Reading and Math Groups!

Dear 3C Parents,

Here is the link to sign up for reading groups and math groups this quarter!  If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me.  We look forward to reading and practicing math with you this quarter. :)

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090e4daead2fa2fb6-reading
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090e4daead2fa2fb6-math

Best,

Mrs. Bowers

Grandparents Day

Dear 3C Parents and Families,

Please use the following link to sign up for grandparents day and look out for a flyer coming home!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084da5a929aa8-grandparents

Best,

Mrs. Bowers

Week 4 Blog Post!

Dear 3C Parents and Families,

I am so happy to report that we had a wonderful third week of school.  Thursday in particular was so wonderful!  The students were on task, engaged, and we learned a lot!  We even had extra time at the end of our day to catch up on Literature.  Mrs. Geyer and I are so proud of our scholars and can't wait for the rest of the year.

Best,

Mrs. Bowers

Announcements

1.    MAP Testing went well overall! We have a 3rd portion of the test to take on Wednesday, we decided to stretch the testing out a bit in order to give students a bit of a break.

2.    DIBELS testing begins next week, this will give us a great deal of valuable information on where your child stands as a reader.

3.    We are sending home directions for our first History project home next week! The due date is September 29th.

Wish List

1.    Tissues - We have early bugs floating around our classroom!

A Look in the Classroom

Language Arts:
We will continue filling out rule pages in our Spalding notebooks, our focus is on some of the more difficult multiletter phonograms. Spalding homework this week is cursive practice but also reflects the Spalding rules we are discussing in class. Please be on the lookout for spelling words the week after next! In grammar we are reviewing action verbs, adjectives, and carefully diagramming sentences together. Our writing lesson for the week will be a 3 sentence summary of a story we are reading about Ancient Egypt. We will take our first Literature quiz on Wednesday that will cover the first 6 chapters of the book. The Little House on the Prairie study guide that came home directly reflects the information that will be on the quiz. In Touch Pebbles we will explore the idea of what is fair and right using an ancient tale of King Solomon.

Science: 

This week we are learning about reptiles and fish! We will be writing a paragraph about the Brook Trout all together and writing our own paragraphs about other fish. On Friday we have a quiz. Please have your scholar study the first two pages of their Mr. Fab packet in order to prepare for the quiz.

Math: 

This week we are diving into bar models! Expect a paper to come home to parents explaining bar models in more detail. Please feel free to reach out with questions! We will also be solidifying our understanding of sum and difference and doing some estimation work!

History: 

This week we are narrowing our focus to North America even further and examining the many ways we can look at our home region. Students will study physical, political, and elevation maps to see what makes the landscape of North America so interesting and dynamic. On Thursday, students will receive information about their Canada projects, which are due on Thursday, September 29th. We will begin further study of Canada in a couple of weeks, but the third grade team wanted to allow students to start thinking about their projects early.

Tests and Quizzes:

Wednesday - The Little House on the Prairie Ch. 1-6 Quiz

Friday - Science Test on Animal Classification

Greetings Families,

Last week we were happy to introduce the fall 2016 schedule for clubs via the school newsletter. This week we would like to introduce the new portal for club registration and payment. This is a significant change from last year, as we are transitioning away from Wufoo to a Great Hearts wide platform, Configio.

To view available clubs, go to https://archwayarete.configio.com/ShoppingCart.aspx. This will also be linked on the ArchwayArete.org site under “Announcements” in the left-hand column.  When you arrive at Archway Arete’s Configio page, you will find the eleven clubs being offered by Archway Arete staff. At the present, Friday, August 19, the clubs are available to be seen, but you cannot currently register or make payment. Clubs will open for registration and payment on Saturday, August 20, at 8:00 a.m. We have provided this delay to give everyone an equal opportunity to register. Every club has a maximum number of spots and spots are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

To register and make payment for clubs, you will have to create a Configio account. If you select the “Notify Me” on a club of interest, you will be directed to a screen asking you to set up an account. Click on “Register for an Account” and provide the necessary information. This will be the only way to register a student and make payment for clubs and future field trips, as cash and check will no longer be accepted at the front desk.

If you haven’t registered for our third party vendor clubs and would like to please visit Chess Emporium at https://www.chessemporium.com/?page=singleProgram&catalogId=67777 and Play-Well TEKnologies (Lego Clubs) at http://register.play-well.org/registration/new/53484.

If you have any questions regarding club registration, please email Michael Naaktgeboren, Extracurricular Coordinator, at mnaaktgeboren@archwayarete.org.

Best,

Michael Naaktgeboren

Extracurricular Coordinator

Week 3 Post!

Dear 3C Parents and Families, 

It was another wonderful week in 3C!  I am so excited to see you all on Wednesday, August 24th forCurriculum Night.  Curriculum begins at 6pm.  You will find a note from your child on his or her desk and we will have the opportunity to have time to share more about 3rd grade with you!  I am really looking forward to this event.  If you have any questions you would like me to cover during the course of the night feel free to send them to me via email.  We will have lots of time for questions that evening.  :) 

In addition, we wanted to let you know that students will be taking a MAP test on Wednesday, August 24th.  The MAP test is similar to the Galileo test you may remember from last year.  The MAP test is a test the students will take at the beginning, middle, and end of the year to help us track their progress and let us know where they need some extra help or an extra challenge!  The MAP test does not count towards the students' grades, but it is still an important marker or growth so we ask that students get good rest the night before and pack some healthy snacks for that day.  You can also help by discussing with your child the importance of perseverance and always doing their best.  The test is somewhat different than Galileo because it will get more difficult as students continue to get questions correct.  That means a student who might normally fly through a test will come across questions that will challenge them because the program will start giving them more difficult questions.  However, if a student is struggling the program will begin giving them easier questions to find their appropriate level.  I am hoping this test will give us better data and information about our students, but it is a bit of a paradigm shift from what we are used to with test taking.  

Class Wish List Items

1. Tissues

Next Week...

Math:  We will have our first math test on Monday.  This will cover everything we have covered thus far in math.  To prepare with your child, feel free to review pages 1-25 in their workbooks.  We will also be diving into our next math unit which covers adding and subtracting with mental math strategies!  In addition, students will be taking the MAP pre-test on Wednesday.  There will be no math homework on Wednesday since we will not have a math lesson due to testing. 

Science:  This week we will continue practicing and performing their reader’s theater scripts which focus on the 5 classes of vertebrates.  The scripts are very fun and the students are excited about this activity!  Towards the end of the week we will begin learning about reptiles more in depth.  Students are going to have a “Mr. Fab” packet where they will take the majority of their notes for this unit.  Throughout the unit we will have a few quizzes and a final assessment.  We will let you know what pages to study as those quizzes get closer in their packet. 

History: Our studies will turn toward a closer look at the details of a map and the regions of North America and they will put their knowledge of cardinal directions to good use. We have activities planned that include a tour of our school, the floor plan of a royal castle, and the challenges of being a cartographer.

Language Arts:

In Spalding we will begin using our intermediate notebooks and creating our rule pages together, you will continue seeing cursive handwriting practice come home each night. Starting this week Literature, Spalding, and Grammar/Writing need to be in cursive.  We will continue adding more subjects to get all students writing in cursive 100% of the time in all subjects-coming soon! In grammar we are reviewing the 3 rules of pluralizing nouns and focusing on common and proper nouns; we will end the week with listing all of the pronouns. In writing class we will be reading about upper and lower Egypt and working as a class to create a 3 sentence summary of the story. Poetry class will be a review of rhyme scheme and Touchpebbles will be an exercise in abstract art.

Monday: Math Quiz on Rounding

Wednesday: MAP (Reading and Writing) Benchmark Test

Best,

Mrs. Bowers

Geography Website

Dear 3C Parents,

The students had so much fun using the following web links in class to review for their map quiz on Thursday that I thought I would share them here!  Happy studying :) 

Continents: http://world-geography-games.com/continents.html
Oceans: http://world-geography-games.com/oceans.html

Best,

Mrs. Bowers 

Week 2!

Dear 3C Parents and Families,

I can not believe I am already writing the blog post for week 2!  It has been a pleasure getting to know your children this week.  We have worked really hard and had a lot of fun.  I am looking forward to seeing many of you tonight at our back to school social and in two weeks for curriculum night.  Below is an update for next week.  I hope you all have an enjoyable and relaxing weekend!

Best,

Mrs. Bowers

Language Arts: In Literature we will continue our journey with the Ingalls family as they camp on the high prairie. In Grammar we are doing a close review of forming plural nouns. For Writing practice we will read about Scheherazade and create a 3 sentence class summary. In Spalding we are polishing up our cursive and taking a monthly benchmark assessment that will help us measure growth. This week we will start sending home reading logs for parents to sign and ask that each scholar read for 20 minutes each evening. Reading is a vital part of the third grade experience as we are preparing them both for the rigors of 4th grade and the standardized tests they will take this year. In poetry we are memorizing A Song of Toad; individual recitations will take place on September 26th.

Math: In math this week we will be continuing our place value unit. We will be rounding numbers to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand. We will also spend two days reviewing all of our place value concepts for our first math quiz, which will be on Monday, August 22nd. We will be playing a few math games the solidify concepts and have fun with math!

History: Students will continue their study of the world map, and there is a quiz on continents, oceans, and key parts of a map this Thursday. Students will be able to prepare for this quiz using their class notes. On Friday, we have a compass rose activity planned, and soon we will start putting our knowledge of cardinal directions to use!

Science: This week we will be continuing our unit on animal classification. We will be learning about the system of taxonomy and creating a fun acronym to learn kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. In addition, we will be learning more about the five classes of animals through reader’s theater scripts. This activity will be a lot of fun and students will be performing their reader’s theater scripts for their classmates in week 3! You can practice at home with your scholar if you would like to!

Tests and Quizzes:

Thursday - History Quiz Maps

1st Day of School and Curriculum Night

Dear 3C Parents and Families,

We had a wonderful first day of school today in 3C!  We did a lot of practicing procedures and learning our classroom policies, though we did get into some fun content.  I am looking forward to the rest of the week and diving deeper into our curriculum.  I hope you all had a good back-to-school afternoon.  Please let me know if you have any comments or questions!

I wanted to alert you to an important upcoming event: Curriculum Night! For grades 3-5 this event will take place on Wednesday, August 24th. The event starts at 6:00 p.m. in the Arete gymnasium, with opening remarks from Mr. Gillingham, Ms. Pantalena, and Mrs. Mason. 

The purpose of this event is to acquaint you with the school's curriculum and individual classroom procedures across all grade levels. Teachers will give parents an opportunity to ask questions. (Please note, this is a parent only event.) I look forward to seeing you there!

Schedule

K-2 Curriculum Night: Wednesday, August 17th

3-5 Curriculum Night: Wednesday, August 24th

Curriculum Night Schedule

6:00-6:25	Welcome and opening remarks in gym (Mr. Gillingham, Ms. Pantalena, and Mrs. Mason)
	A-L	M-Z
6:30-7:10	Homeroom	Specials in MPR
7:15-7:55	Specials in MPR Best, Mrs. Bowers	Homeroom

Week 1 :)

Dear 3C Parents,

It was so wonderful meeting all of you at Meet the Teacher last night.  Mrs. Geyer and I are so excited to get started on Monday with our new students.  Please note that students in third grade are dismissed at 3:05, which is a change from second grade.

Each week we will provide you with a short description of each of our subject areas.  We will typically get these to you by Friday afternoon, but you will always have them by Sunday evening.  

Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions! 

Best,

Mrs. Bowers

ELA: We will begin Little House on the Prairie the first day of school, please be sure to send your student's copy with them. In Grammar we will be reviewing nouns and the different parts of books, in Writing class we will begin to read The Story of the World. In Spalding we will be reviewing phonograms, manuscript, and cursive letter formation.

History: History: We’ll begin the school year with a focus on maps. Students will study physical, political, regional, elevation, and world maps, learning how to read them and why they are so important in daily life. This information will become invaluable as we move through the year, learning about different cultures and past civilizations.

Science:  This week we will begin our first unit on animal classification.  Students will have the opportunity to classify various animals as invertebrates and vertebrates, do an experiment to figure out if humans are warm blooded or cold blooded, and create vertebrates and invertebrates out of play-doh and pipe cleaners to determine which is stronger.  We are so excited to start this engaging unit which will last for the entirety of the first quarter.

Math:  This week we will begin our first math unit of the year which focuses on place value.  We will be comparing 4-digit numbers, practicing counting on, and searching for number patterns.  Students will begin their math journal which will be a record of their thinking and notes for math for the year. 

Welcome Letter from Mrs. Bowers

2016/2017 Academic Year

Dear Parents and Guardians,

                  Welcome to third grade, and welcome to section 3C. My name is Kellie Bowers, and I am truly honored to be your students’ third grade teacher.  Here is some more information about me:

                  I am originally from Mission Viejo, California.  I received my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in History from the University of Southern California in 2013.  While in college I spent two summers as a camp counselor in the mountains of Pennsylvania.  In college I tutored students from kindergarten-twelfth grades in all subjects and on the SAT.  In addition, I worked for a summer program called Breakthrough, which works with highly achieving underprivileged children.  That experience led me to Teach for America.

                  Teach for America is an AmeriCorps program that places teachers in underserved schools throughout the country.  I taught in Glendale, Arizona for two years in both 5^th and 6^th grades.  During those first two years of teaching I pursued a masters degree in Elementary Education from Arizona State University, which I completed in May of 2015.  In the summer of 2015 I moved to Gilbert and started teaching at Archway Arete. I thoroughly enjoyed my first year at Archway Arete due to the wonderful students, parents, teachers, and leadership here.  I feel very fortunate to be on the 3^rd grade team at Arete and I am looking forward to working with the other third grade teachers and assistants this year, as well as our talented specials teachers.

                  When I am outside of the classroom I love to read!  Some of my favorite classics are Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, and Anne of Green Gables. In the fall, I love spending the weekends watching football games in person or on television (Fight on USC Trojans!). My husband and I love to travel to new places and to visit friends and family around the country.  This summer my husband left his job working for a chemical manufacturing company to pursue a career in education; he is now teaching Science at Lincoln Prep.  When we aren’t busy traveling or teaching, we love spending time with our adorable puppy Koda and our sweet cat Nala. 

                  Third grade is going to be a very exciting year! We will be writing in cursive from day 1 and deepening our understanding of Spalding over the course of the year.  We are also going to be using Singapore math, which helps students truly conceptualize the concepts we will be covering.  We will be doing a lot of bar modeling!  I know bar modeling can seem intimidating, but I truly believe the method helps students understand math more deeply and cultivates critical thinking skills.  In addition, it is critical that our students master their multiplication tables in third grade- something you can start working on at home right away!  For Literature, we have many engaging novels to read, starting with Little House on the Prairie.  As historians, we will begin our year with Geography.  In addition, we will cover Ancient Rome, the Vikings, Native Americans, and the Thirteen Colonies.  Finally, as scientists we will be starting off the year with a unit on the classification of animals.  We will cover many other topics including ecology, the human body, light and sound, and space.

                  I am committed to keeping communication between you and myself very open. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have. Email is the absolute best way to contact me.  (KBowers@archwayarete.org) I encourage you to regularly check my blog as I update it weekly with useful information about what’s happening in the classroom.  The link for my blog is: http://mrsbowersarete.blogspot.com/. I highly encourage you to sign up to follow by blog by e-mail (it can be found on the left hand side of the page).  Blogger will e-mail you every time I post.  Let me know if you have any trouble with this process and I will do my best to troubleshoot with you.

                  I am really looking forward to meeting with you all on Meet the Teacher Night on Thursday August 4^th!   We look forward to seeing students with last names A-M between 5:30 and 6:30 and students with last names N-Z between 6:30 and 7:30.  Please have your child bring his or her school supplies.  If you ordered them online, the boxes have arrived to our classroom and will be waiting for you.  Nearly all of our supplies will be communal including: pencils, glue, white board markers, and all coloring supplies. Feel free to label you child’s binder and notebooks.  You are also welcome to bring in your child’s copy of Little House on the Prairie, since that is the first novel we will read. 

                  I am thrilled to have your child in my class this year.  I am looking forward to a productive year in which all of us in 3C will nurture our love of moral and intellectual virtue.  Archway Arete is a very special place and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to teach your children this year.  I look forward to working together and making the 2016-2017 school year unforgettable!

Yours in Learning,

Mrs. Kellie Bowers  

P.S.  Please see the letter below from my fabulous assistant, Mrs. Jean Geyer!