• C-3 News 11-1-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 11/1/2019

    Dear C-3 families,

    Happy Friday!  What an eventful week!  Thank you to Mack, our Room Parent Team, and all of our wonderful families who helped put on a really fun Halloween party for the kids.  The room looked so festive and the kids had a great time. :)
     
    Today is the last day of our first trimester.  I cannot believe how quickly it flew by. The students in C-3 have been working really hard for the past few months and they are now demonstrating what they have learned by completing trimester 1 assessments.  I will share these assessments with you when we meet for our conference.  You will also receive your child's report card at that time.  Please see my email from earlier this week if you need a reminder of your conference time.  I also have our schedule hanging on our classroom window. I really look forward to these conferences.  They are such a valuable opportunity for us to collaborate and share information that will move us forward to the next stage of your child's continued success and achievements for the third grade year.  
     
    Curriculum for next week:
    Spelling: (closed syllables) better, black, blended, munching, predators, quickly, sticky, suddenly
     
    Vocabulary: blubber, projections, structural adaptations, frigid, exterior, excess
     
    Math: Multiplication facts, problem solving, and multiple-step problems.  Our Topic 6 Test will be on Friday, Nov. 8th.
     
    Science: Students are completing their Animal Adaptation Google Slideshows.  Students have the option to present to the class or just to me.  All students have been responsible for researching their animal and taking notes on the animal's: characteristics, ecosystem, diet, life cycle, interactions with their environment, and adaptations.  They are then taking this information and creating a poster and slideshow. We have been learning so many fascinating facts about our fellow creatures on Earth.
     
    Our Class's Donor's Choose Project link is below..  We are hoping to get this funded asap so we can start using these great supplies in class soon.  Do you know a company who is looking to support a local school?  Please share if you feel comfortable doing so.  Thank you!
     
    Thank you!
     
    Have a wonderful weekend!
    Sincerely,
     
     
     

     
    --
    Carley Kennedy
    Third Grade Teacher
    Green Elementary School
     
     
     
     
    "The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice."
     
     
    Comments (-1)

  • C-3 News 10-18-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 10/18/2019

    Dear Families,

     
    Happy Friday and Happy Gator Gallop day!  There was quite a buzz of excitement all around Green today.  C-3 was definitely all done up in the green and gold.  I love to see the enthusiasm these kids have for everything we do! Please see the link below to add any of your Gator Gallop pictures you took today to our yearbook rep. 
     
     
    Our curriculum focus next week:
    Spelling: (r-controlled vowels er, ir, and ur) birds, caterpillar, dangerous, furry, butterfly, curl, deter, survive
     
    Vocabulary: amphibians, mammals, reptiles, undercoat, moist, shed
     
    Grammar: Writing dialogue correctly with the proper punctuation; adjectives and adverbs
     
    Reading: annotating nonfiction text and analyzing nonfiction text features
     
    Science: Plant and animal adaptations
     
    Math: Multiplication Facts; Topic 5 test on Wednesday
     
    *Our Green School Halloween parade will be at 9:00 A.M. on Thursday, October 31st.  Our C-3 party will be from 10:15-11:45.
     
    *Both Thursday, 10/31 and Friday, 11/1 are minimum days (8:25-12:42)
     
    *Please send in your Scholastic Book Orders by Tuesday.
     
    *Conferences begin on Tuesday, November 12th.  I have our schedule hanging in the classroom window.
     
    Below, you will find the info from Principal Groetke regarding acceptable Halloween costumes for our school festivities:
     

    Halloween is right around the corner and we want our families to know what is acceptable for costumes to make this a positive and fun environment for all. We ask for your support in helping students to comply with these rules.

    • Costumes must comply with the school dress codes, be age-appropriate (no R-rated themes) and be respectful to others

    • No blood or gore

    • Students must-wear closed-toe shoes

    • No full-face masks

    • To maintain our Zero Tolerance Policy regarding the presence of weapons on school campuses, students' costumes may not include pretend weapons and/or explosives. Toy guns, swords, knives, or martial arts weapons, etc., are not allowed and will be confiscated if brought to school

    • We are also asking for your cooperation in NOT allowing your children to dress up as clowns due to the possible disruption and fear it may cause. If anyone shows up with a clown related costume, they will be asked to change

    • Please help your student select costumes that support our efforts to provide a positive and fun environment

       

       

    *If you know any companies who are looking to support a school/project, please share our link below. This is our Amazon wish list for our class’s Friendship Corner which is one of our kindness projects this year. Thank you!! 
     
    *Below is the schedule for Red Ribbon Week next week:
     
    image1.jpeg
     
     
     
    --
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  • C-3 News 10-14-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 10/11/2019

    Dear C-3 Parents,

    We have so many good things to celebrate this week!  We completed our literature study on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it.  I think it is one of the modern day stories that will become a classic read for many generations. The students also took their first Topic Test on multiplication and their scores were INCREDIBLE!  I am so proud of them!  We also completed our language arts Unit titled "Characters Shape Stories" which led to so many great conversations in our classroom.  For science, students are continuing to learn, explore, and collaborate together as they study plant and animal adaptations.  They are having so much fun as they learn!
     
    Curriculum highlights for next week:
     
    Math: Memorizing multiplication facts and learning multiplication patterns
     
    Spelling: (r-controlled vowels) arctic, born, carnivores, forest, form, forward, sharks, sharp
     
    Vocabulary: behave, camouflage, prey, locomotion, environment, detect
     
    Grammar: Regular and irregular verb tenses; subject and verb agreement
     
    Science: Plant and Animal Adaptations
     
    Writing: Personal Narratives, Friendly Letter Writing
     
    Kindness Projects: C-3 students are leading our Friendship Corner for the school. 
     
    Some additional highlights for next week:
    *Thursday, Oct. 17th is The Great Shake Out across California.  All schools will be conducting an earthquake drill at 10:17.
     
    *Friday, October 18th is the Gator Gallop!  Third graders will run from 1:15-1:45.  Please feel free to come and cheer them on.  It's a fun event for all.  Also, thank you for the continued donations for this FUNdraiser.  Please see our position on the leader board by entering the link below.  The top classes with the most donations receives a pizza party.
     
    Have a wonderful weekend! 
    Comments (-1)

  • C-3 News 9-27-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 9/27/2019

    Dear C-3 Parents,

     
    First, I want to extend a big and heartfelt thank you for the lovely birthday celebration.  You were all so kind with the generous and thoughtful gifts and cards.  I was overwhelmed with LOVE!  โค
     
    The students worked hard this week and accomplished quite a lot!  I am excited to continue our studies next week with the following topics:
     
    Reading - Fables and Greek Myths; The Tale of King Midas; Theseus and Minotaur
     
    Spelling - (long i words) cried, island, myself, sacrifice, fighting, might, provided, unwind
     
    Vocabulary - muttered, strolled, sacrifice, unwind, provided, island
     
    Grammar - coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, so), compound sentences
     
    Math - Problem Solving, making sense of more complex word problems.  Test on Topic 3 - Thursday, Oct. 3rd.
     
    Science - Plant Adaptations
     
    Writing - Students are writing their own fables
     
    Thank you for your support of the Gator Gallop.  Please let me know if you have any questions about this fun fundraiser.
     
    Have a wonderful weekend!
    Comments (-1)

  • C-3 News 9-20-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 9/20/2019
    Dear C-3 Families,
    Happy weekend! I'm excited to share with you about some of the fun things that have been happening in C-3:
     
    Activist Project:  Each student has been working in a peer group to research and plan a presentation about either MLK Jr, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, or Alice Paul.  In their groups they are collaborating together to answer research questions, design an informational poster, and create a Google Slide show to present to the class.  Today, we shared our presentations and learned from each group.  It was SUCH an impressive display by these third graders.  We have incredible minds doing great work here in C-3! I am so proud of them every single day. Please check out our Google Classroom site so you can view these slideshows.  I am going to post them there later this evening.  I am also including some pictures and short videos on our Class Dojo site.  I will upload these once I leave campus. 
     
    This week we also started our first day of math games.  The students really enjoyed this "play" while learning.  A big thank you to Jeanne, Yale's mom, for helping to run a game center. 
     
    The students have learned about the following while creating a government poster: Congress, The House of Representatives, The Senate, The Three Branches of Government: The Legislative Branch, The Judicial Branch and the Executive Branch, and the three levels of government: local, state, and national.  We have had some really interesting discussions about how government works and why it is important to be a responsible and involved citizen.
     
    Curriculum Focus for next week:
    Reading - Characters Shape Stories
     
    Spelling: (Long e) even, freedom, honey, hungry, leave, pieces, queens, screamed
     
    Vocabulary: ballads, bellows, forge, threshing, noble, anonymous
     
    Grammar: Adjectives, adverbs
     
    Writing: Personal Narratives, writing dialogue, and using quotation marks correctly.
     
    Math: More with subtraction strategies, subtracting across zeros, multiple ways to subtract, and critical thinking
     
    Science: Plant adaptations
     
    Please see the Gator Gallop envelope and info in your child's backpack.  This is our major fundraiser for the school this year.  Our Gator Gallop will be on Friday, October 18th.  The third graders will run from 1:15-1:45.
     
    Have a wonderful weekend!
     

    -- 

    Carley Kennedy
    Third Grade Teacher
    Green Elementary School
     
     
     
     
    "The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice."
     
     
    Comments (-1)

  • C-3 News 9-13-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 9/13/2019

    Dear C-3 Families,

    Boy have we been busy in C-3 this week! Just a few highlights:

    We have an election season going on in C-3. Mrs. Blow Pop and Mr. Tootsie Pop are running for president of hard candies. The students chose a campaign they feel passionate about and made campaign posters and wrote persuasive letters to the editor and/or persuasive speeches to support their candidate of choice    Some students also worked as speech writers on the campaign trail for each of the candidates. It’s been a contentious race but today the students voted, the ballots were counted, and....Mrs. Blow Pop was elected with 74% of the votes!  (This was all a fun extension of our government unit).

    Please find your child’s corrected Topic 2 math test in their Friday folder. Since I do not assign homework over the weekend, the corrected questions are not due back until Tuesday. Please look over the test and review with your child to help them understand what they missed. As always, please sign the corrected test and let me know if you have any questions.

    We will be starting our math game center rotations on Thursday, September 19th. These will be every other Thursday from 10:30-11:30. I am hoping to get 2-3 parent helpers to run a game/center during this time. Please let me know if you’re able to volunteer for this. Thank you!

    Yesterday, I attended an amazing training on character education. We look forward to bringing some of these great lessons back to C-3 and all Green students.  

     
    Our Geography test on the 7 continents and 5 oceans will be on Wednesday, Sept. 18th.
     
    Some exciting things to look forward to for next week: Reader's Theater, teams lead and teach/present about a historical activist, Math games, Geography, Topic 3 in math.
     
    Have a wonderful weekend!
    Comments (-1)

  • C-3 News 9-6-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 9/6/2019

    Dear C-3 families,

     
    Happy weekend! Our latest news/curriculum updates are:
     
    Math - We are currently working on: addition and subtraction meaning, using mental math to add and subtract, and estimating sums and differences.  Our Topic 2 math test will be on Friday, Sept. 13th.  Students will need to be able to estimate before adding or subtracting, identify the commutative, associative, and identity properties of addition, and show strategies they use to add or subtract using mental math. 
     
    Social Studies: Students are working on memorizing and identifying/labeling the 7 continents and 5 oceans.  We are also learning about local, state, and national government.
     
    Reading: Students are reading and annotating nonfiction text and articles about elections and government.  We are also working in our small reading groups to read, answer questions, and summarize nonfiction text, citing evidence for our answers. Students are asked to find the main idea and supporting details of each article. 
     
    We use graphic organizers to help us understand: graphic features of nonfiction text, cause and effect and signal words to help us identify both, and determining the main idea and supporting details of paragraphs and articles. 
     
    Writing - Personal Narrative writing  - We are working on brainstorming story ideas, using a compelling beginning, supporting details, and a strong conclusion, and focusing our ideas down to a "small moment".
     
    Grammar: concrete and abstract nouns, singular and plural nouns, present, past, and future tense verbs. 
     
    Spelling: (long a sound) became, explained, favored, plain, raised, separate, swayed, vain
     
    Vocabulary: boycott, Jim Crow Laws, strike, suffragists, boarded, organize
     
    Please find your child's spelling and vocabulary tests in their Friday Folder.  They will receive a score of:
    3 - 80%-100%
    2 - 70%-79%
    1 - < 70%
     
    My new Student Teacher, Mrs. Patty Morada, will start in our classroom on Monday.  She will be with us three days a week until Dec. 4th.  We are very happy to have her as part of our C-3 family!
     
    Have a wonderful weekend!
    Comments (-1)

  • C-3 News 9-3-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 8/30/2019

    Dear C-3 families,

     
    Happy 3-day weekend!  I hope everyone has an enjoyable time with friends and family. :)
     
    Some information for next week:
     
    Next week is an exciting week because we are starting our first unit in our reading program.  This means that your child will now have spelling and vocabulary words to study each week (Tests are always on Fridays),  mini books to work on during small group reading time with Mrs. Kennedy, a weekly grammar focus, and their own reading book that they will annotate and study both independently and as a whole group.   Our first unit is Government.
     
    Reading/Social Studies: Government for the People. Essential Question: Why do people participate in government?
     
    Vocabulary: ballot, campaign, candidates, polls, amendment, Supreme Court
     
    Spelling: plans, problems, examples, imagine, printed, helpful, conflicts, upset
     
    Grammar: Concrete and abstract nouns
     
    Writing: Personal Narrative
     
    Service Learning/Acts of Kindness: Charlie's Cooler.  C-3 students are managing our Charlie's Cooler to greet volunteers and workers in the front office.  We are collecting any individually packaged treats/snacks as well as drinks to supply our cooler.  Thank you for any donations you can send in to support this project. ๏’—
     
    Please check your child's Friday Folder, look through their work (which is yours to keep), sign their folder and return on Tuesday.  Thank you!
     
    Have a happy weekend!
    -- 
    Carley Kennedy
    Third Grade Teacher
    Green Elementary School
     
     
     
     
    "The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice."
     
     
    Comments (-1)

  • Two Important Reminder for the Week

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 8/26/2019

    Hi C-3 families,

     
    Two important reminders for the week:
     
    Thursday will be our Topic 1 Math Test.  Today, your child will bring home a packet of "Quick Checks" for Topic 1.  These can be used to review and practice for the test.  These worksheets do not need to be turned in; they are just an additional resource to help prepare for the upcoming test.
     
    Friday will be our Cultural Museum!  Please make sure your child has an item and a paragraph describing that item to display on their desk.  Each student will also  present about their special item to their classmates. 
     
    Thank you and happy Monday!
    Carley
     
    -- 
    Carley Kennedy
    Third Grade Teacher
    Green Elementary School
     
     
     
     
    "The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice."
     
     
    Comments (-1)

  • C-3 News 8-23-19

    Posted by Carley Kennedy on 8/23/2019

    Dear C-3 Families,

     
    Happy Friday!  I wanted to let you know about a few things that we are currently learning in class.  
     
    Writing: Students are learning how to write a narrative with a compelling beginning, supporting details, and a solid conclusion.
     
    Reading: We are in the process of learning and practicing the routines and skills needed to participate in a successful Reader's Workshop.  Students have been practicing: active listening, following directions, quick and quiet transitions, writing a thorough response to our reading, and author's purpose (to entertain, inform, or persuade).
     
    Our read aloud is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
     
    Small reading groups and spelling/vocabulary will begin the week of Sept. 3rd.  Students will take their spelling and vocabulary words home each Monday.  They can also be found on our spelling city site.
     
     
    Math:  We are learning about Number sense, number lines, and rounding.  Our topic 1 test will be on Thursday.  Your child should know the following:
     *standard form, expanded form, word form
     *How to find the halfway number on a number line
     *How to round to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand
     
    At the bottom of this email, I am attaching instructions for how your child can log into our math Pearson Realize site from home.  They can access their text book, practice pages, and online practice games from this site.
     
    Technology: Your child has glued their Google Username and password into the their Minder Binder.  They can access all of our class sites by logging into their school Google account and going to our Clever link.  If they log in this way, their logins and passwords for most of our class sites (such as IXL Math) should automatically generate.  The only exceptions are Pearson Realize (our math text) which I am including the attachment for and Spelling City (which I included the link for above).  They are also not able to take AR quizzes from home.
     
    Cultural Museum: Next Friday is our Cultural Museum!  Please see the info handed out in your BTSN folder.
     
    Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a wonderful weekend!
     
    -- 
    Carley Kennedy
    Third Grade Teacher
    Green Elementary School
     
     
     
     
    "The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice."
     
     
    Comments (-1)

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