Have a Great Summer!

I hope everyone has a great, relaxing, and safe summer.  As I've told the students already, don't be a stranger next year.  Please stop in to say hi and tell me how your summer went.  I'll be in a new location (Mrs. Allen's old room), but I'll still be teaching third grade.

The students are probably bringing home several old books.  There were many in front of the library and some from my room that we were being shipped out.  The ones in my room were not reading counts books so students aren't interested in reading them.

Finally, the blog will remain up all summer so students can still access the games and videos.  Many students have asked about my personal blog, and they can check out my little's ones growth at vanovermeer.blogspot.com.

It was great being your third grade teacher!

Signing out,
Mr. Van Overmeer

Report Cards and Dismissal

Lots of stuff is coming home tonight from the students desks and notes from the office.  I just wanted to remind everyone that report cards will also be in that stack.

Also, tomorrow the students dismiss at 12:00 instead of 12:30 like most early release days.

Goal Met!

8,001,323

I had set a goal for the third graders at the beginning of the third trimester.  If they could read 8 million words as a class for the year I would give them an extra recess.  It was close all the way until the end, but this morning we exceeded that goal and the students earned their extra recess.  Great work Van Clan!

The whole school also met their goal of 250,000,000 words read!  What a great reading achievement!

Also, in the report cards tonight is a picture of each child with their word count for the year and a picture of them with approximately the number of words they read.  It would be very time consuming to try to get the exact book list of each child, so we just use books from the library and estimated.  It still gives them an idea of just how much they read this year.

Next Three Days

The last three days of school are here. I wanted to make sure that students dressed right the last couple of days. On both Tuesday and Thursday we'll be doing a lot of running and moving with the field trip and last day activities. Students will want to wear comfortable shoes and clothes they can be active in.

In the past some students have wanted to dress a little nicer for the last day of school. We are suggesting that if they want to wear something nicer they do it on Wednesday, which is when we have our awards ceremony. Of course, they can just wear shorts and t-shirt if they'd like too.

May Reading Calendar

Congratulations to the following students for turning in the last reading calendar of the year! It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day for an extra recess.

Avery, Ryan, Luke, Josh, Jalen, Elly, Lauren, Colin, Olivia, Nic, Lindsaye, Courtney, Brie, Grace, Brynna, and Isaiah Z.

Things to Turn In

Two things for Friday!
- First, students need to bring in things for their hobby fair. Just enough to fill their desk.
- The other is their May Reading Calendar.

Other Things Before the End of the Year
- Registration forms need to be turned in before the year is out.
- Finally, any library books that haven't been returned need to be in.


The last homework of the year went home tonight. Several kids had saved a card to get out of their last homework too.

Notes

- The Hobby Fair is on Friday, June 1. Students will need to bring in something for their hobbies to share. It is a pretty informal sharing time and other students will go around and ask them questions about their hobbies. They will get prepared in class, but just need things to share that fit on their desk.

- The May reading calendar is due on Friday, June 1. We'll have our last extra recess on that Friday too. If students are done early they can turn them in tomorrow to make sure they won't forget.

- Next week I'll also be sending home a summer reading packet. Students are not required to them at all, but I wanted to build something to help students stay motivated reading this summer. I'll have more information on this later.

- Finally, last week I sent out an e-mail saying you could donate books if you would like because the library was getting low. Thanks to all those who brought in books. Also, the same day I sent that post I found out that St. Mary's Catholic School, which is closing, was selling their books for $1 each. We were able to add 50 or 60 books to the library with many great series perfect for third graders like Junie B. Jones, Magic Tree House, Boxcar Children, and Bailey's School Kids.

Schoolhouse Rock - Adverbs

We have one more Schoolhouse Rock video for the year!

Math Unit

We will finish up our Unit 10 for math about measurement on Friday of this week. I don't want to push the test into the last week of the school year if possible.

The last week of school we'll only have math on Monday anyway. We'll review the test that we just took. Tuesday we have our field trip, Wednesday is the awards show, and Thursday is a half day.

A Few Notes

- Tomorrow morning is the last day to buy books at the book fair. If you still want to get them I'll send kids down right away in the morning or come tonight to buy.

- Our 50 state test will be tomorrow, May 25.

- We'll also have our last spelling test of the year tomorrow too. Next week we are going to do a reading series that looks at lots of different versions of the Three Little Pigs. We won't do spelling words with that project.

- Pillows are sewn! We got them all done. Thank you Sharon and Sherry!

Hobby Fair

The kids will be presenting a hobby of theirs to Mrs. Moen's third grade class on Friday, June 1st. This is a pretty informal presentation where they share information about their hobby to the students who come to their desk. We started coming up with hobby ideas today, and students can start bringing in materials

Students can bring in whatever hobby they would like, but whatever they have needs to fit on their desk. In the past, some students have needed to take a picture of things because they were too big. Some have asked if they can change their outfit to match, and that would be great too. They could also have things that they hang in front of their desk.

No live animals or real weapons please:)

Books

We are going to the book fair this afternoon to do a tour. The students will bring home a wish list tonight. You can either come buy books with them on (it is open until 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday) or send money back to have them buy the books. Remember it's buy one, get one free!

Also, I have noticed that my bookshelf is getting a little thin. I have asked students to check at home to see if they have any books from my library. All of the reading counts books from this room have a sticker with a handwritten red R on the bottom of the spine. That should be a quick and easy way for the kids to double check to see if they have any books to return.

Finally, if you have any old books your child has outgrown, and you want to get rid of I'd love to add them to the library. Paperbacks only last so long and I'm always looking to build my classroom library. Of course if you have younger kids still coming up or relatives to give them too that is great too. Thanks.

Changes, Changes, Changes

We did a second drawing for the field trip as Josh's mom got selected to go on the second grade field trip too. Both are on the same day. Avery's mother was selected the second time around.

Also, the states got changed up. Mrs. Moen had a different list of states than I thought, so we had to change some of the students up so that every student in third grade has a different state. Fortunately, we haven't started our pillows yet, so that wasn't a big deal. Here are the students and their states:

Jaiden – New Mexico
Avery – New York
Donavin - Ohio
Ryan – South Dakota
Luke – North Carolina
Mason – Rhode Island
Marissa - Pennsylvania
Josh - Conneticut
Isaiah L. - Virginia
Jalen - Wyoming
Elly – New Jersey
Lauren - Vermont
Madison – New Hampshire
Colin - Nebraska
Olivia - Nevada
Nic – North Dakota
Lindsaye - Oregon
Courtney - Delaware
Brena - Utah
Brie – Montana
Austin – South Carolina
Grace - Washington
Brynna - Texas
Isaiah Z. - Michigan

A Couple of Notes

- Don't forget to bring in two pieces of 12x12 fabric for our pillows. We are going to start designing them next Tuesday, May 22.
- Registration packets also went home on Thursday. Be sure to return those before the end of the year.
- Finally, the 50 States sheets I sent home tonight are not homework. They are simply practice if the kids need them. We'll take the test on all 50 states next week. There are only a few Western states we haven't covered yet. If you would like more copies of the 50 states worksheet you can get them here: US States and Answer Key

Have a Great Weekend!

The Students' States

The students drew their states today for the pillow that they are making. We will work on finishing the states next week and make the pillows. If you would like to help sew pillows (May 24-25) please let me know as soon as you can. Thanks!

Jaiden – Louisiana
Avery – Indiana
Donavin - Alaska
Ryan - Arizona
Luke - Maryland
Mason – Rhode Island
Marissa - Pennsylvania
Josh - Arkansas
Isaiah L. - Virginia
Jalen - Wyoming
Elly - Kansas
Lauren - Vermont
Madison – New Hampshire
Colin - Nebraska
Olivia - Nevada
Nic – North Dakota
Lindsaye - Missouri
Courtney - Maine
Brena - Utah
Brie – Massachusetts
Austin - Kentucky
Grace - Washington
Brynna - Minnesota
Isaiah Z. - Michigan

I also put the states game on this post again. It just moves it to the top of the blog again. We'll test on all 50 states late next week.