Nine More School Days!

Good evening, parents!  Can you believe there are only nine more school days left this year?  I have already told the kids that I am making them do third grade over again next year so I don't have to say good-bye to them.

I am sure your child has already told you, but I will remain teaching in third grade next year.  Miss Scheurs, Miss Shapleigh, and Mrs. Dane will be teaching the three sections of fourth grade.  I will also be switching classrooms and will be putting the kids to work moving me into my new room at the end of next week! 

Quick Curriculum Update: 

Reading:  We have completed our Houghton Mifflin reading program for the year.  Students have been reading chapter books and taking on different roles in group discussions.  Ask your child about what job he/she is doing this week! 
In addition to reading groups, we have been trucking along on our research project.  The students have completed their notetaking and are putting their PowerPoint presentations together.  Later this week and next, they will be adding the "bells and whistles" to their slides:  different fonts, colors, backgrounds, pictures, etc.  Students have also begun taking their notes and turning them into a five-paragraph essay about their animal. 

Science:  Students have completed all of the investigations in the Lifting Heavy Things science unit.  Their culminating activity is to work with group members to build a construction site using only simply machines.  They will begin working on this tomorrow. 

Math:  Last week we focused on reviewing addition and subtraction algorithms and measurement.  Using coordinate grids was also introduced.  We are continuing our work with coordinate grids this week and will be working with data to find mean, median, and mode.

*Miss Shapleigh is working on putting a slideshow together with all of our pictures from Kent Park.  Once it is compiled, I can send it to you if you'd like. 

*Brace yourselves....here are a ton of pictures and captions for you!  Remember to click on the picture to enlarge it! 

Miss Head's last day celebration!

We LOVE pizza!

We don't have any fun at school...

Mrs. Johnsen taught PE for three days last week while Mr. Duthie attended the track meet.

Mrs. Johnsen's "After-PE-Relaxation-Exercise" (we weren't sleeping....promise!)

Working hard on those PowerPoints!

Rigging up a three-pully system

Quinn's wonderful piano performance at today's talent show!

Peyton and Ali show off their awesome dance moves!

Amna shares some sweet beats with her cup!

MISS HEAD GRADUATES!!!!! 

Have a great week!
Mrs. Johnsen
johnsen.jill@iccsd.k12.ia.us

Hello Parents! This is Miss Head. I am on my second week of head teaching and I love it even more than I did last week!  Happy May Day! Yesterday, I surprised the students with May Day Baskets on their desks and they got to enjoy them as they worked during small group rotations.

Here is a quick curriculum update: 

Reading: This week, we are focusing on what helps us make decisions about a character. We have read a variety of stories with different topics and different genres. Our main selection was a realistic fiction story about a service dog. We also read a short news article called “Acting Across Generations.” The students also enjoyed a fun, entertaining poem entitled “Company’s Coming.” We have used these stories to talk about drawing conclusions, making generalizations, and asking questions. We are focusing on reading at an appropriate rate: slow, normal, or fast.

Spelling: This week’s pattern for spelling is words beginning with a as in about or be as in below.

Grammar: This week’s objective is to use correct pronouns in a sentence.

Math:  Students took their unit 9 test on Wednesday over multiplication and division. Thursday and Friday, we will be reviewing concepts taught throughout the year. Next week, students will be taking the district mandated end-of-year assessment.

Science: We are continuing our unit on “Lifting Heavy Things.” I would like to thank parents and siblings for helping with these assignments. Students are learning a lot about simple machines by exploring at home. On Monday, we reviewed how the position of the fulcrum determines how much force is needed to lift a heavy object with a lever. For the remainder of this week, we will be investigating the different forces needed to lift heavy loads up inclined planes.

In other news:

Tuesday, students learned ALL about fire safety. They even got to test their knowledge in a fire safety trailer where they were presented with realistic situations. In the trailer, they learned about fire hazards, heard a fire alarm, called 911 and climbed out of a window. Students really enjoyed getting to be outside on such a nice day!

Next week is our field trip! On May 8^th, we will be going to Kent Park. More information was noted on the green permissions slip the students took home on Monday.  Look for a reminder note to come home again on Friday!

Have a great rest of the week!

Miss Head