Star Spangled Banner

This year, our class is participating in a musical called Let's Sing, America! One of the songs that our class will perform is the Star Spangled Banner. A few students have been chosen to learn how to sign this song in ASL. We are looking forward to seeing this beautiful performance! You can learn too. Check out these videos.  Part One    Part Two

Teacher Appreciation Week- Thank You!

Words can't possibly describe how incredibly lucky we have felt this week to have such a thoughtful, sweet and creative parent support system. Every day this week, we have been showered with sweet gifts including chocolate covered strawberries, lottery tickets, framed "love" notes, coffee gift cards, a pencil bouquet, delicious cupcakes, and lunch (twice!). Our fabulous room moms even covered our lunch duty, twice!  Thank you so much for taking care of us this week. Simply put, we have the very best class and room moms in the world! Check out these pictures to see for yourself how incredibly creative and cute our gifts were. 

Love, Miss Russell, Mrs. Shall, Mrs. Felter, Mrs. O'Leary, Mrs. Rossignol and Miss Simms

We’re Wild about Animals

This week kicked off our animal unit in science which includes classifying animals and finding similar and different traits among them. The students were excited to dive in and start exploring. The class formed groups, and had animal cards to categorize however they wanted.  Our part-time zoologists wrote their findings in their science journals making sure to keep outstanding notes. 

Many arranged them by habitat, their species, and a couple groups sorted them by their favorite animals or how they looked. The class had a great time finding different combinations and had wonderful scientific conversations about what classifies an animal as a mammal, reptile, amphibian, bird, fish, vertebrate, or invertebrate.

 Working together to find different combinations

 

They sorted by species type.

They are so proud of their work!



Report Cards and FCAT Testing Reminders

Originally, report cards were supposed to go home today; however, they will not be given out until next Friday, April 19th.  DCPS feels that it would be better to hold them until after the first week of FCAT.  We were just informed of this information so we appreciate your flexibility and understanding.  The Award Ceremony will be on Thursday, April 25th from 2:15-3:15.

FCAT Testing will begin on Monday, April 15th.  Here are a few reminders to ensure that your child is prepared for this exciting week.  Your child should:

• get a good night's sleep each night.
• eat a healthy breakfast (Denny's Grand Slam Breakfast is not suggested as it sometimes can cause tummy discomfort). 
• come to school on time between 8:30 and 9:00.
• leave all digital items such as watches and/or cell phones at home if possible. A cell phone that rings could invalidate all tests. 

Parents: Please don't forget to encourage your child to do their best, remind them that you are proud of them and they are totally ready for this week. No worries! Also, if you haven't already, please send in a love note for your child for each day of the FCAT. (Monday and Tuesday will be the Reading FCAT, Wednesday and Thursday will be the Math FCAT). We will make sure that the students receive the love notes each morning.  

Thank you for your continued support. This is a very exciting week for us and we are already so proud of each student! :) 

Picture Day is Coming!

Next Friday, March 22nd is Spring Picture Day.  Students will be taking Individual Spring Pictures as well as class pictures.  If you are interested in purchasing a class picture, payments must be sent in by Friday, March 22nd.  The price for a class picture is $12.00. You can preview individual pictures before purchasing them. Don't forget to brush your hair and smile real BIG!

The Ruler Game Champions

Have you heard about The Ruler Game? The Ruler Game is a fun, web based game that helps students practice US Customary linear measurement, including fractional parts. Students were introduced to the game on Friday and practiced identifying wholes, halves, fourths, eighths, and sixteenths. Today, we held our Measurement March Madness Championship.  Students played against each other in brackets until there were four people left. The last four people competed by identifying measurements on The Ruler Game up to a sixteenth of an inch! Contestants had one minute to score as many points as possible.  Here are The Ruler Game Champions (or Measurement Queen and King).

The Ruler Game Champions!
Ruler Game King and Queen

We are so proud of all the students who participated and cheered each other on! Keep practicing at home! Leave us a comment with your best score. Don't forget to tell us what fraction you practiced. (Challenge yourself to work beyond wholes and halves. You can do it! ) 

Garden Time!

For years, Dr. Zenk, Nicole's mom, has graciously been donating her time and talents to oversee Chets Creek's school garden. She's definitely the resident expert on when to plant, what to plant, and when to harvest our garden's vegetables.  She helped the 5 Star Bakery plant radishes and two varieties of carrots about two weeks ago, and we are patiently waiting as our vegetables grow. 

This week, Dr. Zenk visited each third grade classroom for a garden show and tell. She introduced us to familiar vegetables like lettuce and broccoli, and to some unfamiliar vegetables like kohlrabi. The students were intrigued and had many questions for Dr. Zenk. We are so thankful that she shares her passion, time, and talent so we can have such an authentic learning resource!  We are certainly learning new things about plants every day.

 Kohlrabi