Welcome to 3rd Grade!

Dear Parents, I hope this post finds you enjoying every minute of your summer and getting excited about the upcoming school year. I want to take this opportunity to welcome you and your child to the third grade at South Shades Crest Elementary. Check out our class calendar for important upcoming meetings and events and also take some time to get familiar with our class web site, we will be using it lots this year! I'm looking forward to meeting you and the children on "Meet the Teacher" day!

End of a Great Year

Dear Parents,

The kids and I brainstormed all of the things we did in technology this year, let us know if we left something out that you remember!! We wanted to share it with you. As far as I know we have lots of space on our web site, so as long as we do, these things will stay. Some may be archived on links close by. So, come back and visit often to remember how cute we were in third grade, and how much fun we had learning with technology!!!
http://constantinelablessons.blogspot.com/2010/03/2009-2010-technology-projects.html
Thank you for helping make this such a great year for our third graders! Don't forget about our summer page for your child! Let's keep those little minds busy! I added the Summer Survival list to it.
If your child will not be attending the last day of school, please send in a self addressed, stamped envelope so that I can mail reportcards home.
If you have not had a chance to take the End Year Survey, please click here.
Our class party is tomorrow, thanks so much to everyone who helped make it great!
Wednesday, the kids can bring one board game that they know how to play.
Thanks again for a wonderful year and keep in touch next year! And now... Dear Parents....

I give you back your child, the same child you confidently entrusted to my care last fall. I give him back pounds heavier, inches taller, months wiser, more responsible, and more mature than he was then.
Although he would have attained this growth in spite of me, it has been my pleasure and privilege to watch his personality unfold day by day and marvel at this splendid miracle of development.
I give him back reluctantly, for having spent many months together in the narrow confines of a crowded classroom, we have grown close, have become a part of each other, and we will always retain a little of each other.
We have lived, loved, laughed, played, studied, learned, and enriched our lives together this year.
Give him back I must, but his teacher I iwill always be!

~Author Unknown
Love,

Mrs. C.

Musical Link

Here is the link for our Chemistry Musical. It will be broadcast live Tuesday, May 18th from 9:00-9:30. Feel free to forward to loved ones everywhere who would like to see our program, but cannot make it to the school! Don't forget to have your child wear orange next Tuesday and Wednesday. Have a great weekend!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chemistry-musical-2010

3rd Grade Chemistry Musical

Our chemistry musical will be Tuesday, May 18th and Wednesday, May 19th from 9:00-9:30 a.m. You are welcome to attend either performance or watch a live streaming from your computer, we will send out the link soon. Please have your child wear an ORANGE short sleeved T-Shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes. If your child does not have this color shirt at home, please purchase one before the 17th. Michael’s usually has some of this color in stock and they get shipments in about once or twice a week. Target or Wal-Mart are other good places to look. You might want to call and make sure the store you are going to has this color in stock and will hold it for you before driving around.

Please have your child come to school dressed for the musical on May 18th, and again May 19th.

Thanks for your help!

Ralph Fletcher

In class we have just finished reading a book called Fig Pudding by Ralph Fletcher for read aloud. It was a new one for me and I normally do not choose realistic fiction, but I'm glad it was suggested, because the class and I really enjoyed it! The best part is, next Wednesday, as a favor to Toni Shay, our class is going to get to video conference with Ralph Fletcher. Thanks Toni For setting this up, what a wonderful opportunity for our class! I'm letting you know in case you would like to have some discussions with your child before our conference, you can do this by: checking out Mr. Fletcher's web site and reading his biography, re-reading Fig Pudding, reading another one of his books, or just discussing what Fig Pudding was about with your child, we all laughed hysterically as we read parts of this book, and a few of us cried, and no, not just me!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Blogs and Polls and Trips, Oh My!

I am enjoying the feedback on the polls, please vote on our new one! ----------------------->
Not that I have any control over it, I was just interested in your thoughts. If you have an idea for a poll, just let me know.

We are so glad testing is over, you all can be very proud of your little ones! Each and every one of them worked hard until the very end! We were all happy to get back to our regular schedule! Thanks to everyone who sent in goodies, they REALLY helped after our long days of testing!

What we are working on in class:
Reading-Questioning and wondering using expository texts.
Writing-Memory writing, memoirs, about to start poetry.
Math-Investigating geometry, continuing to practice all operations.
Science-a short unit on simple machines then we will begin chemistry.


We started our personal class blogs about 2 months ago, each child has their own blog, and up until now I have let the kids be free. For the rest of the year I will ask them to blog about specific things, stick to their topic, use more detail, and edit!! :) I would love for the parents to participate when you have time. I have made one username/password that all parents can use, just type for example, "Josh's Mom" before your comment. I will email you the username and password. You can comment on our posts, make them positive and encouraging to keep the kids excited! You can also take the opportunity to have continuing conversations with your children about internet safety (digital citizenship), possible post ideas and editing before they post (our rule of thumb is to re-read 3 times: once to make sure it makes sense, then for capitals and periods, and last for spelling). Your child is more than welcome to post from home using the post ideas page.

We will be making up the Vulcan field trip that we missed. Here are the details of our upcoming trip to DeSoto:

FIELD TRIP TIPS

· Our field trip to DeSoto is this Friday.
· We will be outside for most of the day. Please dress appropriately for the weather.
· Be sure that your child wears comfortable tennis shoes.
· If your child did not order a lunch from the lunchroom make sure he/she brings one. Make sure the bag and drink are labeled with your child’s name and everything is disposable.
· Chaperones, our departure time is 8:30. You can meet us at 8:10 in the lobby by the front office. You are welcome to ride the bus with us. We will return around two. Also, send in $13.50 for your discounted entrance fee so you do not have to pay full price at the door. Our chaperones are Ms. Southworth, Ms. Davidson, Ms. Williams and Ms. McConnell.
· Wear your South Shades Crest T-Shirt if you have one.
· Click here for more information about DeSoto Caverns and our field trip.

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather we are getting! Check our calendar for other important dates.

Our Wiki Project

During our study of Native Americans, we broke into groups and studied animals that live in the different regions of the United States: Plains, NorthWest, etc. Each group created a wiki page on our web site with their findings. They had to use lots of their tech skills like creating a wiki page, searching for information on the internet, saving pictures to the network, uploading files to the wiki, embedding html code, just to name a few. I'm proud of what our 8 year olds can do with a computer!! They rock. Some still have a few things to do but we wanted to go ahead and share them with you!! They can put finishing touches if they need to and practice presenting at home over the weekend!

http://constantinekids.wiki.hoover.k12.al.us/Our+Research