Dear Families, 

     Welcome to grade three, room 21.  There are 20 students in the classroom.  In addition to me, there are numerous paraprofessionals as well as Mrs. Williamson and Mrs. Pendergast who work in the classroom at various times during the week.  I sent home our daily schedule and the "specials" schedule the first week of school and again in the Open House folder.  If you need another copy, please just let me know.  Wednesday is our rotating special and that schedule was sent home, as well. 

     We are going to have four parties this year:  a Halloween party (with costumes), a Holiday party, a Valentine's party, and an end-of-the-school-year party.  I am looking for parents who would be willing to plan and "run" these parties.  Please e-mail me or write me a note if you are interested and can help out.  I will most certainly help you, but I need you to organize the games, craft, activities, etc.  There will be no food this year at all.

     Picture Day is Thursday, October 2nd, right away at 9:15.  Please send the form in on that day.

     Our first field trip is to Indian Rock in Bristol, Ct. as I mentioned at Open House.  It is on Monday, November 3rd.  It is an all day field trip, but we will be back in time for the busses.  The form and payment are due by October 22nd.  Also, if your child will be purchasing a bag lunch for that trip, that form needs to be turned in one week prior to the trip - Monday, Oct. 27th.

     In addition to getting to know each other, discussing the four agreements, and the qualities of an ideal classroom, we have been very busy with curriculum.  The children have listened to and read many books.  We have made all kinds of connections with our reading, summarized what we have read, compared and contrasted stories, created character maps to display character traits/attributes, and expressed opinions about particular pieces.  Our first science unit, sound, was integrated with reading.  The children chose one of four sound books and worked together in groups of 3-5 to create a poster to portray their learning.  Each group gave an oral presentation, with everyone participating.  The ear test, scheduled for Wednesday, October 1st will be another assessment of student learning in this unit.

     We will continue our reading work with a mini-unit on people with disabilities.  Mrs. Williamson, the Resource Room teacher, will be giving an informative presentation on this topic.  The children are enjoying learning sign language.  We have even used sign language in our morning meeting! 

     The writing prompt is being given on Wednesday, October 1st, as was noted in your child's homework planner.  This assessment of writing will be scored and the children will then review their writing with me, using the standard rubric.  It gives us an opportunity to discuss areas of strength and weakness, helping to set goals for the year.  The children have already created lists of topics they might want to write about, created an acrostic name bookmark, written a choice story, and developed a picture/story from a "squiggle."  (Their "First Few Days of School" booklets were already sent home - hope you enjoyed them).   

     "Words Their Way," a word study program that South Windsor is adopting across all elementary grade levels, will be introduced to grades 3-5 later in November, as I mentioned at Open House.  The third grade teachers would like to also include, at this time, an individual spelling program for the students.  Therefore,  next week you will see, in your child's agenda/planner, a list of spelling words that he/she is studying, based on a pretest and/or his/her writing.  The list of words will come home on Monday and the final test will be on Friday.  If you have any questions, please contact me.

     Soon we will begin our study of Native Americans - a unit that will be integrated with the arts as well as other curriculum areas.  It is always a favorite.  We are planning on sharing a program with parents and the school to demonstrate our learning.

     I have made a "hard" copy of this letter for everyone,  but I do encourage you to use this web site in the future for more news and information.

     Thank you to all who have sent in tissue boxes - we have used over six boxes already since school began.  I would appreciate more donations, as the school cannot provide them for us.  Also, please remember that I am looking forward to hearing from those interested in creating, running, and helping out with class parties.  I really need you. :)

      Last, but not least,  I have also added some math links and some science links below.  Hope you can enjoy them!

                                                                                                            Mrs. Desmarais