December Reading Calendars!

Hello everyone!  I hope your break has been great.

Don't forget that your December Reading Calendars are due on Wednesday, January 2nd.  We'll have our extra reading recess on the first day back.  Students can still earn their free Pizza Hut pan pizza too.

Our Christmas (maybe renamed New Year's) Party will be on Friday, January 4th.  We'll still have the pajama party on the same day too.  The students earned their pajama party on before break for collecting their paws.

Have a Greak Break!

I just got an e-mail from Channel 3000 that school is cancelled for Friday, so Christmas break has officially begun.  I feel bad that I didn't get to see all the students before break, but hopefully they'll all check the blog and see that I am wishing them "Happy Holidays from the Van Overmeer Family!"

We'll now have our party after break.  We'll have a New Year's Party on Friday, January 4th.  That's when we'll do all the gift exchanges.

Have a safe and relaxing break and I'll see you next year!

No School Thursday

As you may have already heard we won't have school tomorrow due to the coming snowstorm.  Hopefully all the kids will get a chance to go outside and play in the snow. 

Have a great snow day and hopefully I will see you on Friday! 

Remember that if we have school on Friday we'll also be doing our pajama party too.

Feeling Better

Just in case my students were wondering, I am feeling better this evening.  I was hit with a pretty nasty cold and looked pretty horrible on Monday.  I wasn't doing better on Tuesday and my wife made me stay home again.  I have had a personal day schedule for a while for this Wednesday and really wanted to make it today, but couldn't do it.

I just wanted to explain a change to the Christmas dinner that I made.  I was supposed to send out permission slips today for students who could do Christmas dinner shopping with me.  Since I was gone today, will be gone tomorrow, and the weather sounds VERY wintery on Thursday I decided it'd be best if we got a gift certificate for the family.  Mrs. Moen was willing to go get a gift certificate for the family to ensure that they will still be able to plan on the meal.  Unfortunately, that also means that students won't be able to go shopping this year.

Thank you for all your generosity in this project too.  I know that there is a lot of requests during this season and appreciate that everyone is able to help with this one.  I really like having the kids work together to help others.

Xmas/Pajama Party

Our Christmas Party is scheduled for this Thursday, December 20th.  The students have also earned their pajama party for receiving so many paws as part of our rewards program.  This has been popular at IGEMS and the timing (along with the party is great).

 - For the PJ party the kids can wear slippers at school (shoes or boots to school though).  They can also wear their sleep clothes that they have.  Comfy sweatpants and t-shirt work just fine too.

 - IF there were a snow day on Thursday we'd have the Christmas Party first thing on Friday morning.   We would also have the PJ party on Friday too.

 - Don't forget that student gifts will be due on our party day too.  You can bring them in early if you'd like.

 - We will do the drawing for who gets to go shopping for a holiday dinner tomorrow (Tuesday).  If you are able to donate that would be great.  We'll draw four names of students who get to go shopping with me on Thursday (weather permitting).

Star of the Week

This week was our first week having a Star of the Week.  The "Star" gets to be the line leader for the week and has a word cloud that describes them with things they like and complements.  We use http://www.wordle.net/ to create the word clouds and all the students think of two adjectives for our star.  It's a fun way to try to build vocabulary.  The "Star" also has their picture and list of favorites on a bulletin board in the hallway.  Each week we randomly pick a new Star of the Week until we are done sometime in April.

Library Books
One other side note, because of the Christmas Concert practice today we didn't have library.  We'll also miss library next week because it lands on Friday, which is a half day.  Ms. Olson has found a time for us to come in and check out books though.  On Tuesday, Dec. 18 we will stop in the library in the morning to get our library books before Christmas break.

Thursday Christmas Concert

There was a letter sent home on Friday about the Christmas Concert and everything is the same as previous years, but I just wanted to send out one more reminder.

  -  The concert starts at 7:00 on Thursday, December 13.
  -  I will be in the room by 6:30.  It's a nice chance for me to bring my wife and children too.  The kids will have a chance to say hi to Alstan and Elsie (although they'll probably be very shy/overwhelmed).
  -  I will try to be a little earlier than 6:30 though.
  -  The gymnasium also opens at 6:30.
  -  The third graders will be located on the West side of the gym, which is where the band and chorus rooms are located.
  - After the concert is over all the students go back to their classroom where parents can come and pick them up.
  -  We practice as a whole school on Wednesday and Thursday in the afternoon.  This means we won't have math and no homework either!
  -  See you on Thursday.

Language Arts

Here is our third grade plan for the next two weeks before break.

-  This week we are finishing up with a of the Stories that Julian Tells.  There are several other stories that go along with the one from the book.

-  On Wednesday of this week we'll take the spelling/grammar test.  These are the spelling words where the students also need to identify where the apostrophe goes.

-  We won't have reading homework this week since we are at the end of the Julian Tells series.

-  On Thursday we'll begin the story of The Talent Show.  We'll continue this story through next week.

-  We'll take the Talent Show spelling pretest on Thursday, December 13.  The post-test will be on Wednesday, December 19.

-  Along with the story The Talent Show, the students will be presenting their talents to the third graders.  We will practice and present our talents in the morning on Thursday, December 20.  This show is just for our classrooms and we won't be inviting parents or other classes like the play.  I will give more details about the talent show later this week when we start it in class.

Weekend Game

Here is a challenge game. All the lights need to be connected to the tree without any loose connections. It will be a challenge even for parents!

Christmas Tree Light Up

Many Little Things

It seems I have several times where I just have several notes, but this is a busy time of year.

Holiday Items
  - Just a reminder that the Christmas concert is on Thursday, December 13.
  - The make-up day if we get snowed out is Tuesday, December 18.
  - We will be doing rehearsals in the afternoon on Dec. 12-13.
  - There are two items to bring in:  A same gender gift of $5 and a donation for a dinner a local family in need.
  - Our Christmas party will be in the afternoon on Thursday, December 20.
  - December 21st is a half day.

Math
  - We are currently doing two-step math problems, and I know these are difficult for many students.  I have been trying to get them to just look at the first part of the story problem to figure out what to do with the first two numbers.  Then continue on with the next part of the problem.  This doesn't work for every problem, but it does for most.
  - I am planning on having our next math test on Tuesday, December 11.
  - We will then move on to a completely new subject:  Measurement.

Tomorrow (Dec. 7)
  - Tomorrow is spirit day so have your child wear their Panthers gear.
  - It is also the last day of the food drive if you have any non-perishables you'd still like to donate.
  - Our class also gets to say the pledge tomorrow over the morning announcements.

Just for Fun
  - In December our desk arrangement is in groups of four or pods.  Each pod gave themselves a winter name.  Here they are:
  -  The Icicles
  -  Mistletoes
  -  The Ornaments
  -  The Snowflakes
  -  Winter Wonderland

We haven't had much wintry weather to go with our names, but I'm sure that will be here soon enough.

Congrats!

Congratulations to the following students for turning in their November Reading Calendars!  Their Pizza Hut coupons have been handed out already.  Here are the students:  Mariah, Emma, Abby, Montanna, Nicole, Jackie, Alyson, Hailey, James, Hailee, Zachary, and Savannah.


December Calendars - The December Reading Calendars have already been sent out.  This is often the most challenging month because it's busy and the calendars are due after a long break.  Their December calendars will be due on Wednesday, January 2 when we return from school.

Another Congratulations to Abby and Nicole for reaching their winter break reading goal.  Each student has their own reading goals throughout the year.  The first goal we set was for winter break.  Those two girls are the first to meet their goals, but many more will be mentioned in the next couple of weeks for sure.  When we return in January each student will set a new goal for how far they want to read by Spring Break.

Christmas Presents from the Christmas Store are coming home tonight.  The students were all able to find something for their parents.

Panther Friday - Students and teachers are invited to wear their Panther clothing on Friday, December 7.  Each Friday we are doing a different theme on Fridays for fun.

Spelling / Grammar Words

This weeks spelling words are not just spelling words, but grammar words too.  We are learning when and where to put apostrophes in words.  Since this is a little more tricky than our normal spelling words we will continue to work on these through next week.  We'll probably take the final test on Wednesday, December 12.  It will depend on well they are doing though.  I sent home an addition sheet besides the pretest that has each word in a sentence too.