Assembly

Today we had our first assembly of the school year.  The construction foreman overseeing Graland's new building came to talk to the Lower School.  The video of his visit is below.

We also sang the Graland song and were surprised by a special visitor!

Reading Assessments

We are off to a great start!  Now that your child has had time to get settled into the classroom, we will be starting our beginning of the year reading assessments.  I want you to know that our reading specialists, Kristin Newman and Jacqueline Purdy-Davis, will be helping us to complete the assessments in a timely manner.  Some of these assessments are done in a whole class setting and some are done one-on-one.  These assessments are done at the beginning of every year so that we can identify your child’s reading strengths and to guide classroom instruction.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Assessment results will be shared with you during parent-teacher conferences in October.

First Day of School

We had a wonderful first day of school.

We started the day with Morning Meeting: greeting, sharing, and activity. After greeting one another, Ms. Sheehan brought in pictures of her family to share.  (Starting Thursday, students can sign up for sharing!)  Then, for activity, we played the dots game.  This is why we have dot stickers on our foreheads in the picture below.  :)  Ask your child how this game was played!  

To finish our Morning Meeting, Adam O, our leader for the week, led the class through a telling time activity, The Pledge of Allegiance, our daily schedule, and the calendar.

After reading First Day Jitters, a cute read aloud about the first day of school, the students put on their PE shoes and headed off to exercise with Coach Romero.  Then, all third graders came to our classroom to meet as a grade-level. We discussed appropriate lunch room behavior and playground rules.  We took a walk around campus to see where we sit in the dining hall for lunch, and where we line up after recess. Before enjoying a healthy lunch, the students cleverly named our class pets: Aqua (fish) and Squirmy (frog).

After art class with Mrs. Crane, we sang Happy Birthday to our three students who just celebrated their special day, Carter, Audrey, and Jesse. They proudly wore their birthday crowns, were given a small gift from the teachers, and received a birthday card signed by the class.

Our students worked with a partner or in a small group answering questions about the classroom.  Then, they worked on a "What If" poem about the first day of school.  Afterwards, everyone eagerly went out to the new playground for recess.

We came back to our cool classroom (it was hot outside today!) and enjoyed snack and reading time.  At 2:30, Senora James came in our room for a Spanish lesson.  Before we knew it, the day was done and it was time to say goodbye.  

Tomorrow will be another fun day in Third Grade!  Julie