Harvest Party

This Wednesday, October 31, our class will have our annual Harvest Party.

If you volunteered to bring in supplies or snacks for this event, your child should have brought home a reminder note. If you did not receive a note, but would still like to bring in a tasty treat, feel free. We have 22 students in our class.

Students are allowed to wear costumes for this party, but they must dress as characters from a book and must bring the book with them to school.  The following are other guidelines to consider when choosing a costume to wear to school:

1. No weapons. Neither fake nor real weapons are allowed at school. This includes knives, swords, guns, or any other thing that is meant to hurt another person.
2. No masks of any kind.
3. No inappropriate costumes. Please use good judgement when sending your child to school with a costume. Children will not be allowed to wear any costume deemed inappropriate for an elementary school. 

Safe Trick or Treat

Safe Trick or Treat

at 

Cudahy United Methodist Church

Corner of lake Drive and Ramsey

2pm to 4pm

Sunday, October 28

Treats

Games

Fashion Show at 3pm

Join them for a scary good time.

Field Trip

This past Friday the third grade classes had a wonderful field to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center (SANC). This trip was the first of four trips that we will taking to the SANC this year and its focus was on the Lake Michigan watershed.

This trip was divided into three main sections. The first part was a classroom portion where the children learned about what a watershed was, where water flows, its routes to the oceans, and water's overall importance to people. We also learned that 95% of all fresh water in the United States is found within the Great Lakes.

After, the children hiked down to Lake Michigan and built a watershed in the sand to mimic how water flows from all around the lake into it. We also built a small model to illustrate how even if pollution is buried deep in the ground, it can still pollute the lake.

The last portion of the trip involved testing Lake Michigan. Students were given various tools and tested the lake's acidity, bacteria count, and temperature. They also measured wind speed and collected litter from the lake shore to measure what was blowing into the lake.

It was a wonderful trip and the students were all very well behaved. Our next trip to the SANC will be in January where we will learn about animal habitats and Native Americans of the Great Lakes region. To see more pictures, visit our website at www.3grade.ws or click here.

Measurement Day pt 2

Today we continued collecting measurement data. Students used rulers and yard sticks to measure the lenght of the classroom. After, they used the same tools to measure the distance that each could jump. The measured first in feet and inches and then converted that distance to inches only. 

Field Trip Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our field trip to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. This is a "rain or shine" field trip, so please dress your child for the weather. Should there be excessive rain, there is an indoor plan.

Please remember that, unless your child ordered a lunch from school, they will need to pack a bag lunch. If you are chaperoning this trip, you also must bring a bag lunch; there is no place to buy a lunch at the Audubon Center.

Here is the current forecast for tomorrow:

Overcast with rain showers in the afternoon. High of 54F. Winds from the SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%

WKCE

Beginning next week your child will be taking the WKCE. This is a state test that is given to every student (Grades 3-6, 8, & 10) in the state of Wisconsin and gauges your child's knowlege of reading and math. This state also uses this test to judge the effetiveness of individual schools and school districts. 

Testing will take place next week Tuesday & Wednesday, October  23 & 24. It will continue the follwoing Tuesday & Thursday, October 30 & November 1.  The students will take tests each day in the areas of reading and math.  

Research has shown children do much better on these tests in a classroom setting rather than an individual setting.  Unless it is unavoidable, please be sure your child is at school every day during the testing period. 

The following suggestions can also be followed at home to prepare your child to do his/her best.

1. Talk to your child at home about the test.  
2. Remind your child to take his/her time and do their best. 
3. Have your child eat a healthy breakfast 
4. Make sure your child has a good night's rest

Support Your Library

Parents, are you looking for a night out without the kdis? This Friday, October 19th, the Cudahy Family Library is hosting its annual Harvest Tasting Fundraiser. Take the opportunity to get dressed up, have fun, and support your library. For full event details, visit the library's site at: http://www.cudahyfamilylibrary.org/ .

Measurement

In math we continue collecting data; however, we started collecting a different type of data. Today we used rulers to measure our feet to the nearest half an inch and to measure how far we could blow a pattern block. We then took the data and created a line plot.

Students learned proper measurement technique. The most important of which is to always align the end the of the ruler with start of the object you are measuring.

Kindergarten Color Week

This week, and next, are the color weeks in Kindergarten. If you would like to participate, here are the days and the colors.


Today was Red
Tuesday - Orange
Wednesday - Yellow
Thursday - Green
Friday - Blue 
Monday - Purple
Tuesday - Brown
Wednesday - Black

Skydiving From Space

This doesn't have anything to do with what we are studying, but I think it's simply amazing.

Progress Reports

Today your child's progress report was sent home. This report details your child's progress to this point in the school the year and explains any difficulties your child might have. Please take some time this weekend to review it. The report then needs to be signed and returned to me on Monday.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Lollipop Sale!

There will be a lollipop sale before and after school next week. Visit the first floor hallway on Tuesday, October 16 and Friday,  October 19 and choose from the following flavors:

• Strawbanna Blast
• Black Razzelberry
• Amped Up Apple
• Wacky Watermelon
• Wild Blue Razz
• Orange Mango Mania

All lollipops are 50 cents.

Address and Phone Number

There are many students who do not yet have their phone number and address memorized. This is a very important for all children to know. Next week Friday, each student will take a test where they will need to write their address and phone number. Please work with your child on memorizing these things. If there are several phone numbers for your household, please have your child memorize the one they should call if there is an emergency.

Graphing

For the past week the students have been working on collecting and managing data. Most recently they went to different classrooms and surveyed the students on their "Favorite place to play." The students then returned to the room and determined the best way to group and categorize the data before graphing it as a bar graph.

Today the students continued that work by using Microsoft Excel to create the same graph.

Science Test

Please check your child's folder for his or her science test. They are being sent home today.

These tests look a little different. The majority of the test was taken on the computer; only the essay portion was hand written. In your child's folder, you will their essay questions. Each question was worth three points for a possible total of six. This score was then added to the true/false & multiple choice portion bringing the total possible points up to 22.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Math Changes

In order to better meet the needs of all our students, Mrs. Lew and I are making some changes in how we teach math. Beginning on Thursday, we will divide our classes and each of us will take a portion of the other's students. This will create classrooms where Mrs. Lew's students and my own are mixed together. Both classrooms will be taught the same material on the same day. The only difference between the classes will be how the individual lessons are structured and, at times, the homework sent home. Please contact either of us if you have any questions.

Website Use

Please follow the link below to a very short survey. If you complete it, your child will earn a free homework pass.  Website Use Form

PB&J Challenge

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This year Kozy has decided to participate in the Peanut Butter & Jelly Challenge. The Challenge provides student the opportunity to learn about hunger in America while raising an essential food for the hunger-relief efforts. The program is put on by Feeding American-Eastern Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Bucks.  

How it works:

• Donations of Peanut Butter and Jelly will be collected at Kozy from Friday, October 5^th- Friday October, 25^th. *PLEASE NO GLASS JARS, PLASTIC ONLY
• Once all of the donations have been collect, Ms. Terry will take our donation to Feed America on Friday, October 26^th where our contribution will be weighed.

A Win/Win Situation:

•  Every child who brings in a donation will receive a voucher for a FREE MILWAUKEE BUCKS TICKET. The PB&J Challenge voucher is good for Wednesday, November 14^th or Saturday, November 17^th.  (Family member must purchase one discounted ticket starting at $10)
•  An opportunity to shoot a free throw on the court after the November 17^th game
• 2 FREE GAMES OF BOWLING at AMF Bowling Center
•  The school who contributes the most (by weight)  peanut butter and jelly or the school that collects the most peanut butter and jelly per student can win 60 FREE TICKETS to a Milwaukee Bucks game and $250 SPORTS GIFT CERTIFICATE!

Students can turn in their donation to the box in their classroom. The vouchers will be delivered to classroom teachers at the end each day. If you have any questions please contact Ms. Terry at

414-294-7237 or terrya@cudahy.k12.wi.us.

Thank you in advance for your support! 

How to Videos for Parents

Math is difficult for many students and, because of the new math program that we are using, it can be difficult for parents to help their children. Many of the methods that your child is using to solve problems are very different from the ones that you and I learned as a third grader. To help parents better help their children, I will post short explanations of some of the strategies that your child has been taught in school. Hopefully, these videos will help you to better help your child.

Since your child needs to use a blank number line to complete the homework tonight, I thought that the blank number line would be a great first lesson to post. All of the lessons will be posted in the "How to..." link on our classroom website.

Science Vocab

Our first science test of the year is Friday, October 5. To prepare for this test, students used a website called Glogster to create a poster with some of their vocab words. To see the rest of the students' work, visit the student work portion of our class website.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent teacher conferences are scheduled for November 15 from 12:30-8:00.  The sign-up sheet was out during Kozy's open house and several parents already signed up. If you haven't, I have set up an online sign up sheet on our classroom website.

By following the link, you will be taken to a calendar showing who has signed up. I am unable to set it to automatically go to the conference date, so you will need to navigate to Nov. 15. I also an unable to enable the "day" view. The best you can do is click on the "week" view,  so the boxes showing who signed up are rather small. To view them larger, click on the box.

To sign up, follow the link above the calendar. Again, you will need to navigate to Nov. 15 to view the open slots. Please double check the conference calendar before signing up to ensure that each child only has one conference slot.

If you have any questions please ask. The link to the conference calendar is here.

Communication Preferences

Please follow this link if the form doesn't work.

Note from your PTA

Reminder: Tuesday at 6:30 is our first workshop/PTA Meeting

We will have a reading workshop for about 30 minutes 

(The children will be making a craft during this time)

Then we will come together, have a short 20-30 min PTA meeting 

and then give away FREE books to everyone that is there!!!

There will be light refreshments provided

We hope you see everyone there,

Your PTA executive board

Jenny Cummings

Sarah Smith

Angie Kieckbusch

Jim Casper

Scholastic Book Orders

I sent book orders home with your child today.  If you choose to order, the completed orderform, along with payment, must be returned by Friday. I ask that you send payment by check, no cash please.

Alternatively, you may place your order online at www.scholastic.com.  The class activation code is: GVWB3 

Please contact me if you have any questions.