Are You Tracking Santa??

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Just a quick note to share some web tools with you. You can track Santa's whereabouts all day today with Google or NORAD's "Santa Tracker" apps. Both can also be accessed online!

• Track Santa around the world
• Learn about geography and cultures
• Play interactive games
• Print coloring pages and crafts

FUN! Wishing everyone a cozy day and I will see you soon. :-)

https://santatracker.google.com/#tracker

http://www.noradsanta.org/

Feeling Festive!

Can you feel the excitement in this picture?! We had an awesome last day before break! Students enjoyed our "Tale of Despereaux" celebration, made some Christmas crafts, and participated in the annual Oakwood Sing-A-Long. I talked my friends into coming back to class for a personal visit, and the class asked them all sorts of questions. We loved learning about life-long music making and what their lives were like as third graders. Such a fun afternoon! Patrick's dad visited us yesterday for some festive holiday tunes, so we've been pretty lucky this week!

I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday break and can't wait to see you in the new year!!

Holiday Fun!

Tis the season to be merry! Tomorrow is a full day of fun, and we don't want anyone to miss it. Here is a brief outline of our schedule:

• 9:00, 3rd Grade holiday party
• 11:50, Normal Lunch
• 12:15, Early Recess
• 1:45, Annual Oakwood Sing-a-Long!

I am bringing some brass friends to play with me at the Sing-a-Long, so it will be a lot of fun! Families are invited so come on down. 

Holiday Hint: Our party has something to do with a little mouse with very big ears...SHH!

So Much Excitement!

So many exciting things are happening in Room 12! From tracing our shadows to learn about Earth's rotation to learning Spanish from Ms. Henning, it has been a crazy week or two. Enjoy!

Enjoy pictures from our Propst House field trip HERE!

Students used playing cards to practice the distributive property of multiplication. Quite a success! 

Ms. Henning visited third graders for reading to teach some Spanish vocabulary. We learned a lot about hispanic culture and read a traditional nursery rhyme. We appreciate her! 

Star Student Jillian invited her dad to visit us for her parent spotlight. We loved learning more about Jillian's family and favorite things. 

Events Not Pictured:

• 3rd Graders traced our shadows throughout the day to learn how Earth rotates in space. We can also explain the idea of day and night and why they occur. Bravo! 
• We started a weekly "Study Island" remediation time in the computer lab. We will try to do this once a week during school hours. 
• Writing Centers continue with adverbs! Look for "Spying on an Elf" to come home soon. 
• Space research projects have begun! We will work together in class to complete this assignment and share the finished product with you. :-)

Happy Monday!

We had a wonderful Monday today in Room 12! I am so proud of students' hard work in math and literacy. We had some tough lessons, but they were troopers!

Last week was a a full week of learning and growing. We enjoyed a visit from Quinn's dad for this weeks' Parent Spotlight, as well as the "Calvin and Hobbes" stories! We also started our space unit in science, as seen below. Students used iPads to scan QR codes and add ideas to a Padlet board. You can see all their hard work HERE!

Our field trip to Dr. Hamilton's office was so much fun! We learned about brushing your teeth, what schooling is required to become an orthodontist and much more. You can see pictures from our trip HERE.

This is sure to be a great week as well!

• Wed. December 10: Field trip to Propst House 
• Fri. December 12: School Spelling Bee in gym
• Fri. December 19: 3rd Grade Party 9:00, School "Sing-a-Long" 1:45

Flashback!

I realized that I never posted our good news from last week- or our two day week! Oops! So let's flashback to all the good things that happened in Room 12 in the final days of November.

Star Student Pablo invited his mom to read a Thanksgiving story and tell us all about life in Puerto Rico. So many good questions were answered! That very same day, we were visited by Hickory City Manager Mick Berry to learn about local government, as well as the LR Percussion Ensemble for some jazzy Christmas carols. What a Friday!

• Math: Students continue to master division skills and flex group on Wednesday's. You should be seeing our "Spiral Reviews" in Tuesday folders. We have spent time reviewing these in class and identifying common mistakes. These are wonderful practice for our benchmark tests!
• Reading: Students also took a practice reading passage on sequencing events. This is similar to the passages students will take for our Read to Achieve portfolio's. They did a great job! 

We look forward to our field trip to Dr. Hamilton's office on Friday! The trips costs $1.50 for those who have not yet paid. We'll post pictures of all the excitement! :-)