Since I have many students out of town this week, we will not be having any homework or spelling.  Please enjoy some time off to play outside, enjoy family time, and have fun.  Have a safe and fun fall recess!

This week we will be learning about nouns.  We will also be starting new stories about what we are “scared of”.  It will be fun since it is Halloween time.  For the next week and a half, we will be lucky enough to have Mrs. Frandsen, a part-time teacher, work with our class.  She will be working with small groups much of the time on reading and math.  She is great and I am excited to welcome her into our class.

In the computer lab the students have been playing multiplication games on the website:  http://www.multiplication.com.  They love the games and it is great practice.

Spelling for September 10-8 to 10-12: when dead trees each reach head queen east street bread seat dream great lead steam sled sweet breath beach death Words are on spellingcity.com under List 5 if you want to practice there. Words will also be written in their planners.

UTIPS Homework: I have put two tests (remember they are not real tests) online for this week. Please sit with your child and work with them on the homework. Tests are: Informational Text 1 And Add and Subtract Missing Numbers

Keyboarding Help: The school has used a free internet program called Dance Mat typing.  It is not my favorite, but it is a good start.  I will continue to look for more free programs. bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

Reading Days: I have totally messed up the reading minutes.  It is completely my fault and a miscommunication with the Weilands.  I will be working on it throughout this week and will let you know as soon as it is cleared up.  I am sorry this has taken so long-again my fault.  I was hoping to make it easy and I am not sure I have.  I will let you know ASAP.  In the meantime, continue reading and I will count all your days-don’t worry! Your child needs to read 20 minutes or more to count as a day.

We will continue to have library on Monday so remember to bring your books back. 

We will be finishing reading The Enormous Crocodile as a class and learning about trickster tales.  We will also be finishing up our Communities Unit.

In the computer lab the students have been playing multiplication games on the website:  http://www.multiplication.com.  They love the games and it is great practice.

As far as parent volunteers, I am still looking for someone who would like to do Meet the Masters for the yellow class and a music leader for the yellow class.  If anyone is interested, let me know.

Spelling for September 10-1 to 10-5: less feet mean green team been sleep web speak clean keep sweep teeth heat week weak next peach leaf teach Words are on spellingcity.com under List 4 if you want to practice there. Words will also be written in their planners.

UTIPS Homework: I have put two tests (remember they are not real tests) online for this week. Please sit with your child and work with them on the homework. Tests are: Comp-mixed 1 And Place value

Keyboarding Help: The school has used a free internet program called Dance Mat typing.  It is not my favorite, but it is a good start.  I will continue to look for more free programs. bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

Reading Days: I am so grateful for all the help from the Weilands to get our Reading Minutes set up.  I put a sticker on your child’s planner letting you know their class number and what class they are in so you can record the number of days your child reads.  Remember, it is number of days not number of minutes!  Please enter those days each Friday. You should get an email from Weilands so you can put in your number of days.  If you haven’t, let me know and I will forward your email to them. Thank you!  Your child needs to read 20 minutes or more to count as a day.

We will continue to have library on Monday so remember to bring your books back. 

We will be reading The Enormous Crocodile as a class and learning about trickster tales.  (We ran out of time last week.)  These tales help to shape different communities.  We will also be finishing up our community scrapbook.  Please make sure send in the pictures you have been taking of the community if you haven’t already. 

As far as parent volunteers, I am still looking for someone who would like to do Meet the Masters for the yellow class and a music leader for the yellow class.  If anyone is interested, let me know.

Spelling for September 9-24 to 9-28: Cube Food Crust Bloom Smooth Dude Skunk Brown Mood Bump Fruit Suit Built Juice Trust Build Moon Prune Spoon Tooth Words are on spellingcity.com under List 3 if you want to practice there. Words will also be written in their planners.

UTIPS Homework: I have put two tests (remember they are not real tests) online for this week. Please sit with your child and work with them on the homework. Tests are: Comprehension1 And Borrowing- Carrying 2

Keyboarding Help: The school has used a free internet program called Dance Mat typing.  It is not my favorite, but it is a good start.  I will continue to look for more free programs. bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

Reading Days: I am so grateful for all the help from the Weilands to get our Reading Minutes set up.  I put a sticker on your child’s planner letting you know their class number and what class they are in so you can record the number of days your child reads.  Remember, it is number of days not number of minutes!  Please enter those days each Friday. You should get an email from Weilands so you can put in your number of days.  If you haven’t, let me know and I will forward your email to them. Thank you!  Your child needs to read 20 minutes or more to count as a day.

It was a great first week back.  The yellow class had a great time with Jr. Achievement and the red class loved music.  I really appreciate all the volunteers who have helped out this last week. 

We will continue to have library on Monday so remember to bring your books back. 

Next week we will be reading The Enormous Crocodile as a class and learning about trickster tales.  These tales help to shape different communities.  We will also be starting our community scrapbook.  Please make sure send in the pictures you have been taking of the community. 

As far as parent volunteers, I am still looking for someone who would like to do Meet the Masters for the yellow class and a music leader for the yellow class.  If anyone is interested, let me know.

Spelling for September 17-21: Lost Drove Road Chose Boat Love Goat Soap Knock Slope Foam Load Whole None Toast Soft Toad Coat Float Cross Words are on spellingcity.com under List 2 if you want to practice there. Words will also be written in their planners.

UTIPS Homework: I have put two tests (remember they are not real tests) online for this week. Please sit with your child and work with them on the homework. Tests are: Review 2-4 Reading And Borrowing-Carrying 1

Keyboarding Help: The school has used a free internet program called Dance Mat typing.  It is not my favorite, but it is a good start.  I will continue to look for more free programs. bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

Reading Days: I think an easy way to record reading minutes has been found.  I just want to make sure you are all comfortable with it.  If you are uncomfortable will you please let me know by Wednesday.  Amy Weiland has agreed to set up a google doc account.  She will mass email you to remind you to add the number of days your child has read for the week.  We will go Friday to Friday so I can get the information into the person in charge at the school.  You will find your child’s class number (I will let you know what that number is) and add the number of days to that number.  No names will be used.  If you do not want your child’s reading days to be recorded this way, or if you do not want me to give out your email address, please let me know by Wednesday. Thank you!  Your child needs to read 20 minutes or more to count as a day.

Welcome back!  I am excited to get going with all we have to learn.  I will plan on updating this blog by Monday morning each week.  (I really hope to have it done on Fridays, but know I might have to give myself the weekend to do so.)  Each week the spelling words will be listed and reminders about other homework, like nightly reading, will be updated.  Please check the blog on Mondays so you can stay updated.  I have never done a blog and am still learning so be patient.  Any feedback would be appreciated. 

We will be having library every Monday, computers on Wednesday, and spelling tests are on Friday.  Reading minutes for the week are due on Friday by 11:00 p.m.  I have some great parent helpers who will keep track for me so email them the information.  How to do this is in the box below.

I still need some parent helpers.  Please let me know as soon as possible if you can help out.  I listed by class what I need.  If you don’t know what color class your child is in let me know and I’ll get you all the information you need.

Volunteers Needed:

Red Class:

Head Room Parent

Jr. Achievement

Yellow Class:

Meet the Masters (every other Wednesday from 2:05-3:05)-starts this week

Music (I would love to have it done Thursday mornings)

Also, Mr. Chen and I both have a few projects we would like done in the next few weeks.  I can send mine home with your child (it involves tracing).  His could be partially done at home and partially at school (you will probably want to use the large paper cutter at school and then you could take things home to do).  If you are interested, let me know.  We really appreciate all your help. 

Let me know if you have any questions.  I am trying to get all the necessary information to you, but I may have forgotten some things.  Please feel free to contact me if I have forgotten things-I won’t be offended.

Spelling for September 10-14: Black Blame Brain Camp Chain Faint Flash Frame Main Pain Paint Place Rain Rash Said Space Tail Train Want What Words are on spellingcity.com under Unit 1 if you want to practice there. Words will also be written in their planners.

UTIPS Homework: I have put four tests (remember they are not real tests) online for this week.  They are review concepts your child should know from 2nd grade, that is why I did four instead of two.  Please sit with your child and work with them on the homework.  Directions below in case you lost your original note. The tests are 2-2 reading, 2-2 math, 2-3 reading, and 2-3 math.

Keyboarding Help: The school has used a free internet program called Dance Mat typing.  It is not my favorite, but it is a good start.  I will continue to look for more free programs. bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

Reading Days: I am still trying to figure this out, because it seems to be changed every year.   Your child needs to read 20 minutes or more to count as a day.  Please keep doing this (I know many of you are!) and I am getting help looking into ways to make this easy for you and me.  Look for more updates on this in the next few days.

 

***UTIPS HOMEWORK***

Dear Parents,

This year I am requiring my students to do their weekly homework on the computer (UTIPS site).  This will help the students to prepare for the end of year testing which will be taken on the computer.  Each week, your child will need to go on line and do a language arts and math homework assignment.  Parents, I highly encourage that you monitor how your child is doing with these assignments.  This will give you a better understanding of how your child is progressing in school and the skills that we are working on in class.  Please help them understand the format of the questions and how to answer them.  During the end of the year testing I will not be able to help them understand the process of taking the test.  I can only help them log on to the testing site.  I will receive an email (from UTIPS) that their homework was finished and what their score was.  Each assignment should only take about 10-15 minutes to complete.  I constantly emphasis with my students how work is not a race, but to take their time and double-check their work for accuracy.  The same holds true for these assignments on line.  The scores that are sent to me will show me if the students are just guessing the answers and how long it takes for them to finish the assignments.  That way I will know if they are trying their best on these assignments or rushing through them.  You may do the on line assignments as many times as you want so as to raise your score.  The website to log on is:

www.brandy.rollins.myutips.org

After getting to the website:

1.         Click on the name of the test to be taken.

2.        Jordan School District and my name should appear.

3.        Under class, select 2012-2013 class red or yellow depending on what class your students is in.

4.        Click on your child’s name.

5.        Select Login and start.

6.        After the test is taken they must click on submit (occasionally it will submit it automatically), or it will be as if the test was never taken and I will not receive their scores.  Remember, each assignment can be taken as often as they would like.  Students should try to improve their score not try to go faster on the assignment.

Each Friday, I will publish the two new assignments for the week.  Your child can go on line and do these assignments anytime up until the next Thursday night at 11:00 p.m.

I will start posting these assignments on Friday, September 7.  Please have your child do them.  I truly believe that practice makes perfect. 

If you have any questions or are not able to access this site, please email me and I will try to help you out.  Be patient with me if I don’t get back to you immediately.  I try to reply to emails daily, but like the rest of the world, sometimes other things in my life take precedence (and sometimes I need time to find the answer to your questions).

Thanks,

Brandy Rollins

brandy.rollins@jordandistrict.org

 I hope everyone is having a great off track time.  I know I have been able to clean my home, get my own kids off to school, and read.  As the students in the class know, my goal is to read all the Newbery Award winning books by the end of the year.  I have read 43 so far (four while I have been off track), but I have 47 more to go.  I hope everyone is reading as much as I am while off track.  I am also writing to remind you of the project I sent home the day we went off track-to take picture of your student around their community.  This will be used as a writing project to make a scrapbook.  Below is the original note.  Also, Mr. Chen found a great website for your children to listen to bedtime stories in Chinese-check it out.
http://www.yes-chinese.com/story/

Have a great rest of the week.  I look forward to seeing everyone next week.

Dear Parents,

In third grade, we study communities.  In order to familiarize your child about the community in which he or she lives I am going to have each student create a book about South Jordan.  To accomplish this I would like each student to have at least 8-10 pictures taken of themselves throughout their community.  Some suggested places to take pictures are:

       *Fire Station

       *Police Station

       *Library

       *A Park

       *A Grocery Store

       *A Community Gathering Place

       *A School

       *A Bank

       *A Retail Store

       *A Service Organization

       *A Healthcare Organization

       *Restaurant

       *An Auto Shop (mechanic, auto body, sales)

       *A Gas Station

       *An Ice Cream Shop (or other dessert place)

       *The Homes in your Neighborhood

      

      

Please take pictures of a variety of places around the community and not just focus on homes in the neighborhood or retail stores. 

As you take your child around the community throughout the next month just take your camera around with you and take pictures.  Please print out eight of these pictures and bring them to school by September 17.  Just put them in an envelope labeled with your child’s name.  We will be doing a writing project with these pictures by making a scrapbook of your child around their community.  If you do not have access to a camera or cannot print these pictures I will have your child draw the pictures, but I think it would be more fun for them if they had photographs.  If you can save the pictures to a flash drive or email them to me, I would love to create a power point presentation of our class around town.  Thank you for your help with this project.  I thought it might be something you would want to work on while we are off track.  In the end, we will not only be learning about the community through this activity, but combining it with writing as well.  I know it will be a fun, memorable experience for your child.

Thank you,

Brandy Rollins

brandy.rollins@jordandistrict.org