Upcoming Events
May 20 Library Visit (Final visit)
May 22 All day Out & About to Haystack Rock
May 23 Scholastic Orders Due
May 27 No School
May 30 Celebrations of Learning

Homework Due by Friday, May 24th
1. Read for at least 20 minutes every night.
2. Complete 20 minutes of typing practice. 
3. Complete at least 30 minutes of math practice (click here for DreamBox).
4. Optional - Compete Opinion Paragraph of the Week 
Prompt: Should teachers give homework over the summer? Support your opinion.

Upcoming Out and Abouts 
This week, we will visit Haystack Rock for bird watching and tide pool exploration! Next week, we will go to the Backyard Garden. Chaperones are still needed for our final Out & About to Fernhill Wetlands on June 5th!

Volunteer Opportunities
Community Breakfast - Cereal/bagels and fruit needed this Friday and next Friday.
Out & About Chaperones - Needed 6/5 (Fernhill Wetlands).

Celebrations of Learning - Book Swap!
At Celebrations of Learning next week, the Plover and Puffins will host an interactive "Book Tasting!" This event is an opportunity for Level 2 students to show off their favorite books, and for family and friends to sample different genres, authors, topics, and book series. We hope to help get students and families excited for summer reading! 

Visitors will also have an opportunity to participate in a “Book Swap” out in the Level 2 hallway. If you have books that you would like to donate to the book swap, please have your Plover bring them in during school on Wednesday May 29th or Thursday May 30th. This will help us get set up before Celebrations of Learning. Books should be in good condition and can be for younger or older readers (K-8). To help keep this event manageable, please limit your donations to no more than 5 books per student.

Scholastic Book Clubs
Class Code: L79X9
Order Due Date: THURSDAY MAY 24th by 9pm

• Go to scholastic.com/bookclubs
• Enter our one-time Class Activation Code: L79X9
• Shop and submit your child's book order.
• As soon as your order is delivered to our classroom, I will send it home with your child.

This will be our final book order of the year and books will arrive in about 2 weeks. If you cannot pay online, please write a check to Scholastic Book Clubs. I cannot accept cash.

State (SBAC) Testing Continues on May 20th
We will continue with the Smarter Balanced math testing this week. Please help support your Plover by: encouraging them to do their best, making sure they eat breakfast and bring a snack, and helping them get plenty of sleep. Testing is administered in the computer lab in short sessions, and students have the opportunity to work on the same test over multiple sessions so they can work at their own pace.

Weekly Review
Last week we learned about flowers: what they do for the plant, how they work, and more. We solved the mystery, “Why do plants grow flowers?” (it’s to attract pollinators!), and then we learned how and why flowers are pollinated. Students dissected flowers in the Backyard Garden during our Out & About and then drew diagrams in their science journals. We also watched some clips from the Disney Nature documentary Wings of Life to see how flowers and pollinators benefit each other.

Communication
Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Parents and students can e-mail me at l.harley@fgcschool.org. You can also leave a voice message on the class phone or set up a time to meet with me before/after school.​

Upcoming Events
May 20 Library Visit (Final visit)
May 22 All day Out & About to Haystack Rock
May 27 No School
May 30 Celebrations of Learning

Homework Due by Friday, May 17th
1. Read for at least 20 minutes every night.
2. Complete 20 minutes of typing practice. 
3. Complete at least 30 minutes of math practice (click here for DreamBox).
4. Optional - Compete Opinion Paragraph of the Week 
Prompt: Is it better to read a book or watch a movie?

Upcoming Out and Abouts 
This week, we will visit the Backyard Garden to continue our study of pollinators and plants! Next week, we return to Haystack Rock for bird watching and tide pool exploration.

Volunteer Opportunities
Community Breakfast - Cereal/bagels and fruit needed May 24th.
Out & About Chaperones - Needed 6/5 (Fernhill Wetlands).

State (SBAC) Testing Continues on May 20th
We will continue with math testing next week and then writing the following week.

Weekly Review
Last week we learned how even though all plants need sunlight and water, they don’t all need them in the same amounts. We explored the questions, "Should you water a cactus?" and "Where do plants grow best?" Then we played a game called Plant Survivor. In this simulation, students examined a model of a farm with a variety of growing conditions and then tried to determine the best location to plant different plants, like sword ferns, hostas, orchids and aloe.

You can help your child be on the lookout for house plants, like ferns and orchids. Ask them, “What is it about these plants that make them good plants for keeping indoors?”  (Answer: They need less sunlight than other plants!). If you can, consider visiting the garden center of a nearby home improvement store, where your child might especially enjoy seeing some of the strange forms of cactuses and succulents.

Communication
Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Parents and students can e-mail me at l.harley@fgcschool.org. You can also leave a voice message on the class phone or set up a time to meet with me before/after school.​

Upcoming Events
May 8 No School
May 20 Library Visit (Final visit)
May 22 All day Out & About to Haystack Rock

Homework Due by Friday, May 10th
1. Read for at least 20 minutes every night.
2. Complete 20 minutes of typing practice. 
3. Complete at least 30 minutes of math practice** (click here for DreamBox).
4. Optional - Compete Opinion Paragraph of the Week 
Prompt: What is your favorite restaurant? Give 3 reasons.

**3rd grade Plovers have a fraction game to play this week for math homework! We have played the Fraction Cookie game several times in class and your student should be able to explain the rules. Green triangle = 1/6, blue rhombus = 1/3 and red trapezoid = 1/2. Please return instructions, game boards and materials (blocks and dice) on Friday so I can share the game with the Puffins next week!

Upcoming Out and Abouts 
There is no school on Wednesday this week, so we will not have an Out & About. Next week, we will visit the Backyard Garden to continue our study of pollinators and plants!

Volunteer Opportunities
Community Breakfast - Cereal/bagels and fruit needed May 10th.
Out & About Chaperones - Needed 6/5 (Fernhill Wetlands).

State (SBAC) Testing Continues on May 20th
Most students completed the first part of their SBAC testing last week! We will continue with math testing during the week of May 20th and writing the following week.

Weekly Review
Over the last few weeks, our science focus has shifted from animals to plants. This unit develops the idea that plants are truly alive and face challenges every bit as dramatic as those of animals. Students will learn that plants have needs, and they will complete several science labs to understand how plants meet their needs. We will also study how plants reproduce and pass on their traits, and how people have figured out how to make food plants even more useful to us. 

But we aren't completely done with animals yet! In writing, students are researching an Oregon animal. Some students chose to research both an Oregon animal and a far-away animal. They will use the information they gather from books and the internet to write a non-fiction piece about their animal's appearance, life cycle, habitat and behaviors. Plovers are also working on masks of their animals and will be creating labeled diagrams that highlight some of their animal's unique features and adaptations!

Last week, we visited Jackson Bottom Wetlands to learn about ecosystems and biodiversity. Students rotated through three different learning stations, using scientific tools to get a glimpse of ecosystem health through the study of water quality, wildlife habitat, soils & plant diversity, and the food chain.