Vaniman

The best day ever!!

Well, I was told today by several Vipers that today was the BEST DAY EVER!! That just makes me smile!

We had a very busy, but great day today. We started our day out with learning elapsed time. We reviewed our homework (thank you again for all of your dedication in getting homework completed) and talked about when we even need elapsed time in our lives. I shared with all the Vipers, that one of the times I really want my boys to know elapsed time is when we are in the car going on a trip. I told them that I always hear "How much longer???!!!" All of the Vipers had to admit they ask you the same question during their trips. SO, I told them they are no longer allowed to ask because they are becoming masters of elapsed time. All they need to know is what time it is now and what time we should get there. You're welcome!!  :)

We also had a visit from our park rangers. They asked questions about rocks and minerals at the beginning and they were extremely impressed by the knowledge the Vipers already had. Way to go Vipers! Then they gave us an opportunity to experience weathering. Each Viper was able to do a hands on activity to show weathering (either with sandpaper like small rocks, ice, another rock or water). I took some great pictures and will get them on the blog as soon as possible. After we experience weathering, we then talked about what soil was made of. ROCKS!! We went outside and each child got to plant at least 2 plants. We ran out of time, but we have more to plant and will hopefully get to continue on Monday to finish up the job.

Looking into next week, we have our Rocks and Minerals test on Tuesday as well as our celebration. Thank you to everyone for volunteering to bring in some edible minerals. You can send them in on Monday or Tuesday. Whatever works best for you.

Please remember we have testing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week. The tests are pretty short, but we need everyone here on time so we can start promptly in the morning.

We will continue our study of elapsed time and then begin to review back through all of our topics this quarter in Math before we take our benchmark tests. We will continue our guided reading groups which have been focusing on author's purpose, characters, plot, setting and connections to ourselves, our world and other texts. We will continue our study of the different types of sentences as well.

In order to further our knowledge of elapsed time, we are in need of a particular part of the newspaper. If you get the newspaper this weekend, if you could please send in the part that has movie times on it. Elapsed time is a hard concept to understand, but we are going to make it as real life as possible. We will be making word problems next week with movie times.

I hope everyone enjoys this beautiful weekend!

PTA Reflections Contest - Entries Due October 7th

"Diversity means..."

Unleash your artistic talents through the 2011-­2012 PTA Reflections program! The National PTA believes all children deserve a quality arts education and encourages students to pursue artistic expression through participation in its annual arts Reflections program.

The program offers students the opportunity to create works of art for fun and recognition.

The Reflections deadline for this year is October 7th! Entry forms and Reflections rules are available here or you can download the general rules here. 

Specific Category rules can be downloaded at the following link:  http://ptareflections.org/cs/rules_and_documents

Make sure you complete the Student Entry Form & include it with your entry!  Download 2011_Student Entry Form

For questions or more information, please contact the
Sope Creek PTA Reflections Committee: 
Deb Papenhagen (papenhagendeb@yahoo.com) or
Wendy Walden,(wendywalden@hotmail.com).

Conferences

 
Conferences are coming soon! Conference week is scheduled for October 24th-28th. The students will be dismissed at 12:20 and we will begin conferences shortly after that. I will talk with teachers of siblings in our class, so you will only come to school once. We will do our best to schedule your conferences back to back. At our conference, you will also receive progress reports.

Please let me know if you have a particular request. For example, if morning is the best time for you or if you can only meet on a particular day of the week, etc.

I am looking forward to it! 

Rocks and Minerals Rock!!

 We have become MASTERS in the rock world. We can identify the three types of rocks, body map them, and we have just learned the rock cycle. We sang the Rock Cycle song today. Have your child share it with you this weekend. We had several students use the LIFESKILL of courage to stand in front of the class and lead us (since Mrs. Vaniman is tone deaf!). Great work Vipers! We have just started our immersion wall today and will continue to add to it next week.

Monday we will be reviewing the scientific method along with performing a scratch test. The kids are SO excited about doing the scratch test! Our test on rocks, minerals and fossils is planned to be Oct. 4th assuming all goes as planned. I will let you know if it changes. We will finish up rocks and minerals at the beginning of next week and move onto fossils. Look for a study guide to come home on Thursday of next week, so you will have plenty of time to study.

Monday we will also be having guidance with Ms. Murphy and Tuesday will be library day. The Vipers are doing a great job using Destiny Quest. Everyone has been able to put in their "friends" and some have even started recommending books to each other! Way to take initiative Vipers!

In Math, we are moving through counting and comparing coins quickly. We have mastered this skill! We are ready to move onto making change. This will be our main focus for the beginning of the week and then we will move onto elapsed time. This is a difficult skill for 3rd graders to grasp, but we will continue to work on this skill throughout the year. Look for a homework sheet coming home on Thursday focusing on elapsed time. The Vipers will record when they started eating dinner and when they finished, began brushing their teeth and when they finished, etc. I will stress with them that this is not a race. I don't want anyone choking on food or coming to school with cavities because they were rushing. :)

Another exciting activity we have next week is a visit from the park rangers. Marjorie and Dave Thomas have worked with me for a couple of years now through a grant called First Bloom. We were lucky enough to be awarded the grant and will be continuing to use the grant money this year. The park rangers will be teaching us through hands on experiences about rocks, minerals and soil. We will be playing in the dirt as well as planting some plants. This will be on Friday!

Thanks again for sending in ALL of the Boosterthon money for our classroom. We were one of the only classrooms to have everyone bring in their money. If you haven't sent in your picture money or pictures, please send this in on Monday.

In your child's binder, you will also see an envelope and sheet for Octoberfest coming up. If you are intersted in coming and would like to buy a wristband, please fill out the information and send it back in on Monday.

I hope all of you are able to welcome fall in this weekend and enjoy this beautiful weather!

Tellus pictures and Octoberfest information

Well, I posted the pictures from Tellus yesterday, but for some reason they didn't show up. Let's try this again!

 

Octoberfest Information

2 Weeks Until Octoberfest!

Want to help by providing something delicious for our bake sale?  Please download the following form to find out how to help with the bake sale!  Download Octoberfest Bake Sale

Watch for armband order forms to come home with students on September 23rd!  Prices: 

• Students:  $10
• Preschoolers/Alumni/High Schoolers:  $5
• Adults and Children under 2:  FREE!
• Family Maximum:  $25

Questions?

• Bake Sale:  Stacy Baca {stacycarl@comcast.net}
• Armbands:  TongSuk Vignone {tvignone@gmail.com}
• General Questions:  Sandy Sweeney {sandyhsweeney@comcast.net}

Tellus!

Octoberfest is coming!

OCTOBERFEST – 3 weeks to go!

You don’t want to miss this year’s awesome inflatables and rides at Octoberfest!! New this year is the Blazing Mechanical Bull! Come try your hand at hanging on! Back again is the Terrific Titanic Slide, Mutiny on the Bouncer, the Ultimate Obstacle Challenge, Pirate 5-in-1 and the Justice League Double Challenge! Enjoy the train ride, lots of games and an all-time favorite, the Spider Jump!

Parents! We are ready to schedule volunteers to help make Octoberfest a great day! We need your help! Please see the link below to view all activities and times where volunteers are needed. We hope to sign up all volunteers via this website without having the Room Reps recruit you from each class. Please find your favorite activity and preferred time to sign up and help us fill these positions ASAP. Octoberfest is a great success because of you! Thank you for your support!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/octoberfest8
 
Questions? Contact Sandy Sweeney at sandyhsweeney@comcast.net.
 
Don’t miss this great family fun event! 
Saturday, October 1st from 2pm – 6pm

Our Greece Celebration!

Today we had our Greece celebration. Thank you for sending in so much yummy food! We voted and decided to eat our lunch in the classroom and watch part of the movie Hercules (thank you Arianna!). We were able to point out many of the columns we learned about as well as saw the gods and goddesses we researched.

Check out these great pictures from the Boosterthon

The pictures for some reason didn't come up last time. Let's try this again!

Thanks again to Patrick's mom for taking lots of great pictures!

 

Boosterthon Information

Parents,

Thank you for your support of this year’s Boosterthon Fun Run! The program was a huge success, but I still need your help. As a team everyone finished at 35 laps!  With all the laps we ran, that comes out to $2813!  If we can collect 100% by Tuesday, September 13th, $281.30 comes directly back to our classroom for us to use.

 

Please help your student get in touch with their sponsors today. Sponsors can pay 2 ways—Cash or Check.  Checks are written to Sope Creek PTA.

 

Your student went home with an envelope highlighting some key insructions.  You can also log on to www.funrun.com for all the information you may need.

 

Thanks again for your help and support of our class! Let’s work together to finish strong and reach our goal!

 

Thank you for your generosity and support of our class and Sope Creek!

 

Cheri