News for the Week!

We've completed another great week here in CC3!  It's truly astounding how quickly the weeks fly by!  Students are working hard and already making great progress on 3rd grade skills.  Here are some of the big ideas that we're working on in class.

Reading
This week in reading workshop we've been concentrating on important skills associated with reading narratives.  We've been reading Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner.  It's quickly become a class favorite!

One important skill we've been working on is envisioning/predicting.  For third graders, this means to make a "mental movie" as they read. This "movie" should include imagining the setting, the characters, the events, and characters' reactions to the events.  Predicting involves being able to imagine what the character will do, say and think based upon earlier parts of the text and most importantly explain reasons for predictions.

Another skill is inferring about characters.  For third graders, we're working on developing ideas or theories about the kind of person a character is.  This means being able to talk about a character's traits or personality without confusing the way a character feels for a trait.  For example, a character trait shows that a character may act or behave studious, talkative, trustworthy or friendly.  But a character may feel frustrated, annoyed or happy.

Stone Fox has many rich characters you can ask your child about.  Ask your student to tell you about Little Willy, Grandfather, Doc Smith, or Searchlight.

Writing
In writer's workshop we continue to work on narrative stories.  A main focus of this work is writing like a storyteller, rather than a reporter.  For example, a reporter just states the facts, whereas a storyteller includes the setting, the action, the dialogue that will bring a story to life.  Here's a quick example.
Reporter:
     Today we earned a PBIS celebration.  We voted on having extra read aloud.  Everyone enjoys drawing and coloring at read aloud.  We read Ramona, Quimby Age 8.

Storyteller:
     "Yeah, we've filled a bucket!" Mrs. Christiano announced to the eager, attentive third graders.  The classroom was filled with smiles and applause.  "What shall we do for a celebration?"
     "Hmmm, we have a lot of ideas on our list!" responded one lively third grader.
     "How about we take a vote?" suggested Mrs. Christiano.  The idea was well received and an exciting voting session broke out.  It was a close call...but in the end extra read aloud won out by three votes.  The class was excited and settled in for a great read aloud, everyone was so quiet you could hear a pin drop as Mrs. Christano opened up Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and began to read.

Math
     This week we have continued to work on geometry and two-dimensional shapes.  We have been concentrating on the vocabulary of geometry and it's exciting to see students notice shapes throughout the day.  Sample vocabulary includes:  polygon, quadrilateral, hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, etc.  Ask your child to explain some of these math trms to you.  We're also working on prerequisite skills for multiplication.  This includes fluency with basic addition facts.

Reminders:

Homework:  Students are expected to be well prepared and practiced for their sharing days.  Students are currently sharing things they appreciate about AUTUMN.  Also, please make sure your child is reading for at least 30 minutes 4 times a week.

Popcorn Sale:  Next Wednesday during the day, 3rd graders will pop and bag popcorn to be sold for $1.00 a bag.  All our proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross for hurricane relief efforts.  This is our first kindness project for the year.

Hike Day:  We hope this beautiful weather holds for hike day next Friday.  Student groups are still being solidified, your child will bring home a notice and permission slip soon.  As you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts for EMES Hike Day, so stay tuned!

Book Orders:  Our first book order is due next Tuesday, September 26th.  You can also order on line at Book Clubs our classroom code is DXCXK.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hike Lunch Orders

IF your child will need a bag lunch from the cafeteria for September 29th, we need to let the kitchen know this week due to ordering special food supplies.  Please let us know by WEDNESDAY of this week.  Just sending an email will work, a sign-up will also be sent home with students tomorrow.  Thanks!

Hike Forms! Picture Day!

Today, students are bringing home our EMES all school hike forms.  Please look them over carefully with your child and make a choice that would be best for his/her hiking interest and capability.  All forms must be returned to school by FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th.  Also, please note the information about being a chaperone if you'd like to come along, you need to have the proper forms in by Thursday, the 14th.

Picture day is Friday!  We're not sure of the exact time yet, but we also have PE on Friday, so hopefully we'll still all look put together for pictures!  😁

September 8, 2017

Happy Friday!

It was great to have so many people join us on Wednesday, for Parent Information night.  If you were not able to make it, we included a booklet in your child's Friday Folder that includes all of the points we discussed.  If you have any questions about the booklet or anything this year, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

You will also find the school photo packet in this week's folder.  School picture day is Friday, September 15th.  If you would like to order photos please include all the information and payment in the envelope and return it to school.  You do not need to wait until the 15th to send it in, we can hold all order packets for you.

Classroom Curriculum Updates

Writing Conventions:  Each morning students complete short exercises that help build their accuracy with writing conventions. This work includes capitalization, punctuation, grammar, spelling, analogies, etc.  Examples of this work will begin coming home in Friday Folders next week.  When your son or daughter writes at home, please support them by holding them accountable for what they know in regard to skills that have been taught and reviewed in class. 

Math: Students have investigated 2-D shapes and their attributes. We've been focusing primarily on polygons such as: squares, rectangles, rhombus', triangles, trapezoids, hexagons, pentagons.  Today, students were introduced to new geometry vocabulary.  We will work on understanding these terms throughout the year as we revisit geometry concepts.  We also began reviewing the addition and subtraction relationship and facts.

Discovery: Over the course of the last two weeks, we have spent our Discovery time building our classroom community and settling in with routines.  Beginning next week, we will start our geography unit.  Stay tuned!

Reading & Writing Workshop:  We have been concentrating on establishing routines and practices for our workshop time.  Each workshop begins with a focused mini-lesson on a particular skill or strategy.  The bulk of our workshop block is then spent reading or writing.  During this independent work time, Mrs. Christy is conferring with students.  Workshop wraps up with a sharing time at the end of  each session.  

Our current reading unit is entitled, "Building a Reading Life".  We are focusing on practices of choosing just right books, sharing books with others, reading with fluency and accuracy. These are important transferable skills no matter what age a student is!  We have read many books together that are helping us build our community of readers, writers and thinkers.  Some of our recent shared books are:  The Invisible Boy, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, What if Everybody Did That, The Golden Rule, Wilma Unlimited, Each Kindness, Author, A True Story   

Our current writing unit, "Crafting True Stories" focuses on narrative writing.  We are concentrating on being "storytellers" rather than reporters, and writing with voice that encourages our readers to come along on a journey with us.  Students are also zooming in on "small moments" and telling those stories well, such as instead of writing about the whole day at the fair, zooming in on one particular ride that was extremely exciting.  A huge part about becoming a great storyteller in writing, is to practice telling stories orally.  We encourage you to tell stories to and with your children! 

Kindness Project:  We're getting organized to complete our first CC3-Kindness Project of the year.  We like to do something each month.  We're going to focus on doing something to support hurricane relief.  Stay tuned!


Late Arrivals and Early Dismissals: Each day in CC3 is pretty well planned and jam packed with classroom happenings.  Our active teaching day begins as soon as buses arrive at about 8:45 and we teach up to the last bell at 3:30.  If you can help us out by having students to school on time, and avoiding early dismissals that would be great.  We honor every minute we have with students, so if they are late or leave early it makes the beginning and end of our day more challenging.  Thanks so much!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Family Information Night is TONIGHT!

We hope everyone enjoyed the last long weekend of summer!  We have a busy week ahead in CC-3! We're so proud of how hard students are working as we continue to establish expectations and routines.  We're off to a great start!

Just a reminder, tonight we will welcome adult family members for Family Information Night.  This night is an opportunity for parents/guardians to visit our classroom, learn about our third grade program and get answers to any questions you might have regarding the 2017-18 school year. 

The schedule for the evening:

• 5:30-5:40 Welcome in the gym.
• 5:40-6:00  Session #1 in classrooms
• 6:00-6:30  Session #2 in classrooms
• 6:30-7:00 Families of 4-6 graders meet in the LIBRARY to discuss Digital Citizenship.

You only need to attend one session in our CC-3 classroom.  The other will be available for you to visit sibling classrooms or go home if you're ready!

Our evening for students to share our classroom with you will be on Thursday, October 19th beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Welcome!

Yesterday, we launched the beginning of an exciting third grade year!  We were thrilled to greet smiling third graders who were anxious and ready to learn.  Thank you so much for sending your children so well prepared for the day!

We're spending the bulk of this week getting to know one another and developing our classroom expectations, agreements and routines. Just a reminder, Mrs. Christiano is the lead 3rd grade teacher in the morning, Mrs. Christy in the afternoon. Yesterday, we introduced students to the major theme of CC-3, which is KINDNESS.  Throughout every day we are all striving to be kind, caring and thoughtful toward ourselves, our classmates and the world.  We read the book Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson to get us started.  Please ask your child to tell you about the book.

Here are a few more tidbits for the week!

• Yesterday every child brought home his/her burgundy colored "Friday Folder".  In the folder were important start of the year forms for families to fill out.  If you can get them back to us by Friday that would be terrific!  All the forms are important, but one in particular is the "Acceptable Use Form" in regard to using computers and technology while here at school.  Our technology classes will begin next Thursday.

• Today, your child is bringing home a GREEN blog permission form.  This will let us know your preferences when it comes to posting images, student work, etc. on this blog.  Please return it as soon as possible.

• Open toed shoes are worrisome on the playground, PE and actually even in our classroom.  We encourage you to have your child wear closed toed shoes for school days.  As much as we all hate to give up our flipflops, they are a real danger at school.

• Our homework philosophy, expectations and first homework assignment will go home with students tomorrow, Wednesday, August 30th.  Here is the link to our CC-3 Homework Philosophy if you'd like a sneak peek.

• Here is another link to our CC-3 Schedule.  As you can see each day and week are very busy.  If you can avoid appointments, etc. during the school day that would be appreciated.  Also, late arrivals or early dismissals are challenging for both students and teachers.  Every minute we have with your kids is precious and important!

• If you require a paper copy of this blog please let us know, otherwise we will assume you will follow us and know what is happening in CC-3 via electronics.

Thanks again for all your support and help.  We're off to a great start!
Sincerely,
Christine & Kathy

Welcome back!

August 16, 2017

Dear Third Graders and Families,

We hope you’re all enjoying these last few days of Vermont summer!  We also hope  this letter will provide you with any information you may need as you prepare for the first day of school on Monday, August 28, 2017.

First and foremost, we are thrilled to be your third grade teachers!  We have both been at EMES for many years and have taught 3rd grade during many of them.  We feel extremely fortunate to be part of the EMES community.  We know firsthand that third graders are some of the most wonderful people on the planet!  Their desire to learn, explore their world and contribute to their community make them a very exciting age group to teach.  

The responsibilities of our third grade classroom will be shared between us this year, just like in 2016.  Students will be greeted by Mrs. Christiano each morning, she will be their primary teacher until lunch.  Academics during this time will include: Morning Meeting, Math, Science/Social Studies, and Reteach.  Mrs. Christy will be the primary teacher each afternoon. Afternoon academics will include:  Reading, Writing, Spelling, and some Science/Social Studies integration.  

It is important for you to know that we also fill other roles at EMES.  Mrs. Christiano’s afternoons are spent as our Tier II Interventionist.  She works with K-6 students in Tier II supports. Mrs. Christy is our EMES Professional Development Coach in the morning, working with teachers and students in grades K-6.

We are excited to be your child’s third grade team, as we have worked together frequently in the past and look forward to another successful year in CC-3.  In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.  We ask that you include both of us in any correspondence so that we are an effective communication team.  We keep a pretty active classroom blog going throughout the year.  Please subscribe to our blog address at your earliest convenience.  http://christiano-christy-3.blogspot.com/.  Here you will find helpful information about your child’s day, such as our Sharing Calendar and Specials Schedule.

First Day of School Needs and Tidbits

• We will have a morning snack each day.  Please send a healthy snack and water bottle with your child.
• Our Special on Monday, August 28th, is PE.  Coming prepared for that class will be very important.
• If you participated in the EMES library book bag program, please bring your bag and books back on the first day.
• Dismissal plans on the first day and week of school can always be a bit tricky, so if you could send us in a note of that first week’s dismissal plan that would be a great help.  You can email us these plans as well.  kchristy@u32.org and cchristiano@u32.org.
• Students will not need any school supplies beyond a sturdy backpack and lunchbox.  Students are welcome to bring in their own supplies if they wish, however we will have everything they will need.  Please do not send in any binders.  
• We expect all students will leave any electronic devices and toys at home.  There will be many opportunities for students to share treasures throughout the year.
• We request that students always have closed toed shoes that they can access during each school day. We want students to be safe and prepared for any activity.
• We love classroom volunteers.  Please let us know if you’re interested in donating some of your time.  Don’t forget to fill out necessary EMES paperwork for volunteering and chaperoning.  It will be sent home from the office during the first week.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!  We look forward to seeing our new third graders on Monday, August 28th!

Sincerely,

Christine & Kathy

Christine Christiano Kathy Christy

cchristiano@u32.org kchristy@u32.org

EMES Classroom Phone:  223-7936  Ext. 350