Back from Thanksgiving

Dear Families & Friends,
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break.  There is so much for us all to be thankful for.  Before the break the class took some time to think about what they were thankful for.  They displayed these through their "turkey glyphs."  A glyph is a graph that tells the viewer information through visuals. A key is used to determine what the glyph means.
Here is our key as well as some examples of the turkey glyphs.  See if you can figure out information about the students who made each turkey...
Key:
brown body - born in San Diego     white body - born outside of San Diego
big eyes - 9 years old     small eyes - 8 years old
white feet - like to play sports     orange feet - don't like to play sports
orange beak - boy    yellow beak - girl
red wattle - wear glasses     orange waddle - don't wear glasses
feathers = we are thankful for....
green - family, dark blue - friends, pink - having a home to live in, light blue, having food to eat, purple, having clothes to wear

Before vacation we also took a fieldtrip to the City Heights Library.  We saw a great animal show with animals from the rainforests and deserts of South America!  The students even got to pet an alligator!  After the animal show we were given a tour of the library and the students had an opportunity to read.  Thank you so much to all of the chaperones!  This fieldtrip would not have been possible without you!

Another exciting occurrence in 3rd grade was that the La Jolla Rotary Club came to our classroom & donated dictionaries!  Each student now has their very own dictionary that they can use in class and at home.  We have already found so many uses for them.

Thank You La Jolla Rotary Club!

Into November

Dear Families,    

The class at the Dia de los Muertos festival wearing their calaveras masks.

The students making paper flowers

     Last Friday the 3rd graders took a field trip to the City Heights Library, where Proyecto de Casas put on a Dia de los Muertos festival.  The students were excited to meet members from the community and learn about Dia de los Muertos traditions, such as creating altars and decorating sugar skulls (calaveras).  

learning about the Kumeyaay

     When we returned to school we were greeted by families who were joining us for our publishing party.  The class worked really hard on their memoirs & were so excited to share their work.  The students wrote their memoirs about a time in their life that was very important or memorable to them,  Thank you so much to those of you who were able to join us for the party & for bringing treats.  If you were unable to make it to the publishing party we are planning many more throughout the year.  I will also be hanging up many of the memoirs in the classroom.  Feel free to stop by and read them before or after school.

Philip's dad talking to Broc about his memoir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Broc's mom is listening to Bryan's memoir

    

    

     This week in writing the class began their letters to their pen-pals.  One of my good friends teaches 4th grade in San Francisco & we thought it would be fun for our classes to be pen-pals.  I am sending the letters out on Friday & hopefully we will hear back from our new friends very soon! 
     In math we are starting a measurement unit.  The students are learning how to read rulers to the nearest milimeter, whole, 1/2, and 1/4 centimeter & inch.  We will eventually move into determining area and perimeter.  Please work with your students at home on these topics.  If you are working on a project that involves measurement, get your students involved or just measure objects around your house.  I am also going to be sending home "fact triangles" in your student's go home folder.  These can be used like flash cards but are so much better because they will help the students learn the relationship between addition & subtraction.  Your kids have used these in class, so please ask them to show you how to use them.  Quiz your students daily to help them learn their basic math facts.  Knowing these facts will help them in every aspect of mathematics.
     Our biome project is in full swing.  The students have broken up into groups & each group is focusing on creating a "museaum display" highlighting one of the six biomes.  Once we have finished our projects we will be inviting you in to take a tour of our museum.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Friday, November 11th - no school for Veteran's Day
Friday, November 18th - Filed trip to the library - permission slip is going home tomorrow
No school the week of the 21st for Thanksgiving Break