I Believe I Can Fly

Letter From Drama Teacher, Lee Lee Newcomb

Dear 3rd Grade Parents,

We have been having a great time rehearsing our movement for William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. We have spent time in class developing movement that helps to convey the story of our specific scene.  We want to send a quick note to give you an update of our process, how you can help, and when our performances will be.  Please let us know as soon as possible if you foresee any conflicts.  If you have children in both 6^th and 3^rd grades, we will try our best to coordinate performances so that you will only have to attend one show.  Know that we will try our best but cannot promise that we can accommodate all siblings.

Each show should run about 45 minutes.  This is a shortened version of the play to offer students an age-appropriate experience.  Due to limited rehearsals, we will offer just a “taster” of this production. Third grade classes will be involved as movers and dancers doing a movement piece for each section. We have assigned the groups below so that you know the specific time of your child’s performance. Please note that all performances will occur on April 12^th.

We have worked to have no outside rehearsals, all of our work will be done at school.  The only outside commitment from students will be their attendance at their specified performances.  Please review the performance schedule below and if you see any conflicts, please let us know ASAP.

Costumes:  All third graders will be creating their own collars to add to their costumes.  We ask that students come wearing all black on the day of their performances.  They can wear leggings, sweat pants, long or short sleeved t-shirts. The only specification is that they are all black.

This should be a fun and exciting process.  Please feel free to contact us with any thoughts or questions.  Your children are wonderful!

Best Wishes,

Lee Lee Newcomb

PERFORMANCES:

April 12^th

9:30 AM and 5 PM (Group A)-6-4/6-2 (Stretz and O’Connor)

2:20 PM and 6:45 PM (Group B)-6-1/6-3 (Pease and Erlach)

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Naturalization Ceremony

Click here to watch a great video highlighting our involvement with the Naturalization Ceremony!

Practicing the 9s Tricks

The students rotated through four student-led stations to learn different tricks for multiplying by 9.

Then, Johnny came up and showed everyone the finger trick!

Colorado Geography

We used a big 14' x 21' Colorado map to work on geography!  Thank you to the Colorado Geographic Alliance for letting us borrow this fun resource.

February Newsletter

Well, it seems Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow, so we will all be cozying up inside for another six weeks of winter.  Not to worry, our third graders have plenty of engaging topics to keep them busy.

Our Newbery program is off to a flying start with students eagerly shuffling from class to class each morning in search of their next great read.  It is wonderful to hear them enthusiastically recommend books to each other for the program.  We will enhance our reading comprehension strategies this month through visualizing, questioning, summarizing, and making inferences and predictions related to the texts we read.  These will be regularly employed as we draw conclusions, recognize cause and effect, and identify main idea and supporting detail in stories.  As authors, we are turning our attention to persuasive writing.  We will back our strong opinion statements (or theses) with reasons, detail and examples, which are sure to make you see the world our way!  Our independent writing will also be bolstered as we pen another GO Write! for homework.

Math finds us working hard to master our multiplication facts.  For some of us this means a straight memorization of the facts.  For others, it means becoming efficient in using strategies to find the product.  For example, since we all know our “5” facts so well, we can use those to help us solve for “6” facts.  If 5 x 6 = 30, then 6 x 6 will be just one more 6, so 36.  Mastery of these facts will then be used to help us multiply ones, tens and hundreds mentally, before we turn our focus to division.  Please continue to help your students master their multiplication facts and retain their addition and subtraction facts.  Flash cards or commute time quizzing are a quick easy way to keep the facts fresh in your mathematicians head.

In social studies, we continue to study the early people who moved here, why they came, and how they interacted with the others and the land.  Our work provides the opportunity for us to closely read a text and determine which facts are most significant.  We use these key ideas to draw our own conclusions about many topics.  We are also gaining a sense of chronology as we plot key events from all our units of study on a comprehensive timeline.  Next up in our exploration are the adventures of the trappers and traders who came to Colorado to hunt for beaver, the Rendezvous where they traded, and Bent’s Fort.

While in social studies we explore who moved to Colorado and settled here long ago. Our service learning program helps us discover who immigrates to Colorado in the present day.  In this interdisciplinary program the students share their own heritage, learn about immigration, and the path to citizenship.  On February 14, we will participate in a Naturalization ceremony held at the History Colorado Center. The third graders will sing a welcome song to the new citizens, lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and create a special gift with Colorado symbols for the new Americans.  At school, we are hearing the stories of some of our very own Graland staff who have gone through this process.  We would also be very excited to have any family members or other Graland community members visit us and share their stories of becoming citizens.  If you would be interested in sharing with us, please contact your student’s teacher and she can provide you with some information to prepare for the visit.

Each third grade will be hosting a Valentine’s Day party, though at different times due to varying schedules.  It is not required for your student to bring valentines.  However, if they do decide to pass out these warm, fuzzy notes, please ensure they have one for every classmate and the notes are candy free.

We hope you stay warm for this next six weeks of winter and enjoy your students’ tales of life in third grade.

Sincerely,

The Third Grade Team

Calendar

February 14 – Valentine’s Day Party

February 14 – Naturalization Ceremony

February 20 & 21 – No School (President’s Day and Teacher Professional Development)

The Zoo Came to Spanish Class

Candy Free Valentines

Did you know that Graland has a Pinterest account?  Consider checking out Graland's "Candy Free Valentines" board!

CLICK HERE