Sierra Club Hike

The group of hikers

SaNay Maung climbing the huge tree we came across

3rd graders in the tree

      Last Friday we spent a great day with volunteers from the Sierra Club.  First we went to Mission Trails where we went on a great hike to a small water fall.  There were trees and boulders along the way for students to climb.  After a delicious picnic lunch we drove up to Mt. Laguna where we spent a fun-filled afternoon sledding and having snowball fights. 
     Thank you Christina, Mabel, and Suzie for chaperoning & making this trip possible!  We also want to thank the Sierra Club and Bill for taking us on this awesome trip.  We are planning a possible camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park in April.  If your student is interested please let me know.

Bill, Jennifer, & Arianna flying in the sled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SaNay Maung & Javhi getting some air

 

 

 

 

February Update

Dear Families & Friends,

This past week was a great one in the 3rd grade classroom & we have a lot of exciting activities coming up!


Dates To Keep In Mind:
Tuesday, February 14th - Free Dress Day & Valentine's Day Party
Friday, February 17th - Sierra Club Hike (be at school at 9:00am sharp)

Friday, February 17th and Monday, February 20th - No School
Tuesday, February 28th - Field Trip to the Barona Cultural Museum (permission slip went home today)

Last week in MATH the students began their GEOMETRY unit.  This unit started with learning about rays, lines, & line segments.  Then the students moved into parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting lines as well as right, acute, and obtuse angles.  Here are some photos of the students practicing lines and angles as a class...

intersecting lines - 2 obtuse angles & 2 acute angles

parallel lines

perpendicular lines - 4 right angles

right angle = 90 degrees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

acute angle = smaller than 90 degrees

Thank you so much to all of the volunteers that helped us on our field trip to the City Heights Library.  Our fun trips would not be possible without you!  We had a great time at the library.  We learned all about many animals from Africa.  We saw animals like an alligator, hedgehog, a turtle, a tortoise, milipedes, and a kit fox.

Broc petting Ali the alligator

Ashea got to pet the desert fox

The students knew all the right answers when comparing and contrasting a turtle & tortoise thanks to our recent reading lessons.  I was a very proud teacher!

 

 

 

On Wednesday, Heather from Revolutions Food came in for a lesson about healthy eating.  We got to sample dark chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate.  Then we compared and contrasted the 3 types of chocolates.  We learned how chocolate was made & that dark chocolate is the best for us because it has the least amounts of milk and sugar.  Then we combined chocolate with dried cranberries, pretzels, popcorn, and nuts to make a healthy trailmix snack.

Heather came in to teach us about healthy eating

healthy snacks

excited to try out trail mix

February

Hi Families & Friends,

The 3rd graders have been very busy since we returned from vacation.  In math we just finished a unit on place value.  The students learned place value up to the millions and down to the hundreths.  The unit test went home in their blue folders today.  Please look over the test with your student.

place value to the hundreths - decimals & fractions

We have now moved on to GEOMETRY.  Yesterday & today the students were learning about line segments, rays, & lines.  Next week we will be moving on to angles.

In Language Arts the students are learning a lot!  We are using double bubble maps to compare and contrast information from expository (informative non-fiction) text.  We are then taking this information and writing summaries of the expository text.  

comparing & contrasting alligators and crocodiles

The students are also learning how to use apostrophes to show possession for singular and plural nouns.  For example:

The boy's book is lost.  (singular)

The boys' books are lost. (plural)

The man's hat is brown. (singular)

The men's hats are brown. (plural)

Each Friday we will continue to write our Friday Letters.  Please read your letter with your student over the weekend, sign it, and return it to school with them on the following Monday.  If you would like to write any questions or comments to me on these letters, feel free!

In social studies we are continuing to study the Kumeyaay, who used to live all over San Diego county and even parts of Mexico.  The students have been learning about the types of shelter, food, clothing, and tools the Kumeyaay had.  Next week will learn about the economic systems and how the Kumeyaay got what they needed through trading & bartering.  On February 28th we are scheduled to visit the Kumeyaay Museum.  Please keep this date in mind as we will need chaperones!

poster categorizing the food the Kumeyaay ate

IMPORTANT DATES:

February 9th - field trip to the City Heights Library for African Animal show

February 14th - Valentine's Day party & Free Dress Day

February 17th & 20th - No School for President's Day

February 17th - Sierra Club Hike (more information below)

February 28th - Filedtrip to the Barona Cultural Museum

February 10 - 16th - Scholastic Book Fair (in the auditorium)

AFCS is teaming up with the Sierra Club in order to take our students on fun, outdoor adventures!  The San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club sponsors hundreds of outings and trips each year. They vary widely in type and difficulty. All outings are led by Chapter Outing Leaders (COLs) who have been through required training courses.  Our COL, Bill, and I will be taking eight of our 3rd graders on a hike February 17th.  This will just be a relatively easy day hike.  We will leave from school and return to school for pick-up after the hike.  Students will be chosen based on demonstrations of respect to classmates & teacher, responsibility, and effort given in class.  If your student is selected a permission slip & more information will go home.  This is a great opportunity for your student to see parts of San Diego they have never seen and to get exercise!

Congratulations to Giovanni, Javhi, Ethan, Citlaly, Bryan, Kyi, and Sanay Maung for your perfect attendance awards in January.  Keep up the great work!

Before the Long Break

Dear Friends & Families,

I hope that everyone had a happy holiday and a great vacation.  The 3rd grade had some fun before we left for our month off. 

Thank you Christina for your help with our gingerbread houses!

In math we finished our unit on multiplication and division.  The students have many strategies that will help them solve these types of problems.  Please continue to work with them at home on their math fact triangles.  This will ensure they memorize their facts.

The students spent December learning to write Response to Literature.  In this writing the student reads a story, summarizes the important events & details, and then responds to the piece on a personal level.

The students were excited to present their biome projects to the 1st graders and many parents who came to join us for the "museum opening."

A BIG thank you to all of the parents who came to Open House & the Art Gala.  The students in our class have to much talent and we are so proud of our friends who were showcased!

Philip showing his Atlas Project to his mom & brother at Open House

Luis & his family at Open House

Jennifer preparing for her Ballet Folklorico performance

  

Hip Hop - Check out Javhi, Broc, Belle, Giovanni, & Citlaly

Exciting Events...

Dear Families & Friends
There are many upcoming events at AFCS

Open House & Art Gala - December 8th 4:00-8:00 pm
Please come see the wonderful learning that has been going on in our classroom.  Open house in the rooms is from 4-6pm.  The Art Gala will follow in the show room from 6-8pm.  Tickets for the art show are $5.00.  Open House in the classroom is FREE.

3rd Grade Biome Museum - December 8th 1:30-2:00 pm
The 3rd graders have been working so hard on their biome displays.  The students broke into research groups & learned all about the special plant and animal adaptations that help these species survive in each biome.

Aquatic - Ethan, Blake, & Sa Nay Maung

Tundra - Karen, Kyi, & Giovanni

Grasslands - Jennifer, Alissa, & Luis

Rain Forest - Arianna, Bryan, & Philip

Coniferous & Deciduous Forets - Hailey, Javhi, & Broc

Desert - Belle, Citlaly, & Mariah

  

Reading Buddies - Mondays at 3:00 pm

The 5th graders have teamed up with us on Monday afternoons to help us with our reading.  Sometimes we read to them & they help us with decoding and vocabulary.  Other times they read to us and we get to enjoy stories that may be too difficult for us to read.













Math has been so much fun in the 3rd grade.  We started multiplication and division this week.  The students are beginning to understand the idea of equal groups, bringing them together and splitting them apart.  Here are examples of the different ways the students are finding to solve multiplication & division problems.

Five different ways the students found to solve 16 divided by 4

Javhi using counters to help him solve a multiplication problem

Thank you for reading!  Feel free to come in, call, or email me with any questions!

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