Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope all mom's had a wonderful Mother's Day. I did, I cooked for my kids!(:)

We are scheduled to go on a walking field trip to the Smart Art Museum on May 21, 2010. We will leave school at 10:40 a.m. and return at 12:15 p.m. If you would like to chaperone, please circle yes at the bottom of the permission slip. Also please make sure  your child returns their permission slip before the trip on Friday.

We will also send home a permission slip or your child to attend the Tour of Chicago on a trolley car. This trip is usually the culminating experience after the unit on Chicago and our third grade play. This year the play will not take place until June, therefore we have planned for the trip a little early. The trip will take place on Friday, May 28, 2010. This arrangement in fact may help the students to perform for the play even better because they will have a fresh memory of the historic landmarks and the beauty of Chicago fresh in their minds. The cost of the trip is $13.00 per child. We will leave school at 10:00 a.m. and return approximately by 1:30 p.m. Each child must bring a bag lunch as we will eat in Grant Park before returning to school. Each third grade classroom needs a minimum of three chaperones. If you would like to accompany us,  please fill in the space at the bottom of the permission slip. You will be selected on a first come, first serve basis. We usually have enough seats on the trolley for a few more parents, however we can't over book. Please jot me a note if you have any questions.

This week we will be working on the following:

LANGUAGE ARTS:

We will be practicing our performance skills to prepare for the third grade play. Each third grade classroom will have a dancing and short skit to perform about our great city. Our classroom will be working on our skits this week. My third graders have in the past helped to write the skit during our language arts time. Everyone will have a part in the play. Please remind your child to listen, speak clearly and enjoy the experience!

We are currently reading a play in our OpenCourt readers entitled, "Damon and Pythias. This play is about the friendship of two men who risk their lives for the sake of their friendship. This play is timely because we are practicing speaking loudly and clearly and with expression. Hopefully this will transfer to our performances.

Please encourage  your child to read AR books. We will continue to take AR test. By now all the children should be taking AR test. Also remind them to use Ms. Zivko's blog as well as my blog for websites that support reading skills.

SPELLING: Short Vowel Sounds:

brand candy plan hobby best read us top jump sent tell prison last robbers struggle

GRAMMAR:

Subject/Verb Agreement: Examples: He  saves; They  invest; hurry=es=hurries

MATH:

We will continue with Unit 8, Fractions. We will complete Lessons 8.7-Lesson 8.8. These lessons help us to understand fractions that are greater than one,

2 1/2, and Fractions in number stories.

Please continue to encourage your child to use the many websites on Ms. Zivko's blog that support math skills. The children have used these websites in school. One in particular is the Everyday Mathematics website which is excellent for practicing math concepts we have learned.

Homework: Home Link 8.8-8.8, Math Boxes 8.7-8.8. Multiplication practice

SOCIAL STUDIES:

We will continue to learn about Chicago's history and great places to visit. This unit will prepare us for the upcoming Chicago Play in June.

SCIENCE:

We are understanding further what minerals are harder than others by performing scratch test on the minerals.