1. Ms. Deming’s Weekly Newsletter Last Week’s Happenings…
September 20, 2015
Last Week’s Happenings…
Our First Class Store
The students had a blast on Friday participating in our first class store. There were desks set up with different items on each desk that had set prices. The students first had to cash all of their checks at the bank for money. They then got to go shopping. They had to fill out a shopping log and total up all of their items while they shopped to make sure they had enough money. When they were done shopping they had to cash out with their items. Some students chose to spend all their money while others chose to save some! A student was assigned as the classroom economist. She will be collecting data based on the students’ shopping logs. She will determine which items had the highest demand and which had the lowest demand. She will then create a bar graph with this data to present to the kids on Friday. She will also prepare and give a survey to the students to see which items they liked at the class store and want to keep, which items they were not interested in, and which items they would like to see that were not at the class store. I will keep you posted!
Math Jeopardy
To review place value before the test, students played jeopardy. They worked in teams to solve problems that were worth different amounts. Take a look at some pictures to the right.

2. Important Information and Reminders
Happening This Week…
Math
This week in math we will begin our next unit, which is addition and subtraction. We will also be doing this unit using personalized learning. The students took a pretest on Friday. Based on their pretest data, they were assigned a pathway or pathways that they must complete. For each standard, if they missed no questions on that standard they do not have to complete that pathway. If they missed 1 or more questions out of the 5 they must complete that pathway.
Reading
This week we will begin our fictional reading unit. The students will learn how to walk in their characters shoes in order to understand them better, how to identify character traits for their character based on their actions, and also how to determine how their character is feeling during different parts of the story. On Friday students will complete a mini assessment based on the skills we taught in reading this week. This will be an informal grade. Students’ stop and jots will also be periodically graded.
Writing
This week in writing students will be choosing a topic for their first narrative writing piece. They will narrow their topic by using an inverted triangle graphic organizer. Students will also learn how to write the external and internal story. The external story is just the facts and the internal part of the story is their thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Students will get a graphic organizer for this as well. We will focus on the pre-writing stage this week and move to rough draft next.
Science- Students will learn about the three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. Students will be able to identify them and learn about their basic properties. Students will also be conducting an experiment.
Social Studies- Students will continue to learn about changes in communities over time. Students will learn how technology has changed over time and how it has affected communication and transportation. Students also were assigned their first quarter project, which is a Social Studies project.
Dates to know…
-9/22 2:30-4:00 MAP Math Testing
-9/22 Science & SS interactive notebooks collected and graded
-9/23 Teacher Workday No School
-9/24 3rd Grade Fire Safety Program
-9/24 PTA Meeting and welcome back picnic 6:00 p.m.
-9/25 August and September Birthday Celebrations 2:45-3:15 (Instead of 3:30-4 due to our recess being at that time!)
-9/25 Fun Run Pep Rally 1:30-2:00 & Irwin Pride Day (Come to school decked out in your Irwin gear!)
-10/7 Early Release Day
-10/16 1st Quarter “Change Over Time” project due
-10/22 First Quarter Ends
-10/23 No School Teacher Workday
Notes from Ms. Deming 
- Students’ first project was assigned to them on Friday. We went over it in class today and the students were allowed to ask questions. Please do not me their projects. Bring them in on a CD, zip drive, or have them create a Weebly and upload it. Thank you!
Important Information and Reminders
**If you can get any of these items, please reply all with the item so everyone knows if someone is bringing them in or not!**
-A 4x8 sheet of white panel board ($14.48) from Lowes cut into 12 inch by 12 inch pieces. I will be using it for white board for the students (All Lowes in the area have them in stock except Huntersville) to use during math for personalized learning.
-8 dictionaries
-Cordless hot glue gun
-Expo markers (any color)
-1 pack of Mr. Sketch scented markers
-2 staplers