Recycling Presentations

Hello Families,

I hope everyone is having a great day. Today your child presented to different 5th grade classes about our bottle caps/lids recycling project. Everyone did AWESOME! The 5th grade seems amazed at the undertaking of this project and seem very excited to help.

I have added all the group presentations to my Google Drive. If you would like to view your child's group's completed presentation, please click here . Each presentation is titled with one child's name so ask your child whose group they were in. I have also tweeted out some pictures/videos so check out our class twitter feed here to see the presentations in action!

Don't forget to collect caps/lids over break! We already have 3 buckets full! We will weigh what we have when we return from winter break :-)

Enjoy your holidays and please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns! Happy Holidays!

Mrs. Martinson

A Peek at Our Week

Hello Families,

I hope everyone is having a great week! I must say that I am looking forward to winter break...Florida sunshine here I come! I wanted to give you some updates/info about our exciting, holiday filled week!

Holiday Activities
Students will be participating in different holiday activities this week to get them in the spirit of the season. Here is what is in store for them:

• Today we celebrated Holidays Around the World. Students "traveled" to different countries and learned about the holiday that was celebrated there. Ask your child to share something fun they learned!
• Wednesday, December 13th--Students will get to enjoy the Mercer Middle School band holiday sing along
• Friday, December 15th--Students will get to enjoy the staff holiday sing-along. This is an annual event that is enjoyed by everyone!

Cap Collection/Presentations

Keep sending in your caps and lids. We already have 2 large baskets full. We have to be close to 500 pounds now 😜.

Students have been working hard on their 5th grade presentations. In groups of 4, students have been preparing posters and PowerPoints to share our recycling project with the 5th grade classes. The hope is that we make them aware of the importance of recycling and encourage them to collect caps/lids for our project as well! Students will be presenting their projects on Thursday. While not required, it will make it feel more "official" if students dress to impress!

Winter Homework

I will be sending home some winter homework to encourage students to stay on top of their reading and math skills. While this homework is optional, I strongly encourage it. Students will be bringing it home on FRIDAY and it will be due the day we get back from school. 

Important Dates:

• Monday, December 11th-Wednesday, December 13th--Holiday Shop during school
• Wednesday, December 13th--Division Test (MY MATH CLASS ONLY)
• Wednesday, December 13th--Interims emailed home, please check on ParentVUE
• Thursday, December 14th--Recycling presentations to 5th grade classes (dress to impress!)
• Friday, December 15th--Word Study Tests

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Take care :-)

Mrs. Martinson

Field Trip and Hour of Code

Hello Families,

What an exciting day we have had so far! I wanted to share some important information about our upcoming field trip, the Hour of Code, and other important dates`.

Field Trip:
Our field trip is THIS FRIDAY! The weather looks cool and cloudy so please make sure your child dresses appropriately. We will be outdoors for part of the trip. Students will be eating lunch at the farm. Please remember to pack them a brown bag lunch. That means that all students bring their own lunch and everything in their lunch is disposable (DO NOT send students with Tupperware/reusable water bottles). Please write your child's name on the front of the bag as well. We will leave school at 9:00am and return by 1:30pm.

Hour of Code:
Students participated in the Hour of Code today. We started the day by listening to Mr. Stripling, a financial programmer, talk to us about coding, potential careers, and what coding looks like. After his presentation, students completed different coding activities. You can find the activities here if you want your child to do them at home as well. Finally, at the end of our hour, we had a celebration where students received a certificate of completion and their t-shirt. Students were SO excited about getting their t-shirts so thanks for keeping that a surprise. Please remind your child to WEAR THEIR T-SHIRT TOMORROW! We are going to take some celebratory group photos tomorrow. Check my twitter feed here to see some pictures from today's exciting event!

Important Dates:

• Dictionary Quiz TOMORROW! Students can complete a review on nearpod.com by entering the code RCDKP.
• Friday, December 8th--Holiday Cookie Orders due. All proceeds go to The American Cancer Society. Read more about it here and place your order here. 
• December 9th--5th Grade Pancake Breakfast and Holiday Bazaar from 8:30am-11:30am 
• December 11th-13th--Holiday Shop open during school hours at Pinebrook. Students can bring in money and shop for gifts for their family. 

Don't forget to keep collecting lids and caps! Thanks and let me know if you have any questions!

Mrs. Martinson

Dictionary Skills Review

Hello Families,

For the past week, students have been learning about the dictionary. They have been practicing putting words in ABC order, using guide words to find words in a dictionary, getting a variety of information about one word from the dictionary, and working with words that have multiple meanings.

Since we have spent so much class time practicing our dictionary skills, I will be giving kids a dictionary quiz on THURSDAY. In an effort to help students prepare at home, I have created a Nearpod lesson that students can navigate through to review and study.

To access the lesson, you need to go to nearpod.com. Once there, enter the code RCDKP into the box at the top (students DO NOT need to log in).

Once students are logged in, they can navigate through the lesson at their own pace. 

I hope this helps students get some extra practice! Enjoy :-) 

Mrs. Martinson

Hour of Code!

Hello Families,

I am so excited that Hour of Code is finally here! Our class has signed up to participate on Wednesday, December 6th. I have planned to have a speaker come in who has experience with coding come talk to the class to kick off the event. Then, students will have the opportunity to choose to work on Scratch or an Hour of Code activity for a solid hour. While students are working, I am going to have them keep track of how many lines of code they wrote. Finally, at the end of the hour, students will decorate a sign showing how many lines of code they wrote. We will celebrate their coding success by having a ceremony where students will be given a certificate of completion and their t-shirt. I am sure some students will want to wear their t-shirt immediately, but I ask that ALL STUDENTS WEAR THE T-SHIRT ON THURSDAY.  I will take plenty of pictures to capture this exciting event!

Upcoming Tests:

• Geography Test TOMORROW! Click here to access some activities to help with studying.
• Word Study will resume next week. They will have their Word Study test on Friday, December 15th.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday. As always, please email me if you have any questions or concerns! 

Mrs. Martinson :-)

Collect those Caps!

Hello Families,

Happy Sunday! Our Recycling project is well underway. Students have been working hard preparing for their upcoming presentations to the 5th grade classes in an effort to spread the word about recycling and our cap/lid collection.

I have been really proud of the ownership they have taken over this project. The kids are being responsible about what can and can't go in the recycling bin. One of the things we learned was that ziploc bags and plastic bags can't be put in the regular recycling bin because they jam up the machines when they get taken to the recycling centers. They are supposed to be returned to grocery stores. Taking this information to heart, we have started collecting our plastic bag items separately so that we can dispose of them responsibly. The kids are also bringing in caps/lids on a daily basis. Since starting this project 3 days ago, we already have 1 pound of caps/lids collected. That is AWESOME! I love how empowered these kids are and I hope this project will have a lasting impression on them :-)

To help aid in the collection of caps/lids and help to spread the word in the community, below is a flyer that was created that clearly identifies what caps/lids can be collected. If you would like to download the flyer, click here.

Upcoming Events

• Monday, December 4th--Word Study Test
• Tuesday, December 5th--Geography Test
• Wednesday, December 6th--HOUR OF CODE event!!
• Friday, December 8th--Field Trip to Ballentine Farms

Enjoy the remainder of your week! Let me know if you have any questions :-) 

Mrs. Martinson

Word Study Test on Monday

Hello Families,

Due to some 3rd grade classes going on their field trip tomorrow, students WILL NOT have a word study test. They will, however, have the test on MONDAY. Students should continue to study their words in preparation for that. Next week there will be no new words given and no test on Friday. The week of the 11th-15th of December will be the next time they get new words and have a test.

Please let me know if you have any questions! Thanks :-)

Mrs. Martinson

Recycling Project--Collect Your Plastic Lids and Caps!

Hello All!

The kids have been noticing a lot of trash and litter out on our recess playground, and other places, and have become excited about trying to spread the word about proper disposal of trash and recycling. To learn more about this, the third grade team invited Mr. Tony Hayes from Loudoun County Waste Management to talk to our classes about recycling, landfills, and how to correctly sort items for trash or reuse. He came today to present his information!

We also learned that plastic bottle caps can be recycled, BUT ONLY if they are ATTACHED to the bottle! If they are not attached, the machines that sort the plastics have a hard time picking out the lids, and they often end up being sent to waste because of this! In order to raise awareness about the importance of recycling and to show others what we can do with recycled materials, the third grade students have decided to collect bottle caps to donate to a company that recycles them and will make them into a trash can for us to put on the playground (yay to raising awareness about recycling AND solving our litter problem on the playground!). Here's the catch...we have to collect 500lbs of bottle caps! We have started a collection in our room and already have 14 caps! 

The kids had the idea to create posters to spread the word about what can be recycled, and about our collection of plastic caps/lids, so the entire school could help us collect more! We will also be visiting different classrooms and giving presentations on our project to solicit more help. We'll be creating posters this week to hang in our school hallways and near trash receptacles, and start the work on our presentations next week! 

Please collect at home as well! All caps/lids must be clean. Here are the acceptable types of caps and lids:

Thank you in advance for helping us with our collection! The kiddos are VERY excited about this!
Feel free to contact me with any questions you have about our project! 

Mrs. Martinson

1st Quarter Conference Times

Hello Families,

I hope everyone is having a great start to their week. I wanted to send a quick reminder about first quarter conferences. For the first quarter, I like to meet with all parents to discuss their child's progress in third grade. After the first quarter, conferences will be scheduled on a needs-basis.

To sign up for a conference please do the following:

• Log into ParentVue
• On the left hand side, you will see a tab that says "Conferences"
• Once you click that, please click the link that says "Parent Schedule Conference" which is in the top right corner.
• You will then see a list of all my available conference times, please sign up for the one that works for you!

If you do not know how to access ParentVue or if the conference times don't work for you, please email me ASAP!

**If you sign up for a conference time and need to reschedule it, please EMAIL ME. Do not just change it on ParentVue as I will not be notified of a change. 

Thanks a lot and have a great week :-)

Mrs. Martinson

Information and Dates for Your Calendar

Hello Families!

I hope you are having a great week. We have been very busy this week starting to write true stories about our lives, learning all about place value, conducting our first science experiment, switching to our word study classes for the first time, and learning ways to figure out unknown words while we read. It has been a busy week and your children have been learning a lot!

Reading Homework:
Reading is a huge part of the third grade curriculum as it is a foundational skill that sets them up for success across all subject areas. Please make sure your child is reading nightly and logging what they are reading in their reading log. Occasionally your child will also have a sheet of paper with a homework assignment that they are to do while reading. It is important that they complete this activity while reading as it supports what they are doing in school. In addition, encourage your child to sticky note while they are reading at home so that they can think more deeply about what they are reading. Your child could write a sticky note about a prediction, what they are wondering, a guess about what they think a word means, sketch a picture of what they are picturing in their mind, talk about characters and their traits, or find a favorite part and why they liked it. Showing their thinking while reading is an important skill as it allows students to deepen their understanding while reading.

Scholastic Order:
Today in Thursday Folders, your child will have a couple of Scholastic book order flyers. Scholastic is a great website with a wide variety of books offered at a big discount. The bonus is that every book that is ordered earns us free books for the classroom! You can place your order online here and use our class code MDXHQ so that our classroom can earn free books. You can also order using the magazine and send in cash or check with your child. Please have orders submitted by Monday, October 2nd. Let me know if you have any questions or want some suggestions on books/reading levels for your child.

Dates for Your Calendar:

• Tuesday, September 26th--School Picture Day
• Wednesday, September 27th--Place Value Test in MY math class
• Friday, September 29th--Wear Gold Day to raise awareness for childhood cancer
• Saturday, September 30th--Fall Festival from 4pm-7pm (I will be coming with my son Jake. Many of your children have expressed interested in meeting him so I will be there from around 4:00pm-5:30pm)
• Monday, October 2nd--Scholastic Book Orders Due
• Thursday, October 6th--Believe Fundraiser Packets due. Keep selling and bring in those tickets as you sell to win prizes! 
• Monday, October 9th--Columbus Day (no school)
• Monday, October 23rd--Student Holiday (no school)

Have a Great Weekend :-)

Mrs. Martinson

Homework

Hello Families,

I hope everyone is enjoying their day. I am pleased to report that my family and friends have all checked in and are safe after hurricane Irma. There was a lot of destruction at my childhood home but everyone is safe which is what matters.

I wanted to give you a quick update about students' homework.

• Students will write all their homework in their agenda. 
• Students will ALWAYS have nightly reading homework
• Students will write "study notes" for Social Studies/Science every day, however this does not mean students need to do this everyday. It is a reminder for students that they should be studying in preparation for upcoming tests. It is up to you and your child how much time will be devoted to this activity. Study guides are located in their notebooks and have the test dates written on them. Just remember that the end of unit tests will hold them accountable for their studying. 
• We started Word Study today but students will not start switching until next week. Students are learning the routines of Word Study and what is expected in school and at home. Their words this week are commonly misspelled 3rd grade words and will be sorted based on how many syllables they have. Students will write "practice words" daily in their agenda, but it is up to you and your child how they study. It is important that they practice their sort AND how to spell their words. They can use their word study notebook to write in any work that they do at home. Students will be tested every Friday on their words. 
• For MY math class, students will be given their homework sheet on Monday and will be expected to turn it in on Friday. Half of their homework sheet will have the new content being taught and the other half will review math they should already know. If your child doesn't understand some of the problems on the "new content" side, it is because we have not officially gone over it in class. Tell them to wait to complete those problems until later in the week. Students should also go on Reflex twice during the week. 

While it seems like students are getting a lot of homework, I am trying to give students more freedom as to when they complete it. I understand we are busy during the week so I am hoping you and your child can come up with a schedule that works for them. Please keep in mind that homework should not take more than an hour to complete. If it is taking longer, please contact me so we can come up with a solution. 

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! Have a great week :-)

Mrs. Martinson

Room 26 Updates

Hello Families!

I hope everyone has had a great week. I have been enjoying the cooler weather and I am hoping it stays around. Here is a little peek in to some of the things we have been learning this week:

• Reading: Reading is well underway and students have been learning how readers understand stories. We are working on doing comprehension checks, making mental movies while reading, making predictions, and retelling. All of these strategies will help your child better understand what they are reading.Students should be trying out these strategies at home as well so encourage them to use sticky notes in their books at home!
• Math: Students have completed their first week of math. Students in my class spent the week learning about math centers and the routines of math workshop. If the homework or classwork coming home looks easy, please note that's because this week students have been practicing routines, so the focus has not been on practicing new math concepts. Starting next week, students will be learning about Place Value. Students' centers and homework will be differentiated to meet their individual needs and ensure that those that need to be challenged, are! Ask your child what they have enjoyed about math this week. 
• Social Studies: We have started our Government Unit. Students will be bringing their social studies notebooks home every night and should be reviewing for their test frequently. Their test for Government will be Friday, September 15th. There is a study guide at the beginning of every unit that they can use to help with studying. 

Hurricane Harvey Donations

As you may already know, Pinebrook has decided to collect donations to help the people affected by Hurricane Harvey. As someone who grew up in Florida and went through many hurricanes, the after effects can be devastating. If you are able to donate anything to help, it would be greatly appreciated. Items that are most in need are as follows: Non-perishable food items (canned goods, rice, cereal, dry milk, pasta, etc.), Paper products (toilet paper, paper towels), and Toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, lotion). Boxes will be in the front lobby for students to drop off supplies. 

Also, if you wouldn't mind, please keep the people in Florida in your thoughts. I am hoping what happened in Texas will not happen to my beloved Florida. With all of my family and friends still living down there, any good thoughts and positive vibes would be much appreciated. It will be a very tense weekend for me! 

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I hope you all have a great weekend and I will talk to you soon!

Mrs. Martinson :-) 

Thursday Folders

Hello Families!

I hope everyone had a great week. It has been awesome getting to know your kids this week!

Today your child brought home their Thursday folder. This is not a school wide folder, but I have made a choice to have one this year as it keeps kids organized when a lot of papers are going home. The folder will go home every Thursday with school information, flyers, and most importantly...graded papers! Please unload the Thursday folders and return them empty the next day (Friday).  These were obviously supposed to go home yesterday, but time got away from us and I forgot to hand them out :-/ I promise to try and not let this happen too much this year!

Maroon folders will still be used for day to day communications, so those should be checked daily as well.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am hoping Thursday folders make things a little easier. I hope everyone has a great weekend and can enjoy what little nice weather we will get! As always, email me if you have any questions or concerns. Take care :-)

Mrs. Martinson

Room 26 Updates

Hello Families and Happy Tuesday!

I hope everyone is having a great start to their week. I wanted to start off by saying that I have not been in school yesterday and today due to a sick child. Apparently he has missed having me home so decided to get sick right at the start of school! If your children ask, let them know that Jake is fine and I will be back tomorrow.

Here is a Peek into our Week:

• Reading--We are well underway into our first Reading Unit called "Building a Reading Life". I have been teaching students that they are in charge of their reading life and they can set themselves up to make it great or not. The homework that students have been assigned (picking a reading spot, choosing reading habits) are important steps to building a positive reading life. I have taught them about how to choose just right books, how to read books as if they are gold, and will teach this week the importance of setting goals, sharing books, and reading with partners. I hope you will start to notice your children taking charge of their reading life at home. Please make sure your child READS AND LOGS what they are reading in their purple Reading Life folder every night and at least ONCE over the weekend. We use the information in their logs to set goals and challenge ourselves to become better readers. It is important that they get in the habit of doing this!
• Science/Social Studies--Instruction will start next week. We will being with a unit in Social Studies on Civics and Government
• Word Study--Students have been taking word study assessments to see what group they will be in for word study. Word Study classes won't start for a couple more weeks.
• Math--Students will start Math on Thursday. All children have been assessed. Most children will stay with their homeroom teachers and have instruction/activities differentiated within the classroom. Through Math Workshop, students will be taught a lesson, but the centers, activities, and homework will be differentiated based on their needs.
• Getting to Know Each Other--Students will be participating in activities this week that involve getting to know each other and team-building so that they learn to communicate with each other and work together. 
• Flexible Seating--Students have enjoyed getting to choose their own seats but we will be reviewing the purpose of flexible seating this week...to stay focused and do our best. As predicted, with the excitement of choosing seats, students are choosing to sit with friends with is causing excess talking. Talk to your children about the seat choices they are making and ask them why. Remind them to make sure they are picking a seat that works best for them (and not for their friends!)

As always, please email me if you have any questions or concerns. I have enjoyed getting to know your children more and more each day and am looking forward to a fun and productive year together! Take care and have a great week.

Mrs. Martinson :-)