January 11 Wetlands O&A - Early lunch & sack lunches
January 11 Rescheduled Library Visit - Chaperones Needed
January 13 All School Meeting and Crazy Hair Day
January 16 No School
January 18 All Day O&A to Tillamook Forest (sack lunches) - Chaperones Needed
Request for Recycled Materials
We are currently looking for plastic containers to make the bodies and heads of our recycled puppets. We only need about 3-5 of each type of container. Please clean containers before sending them in with your student.
2 liter soda or seltzer water bottles
Plastic orange juice containers
Medium-sized gatorade containers
Cardboard or plastic take-out containers
Coffee or cocoa tins
Tissue boxes
Homework Due by Thursday, January 12th
1. Read for at least 20 minutes every night.
2. Complete at least 30 minutes of math practice.
3. Complete at least 20 minutes of typing practice on Typing.com
4. Optional: Compete Opinion Paragraph of the Week assignment on Google Classroom.
Prompt: Is it better to use books or the internet when doing research? Support your opinion.
Upcoming Out and Abouts
Our Out and Abouts this week and next week will help us find inspiration for our puppet show set design. Most of the story takes place around a pond or in the woods, so we will be visiting Jackson Bottow Wetlands this week and the Tillamook Forest next week to sketches and make plans for backgrounds and props. Due to the bus schedule, we will need to eat lunch early this Wednesday, and students who ordered a school lunch will receieve a sack lunch for both trips. Please help your student dress warmly so they are prepared to be outside for the day: layers, boots, gloves and hats!
Volunteer Opportunities
Breakfast Donations - Cereal or bagels needed this Friday.
Out & About Chaperones - 2-3 Chaperones needed next Wednesday.
Library Chaperones - 2-3 chaperones needed for our next library trip, Wednesday 1/11.
Third Grade Math Parent Info
Last week, third grade mathematicians combined geometry and dance to review the properties of triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons! We talked about how both mathematicians and dancers can describe and identify shapes, and we practiced noticing shapes and angles in photographs of dancers. Then, we used stretchy bands to make gigantic shapes and the students worked together in a small groups to choreograph and perform a Four Shapes Dance. At home, you could look for objects that are triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons.
Current 4th Grade Math Topics:
- Division with remainders
- Justify your answer! Students are working on explaining their thinking outloud and in writing.
- All 4th grade math students should be practicing their multiples DAILY
Weekly Review
Last week, we finished our read aloud of The Magical Ms Plum by Bonny Becker. This is a funny story about a third grader teacher with a magical closet! The Plovers wanted to vote for the next read aloud, so I gave them two options from new genres: Science Fiction or Informational. Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman is a time-travel story with aliens, dinosaurs, vampires and pirates! The Mighty Mars Rovers is a nonfiction book about the development and journeys of two mars rovers. Many students were very interested in both books; ask your Plover which book they voted for!
Project Update Written by the Plovers:
We went to Theater in the Grove last week for some help with our puppet business. We played theater games, heard some tips about acting, and learned about stage directions. While we were there, we saw workers building the set for their next show. We couldn't go into the pit under the stage, but we got a small peak of the space where the musicians sit out of view from the audience. Then on Thursday, we had a visit from a professional puppeteer named Kelly who makes her own puppets from recycled materials. She showed us her steps for building puppets and brought in a few of her creations. Her ideas were super helpful and inspiring, and now we're ready to build our own puppets! We especially liked how well-made her puppets were, even though she only used trash and recycling!
Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Parents and students can e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also leave a voice message on the class phone or set up a time to meet with me before/after school.