And so 3rd grade it is.....

Well, the year has come to an end and I just wanted to thank all of you for sharing your children with me this year. I have truly enjoyed being a part of their lives for the last 11 months. I have watched them grow into great readers, writers, and mathematicians. Not to mention, independent, caring, and just plain great kids! They have all come so far. I will truly miss each and every one of them! Have a great break and please be safe.

Love,
Ms. Dey

Upcoming Events.....

o Fox Hollow carnival will be on Friday, May 15th at 4:00 pm. It would be wonderful if all of you could join us. The last few years have been a lot of fun. It is a great way to help support your child’s school and have a blast at the same time.

o We will have a field trip on Thursday, May 21st to the Museum of Nature and Science. Don;t forget to send in the permission slip and money. If you would like to volunteer, please let me know.

o This year Field Day will be on Friday, May 22nd. Make sure to put sunscreen on you child. They also need to make sure they wear shoes for running. No flip flops please.


o Thursday, May 28th from 9:00-12:00 we will be having our end of the school year party. The children will be presenting their Poetry Books from 9:00-10:00. (This is a new addition. It was not originally scheduled for the same day, but thought there was a lot going on in May and wanted to combine a few activities rather than ask you to come in another day.) We will be going to Central Park for pizza and fun at 10:00. If you have not turned in your $3 for pizza yet, please do so as soon as possible. Siblings are welcome. Don’t forget to send $3 dollars for yourself and siblings if you plan to eat pizza.


o Friday, May 29th is the last day of school. The children will be dismissed at 10:30 am. Report cards will go home with them at that time.

Time lines and Dinosaurs

The children have started a couple of new units. First we have been talking about time lines. As you know, we will be creating pod casts of their own personal time lines with pictures that we will put on the Fox Hollow website for all to enjoy. Before we started out personal time lines, the children made a time line of several Presidents we have had over history. They were broken into groups and had to research a president, and create a time line of important events in their life. We then created a time line of the presidents to display in the hallway. They did a fabulous job! I think they are beginning to understand the concept of a time line and why we use them. Now, we will focus on making our own personal time lines. I will let you know when these time lines will be finished.



The science unit we have started is called Changes over Time. The first part of the unit we will discuss dinosaurs. This is always a big hit! Last week, we were paleontologists and dug for dinosaur bones in the sand. We also used a toothpick to dig out chocolate chips from a cookie (to see how gentle paleontologists have to be when digging bones). We also compared and contrasted dinosaurs using a Venn Diagram. The children looked for similarities and differences between dinosaurs. I look forward to a few more weeks of Dinosaurs and I am sure the kids do too!

Welcome back!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe break. Only nine more weeks of school and your 2nd graders will be in 3rd grade! Can you believe it? This year has gone by so fast. I have LOVED getting to to know your children this year and will miss them greatly when they go to 3rd grade! We will have a lot going on over the next several weeks so please remember to check the blog and Thursday folders often for updates!!

HAPPY TRACK-OFF!!

Have a great break. We will see you again on Monday, March 30th. Remember to read, read, read!! See you soon...stay safe!

Space Presentations!

The space presentations were a success! The kids did a wonderful job. You can tell that everyone of them worked very hard and practiced before they presented. I hope you all enjoyed creating your posters or models together. Learning about the solar system is very engaging for all the children.

100th day of school!

We recently celebrated the 100th day of school. It was a hit. The kids all brought in a bag with 100 things. They then grabbed a little from each bag until they all had a bag of 100 goodies. Then we read a 100th day book and wrote 100 things we love about school in our writing journals. (That was a tough one!!). To end our fun, we had cookies and juice. What a great day!

Reader's Theater

One way to practice reading with fluency is Reader's theater. Reader's theater is like a play, minus the costumes. The children were all assigned their own parts to read. That's exactly what the blue reading group did today. They read "Jessica Loves Soccer" to the class. They have been practicing their lines for a few days and today they got to show off their fluent reading by reading to the class. They did a super job!

Inauguration Day!

I explained to the kids on Tuesday, January 20th, that they were experiencing history being made! We celebrated the inauguration of Barack Obama by making hats, reading about his life, and watching the swearing in and speech. (they were a little bored after about 5 minutes...ha-ha) They may not understand the importance of that day but one day hopefully they will appreciate the freedoms we have in America. It was a great day!

Space Presentations

I have had a few questions about the upcoming Space Presentations so I thought I would add somethings to the blog. First of all, you child will choose a planet to research tomorrow (Friday, 1/16). We will start the research in class and they will bring home their findings at the end of the day. At home, you will take those questions and answers and turn it into a presentation. You can use only the facts they researched in class or you an add more from your research at home. They are then going to present their research to the class on their assigned day. They will need to create some sort of visual (i.e, a model, a diorama, a poster, etc). They will teach us about their planet. They can use note cards or a written/typed piece of paper to help them. Since there are only 8 planets, some children will be doing the same planet. This is an independent project however, and every child is responsible for their own presentation. I have attached a copy of the schedule, just to the right. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email or call me.

Outside Math

Today we were able to enjoy the beautiful weather outside during math time. The kids were so excited! They worked with a partner the measure their jumps and arm spans. They used both centimeters and inches. Here are some pictures of the mathematicians at work!

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Holiday this year and a nice and relaxing break. I look forward to starting 2009 with you and your children. We will be starting some fun units as we enter a new year. The children will be learning about our Solar System in Science. This is always a fun unit, especially for the boys. They will be researching and presenting a project on a planet of their choice. I will send home more details shortly. Our Social Studies unit for this quarter is North America. We will learn a lot about Canada and Mexico. Such things as cultures, food, sports, language, etc. The children will continue to read for understanding by practicing such skills as fluency and comprehension. We will start working on organizing our writing by using topic sentences, details, and conclusions. You may hear them come home and talk about the colors green, yellow, and red often since these are the colors we will use to help us organize our writing. Again, I look forward to 2009. I hope everyone has a healthy, happy and safe new year!