Halloween Week :)

We have been working hard this week to polish up our math and language skills and we are all pushing ourselves to become better writers.  We have been writing opinion pieces, as well as finishing up personal narratives, and creating fairy tales. This week we will be learning about the important parts of a friendly letter and then writing some of our very own.  You will be getting a little surprise from your student during parent/teacher conferences!

Speaking of parent/teacher conferences, there still is time to sign up for a convenient time to meet.  I have appointments available on both Wednesday, Nov. 6 and Thursday, Nov. 7.  You can either go to Altara's home page or you can scroll down below to our last post to click on the scheduler.  If you have problems, you can contact Susan Taylor in our main office for help.

This week in Reading Street we will be reading the selection, Tops and Bottoms.  Our story addresses our question for the week- How can we make sure our solutions are fair? Bear is an animal with a lot of land, a lot of money, and absolutely no get-up-and-go. Hare is a clever rabbit who didn’t always make the best decisions in the past. He now has a big family, no land, and no food. Bear and Hare enter into a “business deal,” and both learn that good things come through hard work.

This week we will be reviewing Author's Purpose.  The author’s purpose is the reason an author writes something. Reasons include to persuade, to inform, to entertain, or to express ideas and feelings (opinion).

Another important convention we will be learning this week is all about singular possessive nouns.  These words show that one person owns something. We add an apostrophe and the letter s (’s) to a singular noun to make it a singular possessive noun. For example: baby's bottle, nurse's bag.

We will be reviewing subtraction with regrouping this week while we get ready for testing on Wednesday, 10/30.

And of course last but not least we will be celebrating Halloween this Thursday, Oct. 31 with a parade, beginning at 9:00 and a party to follow.  Come join us for some Spooktacular fun!  Just a reminder there will be early dismissal that day at 1:15 p.m. and no school on 11/1.

Have a GREAT week!

A Much Needed Fall Break!

Whew!  That was a much needed fall break!  I hope that you all had either a restful, or an adventurous weekend with beautiful colors and incredible weather.  Now it's back to work for all of us =)

This week in school we are continuing on with subtraction models, algorithms, and problem solving.  We are practicing our subtraction math facts fluency and getting quicker and more efficient every day.  We LOVE MATH!

Students will be learning about American patriotic symbols and completing projects that describe each symbol in social studies.

In Language Arts this week we will be reading the selection, "Prudy's Problems."  Prudy has a collection. Her problem is that it is a collection of everything anyone could possibly collect. It
is taking over her house. It is taking over her life. Prudy is forced to come up with a solution. She decides to build an enormous museum for all her collections. The project is wildly successful, and she happily continues to collect and display her treasures.  If we look closely at our own situations we too can find great solutions to our problems.  What a wonderful lesson to learn even in the third grade!  This week we will be focusing on drawing conclusions as a comprehension strategy.  A conclusion is a decision or opinion that makes sense based on facts and details.  When you use information you read or already know to make decisions about a text,  you are drawing conclusions.  Not the easiest thing to do but we are learning "how to" strategies and getting smarter! We are also learning about irregular plural nouns.  An irregular plural noun is not spelled by adding -s or -es to the singular. For example, the plural of man is not mans but men. Irregular plural nouns must be learned because they do not follow the regular rules. Some examples are: mouse, geese, and children.
We are spending our time writing fairy tales this week- so exciting!  We get to use our wild imaginations to create, create, create!  So yes, we are busy and amazing all rolled into one!

High fives to all who have been prepared and ready to present Current Events to our class.  Students are well informed and do a wonderful job of presenting the news! We have learned about the government shut down, active volcanoes and even lost hunters.  Keep up the good work all you budding news girls and boys!

It's that time again that we are looking forward to Parent Teacher Conferences. 

Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up on Nov. 6-7. The Online Scheduler is available on Altara's home page or sign up below.

1. Click the following icon:

2. Scroll down to "Altara Elementary" and click "go."

3. Type in the school password (altara) and click "login."

4. Type in your student's ID number.
(hint: The student ID is the username for Envision Math found on the sticker inside of your child's homework folder.)
5. Select an available time slot that works best for you.

If you have any problems or would like support setting up your schedule, feel free to visit the office or call Susan Taylor, our school secretary, for assistance. 

Hope to see you there!

As promised I'll end this post with pics from our fieldtrip.  It was a beautiful day and we loved the Wetlands.  Thanks to our wonderful and amazing volunteers who came along to join in the fun Have a great week!

                                                                Aren't we AWESOME!

 

 

Third Graders Love The Wetlands!

This week in Reading Street we will be reading the humorous selection, I Wanna Iguanna.  When Alex’s neighbor Mikey moves away, he offers to give Alex his baby iguana. Alex wants the new pet badly. His mother isn’t as enthusiastic.  In a series of letters, Alex works to convince his  mother to let him have the new pet. But Mom has an answer for every good reason he gives and every letter he writes. Finally Mom suggests that Alex take the iguana on a “trial basis.” If Alex takes good care of the pet for a week or two, he will be allowed to keep it. When Alex agrees to Mom’s proposition, Mom sends him to his room. There Alex finds the iguana waiting for him. Could it be that this is what Mom had in mind all along?  This will be our first look at a persuasive argument.

Our comprehension focus will be comparing and contrasting different items starting with the similarities between a dog and a cat. Ask your student to draw a Venn diagram or discuss other similarities and differences between other subjects.  You will love hearing their thoughts and arguments!

We are also learning about plural and singular nouns.  Words that name one person, place, or thing are called singular nouns. Words that name more than one are called plural nouns. Many plural
nouns end in -s. Add -es to singular nouns that end in ch, sh, x, s, or ss to make them plural. Some singular nouns end in y. To form the plural of these nouns, change the y to i and add -es.

Our spelling pattern this week is words ending in _le.  Our words are:  handle, trouble, simple, people, middle, table, little, gentle, poodle, pickle, noodle, saddle, juggle, uncle, and riddle.

3rd Graders Love The Wetlands

What:  3^rd Graders at Altara will be taking a walking fieldtrip to our neighborhood Wetlands.

We will be walking to the Wetlands, discovering habitats, and then stopping at Storm Mountain Park for lunch on our walk back to Altara.  We welcome volunteers! Please plan on other arrangements for your toddlers.  Don’t forget to dress appropriately, bring a water bottle, good walking shoes, and wear sunscreen.

When:  Friday, October 11, 2013         9:00 a.m.- 1:00 p.m.

We will be walking to the Wetlands, discovering habitats, and then stopping at Storm Mountain Park for lunch on our walk back to Altara.  We welcome volunteers! Please plan on other arrangements for your toddlers.  Don’t forget to dress appropriately, bring a water bottle, good walking shoes, and wear sunscreen.

We are planning on the Wetlands this Friday for our fall fieldtrip.  Let's hope that it's not too wet at the Wetlands. Please return all permission slips by 10/9/13 to me.  Sorry, but students without a permission slip will not be allowed to go on our trip.  Thanks to all who have volunteered to attend!  We will be leaving at 9:00 a.m.  Please be at the school by 8:50 to meet your group and receive instructions.  Thanks again for your help!

A Close Look At Current Events

October is a current events month! We will be practicing together how to find articles from the links on the class blog and how to write good questions for current event sheets.  Current Events calendar will be coming home in homework folders Tuesday October 8. Students have been assigned dates to bring in and present their current events.   During their own presentation, students should be prepared with the following information:

• Tell the current event in your own words.
• Complete a current event sheet according to the instructions in your homework folder.
• Attach the article you chose.

Please carefully read the instructions and the grading rubric found in your homework folder in order to receive full credit. Look under our Current Event tab on our home page for links to find news that is interesting, exciting, and informative in a kid friendly way.  Just a reminder...If your students is using another source besides the sites on our blog (ex: DOGO, TFK, or Scholastic News) please check to make sure that articles are appropriate for young students.  Please no violent or graphic crimes and news. :) We still have many little tender hearts inside our classroom.

High fives to all our budding new reporters!

example current event sheet