I hope this email finds you all well! It was great to see all of you at conferences. I always enjoy watching your children share their work! We had a good time watching the Groundhog’s Day ceremony today. Here are a few things going on in this short month of February:
Thank you for your amazing participation in the Fun Run last weekend! It was wonderful to see so many of our class there on Saturday! You did a great job raising money for our school!
Thursday February 8th (this Thursday!): Field trip to Liberty Wildlife Sanctuary * Please send in your child’s permission slip if you haven’t already done so. They need to wear their class t-shirt and bring a booster (if needed) on Thursday.
We wrote our classmate’s names on labels for a writing activity today, so students can use these labels to put the names on their valentines. If you did not receive the note about how we do valentines in our class and the list of names, please ask your child to get one to bring home. They went out last week.
½ Day for ALL students Friday Feb. 9th.
We have been struggling a bit with morning snack lately. Each child should have ONE HEALTHY morning snack in a separate container to put in the snack basket each morning. Healthy snacks can be fruit, vegetables, or protein rich finger foods. They cannot be sweet treats, candy, chips, cookies, or other junk food. A snack should be small… not a full meal. Each child should also have a placemat or cloth napkin to put their food on in the morning while they do silent reading.
2/19/24 Presidents’ Day-School closed
2/26/24 Presentations begin! Please visit our Weebly page to sign up for your child’s presentation date and to bring an item to the Oceania/ Australia luncheon on March 7th.
Presentation packets with the topic your child chose went home on Wednesday of this week. If your child was absent this week, they will choose their topic as soon as they return to school. Please have your child begin working on their presentation right away!
2/26/24 This week is Spirit Week for our school as well as Bullying Prevention and Safety Week! We will send a list of the fun events we have earned from the Fun Run out, so each child can participate.
2/28/24 Pink Shirt Day~ Wear a pink shirt this day to show support for Upstanders (part of Bullying Prevention Awareness) **Students will have a picnic on the field together this day!
Thank you to all of the drivers, planners, coordinators, and volunteers who have worked so hard to help us do some wonderful things this year so far!
1/4/24
January Newsflash
Happy New Year to you all! I hope everyone had some family time to rest and relax over the Winter Break. I spent lots of time with my family… especially my granddaughter!
I have a few items to share for January:
I wanted to thank all of the field trip drivers who drove on the last two field trips. Some people even came in to drive when their children were home sick. We appreciate you!
Thank you, as well, for the generous gifts! We are always so humbled by the generosity and kindness you all show us.
Mid-Year Portfolio Conferences take place on Fridays, January 12th and 19th. Please sign up for a conference in an open spot. Remember that your child should be present at this conference with you. There are still many spots available. We ask that every family attend a Mid-Year Conference. This ensures that we are all on the same page as the year progresses.
January 12th and 19th are half days due to conferences. We will not have pizza those days, but Circle Care is still available.
January 15th- school is closed in celebration of Martin Luther King day
January 25th is our field trip to the Phoenix Recycling Center. A permission slip will come home this week. We will need to leave about 8:30 a.m., so please plan to be at school no later than 8:30.
We still need more drivers for this field trip!
We will begin our study of Australia next week and choose topics for our research projects at the end of the month.
The Villa Fun Run is January 27th. More information will come from the Villa PTO soon!
What we have been working on:
Decades, Centuries, Millenia
How did we begin to track time? When did we begin to track time in a unified way? (The Common Era, B.C./A.D)
Why is it called the 21st Century? What does 2024 years look like in GOlden Beads?
Study of Light (Experiments, Natural vs. Man-made light)
Creative Writing: What will your life be like in the 22nd Century?
11/6/23 November/ December Newsflash
Dear Classroom Families,
I sat down to look at the November and December calendars to make my lesson plans and nearly fell over! Because December is only a two week month before Winter Break, we have a lot to get in during the coming weeks. I decided to combine November and December newsflashes to give everyone plenty of notice for the “parent events”.
Thursday 11/9/23 9:00 a.m. to around 1:30 p.m.~Field trip to Cerreta Candy Factory: Our shirts probably won’t be in by then, so we agreed to all wear any shade of blue. Please also bring a picnic (throw away) lunch and water bottle for the picnic after the candy company. *** We already have the drivers set up and on file in the office, so we are all set to go!
Friday 11/10/23 School Closed for Veteran’s Day
Reminder: Every student should be actively working on their Europe presentation and project at home at this point. You should also have signed your child up for a presentation time through the Sign-up Genius on our Weebly page https://luraamparanroom112.weebly.com/
**If you need support with your child’s presentation, please email me. The guidelines and topic choice were sent home two weeks ago. Please let me know if you did not receive them.
Ruby Bridges Walk: The DEI Committee is hosting a rally and walk to school to honor Ruby Bridges on Tuesday November 14th. Look for information in an email from Villa or our class coordinator. Parents must accompany children on this walk before school starts. We are wearing purple for this walk.
We will read the book Stone Soup (a story about cooperation and working together) next week and then make Stone Soup to share as a feast together as a class on Tuesday November 21st during lunch. Your children might come home asking for a can of vegetables or a single potato. They will post their own sign up in class and work together to gather the ingredients. We will make our soup on Monday November 20th with whatever ingredients we have. Please also send a light lunch and snacks with your child in case they don’t eat the soup.
Thanksgiving Break- November 22nd -24th
November 27th- Presentations begin! Please visit our presentation sign-up on our Weebly page ASAP! We are on a tight schedule, so please sign up in one of the empty slots. https://luraamparanroom112.weebly.com/
December 1st is a ½ day for ALL students
We will begin our mid-year assessments in December
Europe Pot-luck Luncheon December 7th from 11:30 to 1:00: We will have a pot-luck style luncheon and presentation viewing to celebrate the children’s hard work on their Europe projects. Parents are encouraged to join us for this fun event, so save the date! Please sign up to bring something on our Weebly page. https://luraamparanroom112.weebly.com/
Field trip to the Earth and Space Center -December 13th. A permission slip for this field trip will come home soon. Please email Morgan Domaracki to inquire about driving. I think we are all set for this trip as well, but check in anyway. We will wear our class shirts for this field trip.
Gingerbread House Building party! -December 15th 9-11 a.m.~ Please visit our Weebly page to sign up to bring an item for this party. We will also need as many parent volunteers as we can get for this one!
Meringue making volunteer needed! We need someone with a large electric mixer to mix the meringue we use to make the gingerbread houses and put it in bags for decorating. This can be a team effort if a few parents want to take it on and have a little gathering to get it done.This needs to happen on December 14th.
December 18-January 1- Winter Break
What we are working on in our Cultural subjects:
Study of Europe
Invertebrates vs. Vertebrates
Seeds to Plants
Living and Nonliving
Plants vs. Animals
Six Kingdoms of Life
Life Cycle of an Annelid (worm)
Land and Water forms
Composition of the Earth (Layers)
Water Cycle
Study of Maps
How to research and write a report
Parts of the Pumpkin
Seaweed
Coming soon!
Rock Cycle (coming soon!)
The science of Light and sound
Fish
Amphibians
10/1/23 October Newsflash
Happy Fall Classroom Families. Wow… we are approaching the end of the first quarter of school! We have been working hard and have all of our systems and community set up now. Everyone has a job and it takes all of us to keep the show running. It was great to see all of you and watch your children present their goals at Goal Setting Conferences. We are currently working on our self portraits, so we can place our class t-shirt order. We should have them in time for our first field trip. Thank you to all of you for the support, volunteering, and generous donations! There is quite a bit going on this month, including Fall Break. Below is a list of reminders and some of the fun areas we are studying.
10/6 Gardening (9:00 a.m.) *We have the soil covered… thanks Brendan!
10/9-10/13 Fall Break
10/14 Third Grade Math Homework begins
10/18 Vision & Hearing Screenings
10/20 Art Masterpiece 9:00
10/26 Europe Presentation packets go home (begin working on your presentation)
10/27 ½ Day Dismissal for ALL students
10/28 Villa Trunk or Treat
10/31 Fall Fun activities in class in the afternoon (no costumes at school)
*** Please note that the date for the Europe Luncheon has changed from 12/8 to 12/7
** Look for the permission slip for our first field trip (Cerreta Candy Company 11/9)
** Please help your child remember their Communication Folders each day.
What we have been studying (at least some of it!):
Living vs. Non Living
Six Kingdoms of Life (Archaea, Eubacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plants, Animals)
Classifications of Animals
How we track time
What is a day and how is it subdivided?
Telling Time on a clock
Clock of Earth Time
The Timeline of Life (Life in the Seas)
Bacteria
The Solar System
The Seasons (Autumn Equinox)
Land and Water Forms
The Water Cycle
The Country of Europe
Nouns- the oldest human words! (Singular, Plural, Common, Proper, Collective, Possessive, etc.)
Noun Family (Article, Adjective, Noun)
Verbs~ Action words! (Verb Tenses)
Syllables (there is a vowel in every syllable)
Sight Word Spelling (look for a copy of the weekly words in Communication Folders)
How Words Work & the syllable rules (Phonetics) AKA~ WTW (Words Their Way)
Sentences, paragraphs, essays
Mapping ideas for writing
Informative writing for research
Naming 2D & 3D Shapes and their attributes
Number Composition and Place Value
Addition and Subtraction (with unknowns, number sentences, word problems, Fact Families
Object Addition (1sts)
Expanded vs. Standard Form (2nds)
Rounding Numbers & Arrays (3rds)
Math Facts (you can practice this at home with flashcards)
Penmanship
9/11/23
Please note that we had to change the date of our Europe Presentation Luncheon from December 8th to December 7th due to a conflicting event. I have changed it on the Year At A Glance, but please make the change on your copy as well.
Thank you, Lura
9/2/23 September Newsflash
Dear Classroom Families,
We have been busy and accomplished a lot during the first month of school! We have nearly finished with assessments and are forming a nice community. Thank you to all of you for supporting us and helping to make sure that we have everything we need. You have been very generous!
This month we will be talking about goals and setting some academic and personal goals for the school year. You children will share those goals with you at conferences on September 22nd and 29th. Please sign up for a Goal Setting Conference on our Weebly page and plan to have your child with you for this conference. https://luraamparanroom112.weebly.com/ (look under the “More” tab)
We had our first Pizza Friday this week. It went smoothly and the kids loved the pizza! The shopping trip and delivery went smoothly… thanks to Morgan and Aimee. We have pizza Friday September 8th again. We will not have pizza on early release days. Thank you for getting your payments in quickly for pizza and t-shirts.
Just a reminder that there are three ½ days on Fridays this month.
September 15th is a ½ day (11:30 dismissal) for all students, so the staff can attend professional development.
September 22nd is a ½ day (11:30 dismissal) for Goal Setting Conferences. Children who are signed up for Circle Care can stay for the full day.
September 29th is a ½ day (11:30 dismissal) for Goal Setting Conferences. Children who are signed up for Circle Care can stay for the full day.
We made it through all of the Great Lessons. We learned the scientific theory of the creation of the universe, the progression of life on Earth, the amazing gifts of humans, how writing and numbers began. These lessons led to science experiments, volcano studies, a day of creating tribes and pretending we were early humans, bartering, and celebrating the gifts of writing and math. On Monday students received the gift of writing. We wrapped up their new pencils, record books and planners and gave them the gift of writing! We have also been working on telling time this week. We did a Salvador Dali clock art project to go with this concept on Friday. We also learned about Labor Day and people who work hard in the community.
We began Specials classes on Fridays, which are Music, P.E., and Art. Everyone seems to be enjoying them. Please help your child remember their tennis shoes and water bottle on P.E. days. This month we will set our goals for the school year. We will dive into our routine with planning, lessons, and follow-up assignments in all academic areas. We will continue studying different categories of life, the earth, the eras of history. We are thankful for your support as we build our community.
~Lura, Lindsay, Mike, and the class
7/31/23
Welcome to our class! I hope you had a great summer! We are back in the classroom preparing for your return next week. We have Lindsay Devenport joining us as an assistant this year, so be sure to welcome her when you come in to drop off your supplies. There are two very important dates coming up right away, so I am listing them below:
Open House for new students/Supply Drop off (for everyone):
Friday August 4th from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.
This is a time for new students and families to pop in quickly and meet the teachers and returning students to drop off their supplies. Please ensure that your child’s name is somewhere on the supplies if you drop them off.
**Please plan to stay with your child for a few minutes rather than dropping them off and coming back later for them.**
You can find the supply list on our Weebly site or in the email from Villa that was sent earlier this summer. Please reach out if you need help with the supplies in any way! https://luraamparanroom112.weebly.com/
If you are unable to attend Open House, you can send supplies with your child on Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Class Orientation (adults only)
Wednesday August 9th 6:30 p.m. in Room 112 (our classroom)
Please plan for at least one guardian/adult to attend the orientation meeting. We will get to know each other and go over vital information that is specific to our class for the school year.
Please bookmark our Weebly site https://luraamparanroom112.weebly.com/ and look over it when you get a chance. This is where you can find quite a bit of information about our class. We will be adding to it throughout the week and regularly throughout the schoolyear. You can find sign-ups for various things on the site as well.