Tuesday, March 20th

Thank you to those of you who sent back your book orders for the Author visit today! I've read some of the books to the kids and they are SO cute! If you ordered one, I'm sure you won't be disappointed :)

Thank you to the mystery readers from yesterday, Jacob's Dad!
If you ordered a book from the scholastic book order online, I just got the confirmation that they have been shipped and should be here tomorrow or the next day :)

Today in class we practiced with contractions and did work work with the "er" sounds (spelled ER, IR or UR) we also continued some measurement lessons and will soon be measuring volume.  **I am in need of plastic measuring cups for an upcoming lessons.  If you let us borrow yours next Friday, I promise to return in in perfect condition!
We also started our Map skills unit today by looking at different types of maps and learning about the compass rose.

The book fair will begin next week here at school. The schedule is as follows:

Book Fair Dates: Classroom Preview Monday, March 26th 

Shopping Hours:                 Tuesday, March 27th During School Hours, 

                Wednesday March 28th Open During School and 

                during Evening conferences

                Thursday March 29th Open All day and evening

                during conferences.

                FINAL SALES: Friday, March 30th 

Report cards are going home this FRIDAY!

**We are collecting pop cans for tornado victims in the Dexter area. Please send you pop cans in a plastic bag to school this week if you wish to contribute :)

Friday, March 16th

If you haven't seen this, Poupard was in the news twice this past week! Click on the links to see the pictures and read about what we have been up to!

http://www.grossepointenews.com/Articles-Schools-i-2012-03-15-246402.114135-March-reading-activities-abound.html 

http://grossepointe.patch.com/articles/sparty-visits-poupard-reads-to-students#photo-9332317

Thursday, March 15th

Thank you to our mystery reader yesterday, Nylah's mom and our reader today, Hailey's mom! The kids LOVE this time of the day and I think that they deserve this special treat for all the hard work they have been doing in class.

In whole-class reading right now we are working on formulating questions.  Adults formulate questions naturally as they read (I wonder who this character is, I wonder what will happen next, I wonder why that character is acting that way, ect) but children need to be taught to do this.  People who ask questions to themselves before, during, and after reading have a better understanding of the book they are reading.  During DEAR time, the students have an 'I wonder' bubble to record the things that they are wondering about as they read.  Tonight while you are reading Frindle, try asking your child to tell you when they are 'wondering' :)

We also worked today on strategies for taking reading tests.  We did not take a reading test, but went through one together and noticed that the answers to the questions can be found in the passages.  I had the students read the question and then go back to the passage and underline that part of the text.  Students have a tendency to try to recall answers using their memory alone, however, teaching them to find it in the text before bubbling in an answer will REALLY help eliminate errors. There are MANY more tests like this in 3rd grade so we are working on this type of format now in order to get them ready for what's to come.

Tomorrow we will be having an Irish Dance assembly at 1:30 :)

Homework due tomorrow!

Tuesday, March 13th

Tomorrow is GREEN AND WHITE day.  We are having a spartan themed assembly so wear your spartan gear! If you are no a spartan fan, we still ask that you wear green to support the theme of our assembly but you can just say that it is green for St. Patty's day :)

GREEN conference forms are going home today for you to sign up to have a conference with any special area teacher (if you want a conference with Mrs. Cline, the gym, art, library, or music teacher, or any of the reading teachers) fill out the form and send it back if you'd like! The reading teachers & resource room teacher have a copy of my schedule so that they can try to make your appointment right before or after your appointment with me.

Monday, March 12th

Thank you to our Mystery Reader-- Eleanor's mom!! The kids really enjoyed the book you brought :)

Today in class we worked on fractions with skittles.  We wrote phrases like, "3 out of 16 of my skittles are red."  We also used number lines to compare fractions and find equivalent fractions.

In reading we did a lesson focusing on plural nouns, possessive nouns, and proper nouns. Ask you child what it means when a noun has 's at the end of it tonight!

**A Mom and Son night flier went home today with all the boys as well as a note about Market Day.  If you need further info about either of these events, email or give me a call.  Katharine.Stewart@gpschools.org

Have a good night!