Monday, May 21st, 2012

Good afternoon!

Wow! What a busy time of year.

Last week, I sent an email from Julie that contained paperwork for next year's Fall Voyage. Please print the paperwork, fill it out, and send it in to me, with your child no later than this Friday. Again, this is paperwork for the 3rd Grade Voyage. We've just found in the past, that it is much easier to have all of this paperwork turned in before the end of the year, since the Fall Voyages are close to the start of the school year. If you have any questions, please let me know.

I want to share with you, the Douglas County Libraries Summer Reading Program. We have spent a lot of time this year building reading stamina. I would hate to have all that hard work lost over the summer. Please take a look below and consider joining the reading program. It's for children and adults, and kids will be much more willing to participate if they see their parents participating also! Let me know if you have any questions!
http://douglascountylibraries.org/content/dream-bigread

Stay tuned to your email for details about plans for our last day of school, next Thursday.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Good afternoon!

Our hike is this Wednesday to Dawson Butte. We will leave school around 9:00, so please be here at the normal time of 8:40. Students will need their day packs as well as two snacks and a sack lunch. We'll be back before the 1:00 dismissal. Please let me know if you have any questions.

We had a wonderful fieldwork experience this morning to Channel 2 News/Fox 31. The children were able to see where meteorologists use tools to forecast the weather and communicate this information with the public. We got to see ourselves in front of the green screen, as well as see the news set. We even had a chance to be in the audience for a live show, Colorado's Everyday Show. What a great experience!

Monday, May 7th, 2012

Good afternoon!

There's a lot of news this week.

First, we have two trips next week. The first is next Monday, May 14th. We will be doing some fieldwork for our Science Expedition at Channel 2 News. We will be touring the weather station with Meteorologist, Chris Tomer. He will be answering some of our wonderings. We're very lucky to have this chance to work with a real Meteorologist! Our Crew, along with Ms. Sarah's Crew, will be taking the bus for this fieldwork. The bus will be leaving school at 8:30. All students need to be here at 8:15 that morning. We will return to school at 11:15, so there is no need to pack a sack lunch. I do need 3 chaperones who can go with us. Please let me know if you are available. Thanks!

Later next week, on Wednesday, May 16th, we will be going to Dawson Butte for a day hike. We are still in need of some drivers and chaperones. Right now, I don't have enough volunteers for us all to go. Drivers will be needed from 9:00-1:00. Students will need a day pack, snacks, and a sack lunch. I'll send home the day pack checklist early next week. Please let me know if you have any questions or are able to drive for this trip.

Also, next week is Spirit Week. Each day is a different theme. Students are not required to participate, but are welcome to! Monday is Twin Day. Tuesday is Crazy Sock or Shoe Day. Wednesday is Crazy Hair Day. Thursday is Sports Day and Friday is Hat Day.

Monday, April 30th, 2012

Good afternoon!

I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing weekend. In Expedition, we are working like meteorologists, so observe, record, and analyze the weather. Here we are recording our thinking. On these charts, we record our thinking again after we've learned more, to document how our thinking has changed.

Monday, April 23

Good afternoon!

I hope everyone had a good long weekend!

In Reader's Workshop, we are learning how to pay attention to text clues to infer meaning. One way we are thinking about this, is you stop and consider the author's purpose. This will help us figure out what the text means. While you read at home with your child, talk about the author's purpose. Ask your child what he or she thinks and ask them to support their thinking with evidence from the text.

In Writer's Workshop, we are learning how to notice features of nonfiction text. By doing this, we are learning what features to include in the nonfiction pieces we are writing. So far, we have learned about headings, photographs, and captions. You can expect to see these things in the pieces we publish.

In Expedition, we are learning about the tools that meteorologists use to measure, record, and communicate data about weather. We will be making our own weather tools, as well as creating a weather log, so that we can work like meteorologists too!

April 16th, 2012

Greetings!

Last week, we started meeting with our new Kindergarten buddies. We will meet with our buddies each week to share our writing. It's a lot of fun to listen to Ms. Jody's students' writing as well as share what we know about writing.

3rd grade portfolio panels are coming up soon. Please sign up to be a panelist, as you won't be able to be on a panel for 3rd grade next year. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Greetings from 3rd Grade,

Ms. Brittany and I would like to encourage you to sign up for 3rd Grade Portfolio Presentations. This is an exciting event that our crews are working hard to prepare for and is a unique experience to Renaissance.

We really need your help! To make this possible, we are in need of many more volunteers. As a heads up, parents cannot serve on the 3rd grade panels when their child is in 3rd grade, so now is the time to see what this experience is all about! 

Thank you for your consideration, and we hope to see you there!

~Mrs. Lauren and Ms. Brittany

Portfolio Presentation Sign-Ups
One of the big milestones for Renaissance crew members happens twice, once in 3rd grade and once in 6th grade, when they present their Portfolios to a panel of adults. In order for this to be a successful experience for our crew members, we need YOU, volunteers to help make up our panels.  

Please go to SignUP Genius and volunteer.  (Note that parents of current 3rd graders can only volunteer for the 6th grade panels and parents of current 6th graders can only volunteer for for the 3rd grade panels.  Parents of Kindergartners, 1st & 2nd graders, or 4th & 5th graders can sign up to be on either or both panels.)  Sign ups only available until April 19th!

3rd Grade Portfolio Sign-Up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A5AD238-rems 
6th Grade Portfolio Sign-Up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090B48A5AD238-rems1 

3rd Grade Portfolio Presentations will be on Wednesday, May 9th from 1:45pm to 4:00pm.  (Actual Student presentation times will be sent to parents in May.)
6th Grade Portfolio Presentations will be on Thursday, May 24th from 5:30pm to 7:00pm.  Panel members will meet the week before, on Thursday, May 17th to review the sixth grade portfolios and compile a letter of questions to the individual 6th grader. (Actual Student presentation times will be sent to parents in May.)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Welcome back! I am so happy to be back with your kiddos today! Though I had a nice, relaxing break, I sure did miss them.

We only have 8 weeks of school left. Really? That's crazy! These last 8 weeks will be packed with learning.

In Writer's Workshop, we are beginning a nonfiction genre study. Students will be creating their own nonfiction pieces about a topic of their choice.

In Expedition, we just launched our Science Expedition, called "Winter White, Whirling Wind." In the first case study, Winter White, students will be learning about weather through going in depth into an investigation into blizzards.