Week 11

Weekly Greetings!

To start with, there are a few important events to make sure you all know about for this week. First, starting on Monday there will be a Book Fair in the library for the week. Then on Wednesday, there will be the Student of the Month assembly at 8:30am. In addition that day, I hope you got my note that went home last Thursday explaining that the students can bring a costume for Halloween.  When we come back in from recess after lunch on Wednesday they can participate in the hallway Halloween parade at 2:00pm. Our class party should start by 2:15pm after the parade. There will be no G.A.P. after school that day, and I will not be sending homework that night either. Finally, there will be the Trick or Treat Street at the school from 5pm to 7pm.

Last week was the start of the new S.T.A.R.S. pod rotation, and I think all of the students enjoyed their new choices. This quarter, I have a drama group and there are six third graders participating.  On Thursday, we began making prompts for a quick presentation of Where the Wild Things Are. This Friday, we will be using the Makerspace room to record and edit their first presentation.

Each week, on Tuesday and Friday our class joins the fifth and fourth grades for P.E. in the gym. With 45 students together, we have been coming up with some active games for the group and they really have been cooperating well together.

 On Thursday night last week, there was an evening performance of some Halloween songs the students had been practicing in music class. It was a small group, but they did a great job.

And some of the students that attended even gave us a sneak preview of their costumes for Halloween. There should more pictures to come next week with students in their costumes, and some of the activities mentioned above.

Have an awesome week! I know we will.

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 10

Weekly Greetings!

First of all, I would like to thank all of you that could make the Parent/Teacher meetings last Monday. Also, I appreciate the effort some of you made to reschedule on other days when unplanned things came up. There are so many new programs and a new grading system this year that really needed to be discussed in person. I hope you found our time together informative and helpful. Before I move into some of last week's activities, I want to remind you that this week will be the start of a new S.T.A.R.S. pod rotation and there will be an early release on Friday.

We may have had a short week, but it was packed full for the four days we had together. The class continues to rotate through small group and independent work in reading and math each day. Then before lunch, they transition to direct instruction in writing. The students do a daily journal entry each day, and last week we have started a three paragraph essay in preparation for the up coming district writing assessment in November.

On Wednesday, the students in attendance created some Halloween decorations during our Makerspace time. There was also enough time to have some exploration opportunities to use some of they resources available in the STEAM room.

For the students that were a part of the Alaska Native and Local Culture pod class, the focus for the last week was on trapping and identifying animal tracks.  Using a kit, the class could identify the tracks of fur bearers and study their pictures. Then Tim Lorenzinz from the Tetlin Refuge came in to do a fur bearers and trapping presentation. I hope the students in the pod have enjoyed the quarter long class as much as I have enjoyed teaching it.

Now that the first snow has officially fallen, please remember to send your child with warm and proper out door clothing for recess. Remember that they go outside for recess until the temperature drops below minus 20 degrees.

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 9

Weekly Greetings!

As each week has passed, the class has really settled down into a productive routine in the mornings. Our reading block is packed with spelling, Lexia, and small group reading. Math is broken down into three groups and the Redbird computer program. The time before lunch is set aside for writing, and before we know it the morning academics are over.

The S.T.A.R.S. pod rotations take up most of the afternoon after P.E. or recess, and we will start a new rotation after this week. There are only a few 3rd graders in the Alaska Native and Local Culture class I have been teaching, but I thought I would share them participating in a couple activities from last week.

On Tuesday, Diane Titus shared a traditional story about "Spider Woman" with the pod class, and then did a beading project with them. The final thing she shared was to teach them a native song and how to dance to it.

Then Friday, the class did a field trip to see a collection of Alaska bids and animals created by a local taxidermist. The students had lots of great questions and seemed to learn a lot on the outing.

There will only be three nights of homework this week, and the Spelling words will be review words from the first five units we have covered.  Please remember that there will not be any school on Friday this week.

Stay warm and enjoy your week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 8

Weekly Greetings!

Last week flew by, and before I realized it we were already finishing the week! On Monday, after loosing three classmates over a few weeks, we ended up with one returning and a new boy as an addition. The current number for third grade is at 15 students. We also celebrated another birthday, adding the fifth one since school started.

There are some important dates coming up to keep in mind. This Friday, the S.T.A.R.S. pod rotation choices for next quarter are due to be turned in. Only half the class has returned the letter that went home early last week with the options for the second quarter. If you need another copy, please let me know. The new rotation will start the week of October 22. Also next Monday, October 15, there will be an early release at 2:15pm for Parent/Teacher conference. Please see the additional letter attached to the weekly parent letter with your conference time. That same week, there will not be any school on Friday October 19 for a teacher workday. We will be getting more training on some of the new programs introduced this year.

Speaking of some of the new programs, the class is getting used to our rotations in math and reading with progress showing in the digital resources we are using. On Friday, one of the rotations in reading was using the phonics board games that addressed some of the phonics rules we have been learning in the spelling program over the last few weeks. The students had a variety to choose from, and cooperated well together. There was small class that day though, with a number of students in Fairbanks with their families.

  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 7

Weekly Greetings!

It is hard to believe we are already starting into October! I hope you all were able to enjoy the beautiful fall weather over the weekend before we get snow. In addition, there was a lot of activity at the school with the Volleyball tournament to keep folks busy. As a reminder for this week, there will be school photos taken this Tuesday, October 2. On Friday, I sent home a notice and form with your child's finished work to notify parents. Hopefully, you all received it.

We had another busy week, last week. The class continued to progress in the Lexia reading, MyMath, and Redbird programs. During our writing time, they shared what they liked best about school in a brief paragraph. It seems that the STARS pods and the G.A.P. after school program are favorite activities for many in the class. Also on Wednesday, there was a special safety presentation put on by D.O.T. to alert the students to stay clear of snow removal equipment when they are plowing this winter. The students also got reflectors for their jacket zippers, and a tour of the plow trucks. All the elementary kids loved being in control of the loud horn when they were sitting in the truck caps.

Have an awesome week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown

Week 6

Weekly Greetings!

It will be good to get back to a normal, five day week after so many short weeks and MAP testing. There will be an early release on Friday, though, at 2:15pm.

Most of the students have completed all three Fall MAP tests, but there were a lot of students absent on Friday that will have to make up that test, and a couple of students absent for all three tests. With three more weeks to test, I should be able to get them through the make-up process.

After everyone finished testing, we played a silly game of "Eraser Tag" to celebrate everyone's effort. The person who is the "It", and two others move around the room with erasers on their heads until someone is tagged or the erase falls. Then it is another student's turn. Many of the kids were really good at keeping the eraser on their head.

On Wednesday, we also had a time slot in the STEAM room. Making robots was a big hit with most of the class, though a few others chose to show their creativity in other ways with the variety of resources available in the room.

There are a few third graders in the Alaska Native and Local Culture STARS pod class that I am teaching, and we did two afternoon field trips to Tanacross last week. Through the A-CHILL program, we were able to visit two different dog lots. In addition to learning a about dog mushing, the students were able to set and pick fish out of a net in the river. It was a little early for a large amount, but a local community expert was still able to show the group how to clean and cut the fish for
smoking. Then the fish were placed in a smoke house.

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown