Room 15 News

 Dear Third Grade Families,

          December is upon us which means we are very busy in third grade! Today is the 65^th day of school. Time is flying by quickly! 

The weather is getting colder.  Please make sure your child has a hat, gloves, boots, and snow pants to wear outside for recess when the snow falls.  Please write your child’s name on the tags of his/her outdoor clothing. This helps us to return items that are found on the floor or left behind in the lunch room or on the playground.  Thank you!

         

          Your child is bringing home a “Chromebook Responsibility Agreement” form for children and parents to sign with their Friday papers. The agreement contains all the guidelines that students have learned this year about the proper use of Chromebook computers. Please discuss the information on the form with your child and return the signed agreement to school on Monday.  Thank you!

This month, third grade mathematicians are studying multiplication and honing their adding and subtracting skills with larger numbers. Keep encouraging your student to work on the basic facts (addition and subtraction facts through 20) using www.xtramath.org, flashcards, or games from Mrs. Simpson’s “math links for kids.” You can find the math links at Mrs. Simpson’s blog.

This month’s Number Corner works with fractional parts of a square, rounding to the nearest hundred, the 0, 1, and 2 multiplication facts, the mass of objects using grams, and the distributive property of multiplication.

       Both in reading workshop and writing workshop we are working on non-fiction reading and writing. The children are learning strategies for reading and summarizing expository texts. In writing, students are starting to write about topics they are “experts” on. It’s fun and interesting seeing the topics they choose! Please encourage your student to read at least one non-fiction book per week for homework.

The only homework I will send home the week of December 14^th will be spelling. Please encourage your child to read as often as possible throughout the December vacation.

A few reminders:

• ·         Tomorrow, Friday, December 4^th, is Popcorn Friday.  Please send in 50 cents if your child would like to purchase popcorn for a snack.
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• ·         PTO Movie Night is Friday, December 11^th, starting at 7:00PM.
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• ·         There is a special “Hour of Code” assembly on Monday, December 14^th, to celebrate the $10,000 grant Mrs. Flickinger won for Chamberlin School.
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• ·         The holiday Sing-Along is on Tuesday, December 15^th, starting at 1:30 PM. It’s sure to be fun!

              Have a great weekend!

                                                                       Sincerely,

Keelin M. Simpson

kmcgrath@sbschools.net

652-7415

Dear Third Grade Families,

          Our class loves to take movement breaks.  Students love to jump, run, and dance.  Check out the photographs of our class dancing to the "Cha Cha Slide".

          You may notice that there are two special guests with us in the class photo below. We had fun starting off our day with Missy and Bernie, who are members of the UVM Lacrosse Team.  They read us a story and  talked with us about the importance of being kind to others.

           Notice some hard working spellers in some of the photographs.  Students have learned many new spelling patterns.  Keep working on practicing spelling words at home, both the weekly list and the highlighted list of high frequency spelling words.  

     

Sincerely,

Keelin M. Simpson

Publishing Party

Dear Third Families,

Third graders have had fun learning to use Chromebooks to type and edit their stories.   Here are some photos of our publishing party and students working together on their stories and a variety of assignments throughout the day.

I wish each of you a happy Thanksgiving  and look forward to meeting with you at Parent/Student/Teacher conferences on Monday.

Sincerely,
Keelin Simpson

Native Americans

Dear Third Grade Families,

Our class has been learning about Native Americans who settled in the Arctic region of North America.  Third graders are reading and learning about the long, dark, cold Arctic winters and the clothing the Inuit people made from animals they hunted to stay warm.  Students have learned about different types of houses the Inuit lived in (sod houses, snow houses, and summer tents).  We have read about hunting techniques and learned about animals of the Arctic that were hunted and used for food, clothing, and tools.  Check out the photographs of our class making hunting necklaces from "animal teeth."

Sincerely,
Mrs. Simpson

News From Room 15

                                                                                                            11/13/15

Dear Third Grade Families,

We have enjoyed a week of busy learning, along with some special activities that provided a change of pace!

We started the week with a visit from Miss Lizzie and our Farm to School program. After some fun cabbage activities, we had the opportunity to try cabbage salad- yum! Mr. Melen came to visit on Tuesday to begin our five week Skills for Growing unit, which focused this week on problem solving.  We look forward to the next four sessions.

In literacy, we have started our next unit, which focuses on reading nonfiction. We will be looking at some of the ways that nonfiction text is organized in order to help us get the most from the content. We will focus on headings and subtopics and how authors use this structure to organize information.  Please encourage your child to do some extra nonfiction reading in the coming weeks.

 In writing, we are continuing to work in the finishing stages of our personal narratives.  We are spending time editing and correcting our spelling and punctuation, and typing our stories into our Google docs. We continue to have keyboarding lessons and weekly technology workshops with Ms. Courcelle.

In math, we have been working with ratio tables and arrays as we explore multiplication patterns more deeply. Students were challenged to see how doubling and using other strategies for creating equations could help them with larger numbers. In Number Corner, we explored fractions, multiplication arrays and patterns on our November calendar.

In social studies, we have discussed how the first Americans traveled across the land bridge from Asia into North America.  We have also started to learn about the Inuit tribes, who settled in the farthest northern regions.

On Friday afternoon, we enjoyed our school wide celebration for filling the honey hive by having EXTRA recess time!

             There are some important business items to mention, so here goes!

·                               The window for signing up for parent conferences through the Pick-A-Time site be closing soon.  You can always call Rose, 652-7415, to schedule a meeting time.  If none of the available conference times work with your family’s schedule, please send me an email or call 652-7415, and we can schedule a different time to meet.

·                              Monday we will be having the Puppets in Education program coming to Chamberlin. The program for third graders will be at 12:10 PM.

·                             The PTO fundraiser booklets are coming home today. If you choose not to purchase or sell yours, please return it to school with your child.

·                            Please remember to send in items for the Chamberlin Food Drive. We appreciate your generosity to help families in need.

·                            Next week is the Chamberlin Book Fair. Details are on the Chamberlin School home page.

·                            Next week is Spirit Week!

Monday:          Color Day- Our color is purple- get out your purple clothes!

Tuesday:          Mismatch Day- find those mismatched items and have fun.

Wednesday:    Well Dressed Day- jewels and glam!

Thursday:        Sports Day- show us your favorite team!

Friday:             South Burlington Blue and Gray day- show your SB spirit!

   Wow! Next week looks like it’s going to be great!  That’s it for now!

Have a great weekend,

Keelin M. Simpson

kmcgrath@sbschools.net

652-7415

              

Classroom Blog Sign-Up

Dear Families,

        In order to communicate with you throughout the school year, I will post announcements and updates on our “classroom blog.” Rather than send you a paper newsletter, I will post periodic classroom updates on our blog. This way, you can stay up-to-date with the learning that goes on in room 15!

        You can view the blog at any time through Chamberlin’s webpage, but you must subscribe to the blog in order to receive email updates. There will be some great features, such as sharing pictures, events, and websites. Plus, it’s convenient! The blog posts will be sent directly to your email.

        I hope you join our blog!

Here is how to view the blog and subscribe:

1.    Visit the Chamberlin School webpage: (http://chamberlin.sf.sbschools.net/)

2.   Click on Our Classrooms  (along the side menu on the main page)

3.   Next click on Mrs. Simpson. You will arrive at my blog!

4.   To subscribe, please enter your preferred email address in the box on the right where it says “Subscribe to Mrs. Simpson’s Blog.”

5.   After you have entered your email, click “submit.”

6. An email will be sent to you asking you to confirm your subscription. Your subscription will not go through unless you confirm this email!!

Thank you for joining! J

Room 15 News

Hello, families!

Our third graders have completed another busy week!  We have completed our reading unit on “Building a Reading Life”, which has focused upon developing good reading habits and strategies, and developing our skills in identifying the elements of fictional text.  Next week we will conduct our pre-assessment before starting our second reading unit of study. In this unit, students will explore the text structures of informational text.  Please encourage your child to make this shift in their at-home reading as well. They may certainly continue to read those wonderful stories and fantasies, but we appreciate it if you will help your child to delve a little deeper into the joys of nonfiction!

In math, we are continuing our study of multiplication concepts and skills. This week students were engaged in activities that challenged them to use arrays in order to solve problems. They discovered that there are many strategies that will lead to a correct answer, although some are more efficient than others. In Number Corner, we concluded our activities for October, which included liquid measurement, computation, multiplication strategies, and geometry. We look forward to our November adventures!

Our writers have completed a personal narrative, and we are typing the final drafts in Google docs.  We have learned about how to develop the voice of a storyteller and to share an experience as a story rather than a list of events. This is a skill we will continue to work to develop this year. We will also continue to work on skills related to sentence and paragraph structure, and using appropriate grammar, usage, and mechanics.

Third graders have started to learn keyboarding.  We are using a program called Typing Master. We practice keyboarding on our Chromebooks. 

In social studies, we have continued to explore skills related to maps and globes, and will begin our study of Native Americans. We will be starting our study with Native Americans of the far north, and the migration of early tribes into North America.

The Harvest Luncheon will be held this Monday. Families are welcome, but reservations are required. Please call Rose Datillio if you plan to attend but have not yet signed up.

Please be sure to use the Pick-A-Time system to sign up for your parent conference in the coming weeks. I look forward to discussing your child’s progress! If you need help with using the system, please call Rose at 652-7400.

We greatly appreciate the donation of disinfecting wipes for our tables now that cold and flu season is on the way.  We would also appreciate boxes of soft tissues.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keelin M. Simpson