News From Mrs. Scott

December 17, 2007

It has been a while since I have posted a newsletter. We have had a very busy year in 3rd grade. A few weeks ago we had the fantastic experience of going to the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker performance. We have spent some time writing about this experience and I can tell that it meant a lot to the students and they have a vivid memory of the performance. Thank you Meredith Hill PTA for financially supporting this trip!

In math so far this year we have covered addition and subtraction, place value as well as multiplication. We then moved into working on division. This week we will be doing some end of unit assessments as well as writing story problems and having students solve the problems the kids in our class wrote. Keep working on learning those addition, subtraction and multiplication facts at home! Students will move into memorizing multiplication facts when they pass all of their addition and subtraction. When we return from vacation we will begin a measurement unit in both science and math.

The students have gotten very good at writing basic paragraphs and we are moving into improving word choice and varying sentence structures in our writing. We are also working on being more specific and giving plenty of details in our paragraphs. When we return from vacation we will begin working on writing a short story as well as working on some persuasive writing.

We have had some fun doing some holiday art projects. There are some trees made completely out of circle parts down by the cafeteria and we have hung reindeer in the classroom. This week we will be doing several holiday themed reading, writing and math activities.

We will be having a celebration the Wednesday before vacation. This will involve doing some crafts and enjoying some treats and gifts. A few parents have committed to sending in some treats but we could still use some plates, napkins and cups. Let me know if you can provide any of those things. I will bring in whatever is still needed. The craft portion of the party will be from 1:00-1:50 and the treat part will be from 2:30-3:00. We will be having a holiday assembly at 3:00 on that day as well. We welcome parents at this event!

There will be no spelling homework this week but keep up with the math practice and filling up Read and Lead sheets as well as working on Reading Counts books. Vacation can be a great time to get in lots of reading and math fact practice as well!

Many students may need to be restocked on school supplies at this time of year. Most of them seem to be getting low on pencils. Check with your child over break to see what they need so you can send them back after break ready to go.

Have a great holiday season and enjoy the vacation!