Holy Week and Other Things

Hello parents,
Spring is here and Easter is coming!  I pray that you are all able to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord this coming weekend.  All of our churches have plenty of services that they are offering for you and your family to go worship.

Here's what you need to know for the upcoming days:

Grammar
We have been working on helping verbs and main verbs this week.  We will have a very short and simple quiz tomorrow in class.  The kiddos should be able to pick out the main action verb and the helping verb in a sentence.

Ex. Our class has been making art for each day of Holy Week.  main verb- making  helping verb- been

Social Studies
We have been studying our country's government and even had Mr. Witcher come and share his experience with the Supreme Court with us.  We will be having a test on Tuesday to finish up this unit.  The kids have been putting together a government flapbook with all of their notes from class. This should be in their Social Studies binder.  As long as they have been following in class, they will have all the notes they need.  They will need to be able to answer any questions about the things they have taken notes on in their flapbook.  This test will be very good practice for their achievement tests in a couple weeks.

Spelling 
We will be having our spelling test on Thursday this week because Friday is reserved for Good Friday activities.  However, they can turn in their spelling homework on Friday morning.

Memory
We are also taking our memory test on Thursday this week.

Upcoming Events

• No School on Easter Monday 
• Early Dismissal on Good Friday (12:00)
• Achievement Tests - April 13-16
• Zoo Day Field Trip - Monday May 4 (9am - 1:30pm)
• We can use as many of you as are able to come
• Amazing Race Day Field Trip - Monday May 18 at Forest Park (9am - 2pm)
• We will NEED at least 12 parents to make this day run smoothly, but can always use more if you are able (Make sure you are ready to walk/jog all around the park)

Week of March 23rd

Hello parents,
We have entered 4th quarter and it is full of fun things.  Here are all of the things that will be taking place between now and the end of the year.  Please mark these things on your calendar ASAP.

1. New Terrific Tuesday sessions - crosstitch with Mrs. Brannan and Mrs. Ann Schmidt (grades 3-4)
2. The Operetta - April 23rd at 7pm (your kiddos need to be present)
3. Grandparents Day - April 23rd
4. Amazing Race Field Trip in Forest Park - TBA
5. Zoo Field Trip - TBA
6. Chapel on Maundy Thursday
7. Good Friday - early dismissal at 12
8. No School on Easter Monday
9. Achievement Tests - April 13-16
10. Field Day

Reading

I had originally thought that we would do another round of the Tic-tac-toe board projects to finish up this Book Club.  However, I have rethought schedules and we will be doing things in class this week to summarize and present the books that they read.  You can plan on a small chunk of this for homework on Thursday if your child has not finished it up in class already.  

Religion

We are talking about the Sacrament of Baptism this week.  It would be a great time to share memories and discuss your own child's baptism with them.  They love to make it personal wherever possible.  Next week we will be focusing on the events of Holy Week.  

Social Studies

Tomorrow we will be starting a new unit on our country's government.  This is a necessary part of our curriculum, but it is notoriously tough for the kids.  The vocabulary is more difficult and it involves a lot of brand new concepts to the kids.  They will be tested on this at the end of our unit.  It would be very beneficial to review/discuss what we talked about in class each day.  This could even be a short question and answer session to review vocab for the branches of government, or finding topics in the media to reinforce with.  Learning about our government is an essential part of being a good citizen and I love teaching it to the kids.  Thanks in advance for your help and extra patience.  

Math

We are still working on our multiplication tables as well as getting into harder concepts during 4th quarter.  Keep up the good work.   

CCLS on Instagram

Hello parents,
I am trying to be more up to date and informative to you.  At our recent conference back in February, I heard that a lot of teachers post pictures and videos from their day on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  This makes it extremely easy to share the positive day to day happenings of our class with you and others who want to know more about CCLS.  If you'd like to see our class photos and know a little more about what we do each week here is how you can follow me:

Instagram: brittbes12
Facebook: Brittnie Besel Glackin
Twitter: bbeselglackin

Week of March 2nd

Hello parents,
I am so desperately hoping that this is the last week of really cold weather.  We NEED to be able to go outside soon.  Here is our plan for the week:

Religion
I am reading The Magician's Nephew to our class and we are doing activities with the book until we finish it.  We will then be reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a follow up book intermittently throughout our days.  These are a part of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series.  They have great symbolism that ties into several Bible stories and also Lent/Easter.  It is always fun to see the kids so engaged in books that help grow their faith and reading skills at the same time.

Reading
We are doing Book Clubs with Beverly Cleary books for the next two weeks.  I will send home another packet for book projects next week.  The project will be due on Monday March 23rd (after spring break).

Writing
We are working on writing dialogue into our stories and learning how to use quotation marks.  In your child's planner you should see assignments called "Snowman".  They simply need to write about this prompt:
Write a story about you and a snowman spending the day together.  Your snowman can talk, so you need to show me your conversations in your story.  
Due dates are :
- Rough draft due Wed. 3/4
- Picture and Final Draft due Fri. 3/6

We will be talking about how to use quotation marks correctly throughout the week.  Using quotations and having correct spelling and grammar is what the assignment will be graded on.  They will turn in their final draft by entering it onto Kidblog by Friday 3/6.  I will show them how to upload a picture with it as well.

Chapel
Our class will be doing chapel next Wednesday March 11th.  You are welcome to join us!  This is our rescheduled time.  Chapel starts at 8:35 am.

End of Quarter
I will not be able to take anymore late work for the quarter unless it's due date was between March 2nd and March 6th.  Report cards will be coming out on Friday March 13th.  Please be sure that I have your child's service project form by this Friday March 6th.

Week of February 23rd

Hello Parents,
Here are the important notes for the week:

• Read to Succeed Forms - Wednesday 2/25
• 3rd Quarter Ends - Friday 3/6
• Last Day for Redone Work/Absent Work/Late Assignments - Friday 2/27

Reading

We will be starting another set of book clubs this week.  These books will be a little longer than the last ones, but the idea of book clubs will remain the same (packet of jobs each day, project at the end of the book).  

Spelling 

Soft G and soft C sounds this week.  

Social Studies

We are finishing up our slavery discussions and moving onto Civil Rights in the next couple of weeks.  Your child has been assigned a writing assignment for this topic called "Would Rather...Stay or Go?"  I gave them the sheet of instructions today with a graphic organizer on the back to help them organize their thoughts.  I strongly encourage them to fill this sheet out on their own.  Then they should type their paragraph onto Kidblog by Monday 3/2.  This is how they will turn it into me (I do NOT need the paper back).  Please have them make the title of this post "Would You Rather...Stay or Go?"  

Thank You

Thank you for all that you do to support your child at home and school.  I am loving being their teacher this quarter and they have come so far since the beginning of the year.  

Week of Feb. 16th

Hello parents,
It has taken us some time to get past our big projects and we finally did it.  Here's what's on the agenda next.

Writing
We are taking our writing to a new level.  Today I introduced the kids to a site called Kidblog.  They have written tons of stories or short pieces this year, but most of these have been for themselves or a handful of their classmates to read.  I do this so that the kids can begin feeling more comfortable with writing and not have the fear of it being judged all the time.  We have worked on their mechanics a lot and they have conferenced with me several times about their writing.  Now it's time to introduce them to a bigger audience.  Kidblog allows me to set up a class under my name and put privacy settings on it to help your kiddos safe.  However, it does make their writing more public to the class, their teachers, their families, and others who know about kidblog.  I will be asking for some of you to join our class blog to help comment and give feedback regularly to the kids so that they have a genuine audience that they are writing for.  This helps motivate them to write and give a reason for them to pay attention to details like periods, word choice, and spelling.  For now all you need to know is the log in information for when this type of writing is assigned.

How to Get to Kidblog
1. www.kidblog.org/MrsGlackinsClass/
2. Click "Login" in top right corner
3. Select your username and type in the password "cclsccls"
4. Click on New Post if you are starting a new assignment.  Once you are here, it is very easy to navigate as it acts similar to Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
5. You must click on "Save Draft" if you plan on coming back to finish later.
6. If you are finished with your post, click "Publish".

If you want to return to a post that you saved as a draft, you must go to your Dashboard to find it.

Social Studies
We will be reading the book The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom.  This is the story that inspired our art project for the week which all of you are so kindly cutting fabric for.

Wednesdays
I am going to be very diligent about not sending home lots of homework on Wednesdays.  They may have a little bit of math if they do not finish in class, but otherwise I would just ask that they work on their times tables, memory, or spelling in the car or during a few free moments.  This will hopefully give your families time to worship this Lenten season.

Week of February 2nd

If you're anything like me, you're hoping and hoping that spring comes early this year.  Until then, we have some cool things that we are doing in 3rd grade while we wait inside for warm weather.

Religion
My seminary student, Nick Teller, will be here for this week and next week still.  He is doing a great job teaching your kiddos the Lord's Prayer.  All the memory is updated through the end of the Lord's Prayer Unit.

Math
We are getting into some new and fun concepts such as square roots and liquid capacity.  We are also doing multiplication games.  I talked about this last week, and we are starting it tomorrow.  Here's how it will work:

• Everyday each student will take a time test of 22 facts. 
• If they get 100% correct in 50 seconds or less they have passed the test.  
• If they pass the test they will receive an ice cream scoop with their name on it.  This scoop gets placed in the bowl for the matching set of times tables on the door to our classroom.  
• The next day that student will be tested on the next set of times tables. 
• If they pass the test, the process repeats. 
• If they do not pass (get 100% in 50 seconds), they will continue to be tested on that set each day until they do pass.  
• Every time the whole class fills up a bowl of ice cream (x2's or x3's etc.) on the door, they will get to vote on a reward.  
• Once the whole class fills up all the bowls (2-12) we will have an ice cream party. 

This will be graded on completion in the grade book once they have passed each test.  The goal is for them to have memorized their times tables by the end of 3rd grade.  Happy multiplying!!!

Reading
We have finished reading our Magic Treehouse books and it's time to show what we have learned.  I need the packet of job papers (predictor, visualizer, etc.) completed and turned in by Wednesday.  They will receive points for each paper, so they need to make sure each one is finished.

I am sending home their book projects on Tuesday of this week.  We will go through them in class and they should be pretty self-explanatory.  I want them to be creative and prove that they understand the book.  These will be due on Wed. 2/11.  

Science
I sent home a sheet that explains the planet project the kiddos are doing.  It is also available to them in their Google Drive account.  I have helped them each set up an account already.  Here is their log in information:
     
       email:  20(their first name)@ccls-stlouis.org    This is also taped to the inside cover of their planners
       password:   cclsccls

This will require some time exploring the website and researching their assigned planet (should be written on top of their project sheet).  I want the kids to be creative and take the time to make the powtoons commercial presentable.  However, I will only give a small portion of the grade to how the presentation looks.  They are still learning technology, so the majority of the grade will be based on the content, not the presentation.
These will be due Friday 2/13 

Important Dates

• Friday 2/6 - Author Visit 9:00 - 9:45
• Friday 2/6 - Field Trip to Harriet Tubman Performance at the Sheldon 10:45 - 1:00
• You will need to send your child with a larger snack and a home lunch this day.  The kitchen will be closed when we get back, but we will eat ASAP after returning.  
• Tuesday 2/10 - No School (Teachers technology conference)
• Wednesday 2/11 - Mrs. Glackin's class is leading chapel - Please join us at 8:35 am!!!
• Friday 2/13 - Valentine's Day party at 2 pm