Hope Creason

Updates and Events

The students did a great job with their Fun Run last Thursday.  We have been sharing our "Rock Person" and paragraphs.  Here is our upcoming learning focus:

• Math: Using strategies such as skip counting, repeated addition, and drawing arrays to solve multiplication problems
• Words Their Way: Sort 9....Three-Letter Blends (scr, str, spr, thr, shr, squ)
• Reading: Making connections in order to help us understand what we read
• Writing: Learning the purpose of a fiction summary and the characteristics
• Grammar: Common and Proper Nouns
• Science: Soil/Fossils

Dates to remember: November 3rd--Student Holiday/Teacher Inservice

                              November 17--Field Trip (Tellus Museum)

                              November 23-27  (Thanksgiving Break)

 

Red Ribbon Week

 

Monday, October 26--Wear Red   

Tuesday, October 27--Turn Your Back on Drugs (backwards shirts)
    Wednesday, October 28--Paws-i-tively Drug Free (Bullard or Georgia Bulldogs shirts)
    Thursday, October 29--Give Drugs the Slip (wear slippers)
    Friday, October 30--Team Up Against Drugs (wear your favorite sports jerseys-your team, college or professional)

 

Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country. Although the start end dates can vary slightly depending on the organization and source, Red Ribbon Week generally takes place the last full week in October, with the weekends before and following the last full week included as appropriate celebration dates.

Red Ribbon Week serves as a vehicle for communities and individuals to take a stand for the hopes and dreams of our children through a commitment to drug prevention and education and a personal commitment to live drug free lives with the ultimate goal being the creation of drug free America.

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And, perhaps more importantly, Red Ribbon Week commemorates the ultimate sacrifice made by DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, who died at the hands of drug traffikers in Mexico while fighting the battle against illegal drugs to keep our country and children safe.

Cool Sites:
Interactive Education Games


Math Practice:
Place Value Games
http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=496&engine=5
http://education.jlab.org/placevalue/index.html
http://www.gamequarium.com/placevalue.html
http://www.funbrain.com/tens/index.html
Rounding Numbers
Cool Math.com
Interactive Math Site
Timez Attacks Multiplication Game


Language Arts:
Putting Sentences Together
www.spellingcity.com
Practice Making Predictions

Social Studies:
GeoNet Geography Game

Science:
Dr. Brown's Cool Science Sites for Kids

What Have We Been Working On?

Today students began their first day of CoGat Testing.  Students will have CoGat Testing again on Thursday and Friday.  Next week, ITBS testing will begin.  Due to testing, students will not have homework for the remainder of this week and next week.  Students should still be reading at home (just right books and/or AR books). 

• MATH--Our focus has been on estimating numbers to the nearest tens, hundreds, and thousands place.
• WORDS THEIR WAY--We will skip our word study this week and next week due to testing.
• READING--Our shared lessons have been on building reading stamina to become a better reader. Lessons included what to do when your mind wanders, getting hooked on a book, recognizing our strengths and weaknesses, how to stick with a book even when it starts out slow, and strategies to use when your book is challenging.  Students continue to do a great job choosing their "just right" books and reading AR books on their levels. 
• GRAMMAR--We have been practice writing complete sentences and working on recognizing when a sentence in incomplete.  We will also begin learning about simple subjects and predicates.
• WRITING--Our focus has been brainstorming for writing a personal narratives.  We looked at characteristics of a personal narrative. Students brainstormed ideas and will create a web of topics to pre-write.
• SOCIAL STUDIES--Our focus has been on how Ancient Greece has helped to shape how the U.S. is today.  We read and discuss "democracy."  Students noted examples of things we do in our own classroom that shows democracy in action.  We will compare our government to that of Ancient Greece using a venn diagram.  The Georgia Studies Weekly will be used.  It's a weekly newspaper for young students of Georgia social studies and ties in with all of our social studies' standards.

 

IMPORTANT DATES IN SEPTEMBER:

• CoGAT Testing--9/9-9/11
• ITBS Testing--9/14-9/18
• Picture Day--9/24

Second Week of School

Hello Parents and Students,

We are settling in nicely in this second week of third grade.  Thank you for sending back the Get Connected Journals with your response.  The students will enjoy reading them and preparing a new letter to take home this week. The children are already working hard.  In Math, we focused on place value up to the thousands place.  Students used base ten blocks to explore different numbers. We used a hundreds chart to explore number patterns, and wrote numbers in standard, word, and expanded form.  Students also began the first unit of the Words Our Way program in Spelling and sorted words according to the CVCe pattern.  More information will be sent home about how this program works.  We talked about ways to choose "just right" books and students came up with various reasons why we write. We discussed how reading and writing are connected. We set up our Reading and Writing Journals and students made their first entries. On Friday, we will make our first visit to the media center and students will be able to check out two books.  Starting Monday, we will begin our first AR challenge.  Please read the AR page for information about how the AR program will be implemented in our class.  We've been reviewing and working on geography and map skills and students are looking forward to making our edible maps next week!!

Great First Day Back

Hi Parents and Students,

It was a terrific first day back!  I have 19 awesome third graders and we began learning a little about each other today.  We talked about routines, procedures, and expectations for our classroom.  We picked team names. We began organizing supplies and materials. Parents, thank you so much for all of the donations.  You are wonderful and it is so helpful to have items off my wish list.  Please continue to send in your child's supplies if you have not done so.  We will label binders and notebooks throughout the week. 

Students took home an agenda today.  Please be sure to initial your child's agenda each night.  I also sent a specials schedule for the month of August.  Some students chose to put their schedule at the back of their binder.  Others are taking it home to place on the refrigerator.  Either way is fine.  I will send a schedule out once a month.  Please look for the classroom volunteer form in the Thursday Red Folder. (By the way, if you sent back forms, but kept the red folder, will you please send the folder back?)  Later in the week, you will be able to download the classroom directory form. 

Thank you so much for entrusting me with your child.  I look forward to helping your child learn and grow this year. 

 

Mrs. Creason

 

Welcome to Mrs. Creason's 3rd grade class!

Dear Parents and Students,

Welcome back!  I am looking forward to a wonderful new school year.  We will have a fun, educational, and exciting year in third grade.  It's going to be a great 2009-2010 year!  Please refer to any posts and pages for important classroom and back to school information.

 

Mrs. Creason