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