Weekly Update

Dear Families,

We have had another productive week in 3rd and 4th grade. We had the opportunity to continue our character studies unit and we are almost done with our classroom read-aloud Frindle written by Andrew Clements. After completion, we will, as a class, write a 4 paragraph essay together concentrating on the main character Nick. The students had the opportunity to view the scoring rubric for our Response to Literature unit this week. They learned that while many elements are the same as in a regular paragraph piece, some elements are different. For example, in Response to Literature, the students are expected to include the author’s name and book title in the introduction along with a hook and connection. The students also learned that they are expected to cite and make direct references to the texts throughout their writing pieces. These expectations are similar to thesis papers written in college!! The students are doing a great job integrating these new elements into their writing.

We had our first weekly constructed writing prompt this week. The students wrote on an assigned topic for 15 minutes. The topic this week was “I look forward to vacation next week.” The students and I will look at these writing pieces together and hope to share them with you at our next conference times. In an effort to encourage learning all the time, I have posted many different paragraph writing prompt on my classroom wiki, under the heading “Writing Prompts” in the Link Library. (Click here to view these prompts). These prompts provide the students with opportunities to practice constructed responses on single topics. We might use some of them in class. I have also posted semantic maps for help the students organize their thoughts before starting the actual writing. We use those maps in the classroom.

3rd grade mathematicians completed a multiplication array project a little while back and have shared their creations in class. The photographs of these projects are listed on the classroom digital portfolio under math (Click here to view these pictures). Please visit to see their incredible work and creations. 3rd graders have also participated in an interactive Smartboard assessment this week and have begun to learn to create their own! They worked in small groups and created 10 questions within pre-determined strands of mathematics. They take turns creating graphic designs, click and reveal, and patterns on the Smartboard. These assessments will be given to the rest of the students in class when everybody has had a chance to complete theirs.

The students will come home with a Vacation Journal over the break. This project is completely voluntary but if your child wishes to write about the fun and exciting things he/she will do over vacation, I would greatly appreciate it. It is always nice to share when we come back and get to know each other a little better. If you choose to complete this project, please know that you can be creative…add pictures, postcards (if you travel), stamps, admission slips, itineraries, etc. I also encourage the use of computers for this project. If your child has access to Word, Publisher, or any other writing/drawing program, perhaps you want to explore some technology as well. You can always send the file electronically to me.

Lastly, NECAP results have arrived and parent letters will be sent home in the next few days. Please be advised that this is only one, out of many, assessments that teachers use. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

News & Reminders:
• Monday, 3/1/10 is a teacher in-service day. No school for the students.
• Flynn Theater trip is scheduled for Wednesday 3/3/10. Thank you all for the prompt return of our permission slips and payments.
• If you have not yet returned the UVM Peer-Relationship study permission slips, please do so. If you need another copy, please let me know.
• We finished our first Voicethread with our Kindergarten buddies this week. It was a response to a Red Clover book entitled How to heal a broken wing, written by Bob Graham. It will be posted shortly on the classroom digital portfolio under Red Clover.
• Please ask you child about our grade level movie day! They did an amazing job and we hope to fill up another HCS poster with stars soon again!
• There is no classroom reading log this week. Please use the one provided by the HCS Reading Celebration, if you participate. If you really want one, please print on off the wiki!!!!
• There will be no vocabulary over the break either.
• Don’t forget to have fun, relax and spend TIME with your families and friends next week.
• Remember, technology can always be used. The new “www” is Whatever, Whenever, Wherever.”

Have a great weekend and winter break!
Regards,

Maria McCormack