January 19 No School
January 21 Beauty and the Beast Show @ 10:30am
January 23 Lunch Orders Due
January 29-30 No School
Homework Due Thursday, January 15th
1. Read for at least 20 minutes every night.
2. Optional this week - Complete Reading Response Letter OR Opinion Paragraph Packet
3. Complete at least 30 minutes of math practice*
*Suggested IXL skills for 3rd grade math practice:
R.8 and R.9 Perimeter
*Suggested IXL skills for 4th grade math practice:
Student's Choice
Upcoming Out and Abouts
Next Wednesday (January 21st), we will see Theatre In The Grove's production of Beauty and the Beast. To help cover the cost of the tickets, we are asking families to contribute $5. All Plovers will be able to attend, even if your family cannot contribute at this time. Please have your student turn in money directly to Laura.
We will also use our Out & About time this month for Science Labs! Level 2 students will be exploring electricity and magnets through lots of hands-on activities and student-led Science Talks. Over Winter Break, I learned we received a grant through Donor's Choose and funded by Chevron to purchase 12 Snap Circuit sets and science texts to help with our investigations!
Volunteer Opportunities - http://vols.pt/drMimF
Please sign up on VolunteerSpot to donate food for our Friday Community Breakfasts this month. Thank you for your support!
Math Notes
Third grade mathematicians are moving into a study of geometry and measurement. We began last week by measuring the length and perimeter of objects around the classroom and finding benchmarks for common units of measurement, such as an inch and a meter. Encourage your Plover or Puffin to estimate and measure length in practical situations at home, like sewing or home improvement projects! This unit will also cover area (the measure of how much flat space a figure covers) and characteristic of polygons.
This week, the fourth grade math students will try something new -- Math Congress. Math Congress is a process supported by the math curriculum Context for Learning. Students are provided with "juicy" math problems and must work with a partner to solve the problem, prove their thinking, and organize their information in a way that is easy for others to learn from. This week students will focus on developing an open array model for multiplication and division in the context of Muffles' Truffles shop. As always, if you have questions/comments/concerns, please let me or Becky know ([email protected])
4th Grade NAEP Testing
FGCS 4th grade students have been selected to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The NAEP assessment will be given at FGCS on Tuesday, March 3. More information will be coming home soon about this assessment, or you can click here to read a note from our principal, Vanessa Gray. If you have questions, please contact school test coordinator Karen Torry at [email protected] or 503-359-4600.
Weekly Review
Congratulations Hannah Carlson! Hannah won the preliminary round of the National Geographic Bee in our classroom and represented the Plovers last week at the FGCS GeoBee!
Last week, I began reading Tales of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo to the class. It is a Newbery Award winning fantasy novel about the adventures of a mouse named Despereaux. The book is divided into four sections, each told from a different perspective. Some students have seen the movie and I've given them the great challenge of not spilling any secrets! We will be comparing characters and themes from Tales of Despereaux and Beauty and the Beast for our final literary essay this semester!
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.