March Reading Calendars

March Reading Calendars are due 

Monday, April 1

I hope everyone has a restful and rejuvenating Spring Break.  This will be my last post until we are back.  I wanted to leave a reminder for students that their March calendars will be due on April 1.

Reminders

• The Hawaiian Hula is tonight (Thursday) at IGEMS from 6-8.  Admission is free!  You can wear your Hawaiian clothes if you can brave the cold to make it inside.
• The Penny War only has one more day!  Friday is the last day to bring in money.  The money goes toward Relay for Life.
• Our Spring Party is this afternoon.  Most years our game committee gets an easy job and we go outside and enjoy Spring.  The year the committee got to decide between creating inside games or sledding:(
• Friday is a half day.  If your child is going someplace different than usual please send a letter in the morning.
• Harriet Tubman projects can go home any time this week.  Unless they are huge we are going to send them home on the bus with each child on Friday!
• Tomorrow is the end of the third quarter.  The time is flying by.  The kids report cards will be sent out after break.
• Your child should have a sheet with the sign up to watch their biographies at the end of April.  They aren't due until April 12, but a few people knew their schedules and sent them in right away.
• The March Reading Calendars will be due on the first day back from Spring Break.
• Last year on this day is 80 degrees!

Biographies

The students biography books and information sheets are coming home tonight.  The students will present their biographies on the week of April 22-26.  If your child would like to switch books please have them do this before Spring Break.  Sending the books out this week should give them plenty of time to work on their biography presentation.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Activities Next Week

We have a couple of student unique activities next week.  There are sheets of paper going home about each tonight, but I'm also putting them on the blog.

Penny War

IGEMS

March 18-22

Please bring in pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters... whatever change you can spare to help raise money for cancer research.

The winning class will earn a reward!

The student council will take the money and walk in the Relay for Life in Platteville on April 12th

Sponsored by IGEMS Student Council

"Hula's" to Dance?  We Love to Dance!!!

Thursday, March 21

6-8 p.m.

IGEMS Gym and Cafeterium

Admission is Free

Come join us at the IGEMS Family Fun Night.  Entertainment provided by Fun-N-Games Company.  They will have a combination of music, group dances and contests!!

Your family is encouraged to dress the part!  (grass skirts, Hawaiian shirts, sun dresses, sunglasses - no bikinis please)

A small meal will be offered from 5:30-6:30 for just $2.00.  (Includes pizza slice, chips, milk/water, and a cookie/bar)  Water will also be sold.

Sponsored by IGEMS Parent/Teacher Club

The Dust Bowl

This week we read the story Leah's Pony, and along with that story we talked a bit about the Dust Bowl.  The video clip above game them some pictures and video to show how strong some of those storms were.

Math Lesson

In math today we are working with Math Mountains.  Math Mountains and fact triangles are very similar.  Last years math series used fact triangles where the sum was the top number in the triangle.  With the math mountain the top of the mountain is the sum.  Each part is an addend.

This is the start of Unit 5, which focuses on word problems and problem solving.  This Unit is a little bit shorter than the previous ones.

Important Dates

Here are a couple of important dates coming up:

• We have our Unit 4 math test today.  This one is on addition and subtraction.  We did the practice test yesterday and I think the kids are ready!  There won't be any homework tonight.
• Our Spring Party will be on Thursday, March 21 in the afternoon.  Our committee members are Hailee, Zach, Owen, and Savannah.  Hailee and Zach are in charge of the games while Owen and Savannah will bring in treats.
• Friday, March 22 is a half day.  It is also the end of the third quarter.  The report cards won't be sent home until after spring break.
• March 23-31 is spring break.  Unless you forgot.
• The last day of school will be on Thursday, June 6.  That is as long as we don't have any more snow days!

Fine Arts Night

Iowa-Grant's Second Annual Fine Arts Night!

When:  Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - 6-8 p.m.

Where:  The High School Gymnasium

IGEMS art students will have their art on display!

Hat Day

A few notes for the day:

• Friday, March 8 is Caps for a Cure Day.  Many students brought in a dollar so remind them to wear their hat.  If they still want to bring in a dollar I'm sure that will be fine.  Above is my daughter wearing her hat.
• Many students have asked about how long the Harriet Tubman projects will be out.  The plan is to have them out until Spring Break.  If you are in the building on the week of March 18-22 feel free to stop down and pick them up.  Girl scouts is planned for that week and couple boys thought they had wrestling practice.  I'd hate to see those projects get destroyed.
• Our math test will be next week.  It depends a little on how the last couple of units go, but the test should be on Tuesday or Wednesday.  The students seem to be doing pretty well with the multi-digit addition and subtraction.  Hopefully they'll do well on their test.
• 3,000,000 Words!  The class has combined to read over 3 million words on the year.  That's a lot of words, and they have really been picking up steam the last two weeks.

Crowded House Video

I sent the links to the video for the play to parents e-mails.  If you did not get a link for the play from me please let me know.  There are a few people who I don't have e-mails for too, and I can get you the links for the play some other way if you'd like it.

Harriet Cabins

Check out the details in some of these cabins and dioramas!  Great work third graders!

Reading Calendar

Congratulations to the following students for turning in their February Reading Calendars:  Savannah, Zach, Hailee, James, Skyler, Hailey, Alyson, Jackie, Nicole, Montanna, Abby, Brynn, and Mariah.

The March calendars were sent out on Friday.  They will be due on Monday, April 1, right after spring break.  The March calendars will also be the last month that students can earn a personal pan pizza along with their extra recess.

Caps for a Cure

I forgot to send out the Caps for a Cure forms, so if your child did not turn in their money they can next week.  We will be wearing caps on Friday, March 8 if a dollar was brought in.  Several students did turn in their money, but if not, just do it early next week.

Have a great weekend!

Thank You

I would like to send a sincere thank you to all the parents for their help with the Harriet Tubman project and the play.  The projects that the kids brought in for the Harriet Tubman assignment are excellent!  Also, everyone in class turned in their assignments on time, which I think is a great complement to the children and the parents.  As I type this, there are second graders walking by literally oohing and awing about the projects.  I will post some pictures of the projects next week.

Also, thank you for the time that was spent preparing for the play.  The kids did a great job and the props and set up we had were outstanding.  The number of people who were able to attend was outstanding and I had notes from a few others who wanted to come but weren't able.  For those who want to see the play for the first time (or a second time) I recorded it and will work on getting it posted to the web this weekend.  I put it on my new phone so it may take a little playing before I get it up.

We'll have one more big home project after spring break.  The biography assignment will be sent out right before we go on break.  The students will read about a famous person and present as if they were that person.  The students and their families did such a good job with this first project that I am really looking forward to those too.