Miss Pellin's Post

October 1st - October 5th

Last week the class enjoyed Johnny Appleseed’s birthday. The applesauce was delicious! Thank you to all of the families who donated supplies to make our celebration special. This past week the class completed their life-size human bodies including all the important organs, bones, and muscles. Everyone now has “inside” knowledge of the human body.

Thursday, October 4th all students who have completed 28 days of reading 20 minutes each day will be invited to a special reading party! Please have your completed reading log turned in on Wednesday, October 3rd, if you want to join the party. The party will be in the room during lunch. Please bring a lunch from home or order a hot lunch. There will be a video and special treats for the students. Remember reading every day is not only enriching, but it is fun!

Friday, October 5th is the first “Spirit Day” at Prairieview. Please join the teachers in celebrating Character Counts by wearing green! Each Friday in October will be a “Spirit Day.” October 12th wear school colors. October 19th wear a crazy hat. October 26th is slipper day.

This Week at School:

Science: Our human body study will continue with the digestive and respiratory systems. Key concepts include the four steps by which the digestive system turns food into a form that can be used by body cells. Other concepts include the path by which the respiratory system brings oxygen to the body and removes carbon dioxide. Students will get study guides for the Chapter 1 (Human Body Systems) midweek. The final test will be on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

English: We will begin a descriptive writing unit. This writing will emphasize using descriptive words to make stories exciting! Visualizing is an important part of descriptive writing. Students need to "see" the scene in their mind. Then they can write with words that make the reader "see" the same scene.

Social Studies: We will begin Social Studies with a review of the compass rose. Your child should be able to find each of the directions (North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest) on a map. On Monday, October 1st we will have a scavenger hunt! The students will work in groups and by correctly following compass rose directions will find prizes hidden all over Prairieview. There will be a directions quiz on Tuesday, October 2nd.

Spelling: There will be a spelling “List 5” pretest on Monday. These words often are plural nouns ending in “y”. The final test will be on Friday. Please keep studying. Everyone is doing an excellent job!

Reading: Our studies of The Chalkbox Kid will focus on character traits and the ordering of story events. Independent reading will be emphasized and we will have a party on Thursday, October 4th. Don’t forget to turn in your independent reading folder by Wednesday October 3rd.

Math: All math classes will meet only three days this week due to the Goo, Glob, and Guts presentations. This math news is for Miss Pellin’s math class only. Please check your child's math teacher's blog for news from their class. Miss Pellin’s math class will work on rounding both numbers and currency. We will also work on “Mad Minutes” for subtraction. Students will be given two weeks to achieve 100% on their subtraction tests. The last “Mad Minute” test on subtraction will be given Friday, October 12th.

Things to Remember:

Monday 10/1: There will be a spelling “List 5” pretest. We will have Goo, Glob, and Guts in the classroom (in place of math).

Tuesday 10/2: This is the last Magazine Turn-in Day. There will be a directions quiz in Social Studies.

Wednesday 10/3: Independent reading folders are due.

Thursday 10/4: There will be a reading party during lunch.

Friday 10/5: There is a spelling “List 5” test. Spelling Workbook pages and challenge activities are due.

*Mon. 10/8: No School: Columbus Day

Miss Pellin's Post
September 24th - September 30th


Last week was a short week that included OSLAT Tests. We continued our study of the human body – working on the circulatory and the nervous system. We also began to place the organs within life-size cutouts of the human body. One key 3rd grade learning goal in health is that students should be able to place organs within the body and understand their function. Last week the class worked very hard on standarized testing, the human body, and on their other subjects.

Wednesday is Johnny Appleseed’s birthday. We will be having a celebration! A note will be sent home on Monday as a reminder. Your child will be asked to bring in a peeled, cored, and sliced apple to school on Wednesday to be used to make applesauce for the class. We are looking for donations of small bowls, spoons, and apple juice to use on Wednesday. If this is something you are interested in helping with, please email me or send the items in any day before Wednesday. Thank you in advance for your help!


This Week at School:

Science: Our human body study will continue with the nervous system. Key concepts for this week include “dominance”. If your child is left-handed, remember to let them know that they are in their “right” minds. The body systems unit ends with studies of the respiratory and digestive systems next week. The final test will be on Friday, October 5th.

English: We will be finishing work on sentences (Unit 1). There will be a test on Friday, September 28th, (new date!) covering the four sentence types and identifying the two sentence parts – subjects and predicates. Students can prepare for the test by reviewing their workbook pages and worksheets, reading through the textbook lessons for unit 1, and by taking the chapter review quiz in the textbook. Your child can bring both completed worksheets and the textbook home any day this week to get started studying for the test.

Social Studies: We will begin Social Studies with a review of the compasss rose. Your child should be able to find each of the directions (North, South, East, and West) on a map. There will be a directions quiz on Tuesday, October 2.

Spelling: There will be a spelling “list 4” pretest on Monday. These words often are plurals ending in “s” or “es”. The final test will be on Friday. Please keep studying. Everyone is doing an excellent job!

Reading: Our studies of The Chalkbox Kid will focus on character traits and the ordering of story events.

Math: This math news is for Miss Pellin’s math class only. Please check your child's math teacher's blog for news from their class.

Miss Pellin’s math class will continue to study Chapter 2. This week’s work will focus on subtraction strategies and properties. Tests for this week will include “Mad Minute” quizzes (every day for two weeks until all students achieve a perfect score) and a Chapter 2 test on addition and subtraction facts (Tuesday, September 25). Students who achieved a perfect score on the Chapter 2 pretest will not have to take the test.


Things to Remember:

Monday 9/24: Spelling “List 4” pretest
Tuesday 9/25: Magazine orders should be turned in today. There will be a Chapter 2 math test for my math class.
Wednesday 9/26: It is Johnny Appleseed’s birthday! Please send in your peeled, cored, and sliced apple today for a special activity.
Thursday 9/27:
Friday 9/28: There is a spelling “List 4” test. Spelling Workbook pages and challenge activities are due. English Unit 1 test

Miss Pellin's Post

September 16th - September 23rd

The class had an excellent week this past week. As a group they spell very well. The class had their first Daily Oral Language (DOL) quiz this past Friday. Everyone did an excellent job. I was also proud of class work on our sentence quiz. I will be returning a graded copy of their “Four Types of Sentences” Quiz. Your child should save this as a study guide for the final chapter quiz.

Every year the third graders take the OSLAT tests. The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test is designed to measure abstract thinking and reasoning abilities that are relevant to school achievement. My class will be taking this test on September 18th and it is about 35 minutes.

This Week at School:

Science: Our human body study will continue with the circulatory system and the nervous system. We will begin doing worksheets on Monday. Then the students will lie down on art paper and with a partner and make an outline of their body. Over the week we will fill in different parts of the body in this outline. By the end of this unit, your child should be able to locate organs within their body.

English: We will be studying the two parts of a sentence (subject and predicate). At the end of the week students should be able to identify the subject and predicate in a written sentence.

Spelling: There will be a spelling “list 3” pretest on Monday. These words often have “ou” in them. The final test will be on Friday. Keep studying!

Reading: The class will begin reading a new chapter book called The Chalkbox Kid. The class will use the reading strategies that we have been studying during the first few weeks of school.

Math: To read about what your child is doing for math, you will have to visit your child's math teacher's blog. You can do this by going to our District website: http://www.ccsd66.org/ , click on Prairieview, click on 3rd Grade, then click on your child's math teacher's name. Their blog will come up. Find the teacher's math section to read about what your child will be doing in math class.

For my math group, we will start to work on subtraction facts and problem solving from Chapter 2. Our Chapter 2 test will be next week. Those students who missed less than 2 questions on their pretest will not have to take this test. These students will receive their pretest score as their grade. If a student missed one question they have the option of taking the post test with the rest of the class.

Things to Remember:

Monday 9/17: Magazine Drive Kick Off! Look for your child's magazine packet tonight.
Tuesday 9/18: Early Dismissal at 11:00 am
Wednesday 9/19: OLSAT’s
Thursday 9/20: Picture Day! (Please send your money by today for class pictures)
Friday 9/21: Spelling “List 3” Test, Book Orders due!

Miss Pellin's Post
September 10th - September 17th.

Everyone had a great week at school last week! The class did very well on their first spelling test. You can check out your child’s grades on the “grade book” attached to the school district’s website. In science, we learned about the skeletal system. Everyone “broke a bone” and set it! The students did a wonderful job presenting their “Me” bags. The grades are also posted on the “grade book” website. We began to study reading strategies. We also began Daily Oral Language (DOL) and we reviewed how to identify a complete sentence.

Homework policy: I wanted to take a moment to explain our homework policy. For each subject, students begin the semester with 10 points for homework. Students keep their 10 points as long as they turn in their homework on time. Points begin to be deducted when a student accumulates three late assignments.

This Week at School:

Science: We continue this week to learn about human body systems. On Monday we will focus on joints. This week’s activities include building a skeleton with brad fastener joints. Joint types and ligaments will be studied. Muscles will be introduced later in the week. We will discuss voluntary and involuntary muscle movements.

English: Sentences will be the focus of our English studies. Sentence types, such as command, explanatory, statement, and question, will be reviewed. There will be a quiz on the four types of sentences on Thursday. We will continue to correct sentences each day for DOL. The first DOL quiz will be on Friday. Students can study for DOL quizzes by studying the sentences in their DOL spiral.

Spelling: Our first spelling pretest will be Monday. We will do various activities during the week including workbook pages and spelling games. The final test will be on Friday.

Reading: In reading we will continue to examine the strategies used by all good readers. Monitor/clarify, summarize, phonics/decoding, making connections and questioning are the strategies we will discuss this week. I hope the each student will begin to apply these strategies each time they read.

Things to Remember: Please remember to sign your child’s assignment sheet daily.

Miss Pellin's Post

September 2nd - September 7th.


I enjoyed meeting everyone at Open House last week! Out first week of class was excellent. The class spent a lot of time getting to know both each other and a new school. Each student learned about their assignment pages. Their assignment notebooks should be arriving soon to replace the assignment pages. The class met, discussed, and decided on a set of class rules to help build a positive learning environment for the coming year.





This Week at School:

Math: Math classes begin Tuesday! Each chapter will begin with a pretest. Students achieving 95% or higher on the pretest will be given enrichment activities throughout the week. This week we will be starting with Chapter 2, which is a review of addition and subtraction. The work includes timed tests on addition and subtraction facts. Practicing these facts at home would be useful.





Science: Our first science unit is the study of human body systems. This week we will focusing on different types of cells, how cells come together to make tissues and organs, and how body parts come together to make systems. Over the course of the unit your child will receive many handouts, practice pages, etc. All of these papers should be kept in their science folder in their binder until the unit is complete.





English: This week students will present the "Me" bag, which is due Tuesday. Each child will be encouraged both to be a good listener and a good speaker. Please encourage your child to speak loudly, clearly, and to keep eye contact with the class. Towards the end of the week we will begin working on identifying what makes a sentence.





Spelling: Our first spelling words will be given out Tuesday. This week all students will be given the same spelling list due to the Labor Day holiday. Students should practice the spelling list throughout the week. They will be tested on Friday.





Reading: We spent last week reading several stories. These stories make up a series we call "Recipe for Success." The stories are chosen to emphasize admirable character traits. We will be wrapping up this series on Tuesday. Then we will review strategies that good readers use.





Things to Remember: Curriculum Night is Tuesday, September 4, 2007. It goes from 7:00 P.M. until 8:00 P.M. Meet in the multi-purpose/lunch room for introductions and instructions. I look forward to seeing you all.