Plains Conservation Center Field Trip

On Thursday, November 13th, third graders are going back in history to visit the Plains Conservation Center.  There, we will explore the lives of Native Americans and early Colorado pioneers.  We will leave school at 9:15 and will return around 2:45.  School will provide lunch and snack as usual. Each student must carry a backpack with a labeled water bottle inside, as there are no drinks available there.

Students should dress warmly, in layers, as we will spend most of the time outdoors moving from one place to another. It will feel about 10 degrees colder on the plains. All students need boots, warm socks (or at least two pair), hats, and gloves. As it may be snowy or muddy, we recommend that children not wear expensive boots.  Extra warm clothes will be kept in the student's backpack, but you won't want the pack to get too heavy.  Each student will carry his/her own bag.  It will be a wonderful day!

  

Checklist

☐ Backpack

☐ Bottle of water

☐ Hat that covers the ears

☐ Gloves/mittens

☐ Boots with extra warm socks (toes get really cold)

☐ Warm jacket

☐ Clothing layers

DEAR with Marco's Dad

A special thank you to Drew Rust for coming in today and reading to our class!

Moby Max Parent Portal

Using the Parent Portal is a great way for parents to monitor their child’s Moby Max progress. 

Below are the directions on how to log in as a parent:

1.  Go to www.mobymax.com

2.  Choose the  “Sign In” option, located at the top right corner (green whale).

3.  Next to “Sign in as” click the arrow and a drop down box will appear.  Select “Parent.”

4.  For the "Find your school first before signing in” section, type “Graland and select “find.”  Then, select the "Colorado – Denver – Graland Country Day School” option.

5.  Enter your child’s username (first name) and password: 3rd

Diorama Presentations

Our students worked very hard on their dioramas and online Google Slides (accessible by the QR Code on their dioramas).  The students shared their dioramas and slides with their classmates and took notes on what they learned from one another.  Each student commented on three other students' presentations.  You can view these thoughtful comments by going to your student's blog.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES!

 

American Museum of Western Art

We went on a great field trip today!  A special thank you to art teacher, Andrea Crane, for organizing this wonderful trip to the American Museum of Western Art.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES OF OUR FIELD TRIP

This is a quick video of our class singing on the bus.  :)

Colorado History Map

Third graders created a Colorado map, using their new mapping knowledge (directions, bordering states, Colorado regions, and The Continental Divide).  Each student will add to his/her map all year, including where important events took place, where specific groups of people lived, and important landmarks, cities, rivers, and mountains.  Your student's individual map will be posted on his/her blog soon!  This is a picture of the progress made on our maps so far.

Fountas and Pinnell Reading Levels

During conferences we discussed your child's independent reading level.  This is the level you will want to use when selecting books for your child to read.

To find books with the right level, you can use:
1.  Scholastic Book Wizard: (Be sure to select "Guided Reading" before searching for a book's level.)
2.  Emma Clark Library: This is an excellent resource for finding leveled books.  Simply click on the desired level and hundreds of book titles with pictures will appear!
3.  Comsewogue Public Library: This site allows you to pick your desired level to download and print a leveled book list.
4.  Leveled Book List By Grade

These websites are linked on the left side of the class blog.  Look for the "Reading Level Book Finder" section under Shelfari.

It is important that your child does not read books that are above his/her independent level.  Research shows that when students practice reading in appropriate text, they become better readers!

Practicing Emergency Procedures

Graland students practiced a fire drill and a campus evacuation drill today.  Drills help students become familiar with our procedures in the event of an actual emergency.

Thursday's Field Trip

Today we met with art teacher, Andrea Crane, to learn about the Navarre, American Museum of Western Art.

Our field trip to the museum is this Thursday, 12:15 - 3:10!

Conference Schedule

Parents,
This week's conference is for us to meet together without your child present.  They will get to lead the last conference in the spring.  See everyone soon!  Julie

Thursday, Oct. 16th
8:00   Charlotte W
9:00   Charlotte C
9:30    Nina
11:00   Caroline
11:30   Chloe
1:00    Neela
1:30     Ty
2:30    Addie
3:00    Sami
3:30    Phillip

Friday, Oct. 17th
8:00    Bricin
8:30    EY
9:30    Sam
10:30   Bryce
11:00   Marco
1:30     Estella

October Newsletter

October has been a busy month for third graders.  Learning about bridge building, old time schools, and jury trials figured into our Literature study.  Ask your kids about mentor sentences and how we’re learning to mirror the sentence structures of wonderful authors.

When you head to the store, check out third graders’ estimating skills.  Have them try mental math addition and subtraction problems and ask them to explain the front-end estimation process they’ve been working on.  When they do math assignments check-in with them to discuss “reasonableness”. Does their answer make sense based on the numbers involved? Help your students manage their MobyMax time.  They should have almost completed the subtraction fact section. Our next math chapters will deal with addition of larger numbers and solving problems involving money. 

Technology and the Colorado Life Zone Project have been well integrated with the writing process these past few weeks.  Taking dash notes from on-line and book sources, and then turning these notes into well-developed paragraphs about life zones and animals, were classroom activities for all third graders.  Creating a bibliography, working with a life zone team to design a Google presentation, and creating a QR code to bring them directly to their blogs from their dioramas, have been creative learning experiences. In addition to all that, we’re learning how to use blogs to comment appropriately on the work of others.  Special thanks to Bryann Nourse, our Technology Specialist, for supporting all of these efforts.  The end of this month we will begin a foray into Colorado geography and topography.

Weekly spelling assessments have begun and homework is growing.  Please remember that third grade homework is designed to be completed over the course of the week and not in one night. If you have concerns about this aspect of homework, please share them with your child’s teacher.  Your child’s conference would be a good place to have a homework discussion.  Be thinking about what other questions you might have for your conferences on Oct. 16^th and 17^th.

Third graders will have met their buddies for the second time and participated as partners in Field Day.  The next Buddy Activity will take place during the Halloween Parade, scheduled for 8:30 on October 31^st.

Third Graders will have a special treat this month when they visit the American Museum of Western Art. This premier collection, located at the Navarre, provides an opportunity for students to view Colorado history through a different lens. Mrs. Crane, one of our Graland art teachers, is coordinating this trip.

Thanks to the teamwork between home and school, our year of learning is right on track.

Field Day

Our 3rd Graders had a fun time with their 7th grade buddies on Field Day!  Together they focused on teamwork as they balanced on blocks, worked on rolling a small ball in The Galaxy, played throwing and catching, and went through an obstacle course.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES!

 

Museum Walk

Dioramas came in today and the children had a fun time looking at one another's hard work!  The third grade had a 20 minute "Museum Walk" where each class rotated through each third grade classroom, admiring all of the beautiful Colorado life zones depicted in 73 dioramas!

DEAR with Dad

A special thank you to Kevin Mahoney for being our first reader!

Dads, If you are interested in reading to the class, please sign-up!  Please keep in mind that the sign-up time has changed to 2:10-2:30 (not 2:45-3:10 as noted on the Sign-Up Genius).

Spanish Video Tutorial

3rd graders have been learning all about vegetable gardens and markets in Spanish class. One of their goals for the unit is to be able to identify at least 8 vegetables and to be able to read the names of the vegetables correctly in Spanish. They will be assessed on these skills the week after conferences.

Here is a link to a video tutorial that will help them practice the words at home. 

Las Verduras – Video Tutorial

Christi James, Spanish Teacher

cjames@graland.org

303-399-0390

Student Blogs

Our students have started posting on their individual blogs.  You can locate them by clicking on the "Student Blog" tab at the top of this classroom webpage.  So far they have highlighted a buddy activity and posted their Colorado Lifezone Google Slides.  Enjoy!

Number Bonds

This is a video of Estella teaching addition number bonds to our class.  Good job, Estella!

Moby Max

Students are to practice their math facts on Moby Max as part of their weekly homework.  The expectation is 20 homework minutes or more is spent on Moby Max each week, and another 20 minutes in school (every six day rotation).

• www.mobymax.com
• sign in (top, right corner)
• school code: co1998
• username: first name
• password: 3rd