Dear Team Jordan Families,
Thanks so much for all the generous gifts!  I can't wait to pick up some new books at Barnes and Noble over vacation.  I love all the holiday cards that you have sent me.  Your children are all so beautiful!  I hope you have a wonderful holiday together.  May the New Year bring much health and happiness!

Thanks to Mrs. Dunagan and Mrs. McBournie for the wonderful holiday party! 

The kids had a blast!

 

 

Fun decorating cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday Concert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Mason was a great MVP last week. He loves hockey.

 

 

 

 

Catie taught us a cheer this week.  What a great MVP!

 

 

 

Check out our homework page.

 

 

Enrichment Menu has been updated.

Hi!  What a busy time of year!  I hope you are enjoying the hustle and bustle. I am looking forward to meeting with you next week during parent conferences.

A Note About this week

A Brief Note

Please return conference slips as soon as possible.

Children should read each night.  I will not send home a homework/ reading record sheet this week.

 

Elsa  was a great MVP and she taught us about Ethiopia.

 

 

 

Being Thankful

As I was preparing for Thanksgiving this weekend, I began to think about all the reasons I am thankful. 
I am thankful for Justin because he is an enthusiastic learner.
I am thankful for Aidan because he is hardworking.
I am thankful for Emmy because she is always on task.
I am thankful for Max because he uses his time wisely.
I am thankful for Madeline because she is dedicated to learning.
I am thankful for Tucker because he can answer my tough math questions.
I am thankful for Beau because he asks great questions.
I am thankful for Riley because she is a role model.
I am thankful for Julia because she never gives up.
I am thankful for Ben because he thanks me everyday for teaching him.
I a thankful for Amber because she is always willing to help others.
I am thankful for Delaney because she is a great reader.
I am thankful for Shaelyn because she puts a lot of effort into her work.
I am thankful for Catie because she is kind to everyone.
I am thankful for Mason because he participates during math.
I am thankful for Elsa because she is inquisitive.
I am thankful for Will because he shares his mathematical thinking.
I am thankful for Reid because he has a great sense of humor.
I am thankful for Meri because she is a great friend.
I am thankful for Felix because he is a great story teller.
I am thankful for Lucas because he is a motivated learner.

I am so thankful to my "players" because they all work as a team.  They support each other when they are learning new concepts. The positive attitudes that I have seen develop this year have made me feel very optimistic about the future.  Team Jordan is thankful to be together learning and growing everyday. 

Also, a special thank you to Mrs. Baczewski, Ms.Kezer, and Mrs. Jordan for helping me and the children everyday.  Our team wouldn't be complete without all of our coaching staff!
I feel thankful to work with such supportive families.  Thank you for sending your child to school each day ready to learn and play!
I hope you all enjoy this time together.

Best Wishes,
Maureen Jordan

Global Read Aloud

As your child may have informed you we were part of a Global Read Aloud.  Over the past several weeks we read a book called, Marty McGuire.  During this time we also had the opportunity to skype with a class from Canada and use a site called Todays Meet to instant message each other.  Both of these experiences combined with reading the book were very engaging.  We finished our final project related to this book yesterday.  We hope you enjoy it!

Character Traits

Team Update

Team Jordan has been as busy as ever.  We learned about Veteran's Day and wrote thank you letters to local Veterans to thank them for their service.  We began reading in our social studies texts books about Massachusetts.

In reading we reviewed informational text features and their purposes.  Features of information text help up to understand what we are reading, find information fast, and compare information.  We also began learning about the different jobs we will have in our book clubs.  Some of the jobs include questioner, visualizer, character charter, connector and summarizer.  The children are very excited to start book clubs next week.  I am excited to see how well they work together collaborating and sharing ideas about literature.

In writing we have finished up our unit on personal narratives.  Children have taken a piece through the writing process. Although we are not all finished typing, we will continue to type in the computer lab and classroom until everyone has typed a narrative for his/her portfolio.

We kicked off poetry with a class reading of Abracadabra. Ask your child about it.  Next week, each student will be given a poetry folder to store collected poems in and to write their own poems.  This is a great time to work on word choice.

In math, we are beginning our unit on bar modeling.  Bar modeling helps us solve word problems.  Bars are drawn, labeled, and divided according to the situation.  This is a nice way for children to see the problem visually.

Will was a great MVP.  He taught math today!

 

Have a great weekend!

Reid's MVP Picture

Check out Reid's picture.  Reid has a great sense of humor!

Homework Update!

Special Reward Tomorrow

Games and Pajamas -Comfy Clothing
We have earned 25 class compliments.  Friday, November 1st we are celebrating with a day of comfort and games.  Please do not bring in any stuffed animals. 

GO RED SOX! GO TEAM JORDAN!

Today, most of the children  were so excited about the Red Sox that I decided to use their enthusiasm as a way to learn about the characteristics of a winning team.  They did such a great job that we presented to the whole school.  The characteristics that they highlighted were teamwork, perseverance, effective effort, focus, practice, hard work, and courage.  I know this sounds familiar because we talked about these traits in order to reach our goals.  I think it is important to keep reiterating these themes.

 

 

 

 

Look What We Did!

We met our first grade buddies.  It was so fun learning and sharing about ourselves.  We taught our buddies the Kindness Pledge.  If you don't know it, ask your child to teach you.

 

 

Here are Lucas and Will learning while using the IPads.

 

 

 

MVP Meri

Weekly News & Homework

Hello!  I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend.  As I watched some New England sports teams this weekend, I couldn't help but think about Team Jordan.  I found myself asking the question, "Who are my MVP's?  Who doesn't give up? Where does a team get the drive  to persevere when things get challenging?"  Today, I asked our children to think about these questions.  I hope you will discuss with your child about what it takes to be a successful player on Team Jordan. 

Coming soon.. Meri's MVP photo
Did you know that Meri is a gymnast?

Today we began our study of Massachusetts.  Ask your child about the state symbols.

Subtraction is our focus in Math.  We are also using addition to check our answers.

We are still learning how to add suffixes onto base words.

We are finishing our personal narratives and will begin typing our final drafts in the lab.

We are reading passages about pumpkins and Halloween.  We are learning about dialog.  This is tricky because of the punctuation. 

We welcomed Justin to our team last week.  He is a great addition to our team!

Sorry! Boys and Girls I can't get Jeopardy to upload on my blog.

Study using your guide and text book. 

Update for the week of October 14th

Dear Families,
I hope you all had a nice extended weekend!  This week has been short but productive.  The children have demonstrated that they can add four digit number with and without regrouping.  We will have a test next Wednesday and then move on to subtraction.  Coming up next Thursday is our first science test.  It will be on seed plants.  I will send home a study guide on Monday for the children to use each night to prepare for the test.  Please check the homework page for updates about assignments. 
Have a great evening!
Mrs. Jordan

What does it take to reach your goals?  
This is an ongoing theme in our classroom.  What do good students do to achieve their goals?  This message was woven into our assembly last Friday.  Mark Rothstein entertained and educated us about how to stay fit both mind and body.  His message was powerful and positive! 

Hard work and practice ~Will
Be nice to others. ~Shaelyn
Practice ~Meri
Be a good role model. ~Jack
Try your best. ~Tucker
Responsibility ~Caitie
Be nice and do what is expected. ~Emmy
Effective Effort~Madeline
Practice, hard work & Effort ~Mason
Try your hardest and never give up. ~Delaney
Effective Effort ~Aidan
Practice ~Ben
Hard work and thinking ~Beau
Use your time properly. ~Julia
Try your best. ~Amber
Be resourceful. ~Elsa
Don't give up.~Felix
Trying ~Reid
Effort ~Lucas
Effective Effort means that you don't give up when something goes wrong. ~Max
Perseverance, kindness, integrity, and of course teamwork!
~ Mrs. Jordan

Our MVP last week was Felix.  We learned about him and his passion for skateboarding.  Don't forget you safety gear!



Last week we celebrated Jack's last day at Steward.  When the children share their feelings with each other it makes me think that we are doing somethings right!  Congratulations parents for showing your children how to care for others.  We wish Jack and his family all the best!

Look for a new update next week.

What did we learn this week?

We learned so many things this week that I decided to let the kids tell you what they learned.

I learned about photosynthesis. ~Ben


I learned how to round up and down. ~Meri

I learned about seeds. ~Catie

I learned about the different ways you can start a story. ~Delaney

I learned that photosynthesis is how leaves make sugar and we get oxygen. ~Julia

One thing I learned this week is that dialogue is important when you're writing a story to make it more interesting. ~Amber

I learned how to estimate because it helps you check your answers quickly. ~Tucker

Photosynthesis is interesting because plants make their own food. ~Riley

I learned if you soak a potato in water it gets rotten. ~Elsa

To write longer stories you have to think about details. ~Beau

It was cool to learn about rounding numbers because it will come in handy for other number problems. ~Shaelyn 

I learned  how to play math Bingo. ~Madeline

I learned that I am really good at keeping my plant alive.~Reid

 

I liked learning the different parts of plants and how the leaves make oxygen. ~Jack

I learned to round to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand. ~Will

I learned to round up when the number is five or more. ~Felix

When a number is four or under you round down. ~Aidan

Roots keep the tree in place. ~Max

Plants need water, sun energy and carbon dioxide to make food. ~Mason

I learned that seeds travel by wind, animals leave them behind, and by getting on animals fur. ~Lucas

We all learned about Lucas this week!  He was a great MVP! 

 

Reminders & News

~Book Orders are due Monday!
~Look for information about Study Island to come home next week.  Please do not start working on Study Island until I send this information home.
~Next week, Felix is our MVP.  Have a great weekend!

New Book Orders & Homework Information

Please check out our Scholastic Reading Club flyers.  You can order online. Email me and let me know if you are ordering any gifts so I won't spoil the surprise.

Team Jordan Weekly Update

What an exciting week! 

Today we had an amazing time with Tipi Dan and Cathy.  Check out what we did!

We learned about many tribes that lived across North America.

 

We worked together to put up a teepee.

 

 

We all had important jobs.

 

 

Look at us go.

 

Team Jordan did a great job!

 

 

 

 

 In math we have been practicing strategies for adding and subtracting mentally.  We have learned some quick and easy games.  Rolling dice or flipping cards, then adding the amounts is a great way to practice.  We will continue to work on mental math strategies next week too.

In reading we have been focusing on realistic fiction.  Ask yourself, "Could this really happen?"  If the answer is yes, then you might be reading realistic fiction.  We read a great book called, Thunder Cake by Patrica Pollaco.

In writing, we completed our pre unit assessment.  We will learn how to write personal narratives that beg to be read aloud.  We continue to enjoy our free writing time.

In Science we learned about photosynthesis.  Today we got to make an awesome creation to demonstrate our knowledge. 

MVP- Next week, Lucas will be our MVP.  The MVP gets to lead us during calendar, share information about him/herself, bring in a special object on Friday, and do special jobs for Mrs. Jordan.  Each week we will have a new MVP.  Since Lucas is usually last, alphabetically, we decided he should go first this time. 

Team Jordan Week of Sept. 16th Update

This has been an exciting week for Team Jordan.
 
Science
We have been exploring plants and seeds.  We have learned how to make observations like scientists. Ask your child about cotton.  We got to explore it in its raw form.  We made some interesting discoveries.

Math
We have completed our first Chapter in math and I am excited to report that our team understands place value!  Today we began learning about Mental Math and Estimation.  We will explore strategies to solve problem in our heads.

Reading & Writing
We have established routines and have moved into our study of realistic fiction.  We will continue to enjoy reading and discussing the characteristics of this genre.

We are enthusiastic writers!  Ask your child about, Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street. In this story the main character has nothing to write about.  We read it to discover that there are many ways we can write about seemingly boring topics.  Just stretch the truth a bit and you have realistic fiction. 

As you can see we love to share our writing ideas. 

 

 

Looking Ahead

On Friday, September 27 Tipi Dan  will be working with each third grade class.  This enrichment opportunity is sponsored by TESPTO.  We will use teamwork to build a teepee.  Another exciting aspect of this visit will be our time seeing and learning about the different tribes that lived locally and across America.



THANK YOU for coming to parent seminar. It was great to meet you and have the opportunity to share the curriculum of third grade. It is going to be a great year!

Picture Day & Parent Seminar tomorrow

Please remember to send in picture envelopes and a smiling child.  We will be having our pictures taken on Wednesday, September 18th.

Parent Seminar

I look forward to seeing you at Parent Seminar on Wednesday, September 18th at 6pm!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to Steward School. 

Dear Families,

Welcome back to school and welcome to third grade!  During the first few days of school we have been sharing and learning about each other and our classroom. The students have been telling me all about the exciting adventures that they had this summer.

 Thank you for promptly returning the parent surveys. You know your child better than anyone.  The information you shared with me will be very helpful.  I look forward to getting to know and work with all of you during the school year.   Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns that you may have.  I hope to see you all at 6pm on September18 ^th for our Parent Seminar. 

WORK HARD!  WORK SMART!  WORK TOGETHER! This year my students will be hearing all about the importance of team work and effective effort.  Our class is a team that will work together to achieve individual goals and group goals.  I ask that you help to enforce this message at home.  Thank you!

 

Homework

We are easing into homework this week.   I will send home a homework agenda each week which the children will fill in on a daily basis.  The agenda should be left in your child’s binder.   Please check the homework folder each night.  I will not give credit for work that is passed in without a name on it so please be sure that your child gets into the habit of writing his or her name on each assignment.  According to our homework policy, homework should take 30 minutes each night which includes 15 minutes of reading.  You will notice each week on the agenda sheet that a reading log will be required as part of their nightly homework.  Please check that your child is recording his or her nightly reading and initial in the space provided in order to receive credit.