Miss Pellin's Post
January 7th – January 11th

Many thanks for all the wonderful gifts this holiday season. Please have a happy and safe holiday season. I look forward to seeing you “next year.” Happy New Year!

Prairieview School will be going on a field trip to the Tivoli Theater to see the movie The Polar Express on Friday, December 21st. Remember to bring a sack lunch to school.

After the break we will be celebrating the respect pillar of character counts. Remember to wear yellow on Friday, January 11th. We will be having our December reading party on Friday, January 11th as well.

The First Week of 2008 at School:

English: As we return to school, we will complete our narrative essays. We will also begin to review verbs.

Spelling: We will be studying “List 15.” We will have a pretest on Monday, January 7th. The final test will be on Friday, January 11th.

Reading: We will be examining stories to identify the sequence of events. The students will be asked to read and summarize a story's content.

Math: We will continue multiplication. This week’s mad minutes will focus on 4’s. The class will begin Chapter 4 which begins with problems involving time.

Social Studies: We will begin studying the traditions and cultures of people around the world (Chapter 3).

Science: We will conclude our study of matter. Condensation, the water cycle, and chemical changes will be the major topics.

Things to Remember:

Monday 1/7: There will be a Spelling list “List 15” pretest.
Friday 1/11: There will be a Spelling list “List 15” test. We will have our December reading party.

*Friday 12/21: We will be going on a field trip to see the Polar Express!

January Spirit Days:

Jan. 11 – Wear yellow for respect.

Contact Information:

Email address: mpellin@ccsd66.org
Voice mail: (630)783-5065

Miss Pellin's Post
December 17th - December 21st

We are all looking forward to winter break. Between now and then there is a lot to accomplish! I am so proud of both of my classes’ hard work (notice the plural possessive).

There will be no winter holiday party. Instead of having winter holiday parties this year, Prairieview School will be going on a field trip to the Tivoli Theater to see the movie The Polar Express on Friday, December 21st. Thank you to those parents who volunteered to help with the winter holiday party, but this will not be necessary. We will also go on a gym field trip (bowling) on Thursday, December 20th. Please return signed field trip permission slips as soon as possible!

This Week at School:

English: After going over the many parts of an excellent narrative paragraph including writing with voice, good beginnings, and using time order clues, we will continue to write our narrative essays. The goal for this week is to produce a rough draft from our graphic organizers, to review it, and to finish a final essay. I will be handing out a new more detailed rubric to help the students understand what is required. Please disregard the earlier version.

Spelling: There will be no spelling due to our field trips.

Reading: Tuesday, December 18th we will be having a vocabulary quiz on the Egyptian words I sent home Thursday, December 13th. We will have our final Egypt test on Friday, December 21st.

Math: We will have a Chapter 3 test on addition and subtraction of large numbers including word problems on Wednesday, December 19th. The study guides are due on Monday, December 17th. Please have students practice addition, subtraction, and problem solving using examples from their textbook. Along with the study guide, this will help the students prepare for the test.

This week we began multiplication. We had our first mad minute quiz on Friday, December 14th on multiplying by 2’s. Students will be taking a mad minute quiz every week for a grade. They will be introduced to a new multiplication fact on Monday and quizzed on Friday. Students will have 2 minutes to complete 26 problems. My goal is for each student to complete at least one fact each week. If they don’t meet this goal, they will continue to take the mad minute during class and recess time until it is passed. There is a website (www.multiplication.com) you can go to that has worksheets available to use for practicing multiplication. Also, flashcards were part of 3rd grade school supplies, so these can be used for studying.

Social Studies: This week we will focus on Science.

Science: We will have a quiz on our study of matter (experiments 1-5) on Thursday, December 20th. We will complete a matter study guide in class on Monday, December 21st. We have been studying the design of experiments. It is important to change only one variable (the independent variable) at a time.

Things to Remember:

Tuesday 12/18: There will be a vocabulary quiz on Egypt. We will be testing our ice insulaters.

Wednesday 12/19: There will be a Chapter 3 test in Mathematics.
Thursday 12/20: The non-fiction book report project is due. This change was due to the field trip on the December 21st. We will be going bowling after lunch for gym. Your child can bring money for snacks at the bowling alley, but it is optional.
Friday 12/21: We will be going on a field trip to see the Polar Express! We will have math for 30 minutes including the multiplication mad minute quiz. There will be a final test on our Egyptian reading unit.

December Spirit Days:

Dec. 21 - Holiday Wear

Contact Information:

Email address: mpellin@ccsd66.org

Voice mail: (630)783-5065

Miss Pellin's Post
December 10th - December 14th

We have only a few short weeks left until the winter holiday break! The class has been working very hard, but there are still many exciting things to learn about before break. I expect the students to answer with complete sentences, correct capitalization, and punctuation. Please remind them that every sentence has an end mark.

I would like to give a special thank you to everyone who donated money or presents to our family. You sent a very special message to a family who needed our extra help!

There will be no winter holiday party. Instead of having winter holiday parties this year, Prairieview School will be going on a field trip to the Tivoli Theater to see the movie The Polar Express on Friday, December 21st. Thank you to those parents who volunteered to help with the winter holiday party, but this will not be necessary. We will also go on a gym field trip (bowling) on Thursday, December 20th. Please return signed field trip permission slips as soon as possible. Also please return your signed report card envelopes.

This Week at School:

English: This week the class will concentrate on writing their own narrative essay. They will begin by filling out a graphic organizer. Then students will turn their graphic organizer into a rough draft. By the end of the week we will begin the editing process.

Spelling: This week we will be studying spelling “List 15.” We will have a pretest on Monday, December 10th. The final test will be on Friday, December 14th.

Reading: Cleopatra and King Tut will be the highlight of our readings on Egypt. We will have reading comprehension checks on the readings. We will also be emphasizing new vocabulary words associated with the unit.

Math: We will begin working on multiplication on Monday, December 10th! A packet will be sent home containing the multiplication facts that the students need to learn. We will also continue to work on Chapter 3 focusing on subtraction of large numbers and word problems.

Social Studies: This week we will focus on Science.

Science: We will begin the study of “matter” this week. The first experiment will introduce the concept of scales for measuring matter. We will also learn about the states of matter through “hands on” experiments!

Things to Remember:

Monday 12/10: There will be a Spelling pretest.

Friday 12/14: Where your school colors! There will be a final Spelling test
Thursday 12/20: The non-fiction book report project is due. This change was due to

the field trip on the December 21st.
Friday 12/21: We will be going on a field trip to see the Polar Express!

December Spirit Days:

Dec. 14 - School Spirit Day

Dec. 21 - Holiday Wear

Contact Information:

Email address: mpellin@ccsd66.org

Voice mail: (630)783-5065