpse into the future.  We will have a variety of guest speakers coming in during the next two weeks. Our launch will take place next Tuesday, when Michael Duane an East Montpelier resident and member of the East Montpelier Historical Society will share with us how East Montpelier came to be, the history behind the separation from Montpelier, and a bit about the first settlers.  Part of his visit will include a walk down Dodge Road, onto the East Montpelier Trail system, to see the site that was the original homestead of East Montpelier's first family. We will postpone the trip only if the weather is really too rainy, a drizzle won't stop us.  Please return the walking field trip permission slip we've sent home in your child's Friday folder on Monday. 

We're excited to be working with Ms. Arlyn and Mike Leonard (Mrs. Christy's nephew) from the Vermont Folklife Center out of Middlebury, Vermont on an exciting part of this study.  Students will be learning how storytelling helps us learn history.  They will also learn how to generate interview questions and conduct interviews of our guests. Third graders will be interviewing our guest speakers using a "green screen".  Once the interviews are complete,  photos of East Montpelier sites will be embedded onto the "green screen" and a video of the whole project will be created with the help of the 5th grade tech club!  We're very excited about the component pieces of this project and look forward to a fabulous end result that we will be able to share with all of you!

Literacy
Our literacy classes have been filled with the study of character.  We've been reading books that have us look closely at characters and think about their traits, actions and patterns of behavior.  We're getting to know a lot interesting folks from our mentor text, Because of Winn Dixie as well books like The Chocolate Touch, Fudgemania, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Miracles on Maple Hill, The Prince of the Pond, The Ramona series, etc. Ask your child what he/she is reading.

We're also having a lot of fun writing our own versions of fairy tales.  These stories also involve thinking about characters.  Students have some pieces that are "noodlehead" stories, many are "fractured tales" of familiar tales.  Students had a choice to work in partnerships or individually on these stories.  Ask your child to tell you about their writing.

Other:

• Permission slips for participating in the EMES Summer Book Bag program are due back by June 1st. 
• Our last book orders are going home in folders today.  They need to be returned by Monday, May 21st.
• The school store will be open for the last time this year, next Friday, May 18th.  

Happy Mother's Day to all our wonderful CC3 moms.  Thank you for sharing your kids with us!  Enjoy the weekend!
Christine & Kathy

May 4, 2018

Today you will find some important papers in your child's Friday Folder.  You will find the May sharing calendar & directions for the assignment, Arlyn's Summer Book Bag letter/permission slip, and a Save the Date for the K-3 Spring Concert on May 24th.

This morning, the class discussed the Magnet Poster sharing assignment that you will see is scheduled for the last two weeks of May.  The directions for the poster are printed on the back of the sharing calendar.  Students also had poster paper available to take home today.  If you have any questions about this assignment, please do not hesitate to ask!

Please help your child remember indoor and outdoor shoes.  It's really wet on the playground and we're doing our best to keep our classroom clean, but this week there was a lot of mud.  Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

Green Up EMES is TOMORROW!

Just a quick reminder, tomorrow we will be GREENING UP EMES with our buddies from Mrs. Parker's class.  We'll go out in the afternoon to clean-up all around the rec field and the surrounding area.  We have bags, but students do need to bring gloves and wear appropriate footwear.  It's supposed to rain a bit during the next 24 hours, so it's bound to be wet.  Thanks for helping us help your kids support this great Vermont tradition!

Welcome back!

We were happy to see smiling faces on Monday after what is generally called our "Spring Break"!  If you were lucky enough to be at home last week, we're sure you would agree it was more like a winter break.  Thankfully, this week we've seen a bit of sun and warmer temperatures.  We got right back to work and made some great progress this week.  We have just a few important updates to share in regard to SBAC testing and Green-Up Day!

SBAC
As you know, EMES will be administering the required SBAC tests during the first two weeks of May.  For our third graders, this involves five test sessions.  Two for math, and three for English/Language Arts.  Each session generally runs between 45-60 minutes, but it also varies on the student so we allow ample time within our day.  Our testing dates and starting times are as follows:

• Wednesday, May 2-9:00 a.m.Math Assessment #1
• Thursday, May 3-10:30 a.m. Math Assessment #2
• Tuesday, May 8-10:30 a.m. English/Language Arts Assessment #1
• Wednesday, May 9-9:30 a.m. English/Language Arts Assessment #2
• Thursday, May 10-1:00 p.m. English/Language Arts Assessment #3

It would be a HUGE help if you can avoid any student appointments on these days, as well as late and early arrivals.  We have completed the necessary practice tests with students, and feel they are well prepared for their first online assessments.  We have talked about the tests being just one measure of student progress and that students are just expected to do their best.  We do not anticipate a lot of angst or stress around the tests, but please let us know if your child has any concerns.  We're happy to help put them at ease.

Green-Up EMES Friday, May 4th

We'll be working with our 1/2 grade buddies cleaning up trash on the rec field and around the school in the afternoon.  Please help your child remember proper shoes and gloves for this work.  Did you know that Green-Up first began in Vermont in 1970?  Each year approximately 40,000 bags of trash are collected during the Vermont Green-Up day! EMES day will be the warm-up for the state day on Saturday, May 5th.  

Other reminders:

• The wet weather on the playground continues-a second pair of shoes is a must, and having a spare pair of clothes is not a bad idea!
• We're gearing up for our study of East Montpelier!  This study will include learning about our town and it's "Past, Present, and ".  The unit will kick-off the week of May 14th.  We're excited to be working with the Vermont Folklife Center out of Middlebury this year on a collaborative video project.  Students will be learning about how to conduct and carry out interviews with local residents and business owners about our beautiful town.  If you have a suggestion about a person or business we should interview, please don't hesitate to let us know.  We'll share more information about the unit as we get going!
• April's sharing continues through next week.  The May sharing calendar and assignments will be shared with students and updated here on our blog next week. 
• We've launched two new literacy units this week.  Character Studies in reader's workshop, and Adapting and Writing Fairy Tales in writer's workshop.  Please ask your child about these units, and what he/she is working on.  More specifically, you can ask them about the book Because of Winn-Dixie and the characters, Opal, Winn-Dixie and The Preacher.  You can also ask what kind of tale your child is writing and how their story is going, there are some pretty interesting tales being written!

Have a great weekend!  

Updates before break!

Thank you so much for your attendance at last week's Student Led Conferences.  We had 100% attendance! Our students were so proud to share their learning with you!  What a celebration of this amazing group of third graders!  Please remember, we are more than happy to meet with you if you have any further questions.  We feel we touched base with every family, but we also know new things come up in the Spring!

Here's our academic update!

Literacy
First, we'll conclude our mystery unit on Friday by teaching our first and second-grade buddies key ideas about being mystery readers.  Students are planning a lesson to teach buddies that will include many of the ideas we've learned.  For example:
Readers of Mysteries...

• Ask what is the mystery here?
• Ask who are the crime solvers?
• Ask who are the suspects?
• Question whether suspects have motive and/or opportunity.
• Pay attention to clues.
• Pause to retell the story.
• Reread parts that are tricky.
• Read on "High Alert!"
• Think about how mystery books tend to go.
• Look out for "red herrings"!

Second, we've finished up our opinion writing unit.  Although some students still have opinion pieces to share after break, the bulk of our classroom unit in this genre is complete.  Our next writing unit will be focused on team work in writing and illustrating traditional tales. We'll be working with Ms. Arlyn in both library and technology classes to create a variety of narrative tales.  These could be:  fairy tales, folks tales, tall tales, fractured fairy tales, trickster tales, etc.  The unit promises to be exciting and fun!  We'll also study these tales in reader's workshop. 

Math
We are continuing our work with multiplication by focusing on multiplying two-digit by one-digit numbers.  We are working with decade numbers, and beginning to incorporate other two-digit numbers in our equations.  Currently, students build, draw, and solve these problems using a strategy called Partial Product Recording.  This strategy allows students use their knowledge of their basic multiplication facts and place value to find the product. 

Partial Product                                    30                                                        14
                                                           x   6                                                     x   3
                                                                0   (ones)                                           12  (ones)
                                                           180    (18 tens)                                       30  ( 3 tens)
                                                           180                                                         42

Students have been working hard to learn and gain fluency of their multiplication facts, which supports their work with more complex multiplication problems such as these.  They have done a great job with NX0, NX1, NX2, NX5, and NX10.  Students have made super progress with their NX9 and NX4 facts.  It would be great to help your son or daughter practice these 9's and 4's families at home.  Ask your son or daughter to tell you about the "Think Ten" and "Double Double" strategies. 

In addition to our regular math lessons, we have begun to incorporate elapsed time problems in our morning meetings.  Ask your son or daughter to show you how they use a number line to solve these problems.  If you are wondering how to incorporate math at home, talking about and connecting real-life situations to our work with elapsed time is a great idea.

Example: 
I wanted to try a new recipe for dinner.  It said it would take me 12 minutes to prepare the food, and 25 minutes to cook it.  If I started at 5:00 pm, will dinner be ready by 5:45 pm? Explain your thinking.

Science

This week we began Discovery (aka science) work on the properties of magnetism.  The students had a blast checking out objects to see if they were magnetic.  They made some good predictions and discovered some surprises.  They also began to investigate the big ideas of this unit including the ideas of push and pull, and repel and attract with magnet cars.  Students will enjoy the many investigations and data collection that will go along with this unit. 

In other news, this week we were reminded by our superintendent about our responsibilities in regard to confidentiality and email correspondence.  We totally understand email is frequently the best way for all of us to communicate in our busy lives.  We just need to be more mindful going forward and refrain from addressing specific student names, or needs within email.  Rest assured, that communicating with you about your child is one of our greatest priorities, we just need to be cognizant of the fact that detailed conversations need to happen face to face or by phone.  We hope you understand that we can't email about your child's specific academic, emotional or social needs in an electronic form.  This is so that we can honor confidentiality.  We're always more than happy to chat or set up a conference. Our classroom phone # is 223-7936, ext 350.  Mrs. Christiano's reteach classroom is ext. 323, and Mrs. Christy's office ext. is 309.  Please don't hesitate to send us an email or voicemail that you'd like a phone call back.

• Book Orders went out this week, we hope they'll be here when students return from break.
• Please remember that indoor and outdoor shoes will still probably be a necessity when we return on April, 23rd! 

Thank you!  Have a great Spring Break with your kids!

Christine and Kathy

Conferences, Food Shelf, and Placement Information

Just a reminder, tomorrow after school will begin our Student Led Conference schedule. We look forward to seeing you with your third grader during your scheduled time. There are many exciting things for students to share and celebrate!  Also, if you'd like to bring any non-perishable food items for the Student Leadership Food Drive that would be really appreciated!

Due to the fact many of you may have questions about placement for your 3rd grader moving on to 4th next year, we thought it might be helpful to explain the process a bit. In regard to classroom placement for next year, a team of educators at EMES will make placement decisions.  We will both be part of that team. The team generally includes sending and receiving teachers, U-Arts teachers, special education staff, as well as Alicia Lyford and often others such as Mike Sherwin and Mary Beth Langevin.

Later this Spring, you will have an opportunity to fill out our EMES parent input form in regard to your child’s placement for fourth grade.  The placement team will pay careful attention to and consider your input as a factor in the placement process. When placing students into next year’s 4~5 classes, we have to consider balance in the groups by grade, gender, academic skills, interests, social needs, etc.  It’s a pretty complicated, carefully orchestrated process with the ultimate goal being classroom configurations that have the best chance of meeting the needs of all of our students. Placement is always challenging, no matter the circumstances, but we also know with our long history at EMES, we have always done a pretty good job meeting students needs and creating balanced classrooms.

We hope this helps you understand the process, of how we reach these important decisions for all of our students in regard to placement. Thanks for your support in this important process.

Christine and Kathy

Happy Friday!

Just a couple of quick reminders for the weekend!

On Monday, we'll be having a special school wide assembly to celebrate our friend and alumnus, Olympian Liz Stephen.  Students are welcome to dress in red, white and blue for the occasion.  You're welcome to come and join in the festivities, we'll begin about 9:15, lasting until about 10 a.m.

Also, we are collecting non-perishable food items for the East Montpelier/Calais Food Shelf. Students are welcome to bring in donations until April 11th.

Finally, many families will celebrate the holiday with sweet treats this weekend.  Please help us help your kids, by not sending in candy treats for snack or lunch next week.  

Thanks so much!  Have a great weekend!  Kathy and Christine

Classroom Updates and Reminders

It's hard to believe that next week will mark the end of the third quarter of third grade.  We've been very busy here in CC3 reflecting on this fact and preparing for student led conferences next Friday, April 6th.  Read on for our classroom updates!

Writing
In writing workshop we're focusing on opinion writing.  This includes writing a clear opinion statement that is supported with relevant reasons and evidence.  Recently, we've been revisiting Red Clover Nominee books from the last four years and considering which books students felt were really worthy of the award.  We've focused on the particular structure of writing opinion pieces, and supplying enough evidence to convince readers.  During the next couple of weeks will continue to refine this writing work by elaborating and adding more voice to strengthen pieces.

For this particular unit, students are now being given the choice to use their chromebooks and write on Google Docs, or use pencil and paper.  We're learning more about the Google domain and it's advantages for revising and editing, but it is also important to still offer some student choice, as keyboarding is still challenging for many.  Any time that you can find at home for your child to practice keyboarding is truly beneficial.

Reading and Discovery
We'll be wrapping up our mystery unit in the next week or so.  Students have done a great job reading a variety of mysteries and concentrating on being great reading detectives.  They've become more adept at picking out clues, identifying suspects, and reading on "high alert" for suspicious characters and events. Students have learned what "red herrings" are and have made great progress identifying key and fake clues, sometimes even identifying some solutions before they are revealed in the text.  Students have also become detectives in Discovery class.  They are realizing the importance of close observation and have conducted investigations with both lip and fingerprints.  We may just have some budding forensic scientists in our midst!

Spelling/Grammar
We've continued to work on parts of speech.  This week we've focused on verbs and verb tenses.  We've concentrated on the fact that verbs need to change in their spelling to indicate present, past and future tenses.

SBAC:  Our third grade students will be participating in their first SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) assessments in early May.  The testing window for 3rd grade will be May 2nd-May10th.  We will be doing assessment preparation with students during our Reteach block beginning April 9th.  It is important for third graders to participate in practice tests so that they can learn the computer navigation skills necessary for these online assessments.  Both Mrs. Christiano and Mrs. Christy will be working with students on this prep, as well as when doing the actual assessments in May.

Upcoming and Ongoing Special Events

• Monday, April 2:  All school assembly for East Montpelier's very own Olympian Liz Stephen.  Students are invited to wear red, white and blue in celebration of Liz's accomplishments as she retires from her professional skiing career.  
• Thursday, April 5 and Friday, April 6:  Student Led Conferences-you should have received your confirmation time in last week's Friday Folder.  Let us know if you're not sure of your time.
• March 27-April 12:The EMES Student Leadership Team is sponsoring a Food Drive to Benefit the East Montpelier and Calais Food Shelf located at The Old Brick Church.   A collection box will be located in each classroom as well as along the hallways of EMES. Helpful items include:
• Canned meat, soup, and vegetables
• Peanut butter
• Whole grain cereals
• Olive and Canola oil
• Pasta and pasta sauces
• Tuna
• Healthy snacks like granola bars, nuts and dried fruit

• April 15-22: WCSU Spring Break

Other Reminders

• The playground is wet and muddy, indoor and outdoor shoes are really a necessity until things melt and dry up!
• Sharing after break involves two important literacy assignments, the writing of an opinion piece and the sharing of a mystery book. Students should be preparing now so they have plenty of time to do this work well.  Support materials have been sent home. 

April Homework Preview!

Today in CC 3 we got a head start on our April Sharing Calendar/Homework.  The reason for this quick start is due to the fact that next month's sharing and projects involve time and planning!

Today, Mrs. Christy shared and explicitly taught the information necessary to be successful with both assignments. Students are also bringing home this information today!
The big ideas include:

• There are TWO assignments/projects for April.
• One project is sharing about a Mystery book students need to read at home.
• One project is  writing an opinion piece about a book of choice.  
• Students can choose what project they want to share on what date.  They can do the mystery book first, and the opinion piece second, or vice versa.  It is up to the individual.  

Please ask your child to share the new calendar and the support materials with you.  It's important for students to realize they need to make choices and be ready.  There should be ample time to complete both assignments with quality.  We'll continue to talk about them in class as well.  We just wanted to make sure everyone had a heads up!  We're happy to answer any questions students may have.

Thanks!  Christine and Kathy

CC3 Updates!

Welcome back from Winter Break!  Although it appears that winter is not yet ready to leave us, we are thankful that we did not have a snow day this week!  Students were ready and eager for our return on Wednesday.  We hit the ground running and have many new exciting projects and learning opportunities launched!  Here are our curriculum updates.

Technology
This week students began working on Lego Robotics with Ms. Arlyn and Mrs. Christiano.  This unit will include a lot of collaboration and teamwork as well as working with models, coding and adapting robots by modifying.  This unit is loaded with both science and transferable skill standards.  Make sure to ask your child what he/she is working on with robotics!

Reading Workshop
We launched our MYSTERY unit this week!  This is always an exciting unit that requires students to read very carefully and think like detectives.  Students are already getting excited about reading many mysteries, often from a mystery series.  Students participated in a fun mystery scavenger hunt in library class on Thursday.  They followed clues to locate mystery books, many of them were checked out by students after our hunt.  Our EMES and classroom library are filled with many mystery book choices!  Popular series include:  Encyclopedia Brown, A to Z Mysteries, Nate the Great, Cam Jansen, The Boxcar Children, Jigsaw Jones, Nancy Drew, The Buddy Mysteries.  This unit will continue for the next few weeks, ask your child how he/she is growing like a detective.  Currently we are asking ourselves two big questions...

• What is the mystery?  
• Who is/are the crime solver(s)?

Writing Workshop
Students are currently working on writing pieces of their choice.  Many students have paired up with another author to create a collaborative piece.  Students are trying out graphic novels as well as poetry and fictional narratives.  Next week, we'll launch our opinion writing unit by completing our unit pre-assessments.

Spelling/Grammar
We are currently concentrating on parts of speech.  We have covered nouns-both proper and common as well as singular and plural.  Students are being careful about noticing and discussing the fact that many words can be either a noun or an adjective depending on how they are used in a sentence.

March Kindness Project
We're building some Kindness Trees outside our classroom on the bulletin board.  We're making a very conscious effort to remain kind and positive throughout our days.  Students are writing explicit, specific examples of things they have done to spread kindness.  We're looking forward to watching our trees really bloom as we welcome Spring!

Math
In math, we're continuing our work with fractions by adding and subtracting fractions that have common denominators.  We are also working on rounding whole numbers to the nearest ten or hundred.

Students came back from the winter vacation ready to take the next step in their multiplication work as well.  This week we used Cuisenaire rods to build models of 2-digit by 1-digit equations and then we solved the equations using partial products.

Assessments
Right before break we completed our Civil Rights Unit which you had an opportunity to see at our EMES Celebration of Learning.  We're sure you'll agree that the projects were terrific and students did an amazing job with this work.  This work also addressed multiple standards and performance indicators-nineteen to be exact!  Today, students are bringing home the assessment pieces that were included in this work.  Students have four different rubrics.

• The "Overall" Civil Rights Project Assessment Rubric
• The Google Slides Assessment Rubric
• The Oral Presentation Assessment Rubric
• The Collaboration Rubric-(there are 2 of these, one done by each student, one by Mrs. Christy.

Upcoming Events

• Student Led Conferences April 5th and 6th.  Please find the blue sign-up sheet in your child's folder and return to us ASAP.

Happy Winter Break!

We had a great turn out at last night’s Celebration of Learning.  Thank you for coming to celebrate your child’s achievements.  It was wonderful for us to see our students truly be the teachers and share their recent projects with all of you.  They were incredibly proud, as they should be! We are very proud of their accomplishments.

As our winter break begins tomorrow, we are optimistic that this important break will give all of our students at EMES a chance to rest, rejuvenate, and get rid of all the colds, flu and stomach bugs.  We’ve been fairly lucky here in CC3, but we have had some classmates out of school on and off.
Because we do have a fairly long break, we’ll keep Friday Folders here at school and get back on their regular schedule when we return.

Enjoy this break with your children.  We’ll be back raring to go on Wednesday, March 8th!
Christine and Kathy

Thursday Night!

We hope that many families will be able to join us tomorrow night, February 22nd for our annual "EMES Celebration of Learning".  Our third graders have been working really hard on a variety of things and are excited to show you their work.  You'll be able to see:

• Civil Rights Projects
• Weather Journals
• Writing Information Books

This event begins at 5:30 p.m.  and lasts until 7:00 p.m.  You're welcome to come at any time during those hours and tour our classroom as well as others in the building.  Just come at the time that suits your family the best and tour together,, students do not have to be here for the whole time.

We hope to see you tomorrow! 
Christine and Kathy

Literacy Updates and Other News

Snow days mid-week always make our school lives a bit more challenging, and this week was no exception.  The good news is how wonderful recess is after a new batch of snow!  Students have had a great time sledding, building forts and playing without the worry of so much ice outside.

Our literacy work has continued to focus on Civil Rights collaborative projects.  These projects are now in the finishing  phase and will be ready to share with families at our Celebration of Learning on February 22nd from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

These projects have addressed important transferable skills for 3rd graders.  They include:

• Creative and Practical Problem Solving
• Effective and Expressive Communication
• Working Independently and Collaboratively
• Informed, Integrated, and Critical Thinking

Another important piece of this integrated unit is the creation of a Google slideshow.  Students have worked with Ms. Arlyn and Mrs. Christy in technology class to create individual slides that are part of a team slideshow.  We have addressed many technology skills.  Skills addressed are:  sharing a folder, using a template, creating text boxes, searching and crediting images and finalizing slides. The finished products will give a clear message about Civil Rights leaders.  It's exciting to see how much growth students are making in regard to navigating Google and improving their skills with integrated technology.

On Wednesday morning, we will be working with our first/second-grade buddies to construct Valentine mailboxes.  Students will put their engineering skills to work using a variety of materials.  We are hoping you can help us gather materials by sending in cereal boxes, cracker boxes, egg cartons, and other cool containers that might be in your recycling at home.  We would also appreciate extra ribbons, bows, yarn or whatever you think would be a great addition to our work.  You can send materials in Monday-Wednesday morning.  Thank you!

Dates to Remember:

• Tuesday, February 13~Our last Winter Wellness afternoon.
• Wednesday, February 14~We'll have a classroom Valentine's Day celebration at our lunch time.  Students are welcome to bring in Valentine's to exchange.  Please let us know if you'd like to send in a treat for this celebration.
• Thursday, February 15th~EMES Annual "I Love East Montpelier Day".  Please contact Susan in the kitchen to sign-up as a lunch guest.  Lunch times are:
• Prek-K 11:15-11:50
• Grades 1-3  11:50-12:25
• Grades 4-6  12:25-1:00
• Monday, February 19-Friday, February 22 EMES School Spirit Week sponsored by the EMES Student Leadership Team.  Special days are:
• Monday~Decade Day-dress up in your favorite decade attire!
• Tuesday~Sports Team/Jersey Day
• Wednesday~Clone Day-dress up like a "clone" of a friend or a group of friends, how well can you match up?
• Thursday~Career Day-dress up like a career you'd like to have in the future!
• Friday~Comfy Cozy Day
• Thursday, February 22~ EMES Celebration of Learning 5:30-7:00 p.m. Come as a family and tour EMES open house style!  You do not need to come for the whole time, just what fits in your busy schedule.

Have a great weekend!

Math/Science Update

Welcome to Fabulous February!

This month will be another busy one leading right up to winter vacation.  Stay tuned for information throughout the month.

Math

During the past several weeks we  spent math the majority of our time on multiplication.  Students solved and created problems using each of the four models of multiplication.  For example, we solved a problem such as feeding a pet 2 scoops of food on Monday, 2 more scoops on Tuesday, and 2 more scoops on Wednesday using "Repeated Addition".  Repeated Addition is the first model of multiplication we investigated, as it is a great example of equal groups.  We then worked with the model, "Groups Of" with problems like I have 4 bags of cookies for the bake sale, each bag has five cookies.  We added to our knowledge of multiplication models with the "Array Model".  Students solved problems such as, I planted five rows of carrots with three carrots in each row.  Focusing on arrays helped students really understand and use rows and columns.  Finally, we investigated the "Area Model".  We solved area problems that involved land, flooring, and shapes.  Students also found the perimeter of polygons,  and distinguished between area and perimeter.

Throughout our work with the four models of multiplication, students also learned and practiced specific strategies to help them gain accuracy and fluency with multiplication facts.  Ask your son or daughter to tell you about these strategies.

• N X 1 (It's just one group of that number)
• N X 0 (No groups of that number)
• N X 2 (doubles)
• N X 5 (Use our fives knowledge)
• N X 10 (We use our place value knowledge)
• N X 9 (We think 10)
• N X 4 (Double, Double)

Currently, we have begun counting by the fractions, 1/2, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8 and identifying fractions of wholes.  We will continue to add to our fraction knowledge this month.  Students are also investigating various names for numbers such as 23 tens is 230 and 11 hundreds is 1,100.  Building this flexibility with numbers helps students when they are adding and subtracting larger numbers.

Science

We just wrapped up our unit on processes that shape the earth.  Students investigated weathering, erosion, the rock cycle (igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks), volcanoes (The Ring of Fire), and earthquakes.  Students had a great time building mountains out of sand and trying to prevent or slow erosion from wind and water using rocks and wood.  At the conclusion of this unit, students worked with a partner to design a four-story building that had to withstand an earthquake.  They were given certain constraints such as a limited number of materials (toothpicks and marshmallows) and a limited building time.  After the buildings were designed and built, we tested each building on a foundation of jello!  Some buildings withstood the quake and others did not.  Each team then made modifications to their building using what they learned from their own experience and from observing other teams' buildings.  Many teams discovered that triangles were the strongest shape to build with and a solid base made all the difference.  Students did a great job brainstorming, building, and working collaboratively.

This week we began our weather unit.  Students kicked it off on Monday by starting their data collection.  Each morning we go outside and observe and record the weather focusing on precipitation, wind type, clouds, and temperature.  Students then use their data to write a weather report in their science journals.  During this unit, students will investigate the water cycle, weather and climate in different regions, and will compare their weather findings to other places in the world during the same time period.  This unit is filled with fun investigations.

Please look for the new sharing calendar in today's folder and keep it handy!

Dates to Remember

• Monday 2/5 - February Book Orders are due.

• Wednesday 2/14 - Class Valentine Party.  Students are welcome to bring in Valentines to exchange with each other. You will find a class list attached.

• Thursday 2/15 - I Love East Montpelier Day-Please sign up for the lunch in advance by contacting Susan in the kitchen solander@u32.org.  The price for adult guests is $6.00 for children it is $3.75
• Lunch times are:  If you'd like to have your whole family eat together, and they are in different grades, we can work that out. 

                                11:15-11:50  PreK-K
                                11:50-12:25 Grades 1-3
                                12:25-1:00   Grades 4-6

• Celebration of Learning ~This annual celebration will take place on Thursday, February 22nd, 5:30-7:00 p.m. Please plan on joining us!

• 2/24-3/5  Winter Vacation~ We will return on Wednesday, March 6th.

CC3 Updates

We are incredibly busy here in CC3 with so many exciting things going on in all curriculum areas. Read on for our updates!
Literacy
We've recently completed our reading and writing units of study which focused on nonfiction, otherwise know as text that "teaches".  Students did a great job with this unit and are now applying skills that were learned in our Civil Rights Unit.  Our Civil Rights Unit is very popular with third graders.  This is an integrated part of our curriculum combining Literacy, Global Citizenship and Transferable Skill Standards.

Our third graders bring great passion to this work and a cheer literally rings out in the classroom when project work begins.  There are multiple learning intentions for this work.  Some of them include:

• Working on a collaborative team.
• Reading a variety of nonfiction and incorporating different sources together for main ideas. 
• Researching and writing nonfiction without plagiarizing. 
• Acquiring content specific vocabulary.
• Understanding history and important historical events.
• Using technology to present information (Google Slides).
• Creating an oral presentation that will teach others. 

Please ask your child about his/her project, who they are studying, what they are learning, and how they are contributing positively to a collaborative team.  

January Kindness Project

We're going to participate in a Global Peace Project this week.  This is a challenge that many students around the country and the WORLD participate in.  The big idea so for students to individually challenge themselves by completing as many acts of kindness as they can during the week of January 22-26, 2018.  We certainly hope that many of the acts of kindness students try will become common practice for them.  We are sending home a couple of different lists for students if they need some ideas for acts of kindness.  If you'd like to participate as a family, or learn more about this project you can go to The Great Kindness Challenge.

Dates to Remember

Winter Wellness will take place on three Tuesday afternoons-January 30, February 6, February 13.

We will have a Valentine's Day Celebration in our classroom on Wednesday, February 14.  Students are welcome to give Valentine's to each other.  If you'd like to help us coordinate some treats for this event, please let us know!

Our traditional EMES "I Love East Montpelier Day" will be held on Thursday, February 15th.  More information for guest lunch sign-ups will be coming home in the EMES newsletter soon, but we thought you might like to "save the date" now.  

Our all school "Celebration of Learning" will be the evening of February, 22nd.

No Friday Folders Today

Just a quick note, with this short school week for students, we decided to keep Friday Folders here today.  Have a great weekend with your kids!

Updates for the Week!

It's been a busy week in CC3-here is a list of updates and things to keep in mind.

• There is no school for students Monday and Tuesday next week.
• Biography homework should be well in the works.  Sharing of timelines will begin the week of the 22nd.
• Winter Wellness forms are in Friday Folders, please return ASAP.
• A few math tidbits to practice at home-telling time to the minute using a clock that has hands!  Practicing nx9 facts, using the clue "think 10".
• Ask your child about their recent engineering and earthquakes project! 
• Please check to see if your child has any overdue EMES library books, and/or books that can be returned to our classroom library. 
• Ask your child about his/her Google Slides project we have been working on in technology class.  

Enjoy the holiday weekend with your families, stay safe on the roads!

Happy New Year and Classroom Updates

* We had this all set to post on Friday, with the snow/frigid wind day, that cancelled school, we'll just regroup and send home Friday Folders on Monday!  Stay warm this weekend!

Welcome to 2018 in CC3!  We hope you all had a wonderful holiday break, and are continuing to survive with this Vermont cold snap! This week we've gotten right back on track with multiple learning opportunities and events in CC3.  Please read on for updates.

Sharing Calendar
Our sharing calendar for January has been posted on this blog.  We have also put a "hard copy" in your child's Friday folder, today.  Sharing is an important part of our morning routine, and the only time we  give a specific assignment for homework.  We were disappointed with the quality of work, or lack of preparedness by some students in regard to December's Boxes and Bullets reading/writing/sharing assignment. We hope that this January assignment will be completed more thoroughly, with quality.  We are more than happy to help with any questions.

We have several points of rationale we go through when assigning a specific homework share.  First, we create specific sharing assignments that have strong connections to work we are doing in class.  We also want to give students who enjoy working at home (yes, they exist!) an opportunity to take on a project that he/she can be proud of and share with others.  Finally, we like to have families be keenly aware of skills we are working on, whether it be reading fluency, writing complete sentences, using proper punctuation/spelling, and presenting information to others in a prepared way.

Students need to take the time to be well prepared for sharing that begins the week of January 23rd. The assignment is to read a biography or autobiography (the story of a person's life) and complete a timeline worksheet.  We have reviewed and modeled this assignment explicitly in class.  A completed sample is in Friday Folders. If this paper does not work for your child, he/she can certainly use paper that is a better fit.  We have numerous biographies available for borrowing from our classroom or the EMES library.  Some series favorites are the Who Was/Is series and the National Geographic biography series. (Sample photos below)

Most students chose a biography from our classroom collection to borrow and take home on Wednesday. Some have also chosen to read one that is already at home.  Students need to first, read the complete biography, then decide on ten important life events to include in their timeline.




At this point in third grade, reading a chapter book biography is a priority.  Students can read them independently and/or share in the reading with a family member.  This might be a great opportunity for a family read aloud.

Clothing, Shoes, etc.
It's our estimate that there are probably close to 150 pair of plain black snow pants that come into EMES each day.  Not to mention gloves, hats, and coats that look an awful lot alike.  Please make sure your child's winter gear is clearly labeled.  We know how frustrating it is when an item goes missing!  Also, we have quite a nice stretch of time between now and our winter break, when things like spare shoes, etc. can be left at school neatly in lockers.

January Kindness Project
We will participate in the "The Great Kindness Challenge", an event sponsored by the Kids for Peace Organization.  Our biggest focus will be during the week of January 22-26.  If you would like more information on this worldwide challenge, you can check out the family edition at this link The Great Kindness Challenge.

That's our first update of 2018.  Thanks for your continued support of our CC3 classroom.  Don't hesitate to let us know if you have any questions!  Enjoy the upcoming chilly weekend!