Welcome back to school!

Open House:  Sept. 1  5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

First day of school:  Tuesday, Sept. 8

Picture day:  Tuesday, Sept. 15

Delayed start:  Monday, Sept. 21  (school will start at 10:00)

Marvelous May!

Reading:  We will be finishing our unit out how to be a good citizen next week.  We will read and discuss how we can protect our Earth and why rules are important.   Our final unit of the year will focus on what keeps our world working.    Some of the topics will be how we use energy, how we use money and why teamwork is important.  The children will be reviewing some of the phonics and grammar skills from previous units in unit 6 as well.

Math:  We will finish up unit 8 next week, with a test possibly on Tuesday (May 12) The children have been learning a lot about the attributes of shapes.  They’ve also enjoyed building many shapes!  This week the children will learn about arrays and dividing rectangles.  Our last unit will focus on fractions.  We should be able to complete it by the first week of June.

Science and Social Studies:  We will do a few short activities this week on matter and then move to the topic of the water cycle.  We’ve had a lot of fun doing experiments involving solids, liquids and gases.  Ask your child about how we mixed a solid and a liquid to produce a gas!  We also discovered how air inside a balloon was displaced when weight was put on top of it.  The kids were amazed that the balloon didn’t break!      

Dates to Remember:

·      3^rd Grade Used Book Store  - May 6

·      Browse the Scholastic book fair – May 15

·      Purchase books from the Scholastic book fair – May 19

·      Fun to Be Fit Day – May 22

·      Sophomore Carnival – June 5; 6:00 – 8:00pm

·      Track and Field Day – June 8 (note change in date from last newsletter)

·      Last day of school – June 11 @ 12:00

Spring is Here!

Dates to Remember:

Kindergarten Round-Up – If you have a child who will be 5 by Sept. 1, 2015, call the elementary office 231-825-2021 to register your child for kindergarten

Fun to Be Fit Day – May 22

Track and Field Day – June 4

Sophomore Carnival – June 5 from 6:00 – 8:00pm

Change in last school day - The school board chose to change Tuesday, June 9 and Wednesday, June 10 to full school days and Thursday, June 11 will be a half-day (dismiss at 12:00)

Book Fair:

The PTO is looking for volunteers to help with the upcoming Book Fair. 

We are seeking volunteers to help students browse and purchase books on

May 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, & 21 from 11:30-3:00 pm.  The Book Fair will be set-up in the Library and students will come down with their entire class - - so the more volunteers we have to help, the smoother it will go.  If you’d be willing to help out for an afternoon (or partial afternoon) please let us know.

We are also extending our hours on Thursday, May 14^th & Thursday, May 21^st from 3:00-6:00pm so that families & community members can browse and shop.  The book fair will also be open Friday, May 22^nd  from 1:00-3:00pmfor families to browse after the Fun to Be Fit event.  We are looking for volunteers to run the fair during these extended hours as well.

If you’d be willing to help out with the Book Fair, please contact Sherry Brinks at sherrybrinks@gmail.com (231-825-2021 or 231-884-9566)

March is Reading Month!

Our reading month theme this year is sports!  Our class is learning about basketball and have already decorated our part of the hallway with "Team Taylor".

We are reading in the "have a ball" reading room each Thursday morning this month.  We might also sneak in some extra reading time there if it is unoccupied.

There are special dress-up days:
Friday, March 13 - I am an athlete! day - dress us like an athlete (think of your favorite sport and what that player would wear)  The children may also bring a flashlight to use while reading.

Friday, March 20 - sport socks day - wear socks from a particular sport.  Then during reading time, we'll take off our shoes and read.

Friday, March 27 - wear comfortable clothes (or pjs) to school.  Remember it must be appropriate (it probably won't be warm enough for summer pjs yet)

Thursday, April 2 - report cards go home

Friday, April 3 - Sunday, April 12 - Spring Break!

February News!

Reading:  We continue our reading of non-fiction stories.  This week the topic is various kinds of weather and next week, we’ll read about sound, specifically music.  Our comprehension skill is finding the main idea and key details.  One of the strategies we’ll use is ask and answer questions.  When we use this strategy, we ask questions about text we don’t understand and then re-read to answer those questions. 

The phonics skills for the next few weeks are the long e and long u spellings, antonyms, and using the verbs has and have.

Math:  We are starting a new unit this week.  The children will be learning about graphs, making estimates, and various addition and subtraction strategies.  The children will be learning some new games for practicing these skills as well.

Welcome Sullivan:  Last week Tuesday, Sullivan joined our class.  His family came all the way from Arizona!  The boys and girls are very excited to have him in our class and have been very helpful to him as well.  We now have 12 boys and 10 girls in our class.

Jump Rope for Heart:  Next Tuesday, Feb. 10, our school will be participating in Jump Rope for Heart.  The first and second graders will be jumping from 9:00-10:20 am in the high school gym.  Your child needs to wear comfortable clothing and have gym shoes on.  Your child may bring a water bottle along – the kids get very thirsty from all of the jumping!  Thank you to all of the children/families that have helped raise money for the American Heart Association!

Valentine Party:  We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Thursday, Feb. 12.  We will be making card holders this week to hold the valentines that the children pass out to each other.  I’d like each child to bring in a cup of a snack item and we will again make a trail mix for our party.  Some snack ideas are cereal, goldfish, peanuts, raisins, etc.  A list of the children follows:

 

                        Girls                                                                Boys

                        Alaysia            Nelly                                       Henry               Calvin

                        Chelsi             Jennifer                                 Hunter               Casey

                        Gabriele        Lydia S.                                   Aidan                 Lucas

                        Lydia K.           Shauna                                  Christopher      Eli

                        Estefany         Karly                                       Evan                   Sullivan

            Miss Kylie (our high school helper)                      Peyton                David

                                                                                                                                                                       

Field Trip to Kettenun Center: On Friday, Feb. 20, the second graders will be going to the Kettenun Center for a day of outdoor fun.  The children will be snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, sledding and learning about outdoor winter survival.  The cost is $5.00 per child and needs to be turned in by Feb. 18.  Each child also needs to bring a sack lunch and drink.  Since we will be spending most of the day outside, please make sure that your child has all of his/her winter attire on that day.

Book Order:  A book order will be going home this week.  If you are interested to buying any of the books, please return the order form and money by Feb. 12.  If you choose to order on-line, go to scholasticbooks.com.  Our classroom code is HM36L.  The order usually return to our classroom within two weeks.

 Dates to Remember:

Feb. 10 – Jump Rope for Heart (9:00 – 10:20 am)

Feb.  11 – 100^th day of school 

Feb. 12 – Valentine party (in afternoon)

                  Book order due

                parent-teacher conferences for some students 4:00-7:00 pm)

Feb. 13 – no school, professional development day

Feb. 16 – no school, President’s day

Feb. 20 – field trip to Kettunen Center