1. Last Week’s Happenings…
Ms. Deming’s Weekly Newsletter
November 1, 2015
Last Week’s Happenings…
October Birthday Celebrations & OWL
Feather end of 1st Quarter Celebration
On Friday we celebrated the October birthdays of Liam and Henry. The students also had the end of first quarter OWL feather celebration. Students got to choose from extra recess, movie, technology, or board games.
Thinking Maps
Last week the students were introduce to all 8 thinking maps. There is a map for sequencing, cause and effect, defining, describing, analogies, part to whole relationships, compare and contrast relationships, and categorizing. We will be using them all year long!
Friction Science Experiment
Last week the students participated in a rice experiment to explore friction. They had to shake a container of rice for 1, 2, and 3 minutes and record the temperature each time.
Energy
Last week the students learned about five different types of energy. They created a foldable and had to give 5 examples of each type of energy.
Genius Hour Project Update
We are continuing to take donations for our Genius Hour project to help the people affected by hurricane Joaquin. Our class has currently raised $110! Students can bring in money any time. We also opened it up to other grade levels in the school

2. Happening This Week… Grammar
Math
This week the students will begin our multiplication unit. Students who are not finished with their addition/subtraction pathways will need to finish them first. They may be bringing home materials from their pathway for their math homework. Students will work on the multiplication pathways they were assigned based on their pretest. They will also spend time each class practicing their multiplication facts and working to gain fluency with facts Please make sure your child practices them at home each night and completes their math log. Just like with the addition unit, once students show mastery with all third grade multiplication standards, they will be given a project to work on!
Reading
This week we will begin our nonfiction reading unit. Students will learn the different nonfiction text features and their purpose. Students will also learn that good readers carefully study maps and photographs in order to gain a deeper understanding of the text. Students will get practice with these two skills all week. At the end of the week they will be given an informal reading assessment to check for understanding. Students are also finishing their Wonder projects from our literature unit. Students will get some class time each day this week. The project are due this Friday. If your child thinks he/she will not finish before Friday, they can take certain parts of their project home to work on. So far, they have been given one week to work on.
Writing
We will continue with our Upping the Quality of Our Narrative unit. This week students will learn how to develop the setting in their narrative. They will also learn strategies for adding details to their narratives like making a movie behind their eyelids and stretching out what happened. Finally, students will learn how to jazz up their sentences by adding strong adjectives and vivid verbs.
Grammar
This week the students will learn about commands and exclamations. They will learn that command sentences end with a period and exclamation sentences try to show strong feeling and end with an exclamation point.
Science- We will continue with our energy unit this week. Students will participate in experiments this week to learn about conduction and convection. Students will also have a quiz this week on energy.
Social Studies- We will begin our unit on citizenship. Students will identify the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Important Dates to know…
-11/6 Fall Enrichment Clusters begin
-11/6 1st Quarter Report Cards go home
-11/6 Classroom Store
-11/6 First quarter report cards go home
-11/9-11/13 Class School Store 8:45-9:30 a.m. (open to entire school with proceeds going to donations for Genius Hour)
-11/11 No School Holiday
-11/20 Writer’s Celebration (Parents invited to come!) Invitations will be going home soon!
-11/24 Irwin’s Annual Turkey Trot
-11/25-11/27 No School Thanksgiving Break
-12/9-12/10 Third Grade Field Trip to Rosedale
Vocabulary Dates:
-List 3 words introduced 10/26 – 10/27
-Test on list 3 Friday 11/6
Spelling Dates:
Group 1: New words introduced 10/28 and test 11/4
Group 2: New words introduced 10/29 and test 11/5
Group 3: New words introduced 10/30 and test 11/6
Assignment Due Dates this week:
-11/6 Wonder Contracts due
Test & Quiz Dates this week:
-Spelling tests this week Wed.-Fri. (see above)
-Wednesday 10/4 Quiz on Energy
-Friday 10/6: Vocabulary test on Lesson 3
Notes from Ms. Deming 
-I will be sending home November Scholastic catalogs this week in Thursday folders. If your child would like to order any books, please have them bring in their order form and cash or check by next Friday!
-If your child didn’t bring in a black and white composition notebook for Genius Hour yet, please do so this week!
-Report cards go home this Friday. There will be a card inside for you to sign. Please sign it and return that inside the envelope. Please keep your child’s actual report card and do not send it back to school.
-We are in need of items for our classroom store. Remember we will be having 2 (one for our class and one for school for our genius hour project. We are in need of LOTS of items!
Important Information and Reminders
To efficiently manage classroom items on the wish list, a sign up genius was created. The link is:
Please check it weekly!