Select Page

Update 9/22/19

Hi Families!

Quick notes to know:

 

  • 9/23/19 It’s the Equinox – Happy Fall!
  • 9/25/19 Farm to Table- we will eat at 10:55 a.m. Snack will be in the afternoon on this day.
  • 9/27/19 Fire Drill 10:00
  • 10/6/19 Fall Fest
  • 10/10/19 Early Release 1:00
  • 10/11/19 No School Teacher In-Service
  • 10/13/19 PSO Golf Outing.  Open to all, a great fundraiser! 
  • 10/21- 11/11 Mondays 3:45-­4:45 pm Crazy 8’s Math Club 3rd- 5th grades
  • 11/7 -11/21 Thursdays 3:45-­4:45 p.m., Pokemon Fall Club

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  • I wanted to take a moment to turn the spotlight to Helen Trage, room 18’s Instructional Assistant. Mrs. Trage started at P.C.C.S. in August of 2016 and since then, she has continued her support to children and helping them grow. Mrs. Trage also has an 8th grade son at P.C.C.S. and a High School daughter. In her free time, Mr. Trage likes to travel. A fun fact about Mrs. Trage is she is multilingual and can speak Greek.  Mrs. Trage is an incredible asset to our room 18 students. She is always there to help a student in need. Mrs. Trage is also a great reader! The students have really been enjoying all the books she brings to school to read aloud. We are so grateful to have her many talents in this class!  
  • Thank you so much for a wonderful attendance and spirit week! Our school reached 97% attendance for the week! Our classroom was one of three rooms to reach 100% attendance for the week. Thank you so much! 
  • A huge thanks to our volunteers for joining us Friday, on a hot and steamy field trip to Royal Oaks Apple Farm. The students truly enjoyed themselves and we learned a lot about farming and economics. 

 

NEXT WEEK:

 

Reading and Writing,  

This week we will continue our normal spelling groups. Please follow the weekly spelling homework routine.

This week, we learned how to infer, and “read between the lines” to understand the story on a deeper level. We were able to understand that the main character, Wanda, in “The 100 Dresses” is extremely poor from some of the clues within the text. This week, we also practiced the comprehension strategy to go back and reread when we didn’t understand a part of the story or found our minds wandering instead of focused on the text. We practiced this in class, and will continue to do so this week. We will continue reading “The 100 Dresses” and plan to finish the story this week. We will focus on a new strategy- retelling. This strategy reinforces what we know from the text and helps summarize a story or passage, focusing on the important events. 

This week, we will have a listening center story, called “Charlie the Caterpillar” by Dom DeLuise.  After listening to the read aloud, students will summarize the important information of the story. They will also connect this story to another text we have previously read in class.  Students will also partner read a Patricia Polaco story and complete a summary of the story. Partners will also focus on the narrative features of the book.

Next week, we will focus on Visualization as a comprehension strategy. We will also discover the theme, or author’s message in the stories we have read in class. Students will also continue to practice questioning owl, Inferring iguana, making connections “spinner spider” from a text to self, to another text and to the world, “fix up bear” as we learn even the best readers sometimes will need to stop and reread text to improve comprehension. 

Next week we will be starting an introduction to myths. Third graders will focus on King Midas, while 4th graders will build background knowledge of Greek mythology. This is the start of our next unit which will span several weeks, leading into new chapter books.  

In writing, we are starting to brainstorm small moments we can write about as a personal narrative. This project will span the next few weeks as students are walked through the phases of writing. We will be brainstorming, choosing a topic, learning how to write with detail, and starting our rough drafts. Next we will edit the rough drafts on our own and with a peer. We will work towards a final draft over the next few weeks.

 

3rd grade Math,  

We are completing unit 1 on Monday, 9/23 with our unit 1 assessment. Tuesday, we will start unit 2. Unit 2 is an introduction to multiplication. Students will learn many ways to visualize/conceptualize multiplication. Students will learn about arrays, skip counting and repeated addition. We will visit a pet shop and figure out amounts of items that are on display in the store.  We will also create word problems to represent multiplication. Students will also learn about a coral reef scene and multiply by using repeated addition. Students will count up stamp values to discover their total values. Later, we will visit a town and use multiplication to help Wally the window washer. This week and next, we will work our way through module 1 and part of module 2 of this unit. 

We are also working on the September Number Corner. Students are now the calendar collectors and are taking turns writing down the observations for the daily calendar. We have also surveyed each other focusing on a question we would like to know. This week, we will use our survey data to make a bar graph and analyze out results. To finish up the September number corner, we will also play spud and complete a loops and groups game. Next week we will start October Number Corner which focuses on geometric shapes and angles.

 

4th grade math,  

Please see Mrs. Ottaviani’s website for 4th grade math information and updates.

 

Science/Social Studies,  

We are in our social studies unit on economics. This week, we will continue developing our business plan. The students have decided to create a cider stand as a business. We will purchase our cider from a local producer (Royal Oaks) to ensure we are being as sustainable as possible by reducing our food miles. We are working through all the aspects of a business, including creating a budget and taking a loan. This week when we finalize our budget, we will select two representatives to speak with Mr. Deigan to secure a business loan for our classroom. Next week, we will be learning about advertising techniques. Then, we will apply what we have learned to develop our own advertising for the apple cider stand. We will be hosting the apple cider stand when guests visit our campus on 10/17 & 10/18. Next week, we will also have a special guest speaker, the Miller family. They will talk to the 3rd and 4th grades about the economics of farming. 

We will continue phenology and solo spots, alternating each week. Please make sure your student is prepared to be outside on a regular basis. 

 

I hope you have a wonderful week!