*News to Note*

News to Note

I want to thank you for being so flexible last week as I was absent for 3 days due to laryngitis and bronchitis. It hit me pretty hard, but thanks to plenty of rest and antibiotics, I'm almost good to go now. A big thank you to Ms. Csilla, who cared for and taught the class while I was away. It felt so good knowing that the class was in such good hands. 

Here are a few other newsworthy items to share: 

• Congratulations to Kiek's twin sisters and Lucia's brother who graduated from Grade 5. Well done! We're so proud of you! 

• The ES Library will be hosting a Book Souk on June 9. This will be a great way to clear your shelves, and stock up on some free reading material for summer! Students have until Monday, June 8, to bring in "gently used" books. Students will receive a credit for each book brought in to select a different book at the souk. Please send books appropriate for grades 3-5, and no more than 10 books per student.

• Please mark your calendars for our End-of-Year Party on Wednesday, June 17, from 1:30-2:30. The theme will be "3LN Has Talent" and an opportunity for our cuties to showcase their unique gifts and abilities. So, start preparing, students! 
• Singing, acting, dancing, paper plane flying, impersonations, story-telling, fashion, drawing, comedy, horse-riding, tennis? What can you do well?! 
• If you have a talent that is not easily performed in the classroom, please pre-record it and send it to me as a file or on a flash drive by June 16, so I can have it ready without any glitches. 
• Also, if there are any who do not wish to participate, that's no problem. We want to make your party as fun and stress-free as possible. :) 

• Library books and textbooks: The time has come for us to return all of our beloved borrowed books back to their homes. This includes both library books and the EverydayMath Student Reference Book. Most of these SRB's have been kept in the classroom, however, please note that these books must be returned in order for students to end the year with a clear account and receive their report cards. Please send the book in with your child as soon as you are finished with it, if you happen to have yours at home. Thank you in advance!

• As we starting to have more indoor recesses these days, we are starting to enjoy a fantastic series called Wild Arabia by BBC. We started watching the first one today, since we studied so much about the Bedouin this year (as well as animal adaptations, climate, weather, and dependent relationships in ecosystems), and the class was mesmerized. Here are the episodes if you'd like to view them at home. 
• Episode 1: Sand, Wind, and Stars 
• Episode 2: Jewel of Arabia
• Episode 3: Shifting Sands 

Academic News: 

• Reading and Writing: We have just finished our Reading for Research and Informational Writing, so that means that most all of the students books have been published!! Overall, they are outstanding and I'm pleased with the amount of time, effort, and accuracy that has been put in to each one. We will now be moving back into fiction reading and starting poetry. 

• Math: Unit 9 is now complete, so we will be reviewing on Monday (June 8) and testing on Wednesday (June 10). I'll be sending home a review packet tomorrow, which is very comprehensive and challenging. (If you can do the review, the test will be a piece of cake!) On Thursday, I will be giving the End-of-Year Assessment, which requires no studying or preparation. It's just a way for me to evaluate how much your child remembers from all of the many skills we learned this year. (Many of these kinds of questions are reoccurring on math tests anyway, as part of our spiral curriculum.) Finally, we will start Unit 10 next, Measurement, which will be our last unit. We will study length, volume, and weight. 

• Science: Our unit on Extreme Weather will be concluding soon and we will move into Forces and Motion, which connects nicely. I will be giving the class a kind of open response assessment at the end of the week, but again, this is not something that you need to study or prepare for. Rather, it's an application of the knowledge and concepts they have been learning in class. PS. Hopefully, your child brought home his/her anemometer today. These have been fun for measuring wind speeds! 

I think that's it. Thanks so much for all of your wonderful support. With only about 3 weeks left, I'm really starting to feel sad about saying good-bye to "my" precious children! 

PS. This is a pretty funny article, which describes how a few of you may be feeling right about now. I was thinking one of us teachers should write one from our perspective. :) 

Teachers doing normal stuff: Here's our lovely Grade 3 Team (minus Ms. Tami and Ms. Rashmi) having breakfast on Saturday at the Pavillion downtown. Delicious and fun!