November News
Conferences and report cards are coming up. Reminders will be going home the week before. I
am looking forward to meeting with you that week and reviewing your third grader’s progress. Please
remember to go over the report card with your child after the conference. Also ask them if they have
any concerns and how they feel about their progress. It is a good time to set goals and talk about pride
in work.
The three weeks before Thanksgiving vacation we will be participating in a Pilgrim simulation as
part of our language arts and social studies. The class will be divided into four cooperative Mayflower
groups. Students will vicariously experience the hardships of life in the New World as they make
decisions and face consequences just as the Pilgrims did 400 years ago. They will write in their Pilgrim
journals everyday and help and encourage each other to do their best. By the end of the simulation we
will all have a deeper understanding of why the Pilgrims gave thanks and why we honor them today.
In November the third graders will be collecting new or “gently used” books to donate to the San
Jose Mercury News book drive. There will be a box in the back of the classroom. The third grade also
raised $275 from change and donations at the book fair. This was enough to buy 53 books to donate
to Costano school in East Palo Alto. In addition Scholastic books will be donating 100 books to needy
kids because our class has read and kept track of over 100 books since Sept.
We had a great Halloween party thanks to our room parents Leisa Pappas, Kathleen Lund, and Jill
Swidler. They provided us with wonderful treats. We also played candy corn bingo.
Curriculum
Introducing multiplication and continuing geometry will be our focus in math for the next month.
Now would be a good time to buy or make the multiplication and division flash cards and start
practicing with the 2’s and 3’s.
In science we have completed the observation of the crayfish and are finishing up the life cycle of
the bean plant. They have also completed their field guides. Please come and see them. Each student
researched a plant and animal in their group’s ecosystem. The third graders will be picking an animal
to research and give a brief report later this month. The internet and the encyclopedia are good sources
for their research. We start the physical science unit “Matter and Energy” in December.
The scarecrows are coming home this week and are to be decorated as a home project and returned
by Monday the 9th. I hope the children will have fun and use their imaginations and whatever materials
are around. You can view them at the conferences.
Also coming up in November is cranberry fact research, making cranberry bread, watching our
kindergarten buddies practice their Thanksgiving play, and the “handful feast” which culminates our
Pilgrim simulation,