Reading Calendars Due Tomorrow

Just a reminder that the student's November Reading Calendars are due tomorrow, Thursday, December 1st! Some students who had skip days left have already turned theirs in. Those who turn in a reading calendar will earn an extra recess and personal pan pizza again.

Star of the Week

for Nov. 28 - Dec. 2.

Multiplication Rocks

I've got lots of stuff to keep the students busy over Thanksgiving Break if they get board. Here are the Schoolhouse Rocks videos for multiplying numbers 0-5 (but no ones). We'll watch a video every other day or so at school, but we don't learn the numbers one at a time in Everyday Math.

My Hero Zero
Elementary My Dear
Three is a Magic Number
The Four-Legged Zoo
Here I Come (5s)

All the multiplication videos will be on video page too.

Multiplication Games!

All but one of these multiplication games give the player the option to choose which numbers they'd like to play with, which is excellent for third grade. The best option right now is to choose the option of 0-5. If you are an excellent multiplier and would like to try the larger numbers you certainly can.

Pumpkin Patch
Car Wash
Harvest Hootenanny
Multiplication Station
Two Player Multiplication Baseball

Have a safe and relaxing break!

Little Grunt and the Big Egg

Both groups of students did a GREAT job on the play! I was really happy will how smooth the presentation went, how well they read, and the expression they used. Great work Van Clan.

Also, thanks to all the parents and relatives that were able to make it out to the play. It's great to see so much involvement, and I know the kids were very excited to see their loved ones come watch the play

Parents, if you took pictures of the play could you please send a few good ones to me at avanovermeer@igs.k12.wi.us I'll post some of them on the blog. Thanks!

Updates

Just a few updates before the Thanksgiving break.

EARLY RELEASE - Don't forget that tomorrow is an early release day. Students will dismiss at 12:30.

Little Grunt Play - Remember our Play is tomorrow. One group will present at 8:30 and the other at 9:15. Several students have asked about costumes. They don't really need costumes although if they can wear earthy colors like greens and browns it would go better. Packer green won't work though. :)

Here are the groups again:

Math - We will really get into Lesson 4 of math after break. As I have mentioned, this is the first unit of multiplication. We just finished Lesson 3 and reviewed the test on Monday. I will be posting a couple of Schoolhouse Rocks videos and several multiplication games for the long weekend.

Reading Calendar - Don't forget that reading calendars will be due next week on Thursday, December 1st. Students will earn an extra reading recess and Pizza Hut personal pan pizza again.

Food Drive - The food drive will be going on until December 7. Our class has gotten off to a great start and filled a shopping cart already! If you haven't sent in your food yet there is still time.

Cheerleading Camp - A letter is being sent home about a cheer camp coming up on December 1st. The due date to turn in the forms is Tuesday, November 29. A short turn around time, especially with break.

Finally - Go Lions!

R.I.F.

Mrs. Buss, one of the school's reading specialists, will be doing a R.I.F. (Reading is Fundamental) program for the kids this afternoon. As part of the R.I.F. presentation teachers or middle school students will usually read a story to the kids. Each third grade student also gets to pick out a FREE book! It's a great way to get extra books for students.

Star of the Week

for Nov. 21-23

Holiday Information

I know it seems early, but I wanted to get notes out about Christmas gifts before Thanksgiving for those Black Friday shoppers. Below is a list of activities that we will be doing during the holiday season. It is mentioned below, but please do not buy me any gifts and put that money towards a family in need. Thanks.

Christmas Store
- When: December 8
- How Much: $0.25 or $0.50
- What: Students are able to buy up to two gifts at the store for a dollar each. It gives students the opportunity to buy gifts for their parents or guardians on their own. Volunteers wrap the gifts and prepare them to take home.

Gift Exchange
- When: December 21st or 22nd (with Christmas Party)
- How Much: $5
- What: Each child will bring a gift for another student. If your child is a girl they should bring a gift for a girl and if they are a boy they should buy a gift for a boy. We will draw numbers randomly to decide who gets each gift.

Holiday Supper
- When: We’ll go food shopping on December 20th or 21st.
- How Much: Your Choice
- What: I know students look forward to giving gifts to teachers, but please donate money to this cause instead of giving me a Christmas gift. Our class will donate a holiday supper to a family who otherwise may not have one. As a class, the students will plan the menu and prepare a shopping list. One or two days before our Christmas break, three students (with parental permission) will go with me to a local grocery store to purchase the groceries with our class donations. The family will be someone who lives in the Iowa-Grant school district, however, neither the students nor I will know who the family is. Mrs. Belken will deliver the food to the family without us knowing who the family is.

Weekend Game

We are finishing up Unit 3, Measurement, in math today with the test. Next week we'll begin working on multiplication. Below is a game called Meteor Multiplication and when you start the game you can set the range of numbers to be used. We'll study multiplication a couple of times this year so for now set the range at 0-5.


Meteor Multiplication

Star of the Week

for Nov. 14-18

This is the first week we have started our Star of the Week. Each week we'll pick a new star. They will have their picture on the blog, get a pencil, and be line leader for the week.

Little Grunt Play

We have our characters and times picked out for next weeks play. The participants and their character are on the chart above. If you click on the chart it will enlarge and be easier to read.

Tonight I am sending home the copies of the play so the students can practice some more. Since we are doing the play with two groups they will want to get some extra practice in.

The play will be on Wednesday, November 23. The first group will present the play at 8:30 to Mrs. Wasley's class, and the second group will present at 9:15 to Mrs. Peat's class. Parents and guardians are welcome to come watch the play if they can. The play will probably last around 15-20 minutes.

Yearbook Reminder

Yearbook orders are due on Friday, November 18. If you would still like a copy please send in the envelope and money by them. If you need an envelop to order we can get another copy to send home.

Update for the Week

- We are done with WKCE testing and are back to a much more normal schedule this week. We resumed our spelling this morning with a pretest, and the students will have math homework again tonight.

- One thing that is changing is cursive. Instead of cursive this week we are going to be reading our Mayflower stories that go along with social studies. I want to make sure we get that story finished before Thanksgiving break.

- We will also be making our sparkling cornucopias this week, a third grade tradition! They have been making them for many years, and it is possible that even a parent or two who went to Iowa-Grant could have made one!

- Finally, next week we will be doing a play that goes along with our reading story, Little Grunt and the Big Egg. Since we have a large class this year I am planning on having the play done twice with two separate groups so everyone can be involved. The play lasts about 15-20 minutes. We have a group of younger students come watch, and parents are welcome to come visit if their schedule allows. The play will be on Wednesday, November 23, and I'll get specific times out later this week.

Weekend Game - The Mayflower

We are in the middle of learning about The Mayflower and the Pilgrim's trip to the New World. Currently we are reading about the living conditions on the boat and the dangerous trip Atlantic Ocean.

Below are two links that give more information about the Mayflower. They aren't exactly games, but they give videos and information about the ship.

Tour the Mayflower
Journey on the Mayflower

Galapagos Islands

Along with doing our WKCE testing this week we are also reading Wild Shots, which is a nonfiction story about animals on the Galapagos Islands. Along with the story we will also watch a few videos that shows more about the island and animals.

Today we'll watch the introduction and the other two videos we'll watch on Friday.

Late Starts and Cancellations

Wow! I don't ever remember the first snowfall coming in like this! Today seems like an appropriate day to add a link to delays and cancellations from Channel 3000. Through the winter season I'll leave the link to the right hand side of the blog to quickly check for delays and cancellations.

Also, at the Channel 3000 website, you can sign up for e-mail alerts when Iowa-Grant has late starts or delays. There is also an option that will allow them to send it to your phone. It's a nice way to have information sent directly to you.

Channel3000 Delays

- This is not a paid advertisement for Channel3000. :)

WKCE Practice Test

We took the test and went over the WKCE Practice test today in class. We did both the language arts and math component. Because of the short turn around time, the students corrected their own test and for the writing piece I sent home writing samples that show examples of earning all three points all the way down to an answer that earns zero points.

Tomorrow we will begin the real WKCE tests. Please remind your students to do their best work. Also be sure that students get a good nights rest, eat breakfast, and are generally just ready for school.

Weekend Game

We started working on nouns this week and will continue to work on them more in the future. Below is a fun Jeopardy type game to play with your child. The questions are a little tough, and we haven't covered everything in the questions.

Nouns

Another New Student

We added another new student this week. Madison joined us on Wednesday, which means we are now up to 23 students in the Van Clan! The students were very welcoming and helped her find her way around Iowa-Grant.

Welcome Madison!

Reading!

There are two things to recognize for reading today!

First, congratulations to the whole Van Clan group for reading over 1 million words as a class! What a great start to the school year.

The other congratulations goes out to the students who turned in their reading calendars for October. They earned an extra recess and a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. Great work!
Jaiden A.
Avery B.
Ryan E.
Luke F.
Josh H.
Isaiah L.
Jalen L.
Elly L.
Lauren L.
Colin M.
Olivia N.
Nic P.
Courtney S.
Brena S.
Austin T.
Grace V.
Brynna W.
Isaiah Z.

WKCE Testing

Next week, November 7-11, we will be taking the WKCE (Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination). I sent home some information about the testing tonight. Third grade is the first year they take this test. The students will take a language arts portion and a math portion of the test.

The students take the test in the classroom and I'll have a schedule listed below. Please make sure the kids are well rested and here if possible. We'll follow our usual schedule and have one language arts test in morning and one math test in the afternoon.

Since we will be testing next week there will be a few changes to the usual schedule. First, in language arts we won't have spelling or guided reading. We'll resume spelling tests on Monday, November 14. Also, in math we won't finish many, if any lessons during WKCE testing. Since they are testing and there is a limited amount of new curriculum there won't be homework next week either. It's also a nice reward for the students in exchange for giving their best effort on the tests.

Here is the tentative schedule:
Monday, Nov. 8 - Language Arts Testing (8:30-9:10) - Practice Test
- Math Testing (1:00-1:30) - Practice Test
Tuesday, Nov. 9 - Language Arts Session 1 (8:30-9:10)
- Math Testing Session 1 (1:00-1:25)
Wednesday, Nov. 10 - Language Arts Session 2 (8:30-9:10)
- Math Testing Session 2 (1:00-1:30)
Thursday, Nov. 11 - Language Arts Session 3 (8:30-9:10)
- Math Testing Session 2 (1:00-1:30)