Miss Peacock's Owl Express

December 7 through December 11 News

 
  Class Happenings

Last Friday was a shopping spree for all as we sold the goods each student had produced and brought in at our class market. There were so many creative products from doorstop dragons to beautiful clips for book bags. Our students are quite the entrepreneurs! We certainly learned how supply and demand affects price, and how consumers need to make choices based on their budgets!

This week in reading we will be finishing up the last bits and discussions of our novels, taking final assessments over the books, and learning more about Paul Revere and Frederick Douglass. Our math classes will be finishing up the skills for the second nine weeks of school including learning more about quadrilaterals and triangles. We will start reviewing for the benchmark test in math and in language arts by mid week.

 

Please consider helping out our Room Moms by sending in money towards our holiday party and either small toys or wrapped treats for our class stockings. Students will be bringing home everything, including their stocking on December 17 and will not need to bring their book bag on Friday, December 18.

 

  
  This Week's Specials Schedule

Monday -P.E.

Tuesday-Music

Wednesday-P.E.

Thursday-Art

Friday-Computer Lab

December News

 Our Class Happenings

We are ready to start our last month of school for 2009! I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I am certainly thankful for my family, my coworkers at Big Shanty,and my students!

This week it's back to work as we learn about angles, types of triangles, and parts of a circle in math class. We will be finishing up the last sections of Farmer Boy and Little House in the Big Woods. One group will be starting Fantastic Mr. Fox this week too.I can't wait to see our reading groups present their projects! These are all due on Monday, December 14 including students who attend ALP.

Our products that we made at home for our Market day are due this Friday, December 4. Please remind your child that if he or she would like to spend their classroom dollars, then the products need to be done and ready to "sell" on Friday. We will be writing our persuasive advertisements and making a poster to help advertise our products this week in class. If your child chooses not to participate then an alternate activity will be supplied reviewing our economic vocabulary and concepts in another third grade classroom during the market day sale.

 

Our winter party for our class will be on Thursday, December 17th during our lunch time. We will be ordering pizza and making ice cream sundaes. Due to lack of space, I will ask our room Moms if they would like to come and help out first before asking our other moms or dads for help. We will have our party from 11:00 to 12:00 and we will be playing holiday bingo after our lunch. Each student has a stocking hanging in our classroom and if you would like to send in a small toy or wrapped treat for each stocking, such as party favor type toys or holiday pencils or wrapped candy then I know the boys and girls would appreciate it!

 

 

This Week's Specials (1:15 to 1:55 daily)

Monday -Music

Tuesday-PE

Wednesday-Art

Thursday-PE

Friday-Media Lesson

 

 
 
 

Upcoming Events

Friday, December 4 Products for Class Market Day due and Chick Fil A Fundraiser

Monday. December 14 Reading Projects are due at school /please send in stocking stuffers this week!

Thursday, December 17 Class Holiday Lunch and Bingo

Friday, December 18 Last Day of School before Winter Break

Tuesday, January 5 First Day back after Winter Break

 

 

  

End of November News

 

It's hard to believe but the holiday season is here and soon the first half of third grade will be over! This week is our last week before we are off the following week for the Thanksgiving Holiday break. We will be celebrating pie day this Friday at school by making a pumpkin pie and hopefully tasting different types of pie.We will have pie focused activities all day as we work on creating and interpreting graphs based on pie favorites and reading Piggy Pie during reading time. Our class has finished researching famous inventors and entrepreneurs. We will be inviting other third grades to see our wax museum using to share our research. We will be starting a new science unit on animal habitats and adaptations this week and also finishing up our outlines and writing about Susan B. Anthony. Math is fun as we continue our work with division and create problems with algebraic symbols and multiple operations. We will be writing to convince someone that we must have a certain pet as we read and write about I Wanna Iguana! Our reading groups are in the last sections of their novels. We will be making some homemade pioneer foods and products from long ago as part of our novel studies.

What a great job our third graders did during last week's program! Thank you to all of the students and parents who came and participated!

This Week's Specials (1:15 to 1:55 daily)

Monday -P.E.

Tuesday- Art

Wednesday -P.E.

Thursday -Media lesson

Friday-P.E.

** Remember -Cobb County Schools will be closed next week, November 23 through November 27 for the holiday break

 

Class News -November 9 through November 13

 

 What's Happening This Week?

We are falling right into learning and mastering our standards this week as we continue to practice our multiplication facts, read farther into our novels in guided reading, and finish up our economics unit. We will finish our mini reports on an entrepreneur and put on a wax museum to share our research this week. Our final assessment will be on Wednesday over our social studies standards dealing with economics. We are starting to study new spelling patterns this week with words that contain oy, oi, ow and ou sounds. Math will be interesting as we explore division. Knowing our multiplication facts should really help us with the division facts!

A packet of November and December projects was sent home last week Monday. Please look through your child's binder if you did not see it! I will create a new monthly calendar for specials for December, right now there are too many changes in our schedule due to other programs to make a usable schedule.

 

 

This Week's Specials Schedule

Monday -Art

Tuesday, Wednesday -Music

Thursday-PE

Friday - Music

** schedule subject to change

 

Happenings at Big Shanty

Wednesday, Nov.11 -Third Grade Music performance -students who returned notes should report to homerooms first

Social Studies Test

Friday, November 13 - Biscuit Sale , Spirit Day

 

 

  

November News

 
    Class Happenings This Week

It's hard to believe but we are well into the second nine weeks of third grade. We had a lot of fun last week with our spooky book reports and pumpkin activity. This week we will be back into our guided reading groups as we continue to read our novels and work on questioning and summarizing as comprehension strategies. We are starting our persuasive writing unit and connecting it into our social studies as we choose a product to make and write an advertisement convincing others to buy it. Math is really rolling along as Miss Peacock's group works on multiplying with factors of 9 through 12 this week along with problem solving in our math journals. Please practice the multiplication facts every night! A new word study list and a choice menu for spelling homework will be in the homeworkrk Folder on Monday. We also will be bringing home a study guide for the test over economics in social studies Tuesday this week. The test will be next week Tuesday on November 13 over the material on the study guide and what we have discussed in class.

 

 This Week's Specials Schedule

Monday - Media Lesson (bring back books due)

Tuesday -No School for Students!

Wednesday -P.E.

Thursday -Music (no recorder needed until January!)

Friday-P.E.

Upcoming Events at Big Shanty

Tuesday, Nov. 3 -No School for Students/ In service for Teachers

Thursday, Nov.5 -Math 911 Night for Parents 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
  

End of October News

 
Our Class News

This week is a fun and busy week at Big Shanty and in Miss Peacock's third grade. We will be making masks at school to represent one of the characters in our book report books and learning more about perspective. We will present our book reports on Friday from the perspective of our mask character. We are also starting Jr. Achievement this week. Our partners from Publix will be teaching us more about economics and how a community is designed into zones. We will have a special lesson from our friends at the Wellstar Health System this week who will be presenting a program called Temper Tamers as part of our health lessons. We would like to thank Legacy Orthodontics for visiting us and teaching us about good dental health and giving us new toothbrushes last week. We will also be measuring and writing pumpkin stories, don't forget to bring in a small pumpkin this week!

 

We are working on a math skill that will help our students in every math class in their school careers, and that skill is multiplication! Please help your child memorize the multiplication facts every evening! Using flashcards, typing the facts on a computer, playing math games with multiplication on our Big Shanty computer lab learning link site are all ways in which you can help your child learn the facts. My math class will be testing over the 6 and 8 times tables this week and finishing up next week with the 7 and 9 tables. Some students may need to continue to study the 3s,4s, 5s and retest this week in order to show fluency and mastery of those facts.

 
  Reading groups have been really interesting as we delve into what life was like for a pioneer family and a farming family over a hundred years ago as two of our groups continue to read, write, and discuss Farmer Boy and Little House in the Big Woodsby Laura Ingalls Wilder. Students will have a choice of culminating projects next month to show their understanding of these novels. Our third group is reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8by Beverly Cleary. They are finding out that third grade for Ramona can be very challenging. We are wondering if Ramona will ever get Yard Ape to stop the teasing!

Our class is back in their homeroom for the next few weeks for a unit in social studies on economics then on several famous Americans. We will be learning about the four types of productive resources and entrepreneurship. Each student will produce a product that he or she can write a persuasive ad about and make for the class on Market Day in early December -more news about this will be sent home in this week's Thursday folder.

 
 

This Week's Specials (1:15 to 1:55 daily)

Monday -P.E

Tuesday -Music

Wednesday -P.E.

Thursday -Art

Friday P.E.

 
Happenings at Big Shanty This Week

Friday -Fall Dance in cafeteria (purchase tickets in advance!)

 

 

 

Mid October News

This week is an exciting week as we jump right into the second quarter of school. Report cards will be sent home in your child's binder on Friday. Third grade is a big change for our students and your child's report card is just a glimpse into how they are progressing at school. The scores will fluctuate dependent on your child's level of interest, rate of learning, and whether he or she needs more practice for true mastery of each skill. Our class has worked hard and I think that each student should take a moment to reflect on how they are doing and what type of scores they would like to aim for next nine weeks. Usually I see an increase throughout the year as students adjust to their new school and learn how to meet the expectations of different teachers. We are making the shift from learning primary level skills to applying what we know and building on the ability to use more complex skills and working more independently.

Thursday is our celebration of our social studies unit on government, including the influence of Ancient Athens on our society. We will also be celebrating the end of our science unit on rocks, minerals, and fossils, Our class will combine for centers with Mrs. Gerhardt'a class. We will be building Greek temples with columns and volcanoes out of clay along with making maps of Greece.If you would like to help out, we will be working on these projects from 9:30 to 10:45 and 12:00 to 1:00.

We will be pretesting the second nine week's math standards on Monday and reforming our math compacting groups. New classes will start on Wednesday and a note will be sent home to let you know who will be teaching your child math this nine weeks. Heads Up -start practicing those multiplication and division facts at home nightly as that will help your child succeed in math!

Our October book report is a spooky one! We are reading a scary novel! Please remind your child that the book needs to be read at home and at school and finished by Monday, October 26. We will be writing dialog from one of the character's perspective, sharing a short summary of the book, and creating a mask to represent one of the characters. The only home component is reading this time! The writing and mask will be done at school. I will send home the presentation date and time so that you can attend if you have the time!

This Week's Specials Schedule (1:15 to 1:55 daily)

Monday -Art

Tuesday -P.E.

Wednesday -Media Lesson

Thursday -P.E.

Friday -Music

*** if your child is attending after school reading/math tutoring then this will start this week! Please refer to the note your child brought home if this pertains to your child.

October News

Welcome to October in our classroom. Thank goodness the rains have ended and we are slowly getting back to normal. This is an exciting week at Big Shanty! The Book Fair is here all week and we have Math Night on Tuesday after PTA at 6:30 p.m. This is also the last week of the first quarter of school and the last week to assess this marking period's skills.

 

This Week's Specials (1:15 to 1:55 daily)

Monday -P.E.

Tuesday -Computer Lab

Wednesday-P.E.

Thursday -Music

Friday-P.E.

 

Upcoming Events

Tuesday -PTA and Math Night (homework free pass for attending!)

Tuesday -Picture Day -send money today in picture envelope

Thursday -Math test in Miss Peacock's Math Class

 

***Class Newsletter (click this link to read it!)

Download October 5 Newsletter

 

End Of September News

We finished our standardized testing last Friday and I know that our class is ready and happy to move back into our regular schedule and work. This week I will be assessing reading with a computerized test called the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) which tells us the lexile level or reading book level that your child is currently reading at successfully. We also need to update our DRA individual reading tests too. Much of these can be accomplished during independent work time. Information on how your child did on these will be sent home the first week in October.Our class enjoyed starting the science unit last week with Mrs. Gerhardt. They will continue to see her for science until the end of this 9 weeks of school.

We are working on determining change back using the fewest amount of dollars and coins from a given money amount this week in math. We also will be learning how to tell elapsed time on a schedule or a clock. These are great real-life skills that you can practice at home.

We will be learning about the different types of folk tales this week and comparing & contrasting different stories in reading. We will also be writing our own fables this week too in writing along with learning to use conjunctions to write compound sentences. A new word study list will be sent home on Tuesday to help your child practice the patterns in  the Words Their Way program.

Please remember to sign the agenda nightly and to sign and return progress updates each Thursday.

This Week's Specials (1:15 to 1:55 daily)

Monday P.E.

Tuesday Music

Wednesday P.E.

Thursday Art

Friday P.E.

Upcoming Events

September 27 Cereal Box Book Report due in class

October 2 - Reflections are due

October 5 -9 Scholastic Book Fair

October 6 Picture Day (packet will be sent home when available)

October 6 - PTA 6:30 p.m.

Mid September News

 Another Week of Testing

 

We worked hard and finished testing with the Cognitive Abilities Test last week and this week we will be testing each morning using the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. This is a measure of academic achievement that compares the academic achievement of our third grade students to other third grade students across the country. This test will be administered from 8:15 to 10:15 each morning. Please try to be on time in order to avoid having to make up a sub-test. I will supply pencils and erasers. I know that all of our classmates will put in the same great effort into this test that they showed last week.

Our class will be traveling to Mrs. Gerhardt's room this week for our first science unit on rocks, minerals, and soils. We will also be reviewing each day in our classroom for our Friday assessment over geography and government in social studies. Please continue to read through the study materials sent home last week.

Math is really cool as we delve a little deeper into algebra and working with unknowns in addition and subtraction using Hands On Equations this week. Last week we learned that an equation with an equal sign means that both sides of the equation must balance, kind of like having the same amount of weight on both ends of a see saw. We will also work with function boxes and problem solvers this week.

Our spelling/word study pattern will continue to be CVVC this week as we practice how to spell words with the sound heard in suit and choose this week. Please refer to the study list sent home last week for examples to practice for homework.

Reading and writing this week are pretty much replaced with standardized testing. Please continue to read and journal nightly and work on the fiction book report reading and cereal box project.

This Week's Specials

Monday -Music

Tuesday -P.E.

Wednesday -Art

Thursday -P.E.

Friday-Media Lesson (return any books due or renew their checkout)