Cold Weather Experiments

Our Cold Weather Experiement


Click on the link above to see one of our videos from this mornings cold weather experiments!

Experiment #2!

We had some fun with the cold weather this morning. We also tested out frozen bubbles. We only lasted about 7 minutes all bundled up, but it was fun while it lasted. If you get a chance tonight, test out some of these experiments. We didn't have enough time to get the water fully boiling, so we ended up with some water left over that didn't turn to steam.

*both of the videos should be set to private on youtube*

Ecosystems project

December really snuck up on me this year! We just finished a chapter in science about animals. We are moving on to a chapter about living things and their environments, which usually leads me to a project on ecosystems. It is my favorite project in 3rd grade, and I really wanted the chance to do it before I am done at St. Michael's.

I sent home the information today, but if you look it over and find that you have questions, please let me know. The project is due on Wednesday, December 18th. We will present the projects to the other classrooms on Thursday of that week. If the packet does not make it home, please let me know and I will send another copy.

I know that Christmas time gets a little busy and crazy at home, so we will be doing a lot of the research here at school. Feel free to do research at home if you'd like, but we will have time to start ideas and learn about our ecosystems here at school, too. Usually I assign a food web to be completed at home, but we will do that part here at school, as well. The 3rd graders took notes as I was discussing the project, so hopefully it all makes sense. Feel free to contact me if you need any help. I also discussed that parents can help, but I want the majority of the project to be completed by your student. They also need to write a 3-4 paragraph report. That report should reflect your child's writing ability. Thanks for your help and commitment at home to complete this project!

Have a great week and a wonderful Advent season.

A FEW REMINDERS AND DATES:

December 12th- Christmas Program 6:30pm in the GYM. Doors will open at 6:15pm. Children need to wear their Christmas best. NO JEANS!
December 18th-Ecosystem projects due
December 19th-Pizza and Ice Cream Party in our classroom
December 20th-Last day before Christmas break-my last day :-( Bowling party in the morning

We're done!!

As a celebration for finishing our North Dakota State Testing, we made our topographical maps today. The 3rd graders are busy making islands that have peninsulas, rivers, lakes, volcanoes, hills, mountains, valleys and plateaus. They are learning how to distinguish between plateaus, mountains and hills. They are messy and loving it!! Here are a few pictures from our day! Tomorrow we will paint them. I'll try to add some pictures of that fun, too.

A couple views of our final projects 

What a fun afternoon! We are all glad to be done with our testing. Just a few reminders. You will find the coupon for bracelets for Harvest Hoe Down in your family file folder sent home today (Thursday). 3rd grade will have a test on the Ten Commandments tomorrow. We also have a spelling test. We finished reviewing for our science test, but we won't have a lot of time at home to study. I am going to make it an open note test because I don't want to stretch it out to another week. I'd like to move on to something new next week. Hope to see you all at Harvest Hoe Down! 

Fall Fun(d) Fest Baskets

Please note a change to the date for turning in basket donations. I would like to have everything here by tomorrow (October 23rd) if possible. Our dates got a little mixed up with the Fun(d) Fest organizers and they would like them turned in as soon as possible. Thank you for understanding, and thank you to all those who have donated items to our basket!

North Dakota State Testing

Please remember that we are beginning our ND State Testing this week. We will have 5 different reading and language arts tests and 3 math tests. So far this morning the testing is going well! They are working hard and taking their time. We've almost finished 2 parts of our reading and language arts. We broke up our morning with a long break of free time and snack. 

Please remember to send 2 snacks each day. We need some extra energy to get us through these few days. We will still have a spelling test this week, just so we don't get off track too much for our school year. We will also have a short science test this week. Your child will come home with a ziploc bag of science cards to study. We may have a few short math lessons for homework as well, but I am planning on keeping the week pretty light for at home work. 

Don't forget that we have Harvest Hoe Down this Thursday in the school gym. Costumes are allowed, but please make sure they are appropriate and not too scary. It is a family event, so young children will be there, too. 

We are still taking donations for our Fall Fun(d) Fest basket. We have Candyland, Sequence for Kids, Farkle, a puzzle, hair beading set, jewelry making set, and Dominoes. We are looking for some other games, snacks or drinks to add to the collection. You can send items in until the end of this week. If you'd like to send a cash donation, feel free to do so by the end of the week as well. I will go shopping with that money this weekend. Thanks to all who have donated already! 

If you have any questions about what's going on in the classroom, please let me know. Have a great week. 

Fall Fun(d) Fest baskets

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our silent auction basket. Here is a quick update of the items we have so far:

hair beader
jewelry kit
puzzle
Candyland
Farkle
Sequence for Kids
dominoes



If you are looking for some other ideas, here are some choices:

cards
board games
Twister
snacks
juice
pop
art supplies
or cash donations ( I do love to go shopping!)

If you have any questions please let me know. Thanks!

Reminder

Please remember that conferences are coming up next week. If you are unsure of your time, please contact me through e-mail at jenny.steele@stmichaelsgf.com

Also, thank you to those of you who have donated items for the silent auction basket. Our theme is family game night/rainy day. I only have a few items so far, so please consider donating if you can. You do receive commitment points for the dollar amount you donate. Thank you!

Getting into the swing of things...

Welcome back to our new school year! I hope you are feeling a little more settled, and you are falling into a routine to start out the year.

The 3rd graders have been very busy already. We're working on comparing and ordering numbers, safety in science, types of communities in social studies and of course we're reading and writing every day.

I am enjoying the chance to get to know each of the individuals in our class. Each one brings something special into the small group and it will be great to watch everyone grow throughout the year.

A FEW NOTES:

Our e-mail server has been changed, so please note my new e-mail address: jenny.steele@stmichaelsgf.com  E-mails will be forwarded to this account from the old one for a few months, but please use this one if possible.

3rd grade has their first Mass this week! I don't usually send the reading parts home because we get a lot of practice time in the classroom and at church throughout the week. I will send it home if it has some tricky words. Please join us if you can.

Baby Boy Steele!!

I wanted to let you all know that our little one made his debut a little over 2 weeks early.

Evan Carter  6-7-13 10:50 pm  7lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches

He is a little peanut, and has been a pretty good boy so far.

Nolan, Mackenzie and Evan

heading home!!

I hope you all are having a great summer! 

Book orders and pizza party

This is a note that will be sent home today (Thursday May 9th) 

I want to get in one last book order, so you can look for some new summer reading for your children. In order for them to (hopefully) be here by the end of the school year, I would like them back TOMORROW. Sorry for the short notice. If for some reason they are not in before school ends, I will deliver them to you.

A reminder that our online code is: H2ZWL

Please be sure all online orders are placed tonight or early tomorrow

 morning as well. With the online orders you can also purchase books from other book orders for younger or older siblings. 

We will be having our classroom celebration for Confirmation and Holy Eucharist on Friday May 10^th. I will have pizza for the class along with some apples and caramel. Please send a drink for your child, but be sure it has some type of cap.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks! 

And so it begins....

Our 3rd grade crazy week!!!

Here is a detailed description of our next week or so in 3rd grade:

MONDAY APRIL 29:
-Play practice 10:30-11:30
-Practice for May Crowning Mass
-Practice/discuss Confirmation and Holy Eucharist in the classroom
-STUDY for Social Studies test tomorrow (no spelling test this week)


TUESDAY APRIL 30:
-Dress rehearsal 1:00pm in the gym  Make sure ALL costumes are here in the morning.
-Spring Show 6:00pm in the gym

WEDNESDAY MAY 1:
-Practice for May Crowning
-Practice/discuss Confirmation and Holy Eucharist in the classroom

THURSDAY MAY 2:
-May Crowning Mass 8:45am in the church (LAST 3rd grade Mass of the year)
-Practice/discuss Confirmation and Holy Eucharist in the classroom
-Rehearsal/practice     in the Church

FRIDAY MAY 3:
-Practice/discuss and go over any other questions for the big day!

SATURDAY MAY 4:
-be there at 11:45 for individual pictures
-group picture is at 12:30 and we'd like everyone there for it
-Confirmation and Holy Eucharist Mass begins at 1:00pm
-CELEBRATE!!!!


A look ahead to next week:

WEDNESDAY MAY 8;
I will be sending home the permission slip for Bonanzaville today (Monday). Please get your money and the permission slip back as soon as possible, so we have everything in order for the trip.

The cost will be $3.00 and you will need to send a bagged lunch and a drink with a screw on top. We will have a few coolers, but would prefer to have things that do not need to be cooled, or your own insulated lunch box with an ice pack. Please remember that your child needs to wear uniform of black pants and red shirt for the field trip as well. We'll talk about the weather as we get closer, but hopefully it will be a nice, clear day!

Let mw know if you have any other questions about the trip.

Bike Rodeo

The Optimist Club has suggested that we move our Bike Rodeo to a later date due to cold temperatures and the fact that our parking lot still has a lot of snow. The section with snow in our lot is where all of the teachers need to park the day of the rodeo. 

We have moved the Bike Rodeo to TUESDAY, MAY 14th at 1:30pm. Please do NOT send the bike this Thursday (25th). Instead send it on the above date. You can still drop it off in the morning and it will be locked up until the rodeo begins at 1:30. I will still ask the students to bring a change of clothing, so they are not in uniform. Please send clothes appropriate for bike riding and weather. 


I am still  looking for someone or a few people to help out with bikes the morning of the bike rodeo.

I drop off both of my children at different locations (preschool and daycare) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I usually pull into the school lot right at 8am on those days.  I am looking for someone to be at the gym doors for about 15 minutes on Thursday morning. 

Mrs. Kochmann will unlock the gym door at 7:45 and all 3rd grade parents can drop off students and bikes at the gym door. I don't want to leave that area unattended during that time, so if you are able to hang around from 7:45-8:05am, please send me an e-mail (jenny.steele@sendit.nodak.edu) to let me know. 

It would also be helpful to have another volunteer at the end of the day from about 2:50-3:05 to help get bikes out and back to their owners. If you are able to help out with this part, please let me know as well. 

Thank you for your flexibility with this event. Who knew we'd still be worried about snow piles at the end of April! If you have any questions please let me know. Thanks! 

Bike Volunteer!

I am looking for someone or a few people to help out with bikes the morning of the bike rodeo.

I drop off both of my children at different locations (preschool and daycare) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I usually pull into the school lot right at 8am on those days. I know a lot of parents drop off their children before that time, so I am looking for someone to be at the gym doors for about 15 minutes on Thursday morning. 

Mrs. Kochmann will unlock the gym door at 7:45 and all 3rd grade parents can drop off students and bikes at the gym door. I don't want to leave that area unattended during that time, so if you are able to hang around from 7:45-about 8:00am, please send me an e-mail (jenny.steele@sendit.nodak.edu) to let me know. 

It would also be helpful to have another volunteer at the end of the day from about 2:50-3:05 to help get bikes out and back to their owners. If you are able to help out with this part, please let me know as well. 

Thanks so much! 

Report Card Envelopes/Next Few Weeks

REPORT CARD ENVELOPES

I am getting ready to send home trimester 3 midterm grades tomorrow. I noticed that I am missing a lot of the report card envelopes that have been sent home for each trimester and midterm. Please send it back if you happen to have it at home.

Please return the envelopes on Monday after you have seen the midterm grades as well. I will use them one more time this year to send home final grades. Thanks so much! I can't believe we only have a little over a month left to go.

APRIL 29-MAY 4

Our week of April 29-May 4th is going to be very busy. We talked about it today in class. We will be practicing for the Spring Concert (April 30th), May Crowning (May 2nd) and Confirmation/Holy Eucharist (Rehearsal May 2nd, BIG DAY!! May 4th). If you have any questions about any of things as they come, please do not hesitate to call or e-mail me. We will not have a spelling test or reading test that week.

BIKE RODEO

As of now, our bike rodeo is still planned for next Thursday, April 25th at 1:30pm. You can drop bikes off in the morning at the gym door. We will put them in the corridor between the gym and the outside doors. They will be locked in there when we are not using them. Please make sure your child comes to school with a CHANGE of clothes being it is a Mass day. I don't want them out in the wet parking lot in Mass uniform. We will change right after lunch into bike and weather appropriate clothing. We'll see if it actually gets into the 40's or 50's as we get closer to the date. Also, please be sure to make arrangements to pick up the bikes at the end of the day. The rummage sale will be set up that week, and I would hate for any bikes to be left behind and mistaken for sale. 

Trinity Youth Camp

A lot of you probably heard from your child that we had a visit from Trinity Youth Camp on Wednesday. A brochure should have come home with your child as well.

A few things about their visit:

**You can use their website to look for any extra information that you need.

**They mentioned the Red Willow Camp dates fill up quickly because it is the closest to Grand Forks, Fargo, Valley City, Jamestown, Grafton... If you are interested in this one, they asked that you get your registration in as quickly as possible.

**If you are looking for more information on any of the listed camps, you can search any of them and they have their own websites as well.

Spelling Tests

We are going to be changing our format on our spelling tests for the last 6 tests of the school year. I will test them on the first 15 words for our pretest on Mondays. If they get 0-3 incorrect they will get the 5 challenge words at the end of our spelling list.

If they get the extra words:
The spelling test on Friday will be out of 20 possible points. We will no longer have bonus points on tests.

If they do the regular 15:
The spelling test on Friday will be out of 15 possible points. I won't have bonus points for this test either.

I will enter the tests as two separate assignments in the grade book, so your child will only have possible points for the test he or she has taken.

I like to change it at the end of the year to show a more accurate grade in spelling. If you have any questions after you see the first test come home this Friday, please let me know. Thanks!

Ecosystems

I loved seeing all of the wonderful ecosystem projects in our classroom. I especially loved how well each student presented his or her work to the other classrooms. Everyone was very prepared and educated on their ecosystems.

I am in the process of finishing grades on the projects. I will be sending them home by Wednesday of next week. I was out sick and then out with a little one who was sick. I feel like I need to get back into school mode! Thank you for your patience.

The projects are awesome. It is making my grading pretty easy! Thank you for your support at home with the projects as well.

Iditarod

The 3rd graders will begin a reading unit on the Iditarod this week. We will be reading the short story The Bravest Dog Ever, The True Story of Balto. We will have a spelling test this week with words from the story. We will not have a pretest, and there are only 15 words again this week. We will focus on them more as vocabulary words as well. I will also have them do a written test at the end of the week about the story.

We will also do a couple other projects throughout the week that have to do with the Iditarod. We will be heading to the computer lab a lot over the next few weeks. Today each student will research and choose a musher (racer) in the actual Iditarod race that begins Saturday March, 2nd. They will research the date of birth, why the musher got into racing, what accomplishments the musher has made and why they chose this musher.

After the race begins, we will head to computer lab daily or every other day to monitor the progress of our mushers. We will keep track of their times, number of dogs they have when they get to each checkpoint and how many dogs leave each checkpoint. We will also monitor each mushers' place in the race.

The website we will be using is iditarod.com  There are a lot of really neat free features on the site. Your child can watch the beginning of the race for their musher over the weekend if you would like.
We will also be learning a lot about Alaska and its history.


*Please remember that the Ecosystem project is due next Monday, March 4 with presentations beginning March 5th. Let me know if you have any questions. We will be going over food webs and food chains today and tomorrow in science class.

*Parent-teacher conferences are March 5th and March 7th.

*There is no school on March 8th (conference trade day).

Ecosystem Projects

Today we began a chapter on ecosystems. We discussed the definition and what makes up an ecosystem (living and non-living things). Our ecosystem chapter leads us to our BIG third grade project on ecosystems. Your child will be bringing home a packet of information about the project today. We discussed all of the guidelines and they asked some great questions. If you find they, or you, have other questions as you are working on it, please do not hesitate to call or send an e-mail.

You will see a sheet of paper about food chains and food webs attached to the guidelines. We have not learned about those in class yet, so I asked the class to work on that part of the project a little later.

Your child will choose one of the listed ecosystems and create any type of poster board that illustrates the animals, plants and landscapes of that ecosystem. I asked them to do most of the work on their own (drawing, coloring, writing), but feel free to help where needed (internet, spelling).

They will also have to write a paper about their ecosystem including the weather that is found there. On the packet website page I attached, you will find a website for average yearly temperature for each ecosystem. It is a NASA website, but I found that it may be under construction or temporarily deleted in the next few days. You may have to do some other research for the weather and precipitation. Let me know if you are having a hard time with that part. Otherwise all the other websites should be working sites. Just be careful typing them into the search bar.

Take a look at the guidelines and expectations. If you have any questions please let me know. Your child should have a pretty good idea about what to do, but sometimes information gets lost between school and home!

Have fun with the project, and please let your child do most of the work!

PROJECTS ARE DUE MONDAY MARCH 4th! We will present them to other classes beginning on MARCH 5th! 

This is the cover page of the information that was sent home. If your child misplaces any parts of the packet, please let me know and we will get another one sent home. 

Ecosystem Project

3^rd grade

Here are the guidelines for your ecosystem project

1.  You may choose one ecosystem listed on the next page.

2.  You need to design that ecosystem on a poster board or tag board.

3.   Include the animals, plants and landscapes that would be found in that ecosystem.

4.   You will also need to write a short report (3 or 4 paragraphs) about your ecosystem. When you write the paper, please include your favorite animals and plants from the ecosystem and what type of weather (temperature and precipitation) would be found there as well. Make sure to do your writing in your own words and use what you have learned in writer’s workshop about how to write a paragraph.

5.   Your poster and report are due on March 4th. All work should be completed at home. We will have other classrooms come to visit our classroom, so be prepared to answer questions about your ecosystem.

6.  You may use any resources you would like, but the websites included would be very helpful. Some websites will take you directly to the animals, weather, plants or land description. Some websites will take you to a homepage and you will have to look around for your information.

7.   Have fun and I can’t wait to see your projects!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thank you to all of the family members who came to our class Ash Wednesday Mass. We didn't get a lot of time to practice with a snow day on Monday and a funeral in the church on Tuesday, but the kids did an amazing job! I was very impressed with how well they kept it together when we practiced in a somewhat loud and crazy environment in the church after the funeral. Awesome job 3rd graders!


We enjoyed a small Valentine party this afternoon in the classroom. We had 3 stations. The first one was Punny Valentines. You will see it come home. It has 6 pictures and silly puns written under each valentine picture. The 2nd station was a Bible verse written out with the letters VALENTINE. Our 3rd activity was an ending project to our life cycle/living things chapter in science. They had to make a life cycle of a butterfly using shapes of pasta. They did a great job on all stations, and it was fun to hear them doing science review without even thinking about it at the butterfly station.

A few reminders and upcoming dates:

Friday February 15th-Stations of the Cross in the Church 8:45am, Science test in class as well
Friday February 22nd-No School, teacher in-service day, end of 2nd trimester
March 5, 7- Parent/Teacher conferences You will get a notice from the office as this date approaches.
Friday March 8th-No School (Conference Trade Day)

I will hand out report cards during conferences, and I will also be discussing your child's scores on the ND State test we took in October. We are mapping the results and will have them ready for distribution during conference week.

Catholic Schools Week!

We are in full swing of Catholic Schools Week and everyone is having a great time! 3rd graders are still managing to get a lot done in the classroom, including our social studies test and multiplication facts. They are doing a great job with multiplication and I hope the songs aren't getting stuck in our mom and dad's heads as much as they are in the 3rd graders' heads!

A few people have asked questions about Valentine's Day. 3rd graders will make a container or bag for their valentines here at school. You do not need to send a box for your child. Here is our class list. I will also send a printed form of this home next week.

Audrey
Emma
Will
Levi
Sean
Tommy
Avery
Paige
Anne
Clay
Alex
Kyle
Blake
Grace
Katelyn
Zach

If you have any other questions about it, please let me know! Thanks!

Happy Catholic Schools Week! Thank you for choosing to send your children to a Catholic school and offering them a faith-filled start to their education.

Landforms

Thanks again to all the volunteers who helped make clay for our landform project. The 3rd graders had a great time, and we ended up with a lot of extra clay. The class got some of the extra clay to make anything that they wanted. We have very creative 3rd graders!

Here are a some pictures of the class making their landforms and a few pictures of the final products.

Back to the routine!

We are back at it! We have been working hard today getting back into the swing of things in the classroom. We used the morning to clean and rearrange desks, write about our Christmas breaks and have a class meeting.

We will also begin multiplication this week, and we will begin working on writing in cursive as well. 3rd graders will begin learning about vertebrates and invertebrates in science. I will also be looking for volunteers to make  a type of play-doh at home for us to make landforms in the classroom. The recipe is simple and we will begin the landforms on Friday this week. I will send a note home about it today (Monday) looking for volunteers. If you are able to help out, please return the note on Tuesday and keep the recipe for yourself at home. Thanks in advance for helping us with this project!


Our 2nd trimester mid-term cutoff date will be this Friday. I will send home mid-term reports next week.

Happy New Year everyone and as always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.