March 3 Dr. Seuss/Read Across America Day (PJs and stuffed animals encouraged!)
March 3 Returning Student Forms Due
March 7 All School Meeting and Spirit Day (another PJ day!)
March 12 Laura @ Literacy Workshop - Teri will sub
March 17 Library Visit
Homework Due Thursday, March 6th - More details posted on the Homework Page
1. Read for at least 30 minutes per day.
2. Complete your Reading Response Letter to Laura
3. 3rd Graders complete pages 43, 44 & 45 in Math Practice Book
4th Graders complete pages 42, 43 & 44 in Math Practice Book
MISSING LIBRARY BOOK: FOUND!
Thank you!
Upcoming Out and Abouts
This week, we will continue our work with Theatre In The Grove!
Volunteer Opportunities - Sign up on our VolunteerSpot page: http://vols.pt/drMimF
We are in need of breakfast donations, especially fresh fruit, for Friday Community Breakfasts. See the VolunteerSpot page for more details. Thank you for your support!
Math Notes
Last week in 3rd Grade Math, students continued to create and study their measuring strips, or number lines, to compare the products of different sized groups. These number strips invited a lot of discussion about relationship between basic multiplication facts and strategies for solving more complex problems. For example, students began to notice the commutative property of multiplication in problems like 5 x 8 and 8 x 5. They also observed that 7 x 6 could be solved as (3 x 6) + (4 x 6); this is called the distributive property. By developing these understandings of patterns and relationships, the emphasis is on thinking rather than memorizing multiplication facts. We will continue to explore more strategies to help build automaticity with multiplication facts to 10.
Last week in Fourth Grade math students began their study of fractions. We created 1/2 fractions on Geoboards, created fraction posters to show what we already know about fractions, and completed a pre assessment. Students also continued Rocket Math and our study of perseverance.
Weekly Review
Last week, The Plovers prepared for a trip to the Oregon Symphony with a few fun activities! First, we listened to a preview of the songs the orchestra would play and used watercolors to show what the music made us think of and feel. The students shared their paintings with the class and it was interesting to see how different people experienced the same songs in such a variety of ways! Then, we needed to learn the words to a folk song called Simple Gifts. During the performance, the audience was able to sing along with the orchestra and the Plovers were right up front! They sang beautifully! The Plovers also read about the different sections of the orchestra and discovered lots of interesting words, like "glockenspiel," "percussion," and "contrabassoon." This fit right in with one of our CAFE Strategies - "Tune Into Interesting Words."
To connect the Symphony experience with our study of Storytelling, we watched a video from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra called "Peter and The Wolf." This is a famous fairy tale which uses the sounds of different instruments to tell a story about a boy named Peter (personified by the strings) and his animal friends the Duck (oboe), the Bird (flute) and a mischievous Cat (clarinet)! Not only did the video introduce the students to the different sections of the orchestra, but they were able to see how changes in the music supported the events in the story. You can watch the performance yourself here: http://youtu.be/MfM7Y9Pcdzw
Communication
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, come into the classroom before or after school, or call me before 8PM at home.