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!