Miss Peacock's Owl Express

CRCT Practice Tests

Please have your kids continue practicing for the CRCT online at https://www.georgiaoas.org/servlet/a2l The password and login are both grade3.

  Login :Grade3

 Password:  Grade3

Zoo Update

March 25, 2009

Zoo Update Information

Here is the latest in regards to the weather.  Please take the time to go through all of the information you have received over the past few weeks.  All questions or concerns you have need to be written and given to me as soon as possible, so I can have time to respond.

Download Last minute zoo info

Here is the latest in regards to the weather.  Please take the time to go through all of the information you have received over the past few weeks.  All questions or concerns you have need to be written and given to me as soon as possible, so I can have time to respond.

Download Last minute zoo info

Zoo Update Information

Here is the latest in regards to the weather.  Please take the time to go through all of the information you have received over the past few weeks.  All questions or concerns you have need to be written and given to me as soon as possible, so I can have time to respond.

Download Last minute zoo info

February 19, 2009

Dear Parents,

We are very busy working and getting ready for the CRCT, which is coming in April.  We would appreciate your child practicing at home to prepare them in the different subject areas as we are preparing in class as well. There are different subject area tests on-line via the Big Shanty Web Site. Should you have any problems logging on, please contact us and we will help!

We are working on Measurement, Area & Perimeter in Math class. Ask your child about our Cheez-It area and perimeter lesson. If possible, continue to work on measuring to the half inch and the quarter inch at home, as it is a difficult concept to master.

We are working in Language Arts on Inferencing, Adjectives, and Idioms. In Writing, we are developing our persuasive paragraphs using graphic organizers to organize our thoughts as a pre-write.

In Social Studies, we just finished learning about Paul Revere, and will be learning about how Frederick  Douglass expanded peoples rights.

Please pay close attention to notes coming home in Thursday Folders. Please be sure your child is reading 25 minutes every night in preparation for the CRCT.  We appreciate your support as we are getting excited over the CRCT. We DO NOT want to stress the students out, but we do need to be sure they understand the importance of this test.

Mrs. Oakley and Mrs. Weaver

February News

Thank you to all of our parents who came to winter conferences last week! We were able to meet with everyone and we know that anytime parents and teachers work together it helps all of our students to experience success at school.

 This week will be a busy week with our class starting a new social studies unit where we will learn about Paul Revere and how our government was formed. We will be finishing our study of Mary McLeod Bethune and taking a quiz about her life, including how her diligence in education helped shape America. Our math class will be finishing up work on decimels and starting measurement - a home project called "Measuring Penny" will be sent home Monday with the students who have Mrs. Weaver and Miss Peacock for math. A new spelling list will be stapled into this week's agenda on Monday. We will be working on unit 18 in Sitton Spelling and also learning more about pronouns.

Our class will be welcoming Mrs. Kim Oakleigh next week as a supply teacher. She will be filling in for Miss Peacock who will be out on a medical leave due to a knee injury. Mrs. Weaver will continue to be in the classroom full time as usual. Mrs. Oakleigh has been a supply teacher for many classroooms, including last year in Mrs. Sharp's and Mrs. Boeringer's third grade at Big Shanty. She is a certified teacher with experience who we know the students will enjoy getting to know.

This Week's Specials (12:20 to 1:05 Daily)

Monday , Tuesday - P.E. (wear gym shoes and dress warmly)

Wednesday -Early Dismissal (special program in place of specials)

Thursday, Friday -P.E. (wear gym shoes and dress warmly)

Upcoming Events

February 3 (Tuesday) PTA and CRCT information Night at Big Shanty

February 4 (Wednesday) Early Dismissal Day -students are dismisssed at 12:10, please send in a signed  note with any transportation changes

February 6 Writing Fair entries are due at Big Shanty

End of January News

What a fast month this has been at Big Shanty! We are looking forward to seeing all of our students' parents this week during conference week. Please send a note or leave a voice mail if your plans change and you are unable to attend your conference. Report card for students whose parents were unable to attend conferences will be sent home in their child's binder on Monday, February 2.

We are moving on this week in math. reading, and in the content areas. Due to early dismissal each day at 12:10 this week, we will not have a new spelling list until next Monday (2/3/09).Please note that our lunch time changes during conference week. We will be eating lunch from 10:18 to 10:48.

Specials This Week (10:50 to 11:20 each day)

Monday through Wednesday - P.E. (wear gym shoes and a winter coat)

Thursday -Art

Friday -Music

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, February 4 -Early Dismissal (teacher in-services in p.m.)

Mid January News

Class Happenings

This short, historic week will be busy as we watch a new President take his oath of office and continue to work hard on our third grade skils. We will try again on Wednesday to check out new fiction chapter books. Our Athena system having glitches last week along with an important media lesson on research skills that took us a longer time to complete than expected, has contributed to many of our classmates having a difficult time getting new books. Please make sure that your child is reading at least 25 minutes nightly and is completing his or her reading log (even if done on paper!).

We are learning about how the structures in ancient Greece influenced many of our modern day buildings in the USA. We also are discussing simailarities in our government and the ideals set forth back in ancient Greece as far as choosing our leaders and a democratic form of government.

Please help us to help your child stay healthy and comfortable outside while at school by making sure that your child is dressed appropriately for the frigid weather that we have had lately! Some of our classmates are making unwise choices by not wearing a winter coat or socks -sometimes even an eight or nine year old needs a quick clothing check before leaving the house! You can jot me a confidential note if your child does not have a warm coat and we will see what we can do to locate one or at least find a community resource that could help. There has been a fairly large increase in the number of our classmates coming to school ill the past 2 weeks. Please do not send your child to school if they are sick to their stomach (at least 24 hours have passed since a vomiting episode) or are experiencing symptoms of respiratory illness (a lot of coughing, headache, drainage). Although parents are often both working and finding childcare during the day may be an issue, sick students who come to school infect their peers and teachers causing a difficult to stop cycle of illnesses.Those students in our room with chronic health concerns (such as asthma) are really at risk for serious illness when exposed to viruses and germs. Thank you for your help and understanding with this request.

This Week's Specials (12:20 to 1:05 daily)

Tuesday -P.E. (dress warm and wear gym shoes -please help us raise money for Jump Rope for Heart)

Wednesday -Art

Thursday -Music

Friday-P.E. 

Mid January News

Class News

We jumped right back into new topics and concepts this week after our long break. Our class has started a new behavior sytem which will hopefully help us to understand key ideas in economics that are part of our third grade standards. Each class member earns $5.oo class dollars a day for coming to "work" otherwise known as school. Dollar bonuses can be earned for great problem solving and participation while penalty dollars are paid back to our class bank for not being conscientiously on the job, such as incomplete homework or breaking class or school rules. We will each produce a product at home to sell at school the first week in April and hold a class market day where our classmates can spend their earned class dollars to buy their classmates prducts. We learn about supply and demand, cost production, persuasive writing in advertising and opportunity cost while running our class banking system. We will also fill out class job applications later this week and apply for a chance to earn extra class dollars doing class jobs, such as reading center specialist and computer assistant.

Fractions in the Peacock-Weaver math class are fun this week as we learn how to compare and rank fractions alongwith adding and subtracting them. We are eaning a fraction pizza bake off in our cafeteria by showing our best problem solving and on task behavior during math this week. Please remember that all of out classmates should continue to study the multiplication and division facts at home nightly.

Reading has kicked into high gear as we are reading two new novels in two of our groups and studying biograhies in another. We are reading a classic, Mr. Popper's Penguins in one group and The Littles in another. Both novels are helping us to understand the elements of fictional writing, including learning what makes up a plot and how character motives influence the plot.

Did you see the beautiful and informative new social studies text books that went home to help with an assignment this week? Please take a few minutes to reread chapter onw with your child. You may be surprised to see how well it integrates Georgia into the text. This week we are learning about urban, rural,and suburban areas and their characteristics. Acworth and Atlnata are used as examples.

This Week's Specials ( 12:20 to 1:05 daily )

Monday -Art

Tuesday - Music

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Tuesday (20th)-P.E. (wear winter coat and gym shoes)

Upcoming Events

Monday, January 19 - No School , MLK,Jr Holiday

January News

Welcome Back to School!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe winter holiday break and are ready to start a super productive second half of third grade at Big Shanty!We will be focusing on improving our reading comprehension skills, and on our ability to read grade level material independently this new nine week's grading period.It will be extremely vital that everyone read at school and at home everyday! Students who read become good readers! The ability to read independently and to focus and retain information from  what you're reading is probably the top indicator of whether you will be successful in all school subjects!We will be checking out grade level and for some students above third grade level reading material to read at school and home -please read nightly with your child and question them about what theyare reading to help give us that extra push at school!We really need to save the below level reading for fluency practice and not use the 1st and 2nd grade books if possible when reading for comprehenson. I will have suggested reading lists available during conferences for each student.

Math is exciting as we move into fractions and decimels this week. We will be administering the third benchmark pretest to help determine individual student needs for compacting instruction this week. Your child's math teacher may change in January based on how she or he tests. We still really need the students to be practicing multiplication and division facts through this unit at home as the last nine week's math unit will be over multiplying larger numbers with multistep problems and long division. That unit will be extemely difficult to master if your child has not memorized the times tables! I will try to pull small groups before school to practice fact drills with them but your child will need to be at Big Shanty by 7:30 and be able to be in the class room to be part of one of these practice groups (you may want to serve breakfast at home if you would like your child to be in a group.)

Content area study will move into civics (government) in social studies and energy in science this nine weeks. We will also start researching and learning how to write a multiple paragraph report on a zoo animal. We will have a presentation of movie maker or powerpoint projects to show parents what we have learned after our research and zoo trip!

Specials This Week (12:20 to 1;05 daily)

Tuesday P.E.

Wednesday P.E.

Thursday P.E.

Friday P.E.

Upcoming Events

Monday, January 19 -No School / MLK,Jr. Holiday

January 26 to January 30 -Early Dismissal Daily / Parent-Teacher Conference Week

Mid December News

December is such an exciting month at school! We are busy working on our super secret holiday project and we are also finishing our presentations of our our read aloud books this week. We will be taking the end of the marking period test over multiplication, division, and some geometry concepts this week. Our class will have an old fashioned spelling bee this week over all our Sitton Spelling words and the long vowel pattern words we have studied so far this year. Our class party is a pizza lunch and game time this Thursday. We really need everyone to help out with the cost as very few students have contributed to the pizza fund. Please send in 18 stocking stuffers and a sweet treat if you can!

This Week's Specials (daily at 12:20 to 1:05 except Friday)

Monday - P.E.

Tuesday -Art

Wednesday -Music / Team B rotates to different classrooms to learn about holiday traditions in other countries around the world

Thursday - P.E.

Friday -Special Sing Along in the a.m. / Polar Express video and language arts and math activities related to the video -students may wear pajamas and robes at school (please wear hard soled shoes)

Cobb County Schools will be closed December 22 through January 5 for Winter Break! See you back on Tuesday, January 6! Have a wonderful and safe Winter Break!

December 8 - 12 Class News

We had a great chilly but productive start of December last week. Our class was able to complete our winter reading assessments and finish up the division unit in math. We also completed our study of landforms. This week we will be working on our last long vowel patterns in spelling which is the sound of u. Thank you for sending in the zoo permission slps and fees. Please remember that we need any fees owed paid before winter break as we need to pay the zoo in the beginning of January. Please read through last week's newsletter to see what our class needs as far as our holiday party and for the Sharing the Season project. The date your child will read aloud to the class is written in his or her agenda.

Specials This Week (12:20 to 1:05 daily)

Monday - Art

Tuesday - Music (no recorders needed until January)

Wednesday through Friday -P.E. (remember to wear coats and gym shoes)

*** Please note*** We have changed our holiday party breakfast to a pizza lunch in the afternoon on December 18 -please send in $3.00 and a sweet dessert to help out if you can!*****