Room 26 Updates

Hello Families,

I hope everyone got to get out and enjoy the spring weather this weekend. I am hoping that it is here for good! I have listed below some important reminders about things coming up in our classroom:

• 3rd grade has won a grade level reward to sit where they want in the lunchroom tomorrow (Tuesday, April 24th). In order to make this work, 3rd grade will be having their lunch at 10:00am. Students should still bring a snack as we will have our snack time in the afternoon. If you are planning on checking your child out tomorrow or dropping them off late, please know that they are eating lunch at 10:00am instead of our usual time at 12:00pm. Please let me know if you have any questions!
• Our Energy Test will be tomorrow. Please make sure your child studies tonight.
• My math class' Time Test will be on Friday. 
• Zoo Permission slips and money are due on Wednesday for students and chaperones. Please send it in ASAP! 
• This week is Spirit week in honor of Career Day on Friday. Here's how your child can participate everyday:

• Our SOL Tests are on May 17th (Reading) and May 31st (Math). I sent an email home about creating 2 motivation letters that I can give to your child on each test day. Please feel free to send those in as soon as they are done. If you need me to resend the instructions, let me know :-) 

As a side note, SOL review and test prep has started to increase in class. We are reviewing content but also practicing strategies that can be used to make the test easier. If your child expresses any stress over the SOLs, please let me know! I am not trying to stress them out but I want to make sure they are prepared. Keep me in the loop if you see any concerning behaviors at home. At the end of the day, I want students to feel confident and ready!

I hope everyone has a great week. Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. 

Mrs. Martinson

Room 26 Updates

Hello Families,

I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather on Saturday. If only it stuck around for more than a day!

SOL Review Homework:
With SOLs starting in about a month, we are starting to do more review of skills and strategies in class. I recommend that students start to review a little at home as well. To help with that home review, students will be bringing home a sheet every night with reading, math, and grammar review skills on it. They should complete the front and back every night for homework. I encourage them to use the strategies like slash the trash, highlighting key words in questions, and highlighting text evidence to help them answer each question. If you are able to, go over the answers with your child and help them understand any that they might have gotten wrong. Students have been taught all the skills they need for the SOLs, now it is time to starting reviewing them.

Zoo Field Trip
3rd grade will be going on a field trip to the National Zoo on Wednesday, May 2nd. Today your child is coming home with a permission slip and field trip letter. This trip will cost $9 as we have to pay for transportation (due to already having a free field trip earlier in the year). Please send in the permission slip and exact cash/check by Wednesday, April 25th if you want your child to attend. If you want to chaperone, please return the chaperone slip ASAP. Do not send in money unless you are told you are a chaperone! As the trip gets closer, I will email more information about the day of.

Don't forget that report cards are sent home electronically on Wednesday! Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great week!

Mrs. Martinson :-) 

Room 26 Updates

Hello Families,

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I got to celebrate Jake's 2nd birthday on Saturday, then spend my Sunday and Monday in bed with strep throat (don't worry I was cleared to come back to work today). Talk about going from a high to a low in one weekend! I have a lot of updates to share to please read this entire blog.

Spring Pictures
Spring Pictures and Class Pictures will be on Monday, April 16th. Today your child will come home with a picture payment packet. Your child must bring back their picture envelopes for a CLASS picture with payment inside or online payment information. They will not receive a class picture if they do not return the envelope. You can pay online, but the photographers will still need the payment envelopes. Individual pictures will be taken for everyone and students will receive a picture packet later.  You can pay for individual pictures once you receive that packet at a later date

SOL Vocabulary
SOL vocabulary officially starts this week. Students were given their words last week and made their flashcards, but will now officially start the homework packet. They will be given time to work on the packet in class, but please check it every night and make sure they complete the day's homework. The packet will be due on Friday, where they will turn it in and take their quiz. Please make sure your child studies the definitions EVERY NIGHT. This is not a spelling test. It is important they are learning these words so that they will be ready for their SOL test in May. 

Career Day
Pinebrook is hosting their annual Career Day on April 27th. If you or someone you know has an interesting career to share with students, please reach out to me and I will give you some more information. This is an awesome event where kids learn a lot about career possibilities.

Zoo Field Trip
3rd grade has one more field trip of the year and that is to the National Zoo in DC! Permission slips and chaperone information will be sent home on Monday, April 16th so please be on the look out for that!

That is all the information I have for you know. Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great week!

Mrs. Martinson

Pennies for Patients

Hello Families,

This afternoon your child is coming home with a letter and a cardboard collection box for our Pennies for Patients fundraiser. This annual fundraiser raises money for childhood leukemia and lymphoma. Children are encouraged to fill their boxes with donations as little as a penny to help Pinebrook reach its goal of raising $2,018. Students can bring their box back daily to turn in what they have collected, or can choose to return it weekly. Students can accept coins, bills, and checks as donations. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks and have a great weekend!

Mrs. Martinson :-) 

We Reached 500lbs!!!

Hello Families,

In case you haven't heard from your child, the third grade has far surpassed their goal of collecting 500lbs of caps and lids (we are probably close to 600lbs). The next step in our journey to a trash can is for students to start planning for the trip to Indiana where the teachers will deliver the caps to Green Tree Plastics. Thank you for all your help in collecting caps and lids. We couldn't have done it without your support!

Now that we are done collecting bottle caps and lids, it is important that you understand how they can be correctly recycled so that they don't accidentally end up in the landfill. Large caps and lids (like those for your sour creams, detergent, etc.) are fine to be recycled on their own. Small caps and lids (like those for water bottles, Gatorade, etc.) are at risk of falling through the conveyor belts at the recycling sorting center, thus resulting in them ending up as trash in the landfills. In order to prevent this, squish the plastic bottle or container down to get all the air out, then replace the cap or lid. This is the most effective way to recycle smaller caps and lids responsibly.

Squish the bottle, then add the cap/lid back on

Thanks again for all your help with this portion of the project. You can now breathe a sigh of relief as you no longer have to find a place in your house to store the pounds of caps and lids you were collecting :-) Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day.

Mrs. Martinson

SOL Vocabulary

Hello Families,

I hope everyone had a wonderful spring break and a Happy Easter. I enjoyed the sunshine in Florida and spending time with my family. I am so ready for it to feel more like spring here!

SOL Vocabulary:
Starting this week, students will no longer be switching classes for Word Study. Instead of word study lists, students will be given vocabulary lists to review third grade vocabulary words in Math and Reading. Reviewing this important vocabulary will help them feel more confident when they take the SOLs in May. 

Students will receive their list of 10 words on Mondays and will have their quiz on Fridays, similar to how Word Study worked. The quizzes will be vocabulary-based, meaning students will not be quizzed on the spelling of these words (although learning the spelling doesn't hurt, it will not be the focus!) Please be sure that your student completes the homework each night (homework will be in a packet, not in their word study journal) so they are practicing the concepts and definitions. The homework will be the same every week:

• Monday: Make flashcards for each of the words. If flashcards were already made in class (which I will do if we have time), then students should study their flashcards.
• Tuesday: Use each word in a sentence (DO NOT just write the definition of the word...show that you know how to use the word.) 
• Wednesday: Sort the words by syllables and break them into their syllable parts
• Thursday: Write the words in ABC order and study the definitions
• Friday: Quiz 

If you have any questions about the new word study routine, please let me know. This will be how we end the year doing word study! This week I will set up this new routine with students and they will make the flashcards for their new words by the end of the week. Next week, starting Tuesday (since Monday is a student holiday), students will receive their packet and complete it for the rest of the week. Their first SOL Vocabulary quiz will be NEXT Friday. 

As always, please email me if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great rest of your week!

Mrs. Martinson

Room 26 Updates

Hello Families,

I hope everyone is having a nice start to their week. I am so ready for spring break, where I am heading to Florida to enjoy some much needed sunshine!

With this impending snow storm approaching (I can't even believe I have to say this at the end of March!), there are a few things I want to note in case we are out for a day or two this week:

• Word Study Tests will be on Friday. Make sure your child studies their words even if we are out of school.
• Our Mali Test will still be on Friday, no matter how many days we miss. Your children filled in the rest of their notes today. It is their job to study if we are not in school. 
• Critter Cans are still due Friday. Snow days actually give them more time to get them ready!
• Math Homework and Reflex will still be due on Friday.

My hope is that the week goes as planned, however I just want to make sure the students understand what is expected of them if they get a couple of days off this week. Please let me know if you have any questions. Stay warm!

Mrs. Martinson :-)