1/29

Upcoming dates:

January 31st- 100th day of school and Beulah Ralph's Birthday 
February 1st- Field trip to the public library
February 2nd- KOMU 8 Weather Presentation February 3rd- Neon color day, wear something bright!February 6th- School not in sessionFebruary 10th- Progress reports, Problem solver day- bring in a puzzle to completeFebruary 13th- parent/teacher conferencesFebruary 14th- Valentine's PartyFebruary 16th- parent/teacher conferencesFebruary 17th- school not in session

Math- Multiplication Flash Cards

In the Friday Folders this week I sent home a set of multiplication flash cards for each student to practice their math facts at home with.  Starting on Monday students can be quizzed over the different multiples (multiplies of 0, multiplies of 1, multiplies of 2) in order to gain a part of their multiplication sundae page. Each week students will be tracking their process with their facts. There is no time limit on the flashcard quiz, however, they must get every one right in order to move on to the next category.

Reading- Field Trip

This next week on Wednesday we will be taking a field trip to the Columbia Public Library. We will have the opportunity to tour the library, learn more about the books that are there, and listen to some stories. Students will also have the opportunity to get their own library card! I sent home the permission form last week but if you need another copy I have more as well.

Science- Weather Presenter

This week we also have the unique opportunity to have Kenton Gewecke, the local weatherman at KOMU 8, come to our class and talk to us about being a weather man. This will be wrapping up our current science unit over weather and it will be a great experience for the students to learn first hand how the weather man predict the weather and the tools they use at the station.

Writing

We are still working on our nonfiction writing unit! We are aiming to have our writing pieces finished for parent teacher conferences soon! The students are working hard turning their notes into sentences, and then turning those sentences into a structured paragraph.

Valentines Day Boxes

In third grade this year, we decided that instead of doing Valentines Day Boxes we would instead do Valentine Animal bags. The kids will make these in class the day before the Valentines Day party. We will work on the symmetry of hearts and how we can turn them into animals! The students can use different size and shapes of hearts to create their own animal and then place these onto paper bags where they will collect their valentines in. 

1/18

Here are a few updates to be made aware of!

NO FRIDAY FOLDERS

Since I will be out this Thursday and Friday I will not be sending home Friday Folders this week!

Reading Log-

Recently I have been having the students turn in their Reading Logs on a Daily Basis. I am not looking for a parent signature every day, I am only looking to see what book and how long the students are reading every night.  I just want to make sure that the kids are reading every single night! This will be very important going into fourth grade! We have also started to keep a reading log in class as well. Each student records the pages and titles of the books they are reading each day. This way they are held accountable during their “Read to self” time. If you have any questions about this please feel free to email me!

Spelling Bee

Our school spelling bee will be this this Friday at 9:30 AM. We have two students from our classroom representing us this year! Brooke and David will be going up against other students in third, forth, and fifth grade! I know they will do great!

Beulah Ralph Birthday Celebration

On January 31^st Beulah Ralph would have turned 90 years old! To celebrate her birthday and all the incredible things she has done for the Columbia Public School district, we will be holding an assembly to honor her. Monica Naylor, Mrs. Ralph’s daughter, will speak at the assembly and share some memories of her mother. We will also sing Happy Birthday to Mrs. Ralph and celebrate with cupcakes. In honor of Mrs. Ralph, we will be collecting personal care items to donate to the Turning Point Day Center (to help the homeless of Columbia). Here is a list of what each grade level is expected to bring.

a.       Kindergarten – Toothpaste

b.       1st grade – Deodorant

c.       2nd grade – Shampoo and Conditioner

d.       3rd grade – Chapstick or soap

e.       4th grade – Adult socks

f.       5th grade – Toothbrushes

Career Day

Next week we are celebrating responsibility here at Beulah Ralph. To do so we will be talking about jobs we want to have when we grow up! On Friday students will be encouraged to dress up like their future career choice! We will also have parents come and present about their jobs at a Career Day!

Donating Games!
During these cold winter months we have been experiencing several indoor class recesses. As a first year teacher the downside to this is that I do not have enough board games for all the students to play! If you have any old, used, or worn out games that you would like to donate for our class to use during indoor recess time please send them in! If you also know of a place that would sell games at a discount let me know! I know the kids will greatly appreciate it!

January Classroom Update

Happy New Year! I hope that each of you had a wonderful holiday season! I know that it was tough coming back to school this week (especially with all this snow) However, the kids are doing great and I have loved getting to see them again! As we start of the New Year I thought it would be useful if I update you all about what is going on in our classroom!

Math- In math we are continuing to learn about multiplication. We are currently working on the defining multiplication concepts. Specifically we are learning how to look at and create multiplication problems using arrays. Yesterday and today we learned two new math games! Ask you students how to play circles and stars and I am sure they will be able to teach you! The directions are as follows: 

Circles and Stars

1. Each person takes a recording sheet and a dice

2. Take turns…

3. Player 1 rolls the dice.

a. The first roll is the number of circles you draw

b. The second roll is the number of stars you draw

4. Write the multiplication sentence for your pictures

a. Remember...the number of circles is the first number!

5. Then Player 2 does the same.

6. After your board is filled, add up your score - who won?

Science- We are continuing our weather unit! We just finished learning about the different forms of precipitation and next week we will start learning about wind and how it affects the weather!

Reading- We are getting back into the groove of school and with that, we are getting back into reading! On Thursday we worked on picking better chapter books for us to read! We also got to use our new check it out board! Here the students will be able to look at what books other kids are reading and decide if they would like the book as well! It has worked well so far and the kids are really excited to recommend books to other friends as well!

We are starting our new read aloud book next week! This month our book will be “Shiloh” written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. This book is about a boy and his dog. It does get sad at times so you may want to ask your students opinion about the book! I am sure they would love to share their feelings.

Writing- Throughout the month of Janurary we still be working on our nonfiction writing. Before break students wrote a piece about something they were “experts” on. Starting next week we will begin researching facts about the topic the students want to learn more about. To help get their brains thinking of ideas I created a wonder board in the classroom. Here students can post questions, or “wonders”, that they have about life, the world, or anything they can think of! Then in the morning before the 8:20 school bell rings starts they can try to research information to help solve other students wonders. We have had some pretty interesting wonders such as “What happens to gum when you swallow it?” “Why is the statue of liberty green” and “What is a spleen?” If you would like to come in before school and check out our board, or post any of your own wonders, feel free to do so!

Snacks- Just a friendly reminder that students ARE allowed to bring snacks for the morning! As long as it is small enough to stay at their table spot and is a healthy choice.  In addition, we are once again in need of DONATIONS for our snack bin. I try to only give out snacks to students who did not get breakfast or who are in need of a snack before lunch. Therefore if you would like to donate snacks we will gladly love some crackers, pretzels, gold fish, or any other healthy, pre-packaged snack!

Coats- In these cold winter months please make sure that your student is wearing a heavy winter coat to school! Because of the cold temperatures we don’t get to make it outside that often but if we have a chance to I will only let students with coats go outside.

Miss Rutledge

krutledge@cpsk12.org