Dance Mats by Bryan

3rd grade is doing a program with the dance mats.It is fun practicing in the gym.There are two different kinds of dance mats the practice mats and the metal mats.The people with the highest score will preform on the metal mats.This is going to be a fun program.

Harriet Tubman by Jared

Harriet Tubman was born a slave. She believed in freedom. Harriet got married to Mr. John Tubman and she told Mr. Tubman that she wanted to runaway. Mr. Tubman did not want Harriet to runaway.Harriet ran away to Canada were she could be free. Harriet came back and helped people escape to Canada.

Martin Luther King, Jr. by Bailee

Martin Luther King,Jr had a dream.He wanted black and white people to be equal.Martin Luther King Jr. wanted them to not be slaves.He gave a speech and won the Nobel Peace Prize.He was killed by a white person and we celebrate him for what he did.

COME BACK SOON!

I hope to let the students start blogging by next week. Blogs are a great way for students to write and receive feedback on their thoughts and writing skills. I hope you will make comments to the students to give them encouragement to keep writing with a purpose. Visit us again soon!

Why Homework?

There are many views on the value of homework. Here are some of my views:
1) it allows a student extra practice
2) parents can actively take part in their child's learning
3) it establishes good study habits for later in life
4) it sets priorities in learning

Your child's education is the most important thing to me next to my own family. I encourage each of you to want to see what your child is learning and the process they take to learn the information. Homework gives you the insight to learning struggles as well as learning successes. It is not meant as a punishment to ANY child for any reason. It is to enhance the learning done in the classroom.

Take the time to sit with your child as they do their homework. We are all busy and most of the time, as parents, we tell our children to get their homework done and then let us check it. We rarely sit and actively participate. Sit on the sofa, on the bed and read books together. Let your child know you are interested in what they do at school!

Our Charity Project for the Year

Each year I try to incorporate charity work into our learning experience. In the past, classes have donated school supplies to hurricane victims, toiletries to tornado victims, and money to feed hungry children in Honduras. This year I would like to continue the efforts of raising money for the Honduras children. There are literally families living at a dump in Honduras that dig through other people's garbage to find food, clothing and shelter. A group from the U. S. is there feeding these people once a week and they need money to continue this effort.

Last year, Trey Morgan held a fund raiser on his blog to help feed these people. My class brought money to donate and had only raised $8 the first day. What we thought was a meager amount encouraged others to give. Those students inspired many others to donate $8 so our amount multiplied more than we will ever know.

This year I am asking students to think about the pictures we see and realize that children just like them live in this dump and depend on others to feed them. The government in Honduras is not able to step-in and intervene so it is left up to us to help. There will be a collection jar in the classroom for students to bring their change at any time. We will collect the money throughout the year and send our money in periodically to help with the efforts of feeding these starving Hondurans. I plan for us to draw pictures about things we do in the U. S. and send along to maybe be distributed to some of the children. I have not had this project approved through the workers in Honduras so we may have to choose something else to brighten the day of these children.

I have attached a few pictures and hope your hearts are pricked with compassion just like mine!

Back-to-School Night

I want to thank all those that came to Back-to-School Night. We have 17 students in our class and 12 of them had a parent or grandparent attend. I enjoyed getting to visit with each and everyone of you and hope you feel comfortable to come back to visit our classroom again. The packet you received has extremely important information so hold on to the materials and refer to them if you have any questions. If you cannot find your answer there, then please contact me.

For those of you that were not able to attend, you may come by the classroom before or after school or during my conference time (8:50 - 9:35). I will be happy to share the information with you.

I look forward to working with your children this year!