Blog #5

September 26-30, 2016

School Spirit Day! See pics. 

Tristan, Henry and Owen show their certificates
 for attending PrinciPals with Mrs. Russick.

Henry and Owen help Tristan celebrate his birthday!
See pic.

The standing desks are now fit to each student. 
See pic.

A greeting during a crew meeting. See pics. 

Masha and Kaiden are in an EL Fishbowl to show 
a handshake. 

Mary Jane and Mrs. Johnson greet each other
with a snail handshake. See pics. 

Some of Ms. Sakai's math class form arrays while
others draw the arrays. Students also work on
Mental Math and Math Messages. See pics. 

Owen, Adelais and Angela share information from

their Family Interviews. See Pics.

Angela, Daphne and Henry work on a "Save Sammy"
activity together. See pics. 

Gauri and Eliza play Number Top-it in math. 
We also worked on rounding, elapsed time, 
multiplication, division with remainders, bar
and picture graphs.
See pics. 

Jacoby, Kaiden and Masha describe properties
 of rock and mineral specimens in science.
See pics. 

Finn leads our crew in Mindfulness. See pics.

   
     In Mrs. Malloy's math crew, they are rounding and estimating, subtracting using the traditional method and working on multiplication facts. Ms. Barnett's crew is working on measuring volume.


      In Social Studies, our crew is continuing to work on map skills including intermediate and cardinal directions, compass roses and crossword puzzles.

Nadia and Cleo during Go Noodle. Cleo is a narwhal.
See pics.

Other Activities this week:

Picture Day, brainstorming for words that
describe ourselves and writing a rough draft of information, completing a beginning of the year time capsule, reading a Scholastic News to focus on nonfiction text and citing where information for the answers came from, new student lunch, MAP testing for Math, moved to new seats (including moving the desks-a crew effort), incentive recess, and Ms. Sakai started reading The Grand Escape by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

Notes for Parents:

1.  Reading Logs: Reading Logs are due totaled on Monday.  The minimum amount of days is five and students should read at least 140 minutes.  Please ask them to total their minutes before they bring it to school on Monday. An example reading log is in the Parent Orientation booklet. Late slips for reading logs begin Monday.

2.  Initials: Thank you for checking over your child's assignment planner and initialing every day.  The last day you have to initial is for Friday, Sept. 30th.

3.  Conferences: Thank you to so many people for signing up for the Fall conferences. Here is the link if you haven't signed up yet. 

          http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4ba9a628a3fc1-fall 

4. Band and Orchestra: Band lessons are on Tues. and Orchestra lessons are on Thurs.  Please be sure your child has her/his instrument on their lesson day.  


5.  Thank you: Thank you to Shawn Brown, Anna DeWeerdt,  and Olga Sizova for tearing apart the math journals, stapling them into packets and organizing them into folders.  Thank you to Kelly Griffin and Aleece Vanderloop for sharing the weekly copying jobs for our crew. Thank you to Shawn Brown and Ellie Travanty for being our room parents.  Thank you all for filling out a volunteer sheet-I'll get back to you soon!  I appreciate all of your help!


6. Art Museum Field trip slips:  ALL Rookies: All third graders will attend the first trip-field trip slips are due on Oct. 3rd.
Vet Junior Art Docents: You received a field trip slip if you were in the program last year or are new to Atwater. Permission slips due 10/7.


7.  Patricia Polacco:  book orders due Oct. 12th.

8. No School and Conference Dates: Thursday, Oct. 13th and Friday, Oct. 14th are both no school days for the students.  There is also no school for students on Thursday, March 9th and Friday, March 10th.  The district calendar says differently. 

9.  Finding book levels: If students aren't sure about book levels, they need to search Scholastic Book Wizard, choose Guided Reading A-Z, then type in the name of their book. They saw this used in class and there is a computer in class for them to do this, also, (before the log is due on Mon.) You may also download the Book Wizard app and scan the back of the book for the level.


10. First four-digit of password: All parents received an email about student log-in and password information. Students may only use Google email for school work.  Please remind your child to memorize the first four digits of his/her password by Friday, Oct. 7th.  The last four digits and all other log in information are on a notecard in his/her binder and on another notecard in the headphone bag. Thank you!


11.  October EL Design Principle is The Responsibility for Learning. ""Learning is both a personal process of discovery and a social activity. Everyone learns both individually and as part of a group. Every aspect of an Expeditionary Learning school encourages both children and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collaborative learning."


12. What do we do on early release Wednesdays? We have meetings from 2:20-4:30 on Wednesdays after the students leave. They are centered around EL (Professional Development and/or time to work on our case studies), Curriculum work (such as learning about the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and seeing how they fit into two of our existing science kits. or other meetings (Special Education, RaceWork, MAP Data Professional Development and Math Check-in since we started a new math curriculum this year.) That's our agenda through December. :)

Calendar:

Monday, October 3-Reading log and Thurs. bag due, Milwaukee art museum slip due for all Rookies
Tuesday, October 4- band lessons, BOB check-in at lunch
Wednesday, October 5-
Thursday, October 6- orchestra lessons
Friday, October 7- Trenton Lee Stewart author visit, JAD museum slip due for Vets



Monday, October 10-Reading log and Thursday bag due
Tuesday, October 11- band lessons, BOB check-in
Wednesday, October 12- Patricia Polacco orders due
Thursday, October 13- No School-conferences 12:30-8:00pm
Friday, October 14-No School conferences 7:30-11:30 am



Monday, October 17-Reading log and Thurs. bag due. Ms. Sakai will have a guest teacher all day so she can meet with other third grade teachers for district curriculum science work
Tuesday, October 18-  band lessons
Wednesday, October 19- Ms. Sakai has a guest teacher for the am only so she can meet with the ATW Crew Committee
Thursday, October 20-  orchestra lessons
Friday, October 21-Third Grade Milwaukee Art Museum trip 12:15-2:15 pm (we will eat lunch at school before we leave and Ms. Sakai will be with the Rookies)-Vets will be with Mrs. Malloy


My daughter, Miya, spent eight fantastic years at ATW and started SIS this Fall.  We are so grateful that she is attending Shorewood Schools. I volunteered at my first SIS event, SIS Activity Night, last Friday. What a wonderful time to see former students and meet new parents! Hopefully if it's a nice afternoon, we're headed to an apple orchard to pick apples!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Thank you,

Deb