Grandparents Day

An invitation to the Annual KE Grandparents Day is in (youngest and only) students'  backpacks today!  Students are encouraged to invite grandparents (or a senior friend) to attend Grandparents Day at KE on Thursday, December 22nd.

Grandparents are invited to arrive at school between 8:30 and 8:45 to be seated in the gym. Students and staff will join them for an all school carol sing from 9:00 - 10:00, and then after a break for cookies and coffee/recess, grandparents are invited to visit classrooms until 11:00.

Students wishing to leave school with a grandparent at 11:00 are welcome to do so, but only with a written note from a PARENT.  Unfortunately we do not have the capacity to allow grandparents to remain at school for lunch.

Please return the RSVP listing the grandparents that plan to attend by December 1.  Thank you!

Thanksgiving Plays

We enjoyed three short Thanksgiving plays performed by the KE fourth graders this morning!  It was fun to learn more about the history of the Thanksgiving holiday, and to see our friends (and former students) perform!

Foreign Language at KE {Skyping with Mr. O'Brien}

Today we got to talk to Mr. O'Brien, our Chinese teacher . . . and he is in China!  Through the magic of Skype, KE students are able to conduct Chinese class even though our teacher is at a conference in China!  It was fun to see Mr. O'Brien, and to hear about his trip.  We learned that while it was 8:30am here, it was around 10:00pm there.  

 Mr. O'Brien also showed us some pictures of China, including what his hotel room looked like (very small!).

 We also got to ask him questions.  When we asked about the food and drinks in China, we got to see that they have Coke in China too!

Laura Ingalls Wilder Day Info

On Friday, December 2, the third graders will be participating in Laura Ingalls Wilder Day.  To correlate with reading Little House on the Prairie in reading class, we are going to spend a day enjoying activities of that time period.

Throughout the day we will be baking bread, cooking applesauce, making pumpkin pudding, and doing a variety of crafts.  We will need some supplies and are asking for your help in that area. 

Please send the items listed below with your child by Friday, December 2.

Thank you for your help!

Each student should bring:

2 apples, any kind, for applesauce

1 plastic or paper cereal bowl for snack

1 spoon for snack

looms and hooks for pot holders (if you have any available - we have lots, so don’t worry about this if you don’t have a loom)

In addition, students wishing to “dress up” like pioneer children in old fashioned clothing are welcome to do so (but it is fine if they don’t want to - don’t fret about putting together an outfit if you don’t have something at home).

This 'N That

• Thanks to those who have already volunteered to help out with our Laura Ingalls Wilder Day on December 2!  If there are more volunteers who'd like to sign up, please contact your chid's homeroom teacher.

• Don't forget - we will dismiss 2 hours early on Wednesday, November 23 for Thanksgiving vacation.

• It's November!  Though we've had some warmer days, we have students coming to school in clothing that is not appropriate for the weather.  All students need to bring a coat (should it get warm enough not to need it, they can take it off - but many are coming without cold weather wear when it is very chilly outside).  It's also probably time to wear jeans/long pants instead of shorts. :)

Have a great weekend!

Friday! {Stations}

It's Friday!  Here's a peek at students in action today during stations.  Today we created toliet paper roll turkeys, finished up some math, read Time for Kids, and blogged about our Thanksgiving plans on kidblog.

Social Studies

We've traveled wayyyyy back in the past, and are now studying explorers in our current unit, Communities and Their Histories.  This week we focused on the history of the East coast of the US.  We learned that the Native Americans were really the first people to settle this land, and then European explorers (like Columbus) came to North America as they were trying to find routes to Asia.  

Today students watched a video about explorers during which they had to answer quiz/review questions as we watched.  We used the website todaysmeet.com to digitally record our answers as a class.

Foreign Language at KE {Spanish}

Students gave the weather forecast in Spanish today during Spanish class with Senora Lundberg!  They did a great job using the Spanish "weather words" that they have learned.

Reading

Both reading groups are wrapping up our current theme, Celebrating Traditions, in the anthology.  We're doing some skill review work  in preparation for the test that students will take next week.  

Students also continue to enjoy reading Little House on the Prairie.

Math

Chapter 3 math tests should be coming home in the Friday Folders.  Our last lesson in the chapter was finding the diameter and the circumference of a cylinder object.  The kids had a great time measuring cylinders in class.

Science

Just a warning, you may be finding flashlights torn apart!  I told the kids to ask first, but just in case it is for science.  This week we were able to get out the batteries, bulbs and wires to see if we could get our lights to light.  We used a D cell battery, a lightbulb (like you have in a flashlight) and some insulated wires.  The kids had to do a lot of thinking, but they all managed to get their lights to light!

Laura Ingalls Wilder Day

We're very excited about an upcoming event in third grade - Laura Day!  The big day will be on Friday, December 2nd.  A note was sent home today requesting parent volunteers to help us with this special day (see info below).

In addition to needing parent volunteers for our big day, we could also use metal juice can lids (from frozen  juice containers such as orange juice) for one of our crafts.  If you have juice lids that you could donate, send them to school with your child anytime.




Below is a copy of the note sent home requesting volunteers  - drop your child's teacher a note or an e-mail if you can help out. :)

Dear Parents,

On Friday, December 2, the third graders will be having their annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Day.  We are reading  The Little House on the Prairie for our novel unit in reading, so we have a lot of background information covered.  Now it is time to try some real-life experiences that Laura and other pioneer families would experience.

Throughout the day we will be baking bread, cooking applesauce, making pumpkin pudding and doing crafts that pioneers would have done.  We will also be spending some time using some web sites about Laura and her family.  

This is a lot to squeeze into a school day, so we need some parent help!  Below is a form for our volunteers to complete and return to school by November 28th.  

Thank you for your help!

Mrs. Hartsock

Ms. Flynn

Mrs. Bender

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, I can come and help at:

______ all day (8:30-3:15)

______ in the morning (8:30-11:30)

______ in the afternoon (12:15-3:15)

This 'N That

TGIF!  We had a great time celebrating the completion of the Iowa Assessment tests (ITBS) this afternoon.  Students loved the movie version of James and the Giant Peach, and were able to identify quite a few differences between the book and the movie.

• It was good to touch base with many of you this week at p/t conferences, and we look forward to meeting with the rest of you next week. If you are unsure of your conference time, please contact your child's homeroom teacher.

• We will be celebrating American Education Week, November 13 - 19 by dressing up on the following days:
 Monday - wear your favorite sweatshirt
 Wednesday - wear red/white/blue
 Friday - wear black/gold

• The Scholastic Book fair will be open through Tuesday, November 15.  Students may purchase books before school or during library time on Monday.  Parents may also purchase books on Tuesday evening during p/t conferences.  Remember, books make great incentive and rewards and are inexpensive gifts. Thanks for supporting our library program through the book fair!

Veterans Day

We celebrated Veterans Day today with an assembly.  Students recited the Pledge of Allegiance, watched a patriotic video, observed fifth graders folding a flag that will be retired, and listened to a reader's theater presented by fourth graders.

Rainy Day Recess

Once in a while, an indoor recess is a fun change of pace.  The rain this week kept us indoors for a recess, but it didn't keep the kids from having fun!

Kidblog

Third graders were thrilled to start using a new website this week: kidblog.org.  We took our first stab at logging in and posting a short journal post, as well as at commenting on others' posts.

As this project evolves, we plan to "open" our blog to guests, which will allow parents and grandparents to add comments to student posts.  For now, as we are just learning, only third grade students and teachers will be able to post.   All posts have to be approved by a blog administrator (teacher) for the post to show up on the blog.

Students have realized that they are able to log on to the blog from home (as it is web based, and they know their password) - and they can show you what our blog is like.  We do ask that for now, students do not do any posting from home.  Should a student log on from home and post/comment, Mrs. Bender and Mrs. Hartsock will be notified via e-mail, and those not following our guidelines will be removed from the blog.

Keep in mind that our first posts are not very "polished" - we were focusing on learning how to post and comment, and didn't take much time composing our posts.  Now that we know how the blog works (login procedure, how to post and comment), students will be required to write future posts in complete sentences and to attend to punctuation and capitalization.  It will be fun to see how the quality and content of the posts improves with time and experience.

Below is a copy of the letter explaining our blogging project that is in today's Friday folder.

We are excited to try something new with students this year – blogging!

As you know from reading our classroom blog (and possibly many other blogs!), a weblog (or blog for short) is a place where one can publish his/her writing online.  Our student blog will be online (kidblog.org), but is password protected, meaning that it will not be accessible to everyone. Initially we are only going to allow students and teachers in our classrooms to access the blog.  If you are interested in checking it out, please contact your child’s homeroom teacher.  (Once we get the hang of blogging, we do plan to provide parents with a guest login and password so that you can read and comment on your student’s writing too).

Blogging will allow our students the opportunity to develop their writing skills as well as to write for an audience. Students will write “posts” pertaining to books they are reading, science reflections, and will also be allowed to use their blogs as a journal.  Students will also be encouraged to read posts written by their peers and to leave comments/provide feedback on their writing.  All posts and comments will be approved by a teacher prior to being posted for all to read.

We are hopeful that blogging will encourage our students to write, provide them an opportunity to publish their writing, become a way to both give and to receive constructive feedback, as well as become a forum for learning internet and blogging etiquette.