Eventful Friday

10/3 - Spirit Week - check today's binder for a list of daily events

10/5 - Fall Count Day -- please please please send your child to school all day on this day!! 

10/7- Green and Gold Activities at Recess

10/7- Comstock Park Homecoming

10/10 - Book Orders due 

10/11- PTO Meeting at Pine Island

10/20- Picture Retakes

11/7- Parent Teacher Conferences 1p-8p

11/10- Parent Teacher Conferences 4-7:30p

11/23-11/25- Thanksgiving Holiday

 

Word Study

Here's a link to a fun website for practicing our Word Study words! There are a few different free games and worksheets that your child can use for working with the words, along with tools that give the definitions and more spelling practice! This is a program we will sometimes be using during our Computer Lab time as well.


Rachel VandenBerg Pine Island Elementary School Vocabulary and SpellingCity.com


Don't forget - Fun Run tomorrow morning!! (rain rain ... stay away!)

In today's Communication Folders you will find:

• A copy of the final paper newsletter (unless specifically requested)
• The October book order
• An invitation to a very important benefit for one of our third grade students (my  husband is doing two paintings for the silent auction - one is already complete and it's beautiful!!)
• Weekly Homework:  Sentence Structure Review and Odd/Even Review 
• We have yet to do our lesson on Complete Sentences, so please wait on the Sentence paper until tomorrow! 
•  October lunch menu

There also was a handful of graded work that came home -- remember your child currently has the opportunity to correct any mistakes and turn it back in for a better grade!  This offer doesn't last long - so use it while you can! 

Our first Science Study Guide came home in our planning binders tonight -  the test will be on Wednesday.  We talked about the different ways to study and came up with a list that included reading the guide, reading the guide to someone else, explaining the guide, and rewriting some of the information. 

Next up, here is our weekly spelling list.  This also should have come home today.  After we take the pretest, students cross out the list they are not going to study.  Remember, students who got 9 or more correct study the challenge list.  Everyone else studies the regular list - and everyone needs to study the commonly misspelled words.  (just realized I forgot to send home a spelling list homework for this week - oops! I guess it's a freebie week!)

Unit 3: 3rd Grade Word Study 9/26/11 Final Consonant Blends with short vowels (-st –nd -mp –sp –nt –lt –ld –lf –pt –sk –ng –ft –ng –nk)

Regular List

event mild result blimp find among think prompt clasp whisk

Challenge List

thrift yourself difficult chipmunk different excellent comprehend mustang asterisk   except

Commonly Misspelled Words

were really very enough                                                                            have

Book Orders

In an effort to save time, here's the already made Parent Letter from scholastic about ordering books online.  The paper flyers will be coming home in tomorrow's Communication Folders! 

Online Ordering Information
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: J9R4V

Dear Parent,

Now it's easier than ever to find the perfect books for your child -- shop our NEW online Book Clubs Web site. Choose from a much-wider selection of books than in the printed flyer. Plus, you can send your orders directly to me online and use your credit card to pay.

Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.

It's so simple! Here's how it works:

• SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the "Register" button in the "First Time Here?" section. Register for your own user name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me.
  
• SELECT the books you'd like to order -- choose from thousands of titles -- many more than in our monthly flyers.
  
  
• SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child's books will be delivered directly to my classroom.

Ordering online is fast, easy, and secure.

Of course, you can still order using the form from the printed flyer. But why not see for yourself how convenient it is to order online?


Thank you,

~ Rachel VandenBerg ~

Eventful Friday (just a little late!)

Math Test

          ~ Sept. 26

Entertainment Books/Money Due

        ~ Sept. 27^th

Fun Run

        ~ Sept. 28^th 

Fire Safety Visit

        ~ Sept. 29^th 

Science Test

        ~ Wednesday, Sept. 28^th

Spirit Week

        ~ Oct. 3-7

Book Orders

        ~ Are due back October 10^th

Homecoming

        ~ Friday, October 7^th

PTO Meeting

        ~ October 11^th

Fredrick Meijer Gardens Field Trip

        ~ Postponed!

Tests and Grades

Now that we are all getting settled into the school year - your child is going to begin bringing home some graded work.  This may be work that was sent home, or work that was completed in class.  In an effort to ease the transition into third grade - from now through October, I will allow work to be fixed and turned back in for a better grade. 

Example:

Henry rushed through his math paper, and got a 15 out of 30, which is a 50%, which is a failing grade.  He can take it home and fix the problems he got wrong.  

Once November arrives -- grades will be final.  I will take into consideration, on an individual basis, if a child was absent for the teaching of a lesson, or seemed to struggle with grasping the actual content of the assignment.   However, I simply cannot continue to let children redo their work just so Henry gets an A instead of a B on his math homework for the week.  That's a lot of extra grading! 

Your child may have brought home a packet of unfinished work today.  This all needs to be finished and returned to school for a grade as soon as possible.  Your child is responsible for taking care of this work and returning it to me - he/she had ample classroom time to complete the work, but for one reason or another, just didn't get it done. 

And while we're talking about grades - next week we will be having our first Math and Science test! 

The math test will be on Monday - with a packet of practice work coming home on Friday.  

The science test will be on Friday - with a study guide coming home on Wednesday.

Word Study

It was suggested that I post the Word Study Spelling lists on our blog -- next week, I promise it will be posted!  Remember, the pretest score determines if your child will be doing the Regular or Challenge list. 

 

Click here for the detailed information of our Word Study program.

Attention!!

We are in need of magazines to cut up for our Science Poster Project!  We will be making informational posters that compare and contrast Living and Non-Living Things.  

If you have some magazines lying around waiting to be recycled that are school approrpiate, please send them in for us! Thanks so much! 

Communication Folders came home today with a copy of the Volunteer Sign Up - along with this weeks homework.  There is another Tic-Tac-Toe board for Spelling Words, along with a math worksheet and a reading worksheet. 

Many of us are having a hard time with two digit subtraction that involves borrowing -- any extra practice in this would be so helpful! 

Don't forget -- Picture Day is Thursday!! 

Mrs. Hammond - from our PTO - was our guest reader for NFL Friday last week! Thanks again, Mrs. Hammond!