Ninja Pig News
Oct. 9th-13th
Teacher Talk
Hi All-
There is so much going on in our classroom and across the school! I hope you have the chance to do something fun with your family over the 4 day break you will be having.
Conferences are going well. Thank you for sharing your insights and questions with me about each and every ninja pig in our room. I love getting the chance to meet each of you and brag about how awesome your child is!!
There's a lot of extra things to know about the school right now.
Here are the links to everything. Definitely pour that cup of coffee or tea before you open the links. No tests involved but we need your data or help.
Here's Your Homework Parents:
1. Please take this survey about technology: BrightBytes
2. Want to donate a book to the school library in your child's name? Birthday Book Info
3. Send in BoxTops. We are collecting them for PE in a grade level contest!
4. Innovation Station Needs: Paper towel and toilet paper rolls, Egg cartons, Fabrics scraps, Unused crafting items (stickers, craft paper, hole punches, etc.), Ribbon, string, rope, fishing line, Bottles, caps, etc, Old Cd’s, berry baskets, pretty much ANYTHING!
(No nut or latex exposed items please due to severe allergies in the school.)
Dates to Remember:
Oct. 9th: Parent Conference Day (no school but teachers work)
Oct. 10th: No School for Students (teachers in professional development)
Oct. 12th: Mrs. C is at Language Arts Curriculum meeting (Mrs. Robinson subs)
Oct. 13th: Mrs. C is out of town (Mrs. Vest subs)
Oct. 17th: Chris Barton visits (super cool author & artist)
Oct. 24th: 3rd grade Teachers plan Garden PBL (Mrs. Salman subs)
**EVERY WEDNESDAY IS "WEAR GREEN WEDNESDAY!!" Wear any kind of green if your class shirt is dirty (or temporarily lost).
Class Wish List
Thank you Spencer & Riya for the flashlights!! We are SOOOOOooooo happy!!!
Thank you Spencer for the rolls of duct tape! The colors are fabulous.
Flashlight Fridays Have Begun!
Concepts We'll Study:
We are starting our poetry unit and I couldn't be more excited!! I love exploring poetry with third graders. It's a chance for them to think about big ideas wrapped in thoughtfully worded phrases. We'll spend this week and the next on analyzing types of poetry, figuring out the theme, understanding the characteristics of poetry and interpret why we think authors wrote poems. The types of poetry we'll spend time with are free verse, narrative, lyrical, and humorous.
Writing Workshop:
We are completing our final narrative pieces and moving into poetry writing. We'll use mentor sentences to swim around in language. Our big focus will be about trying to express feelings or experiences with thoughtful word choice that uses sensory details.
Science:
Students were loudly excited about mechanical energy last week. We watched a couple of videos to give us a refresher on force, work and energy. Students loved talking about types of energy they knew about from earlier years of school. We had an interesting discussion about how energy isn't created or destroyed; it's used and transferred. Our labs on mechanical energy were really fun. The wind-up toys, cars, and student-created examples were very engaging. Next up will be labs on thermal and light energy. Sound and electrical energy will follow.
Math:
We did it! We had our first math DCA and no one fainted. We had a long talk about how DCA scores improve because students understand concepts, testing and have more stamina as the year progresses. We analyzed our errors and students decided if they needed more practice or made careless errors. Next up for us is introducing multiplication strategies. We have a methodical approach to teaching multiplication strategies in third grade. We begin with reviewing x0 and x1 facts. We move into x2 (doubles facts) and cover x10 facts. All of these strategies tie in nicely with place value concepts and our recent addition work.
Social Studies:
During the next two weeks, we'll be working on poems related to famous Americans who showed good citizenship. When we finish our poetry unit, we'll have a Social Studies Workshop on traits of good citizens and read about people who exemplified those traits.
First Day of Gardening
About Mrs. Caldwell
Email: vicki_caldwell@roundrockisd.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/roundrockisd.org/mrs-caldwell-s-class-at-sommer/home
Location: 16200 Avery Ranch Boulevard, Austin, TX, United States
Phone: 512-704-0621
Twitter: @MrsCin3rd