Vacation Updates

Dear Families,

I hope the everyone has a restful and relaxing vacation and a Happy New Year.  I will look forward to seeing all of the third graders in 2016.  We have invited all of the K-6 grade students at Salisbury School to once again participate in the Great Escape Reading Challenge.  Third graders were given reading logs today.  Any student that wishes to participate needs to read a minimum of 6 hours (360 minutes) over vacation and log his/her reading in the provided reading log.  The logs need to be returned the week after vacation with a parent/guardian signature.  Students who participate will earn a free ticket to the Great Escape during the summer of 2016.  I hope the all of the third graders will take on this vacation reading challenge!

A reminder that we will be having a cookie exchange on Friday.  Students are invited to bring in 15 cookies.  They will place their cookies on the "cookie buffet table" and have a turn to choose 15 cookies from the incredible variety in front of them.

In math, we have started a unit on measurement, time and fractions.  We played a fun telling time game today.  Many students asked for the link to the game.  Here is the link to the telling time game!

Clock Game

Cookie Exchange

Dear Families,

We are planning a special afternoon for Friday, December 18h.  The third, fourth and fifth grade will be having a craft afternoon and cookie exchange.  We are hoping that each student will bring 15 cookies that they can exchange with classmates.  We will also have several craft stations.  If parents have a craft idea and would like to run a craft session from 1:00-2:00 p.m., we would love to have you join us. 

Thanks, 

Lili Foster

December 8, Update

It is hard to believe that there are eight more school days until our December Vacation.  Students are hard at work on their book projects and their non-fiction reading.  Book projects are due Friday, December 18.  Here is a sample of a completed one.  Please check to see how your student is doing with completing his/her chosen book.

Completed December book projected.

Third Graders are very excited about learning cursive.  Everyone is working hard to learn the letters and to write their name in cursive.  Here are a few pictures of third graders working in their cursive books.

On Thursday, Jessica Lynch will be video taping a literacy lesson as part of my National Board Teaching Certification.  The lesson will be used to analyze and reflect on my instruction.  Students will be discussing a problem and solution text.  It is great to see how far all of the students have come in their ability to  find evidence and key details from the text to support their comprehension and discussions.

On Friday, we will be taking an end of unit math assessment.  Students have been working on estimating reasonable answers using their knowledge of rounding and adding and subtracting with multiple strategies.  Everyone has been introduced to the traditional algorithms for addition and subtraction.   Our next unit is a Measurement and Fractions Unit.  Below, you will find information about what your child will be learning in this upcoming math unit.

Unit 4: Measurement and Fractions Information

Today, is the last day that our Middlebury College Intern will be with us.  We presented Claire with a homemade pot of flowers with all of the students faces on them, cards and we had an ice cream celebration in her honor.  We will miss having her in our classroom on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.

Flowers with our photos on them.

Cards for Claire

Is It Really December?

 Dear Families,

It is hard to believe that we are almost ready to turn the calendar to December.  I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving vacation.  Third Graders worked very hard to finish up their non-fiction book projects on the Tuesday before vacation.  I was very impressed with the focus and perseverance of all of the third graders.  We will continue to work hard and stay academically focused during the 3 weeks until the December break.

In math, we will be completing our addition and subtraction of mulitdigit numbers unit and focusing on fractions and multiplication with our December Number Corner Work.  Many third graders are making excellent progress with their multiplication facts.  Please encourage your student to continue to work on his/her multiplication facts for 5 to 10 minutes each evening.

In Literacy, we will be focusing on the different types of non-fiction text, in preparation for our upcoming biography and research units.  In addition, students will be choosing a novel that they will be reading at home and school over the next three weeks.  Students will be doing a book project with this novel.  The book project will be due on Friday, December 18th.  There will be time at school to read the book and work on the project, so students should bring their books and projects to and from school each day.

Please call with any questions or concerns.

Photo of the December Book Project

Third Graders Learn to Felt

Third Grade Felting Projects

Third graders had a wonderful morning of felting.  Thank you to Wanda Boise, for setting up a fantastic felting session with Jake Jacobs for the third grade class.  Jake brought in wool from her sheep and taught us how to felt.  All of the students worked hard and showed their creativity!

Students are hard at work on their nonfiction reading.  Everyone is reading a Magic Tree House Fact Tracker Book on a topic of their choice.  Students are using their book to create a nonfiction project.

We will continue to work on our nonfiction study until the middle of December.  After learning about the text features of nonfiction, we will use our knowledge to read biographies for our study of Slavery and the Civil Rights Movement.

On Tuesday, November 24 we will be celebrating Character Day.  All of the students at Salisbury School have just finished a unit on character.  As a way to celebrate our new learning, we will have a book character day.  Students are encouraged to dress up as their favorite book character.  The character needs to be from a book that your child has read.  Please have your child let me know what character he/she plans to be.  Costumes should simple.  If your child needs help finding costume items, please let me know.

We continue to enjoy time with our preschool buddies.  Here are some photos of third graders playing math games with their buddies.

Third Graders Get Vampire Teeth

Third Graders showing their teeth.

We have started our new Informational Text Unit.  As part of this unit, we will be studying about the history of Thanksgiving.  We will be looking at some of the facts and myths around the Thanksgiving

story.  Today, we did a "graffiti" activity where students worked in teams to record what the words Pilgrim, Mayflower and Thanksgiving meant to them.  It will be interesting to see how their ideas change form the beginning of this unit to the end of the unit.  As part of our work, third graders will be reading a non-fiction book, What Was the First Thanksgiving?   Students have been asked to read from page 1-21, for their reading homework.  This reading needs to be completed by Thursday.

Last week, we had a great time decorating pumpkins and gourds with our preschool buddies.  We also had the chance to decorate cookies!

That is one decorated cookie!

October 26, 2015

Dear Families,

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  Third grade continues to be a busy place.  We are completing our first multiplication unit tomorrow.  On Tuesday, third graders will be taking a post test on Unit 2, Multiplication and Division.  Unit 3, will be a Multi-Digit Addition and Subtraction Unit.  This will be the last major addition and subtraction unit.  After this unit, we will spend the majority of the year immersed in geometry, fractions, multiplication and division.  During this unit, students will be taught traditional algorithms for addition and subtraction.

Attached is the parent letter for Unit 3.

Unit 3


I am looking forward to meeting parents for Goal Setting Conferences over the next couple of weeks.  If you have not sent back your conference time form, please do as soon as possible.  You may also call or email me to set up a time.  Your child is welcome to attend his/her conference or you may attend the conference without your child.  In March, your child will lead the conference and share with you his/her progress towards meeting his/her goals.

We continue to have a great time with our preschool buddies.  On Thursday, we read our buddies Halloween stories and helped them write about their favorite part in their journals.  This Thursday, we plan to do pumpkin painting and cookie decoration.  Please let me know if you have an extra pumpkin to donate for this project.

We enjoyed a Fire Safety Presentation on Friday.  Students were reminded to talk to their families about a fire safety plan and a safe place to meet outside of the house in the event of an emergency.

Vance climbing on the fire truck.

Luke talking with his favorite fireman.

Sophia on the fire truck

Emma!

John Nuceder spraying the hose.

I hope everyone has a great week.  Please call with any questions or concerns.

The entire second and third grade class.