Super Hero Star Scholar News
Mrs. Struve's Third Grade Classroom
Important Information
There are many fun opportunities coming up for students to celebrate being a Prairie Point Panther!
THIS TUESDAY is our classroom's Family Fore! Night! It is not too late to send in a RSVP form! Our classroom directly earns a portion of the funds raised to be placed onto a gift card to a teacher store. We will use the money to purchase a new logic game for our classroom to use during indoor recess or math stations.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19th is our School's Annual Family Fun Fair! This night is always an exciting night for our students, parents, and staff! The Home and School organization is in need of more parent volunteers (100+) to make the night a success. There are short shifts so that you can still enjoy the time with your kids, too. Please see your email for the flyer. If you are able to volunteer, please fill it out and send it back to school. It will be a really fun night for all of the kids!
OZZIE READING CLUB HAS STARTED! Students can earn a free ticket to a Cougar's Baseball game by turning in forms signed stating they have read 20 minutes a day. One form needs to be returned every two weeks. The first one is due this MONDAY, but I will accept them through WEDNESDAY! Forms were sent home in Thursday envelopes several weeks ago, but I also have extra forms available in our classroom.
PRAIRIE POINT HAS A NEW EXCITING WEEKLY NEWSLETTER! Our newsletter, the Panther Press, now comes in a NEW format on a WEEKLY basis. The newsletter is a short, one-stop shop for all information, flyers, and reminders, and will eliminate as much as possible random email. Each Friday, you will receive an email with a link to the newsletter. The link will also be posted on our Prairie Point Home and School Facebook Page, as well as archived on our school website. (Please note, if you are accessing the newsletter on your phone or tablet, it is easier to open flyers/forms if you download the free dropbox app.)
Thank you for your ongoing support at home!
Area and Perimeter Investigation
We are digging deeper into the world of perimeter and area! This week we established the connection between decomposing numbers with the distributive property to solve area problems. We also experimented with dividing irregular shapes to find the area. The most challenging and newer skills we will continue to focus on are finding missing sides or dimensions, and dividing shapes to find the area of multiple parts.
In addition to our guided math groups, students have started problem solving groups. The first project groups are working on are either designing a dream room or city, applying what they have learned about area and perimeter.
The Khan videos are a great resource for all subject areas. If you go further into the demonstration, there are also opportunities for students to complete practice.
ELA: Digging Deeper into Informational Text
We are coming to the end, The Year of Miss Agnes, by Kirkpatrick Hill, and wrapping up our character investigation with discussion and analyzing how characters changed overtime. This week we will read an Alaska legend to establish connections between what we have already learned. When I reflect on our ELA CCSS, I find we focus on them throughout the day, in every subject area. As scholars, we strive to apply what we are learning in our discussions in Social Studies and Science too. Encourage your child to share what we are learning and their thoughts about what they are reading at home.
In writing, scholars will be demonstrating their skill of identifying key details, central messages, and character traits to write a continuation of the legend, The Frog Princess, Retold by Eric Kimmel.
In addition to the wide variety of text in students' hands at school, this new ELA series provides a home component too! At conferences, I had sent home information about how to access the Pearson Realize Online resource. I have included the link below. I am learning how to use this tool beside the students. I will introduce this tool this week to students to build their confidence using it at home as well. In an effort to do this, I "assigned" different texts or activities they can complete once they log in. Just like our math, an electronic text is available for what we are reading in class. Students may also write notes in this online version, as well as have it read aloud to them. I will share more information about how this resource can be used in the future.
Pearson Realize Log In Information
To access Pearson Realize at home, go to our school website, click on "Students", click on "Student Resources" and finally click on "Ready Gen Pearson". I have included a link below. I have changed students' passwords so our classroom all has the same one.
Username: student ID number
Password: 3struve
Scholar Scientists
Recently we had a third grade parent, Mr. Foster, visit our classroom to share an interactive presentation with students about physics, the human body, and other interesting facts about physics in our world around us! Students LOVED this presentation, and it sparked great curiosity and further questions! We really appreciate all that Mr. Foster did to prepare for this thoughtful presentation.
Students presented their posters proudly! I strongly believe in the power of cooperative learning, and stress its role in our daily lives to scholars. As a result, I directly teach, guide, and reinforce specific cooperative learning skills throughout the year. We focused on dividing responsibilities, each member taking an active role, listening to our friends' ideas, and using our checklist/rubric to guide our work. Scholars reflected and rated both their own and their peers' participation, providing evidence. This will NOT be entered this time as a grade, however will be used to complete a cooperative learning goal to share at home.
Scholars as Historians: The Europeans Arrive in Present Day Illinois
Important Dates
THANK YOU for the AWESOME support and for your book orders. They will be here this week! :) I really appreciate it! Due to the amount of orders our classroom had this time, each child will receive a free book, and our classroom was able to purchase a set of books for upcoming literature circles.
Monday, February 1st: Ozzie Papers Due
Tuesday, February 2nd: Family Fore! Night
Friday, February 12th: Valentines Parties
Monday, February 15th: NO SCHOOL
Friday, February 19th: Family Fun Night at Prairie Point
Valentines Day Parties
Time is flying by! Friday, February 12th, will be our Valentines' Day Party. Students will hand out Valentines before the party begins. Please remember that students may not have ANY food or candy attached to Valentines, due to district policy. Students will make an origami box to place Valentines in, so it is not necessary to create a special box at home. However, if students would like to bring their own container, that is fine too. Students do not need to include student names, but please have them write who it is from. If your child would like to write their friends' names, I have included a class list below. Thank you in advance to parents for donating items and time to make this a fun celebration for students.
Miarose
Olivia
Sarah
Connor
Aaron
Dinos
Alex
Lucas
Sean F.
Peyton
Ryan
Breanne
Kelsey
Audrey
Ian
Sadie L.
Sadie M.
Marykate
Maddie
John
Josie
Drew
Lauren
Andrew
Mandy
Sean V.
Cody