Delightful December

Help! Get us out of here!

Thank you to Mrs. Rudnyai and all of the parent volunteers for helping make our party a success! Oh what fun it is to make ornaments, snowballs, and reindeer food! Also, thank you for your generous gifts! WE love all the special treats!

Read on to learn about A Few of Our Favorite Holiday Traditions.

Pickle Find

Reilly

My favorite holiday tradition is the pickle find. Why? Because it’s fun for the whole family and it’s very easy to do! All you need to get is a pickle ornament, and a Christmas tree. So, you hide the pickle on Christmas day and whoever finds it first gets a small prize. The pickle find is a German tradition and a very fun tradition. If you do this tradition, it will make Christmas day extra fun for everyone! I think it’s very fun because you might get another present, and for parents, it will be very fun watching your children try to find the pickle and win the pickle prize!  

Gift Giving

Madelyn D.

My favorite holiday tradition is giving a present to my sister Ava. Also, she gives a present to me because my mom says we have to and it's christmas. It’s nice to get a present from Ava because she knows what I like.This year I might get her an  itunes gift card because she loves itunes gift cards it's probably her

Favorite  christmas gift! That is my favorite holiday tradition.

Holiday Tradition

Anthony

My favorite holiday tradition is  snowboarding. One reason I enjoy snowboarding is because you get to sled down a mountain full of snow! Another reason that snowboarding is awesome is that it's like driving a race car down the longest road ever!! That is why I love snowboarding.

Thanks Mrs. E for teaching us another strategy to get focused!




Let it snow! Happy Holidays from Team Jordan!

 

Life is Good!

Life is Good is more than just an idea. It is a way of life and an opportunity to reflect on what makes you happy. As a class, the students decided that they wanted to share some of what made each of their own lives good. The class began by brainstorming and then writing a small piece on their ideas. These were then used as a model for the script of what the students would say. Finally, the video was filmed and put together. Throughout the process, the class learned about how making a video is similar to the writing process and that every student has great ideas worth sharing. 
As my time at Steward begins to come to a close, it is the memories like these that will stick with me in my future. It has been a great experience working with this class and each student has forever left a positive impact on me. I thank you for allowing me to be a part of the team!
~Mr. Pepper

Author Visit

               

What did I learn from the author Jarrett Krosoczka?

Today Jarrett Krosoczka tought me to never give up trying on my dreams and keep trying if someone rejects something of yours. I also can be creative and brilent drawers, if someone does not like it try again or do not take it personily. The last thing I learned isto be resilent and always follow your dreams.

By: Keira

Thank You TESPTO for bringing this author to our school!

Thankful Thoughts from Mrs. Jordan

Over the past few weeks I have been reminded of all the things I have to be thankful for. Mr. Pepper and Mrs. DeFranzo are both so important to me and our students. Both of these wonderful teachers have had to cover for me this month while I was out sick. They did an amazing job and I am so thankful for their dedication to our team. 

I am also extremely thankful for all the support I receive from families. The generosity and thoughtfulness of the families that I get to work with always impresses me. Mostly, I'm thankful that you trust me with your children. Please know that when they are with me I treat them as if they are my own. 

Lastly, I am thankful for my students. When my friends ask, "How is your class this year?" I can't help but smile and say, "Great!" I am truly enjoying getting to know  this group. Each day, we grow, learn, laugh, play together and get closer as a team. It is the most amazing feeling when my students moan and groan because the day is over. "What already?! The day went by so fast." 

These are just a few things that I am thankful for.  

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

What a WEEK!

We had a spooky good time working with our buddies from Mrs. Gouzie's class. It was a fun challenge to find verbs, nouns and adjectives related to Halloween. 

Our learning about plants grew as we worked together in small groups to create posters. We are all becoming confident presenters. We are proud of our work! Ask your child why leaves are important to plants. You will be impressed!

Below is the one of the grade three standards for speaking and listening:

Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.

Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).

Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.

Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.

Today we enjoyed learning more about each other's favorite sports and activities. As we had our picnic lunch together, the kids shared about some of their favorite things. This team is proving each day that they love to work hard and play hard together!

Tipi, Teamwork & Traveling Through Time

We want to give a big thanks to TESPTO for funding this amazing program! 

I was very proud of my team as they listened, followed directions, and assembled a Tipi together.  We also took a trip through time with Cathy as she told us tales in the Tipi. We looked at artifacts and listened to stories to understand how Native Americans used to live. The tribes lived in different regions and used the natural resources around them. 

An Inspiration provided by TESPTO

Thank you TESPTO! We learned so much from K Rob.

Thank you TESPTO! We learned so much from K Rob. Below are some of the things students wrote in their journals.

He didn't care about Medals. All he cared about was the feeling of when he completed his goal.

Believe and Achieve means to believe in yourself and achieve means that you can do it.

He jumped over four teachers. It was as fun as going down a water slide all day!

He got bullied but that never stopped him.

K Rob inspired me.

Today, we saw a BMX Bike Rider at school. He talked about kindness and he said, don't be mean to other people.

He talked about how he was bullied. Twenty years later, that same bully asked Kevin for something. He said yes because he wanted the bully to remember him as a good person. 

K Rob took risks and he tried his best.

He taught us about balance.

He taught us TRICK. Teamwork, Respect, Inspire, Confidence, and Kindness. 

We can all do TRICKs!

Growing Together

Thank you for attending Parent Night. I look forward to working with you throughout the year. Please remember that I am only an email away.
How have we grown so far?
The children are becoming familiar with the day to day procedures and they are developing good habits. 
We are rounding, using mental math strategies and working to increase our understanding of numbers and how we can take them apart to make adding and subtracting mentally easier.
Our reading stamina is increasing. We can read independently and to a partner for more than 15 minutes without getting distracted. We are working on leaving, "thinking tracks" in our books. We can use sticky notes, mark up passages and fill out organizers like the one that is for homework this week.  The more children write and share their thinking about the stories they read the more they gain from the reading. In class we are using the phrase, "Reading is breathing in and writing is breathing out."  We are working on writing things that are close to our hearts. We will continue to work on personal narratives for the month of October. We love sharing our stories because sharing brings us closer together as a team.
In science we are "growing" pinto beans and using variables to see what helps them to grow best. We are also learning about classifying plants. We will be learning about photosynthesis, plant reproduction, the importance of each part of the plant and more.
We have been 

Week Two is Through

What did Team Jordan do in week two?
ELA-We continue to work on building stamina in reading and writing. We reviewed the writing process.
We used the laptops and set up google accounts. We will be using google to publish our writing this year.
We are studying sentences to learn about grammar and the power of word choice.
Math- We are wrapping up the first chapter which is all about number sense and place value. The test will take place on Tuesday.
Science- We are learning about plants. We are piloting a new Science program- a letter went home this week about with important vocabulary.


I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday evening for Parent Seminar at 6pm in room 214. Have a wonderful weekend!

 

First Week Findings

We learned...
the cursive letter l
how to pick a just right book
how to work as a team
stems, leaves, roots are all important parts of plants
thousand, hundreds, tens, ones-Place Value
Standard form, word form
Express means write or show
Comprehension means to understand what you are reading.
the teachers are nice
Kindness Pledge
About Bio poems
We have a sports and team theme
about mentor sentences
EEKK -Partner Reading
we have important jobs
 how turn and talk
patterns
we earn baseballs for compliments
building stamina is important
We made our class rules and we all signed a contract.
1. We will not stop teachers from teaching. 2. We will not stop students from learning. 3.We will have fun!
This week we all followed the rules!
Thank you families for sending in all important forms and for sharing your amazing children with us!

We Learn From Each Other

I'm so proud of my team. We have learned so much about each other and from each other. I can't believe that at the beginning of the year some of us were afraid to speak in front of the class. Please enjoy one last video of Team Jordan 2015-2016.

Please click on the link below to see one last special video!

Video

6th Grade Worker Day

Reading with us.

It was great to have Tea work in my class. She helped coach the kids while they practice their readers theatre. I know Tea will be successful at Masco next year!

Paul Revere's Midnight Ride- Reader's Theatre

Poetry Celebration

I'm so proud of my team. Students, parents, and teachers came together to celebrate. The children were so excited to share the work that they published via google slides. It is amazing to think about all the things that we learned about poetry and technology while we created our poetry presentations. 

Please check out our kidblog link to see the final products. Feel free to leave comments to the children.

As promised I've created a video of our celebration. Thank you Mrs. Zargaj for filming. Thank you to the families for your continued support!

Click on the picture below to see our video.

Below is the poem that we wrote together as a class.

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing about Team Jordan is that we are a Team.

The most important thing about me is that I am funny. (Julia)

The about important thing about me is I am a good friend. (Alex)

The most important thing about me is I always include people and make them feel welcome. (Payton)

The most important thing about me is that I like to help others. (Margo)

The most important thing about me is that I reached my goal to be more confident. (Matthew)

The most important thing about me is I always work my hardest to accomplish my goals. (Victor)

The most important thing about me is that I am always helpful to others.(Jameson)

The most important thing about me is I am good at making people laugh. (Mia J.)

The most important thing about me is I’m a good friend.(Jake)

The most important thing about me is that I work as hard as I can to get my work done.(Lincoln)

The most important thing about me is that I really care about people. (Gabby)

The most important thing about me is I work my hardest to achieve my goals. (Devin)

The most important thing about me is that I am nice to my friends and teacher. (Mia R.)

The most important thing about me is that I like to challenge myself in math.(Kole)

The most important thing about me I’m hard working. (John)

The most important thing about me is I make people laugh. (Isabelle)

The most important thing about me is I like to challenge myself in math. (Connor)

The most important thing about me is I try my best. (Bob)

But, the most important thing about us is we are a TEAM!

Inquiry Based Research

We are working on becoming experts on a topic in which we are interested. Children were given time to explore the internet through our safe search engine to find topics that excited them.  Once topics were chosen we practiced asking questions and follow up questions based on the information that we discovered. This is only the beginning. In June we will go public and share our knowledge with the world.  It is a very engaging and busy time! Click on embedded video below

May Dates & Notice

Important Dates in May

Friday 13th:  Student Council 8:00 a.m. (rescheduled)

Monday 9th:   EARLY RELEASE 1:15 pm PD

Tuesday 17th:  Box Top Collection Day

Friday 20th:Team Jordan Poetry Celebration 9:15 a.m. 

A formal invitation will be sent home next week.

Friday 27th: Memorial Day Assembly 9:15 - 10:15     (Veterans  welcome)

Monday 30th:   NO SCHOOL Memorial Day

Important June Events

June will be even busier! Please reference Mrs.Costa's News Letters for up to the minute dates and times of future events.

June 2nd -Tour of Topsfield & Proctor Play

June 8th- Boston Tea Party Museum

Permissions slips will be sent home at a later date
June 10th- trip to Proctor to meet 4th grade teachers

June 14th- Field Day

June 16th- Fun Finale (3rd grade only)

We have two field trips in June. If you are interested in attending you must have an updated CORI. Please call the office to check with Mrs. B. if you are unsure.

Communication

This week we wrapped up our unit on sound with a wonderful DASH speaker and concert.  KR is an amazing story teller. Thank you to TESPTO for bringing her to Steward so that she could share her experiences with the children. We all enjoyed hearing her stories and learning more signs.   

KR Telling a story using sign language. 

I also wanted to thank all the DASH volunteers for bringing so many hands on experiences to our classroom.

Learning about Hearing Aids

Lastly, thank you to Ms. Swanson who supported us by using music to teach about sound. The concert was wonderful. I was very proud of the children during the performance.
Please click on the link below to see a snapshot of our learning. Learning to Communicate.

Telling Time

Our homework is to respond to the questions on the Padlet below. Be sure to include your first name.

Others are also welcome to add their thoughts.

Created with Padlet

We created our own bingo cards. When we played bingo it was very important to listen carefully to the times as they were called. It was an engaging way to practice telling time.

Let the Research Begin!

What are you interested in?  Do you think others would like to learn more about it? What questions do you hope to answer?
Now let's use safe search to find articles about the topics we are curious about.The IPads is a useful tool to investigate possible research topics. It is important that today's students know how to safely navigate the internet. We can get so much information but we need to be thoughtful in our searches. What are we trying to find out?
Included in our third grade standards is to: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers & to read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Click the link below to find out about your child's research assignment.
Research Letter for Parents

Team Jordan Presents Text Features

For the past several weeks we have been immersed in reading nonfiction text. We spent some time thinking about the text features that help the reader locate, understand, and interpret information. We know that this time was well spent because as life long learners we will use our understanding of text features to navigate all types of informational text.
 We hope you enjoy and learn from our broadcast!


One of the speaking and listening standards that we will continue to work towards is being able to report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

March Enrichment Menu

Click below for March Enrichment Menu
March Enrichment

What Does it Mean to Fight?

Rachel Platten is a talented and bright songwriter,  however her music wasn't getting the recognition that she wanted. It wasn't until she created this anthemic piece from her heart that her voice was finally heard. 

We analyzed Rachel Platten's Fight Song by close reading, discussing, drawing, writing, and acting.  We thought about the GRIT that this artist used to reach her dreams. Being smart and talented are not enough to achieve great things. Everyone has moments when they want to give up. If you believe in yourself, work hard and persevere nothing can stop you! 

Below are just a few wonderful responses taken directly from my students writing. All of my students wrote thoughtful responses and I am extremely proud of their effort and maturity while studying this poetic and inspirational song.


When asked about the meaning of "Like a small boat on the ocean, sending big waves into motion." 
"A person who feels small can make a big difference. She starts to realize that she is important."
"It tells the reader that even though you feel sad or alone you can still make a big impact. And you should realize that you are very important." 
"It is the first lyric in the song because a small boat sounds like a person crying all over the ocean making all the waves come into motion. Or it may be like if you're sad or alone on your own boat on the ocean thinking that you're nothing. There probably is a difference that you can make."
How is the author feeling and how do you know? 
"She feels sad and alone. She feels like she is going to explode because no one believed in her."
"She was scared but she persevered and she feels proud because of her song." 
"I think she feels like happiness and I love it. She is smart because she listened to the good side of her brain."
"The author is feeling sad and alone because there must be a lot of hard things going on in her life. Like people are telling her she can't do it or a voice in her head telling her to stop because she will mess up."
What is the message of this song?
"The message of the song was anyone can make a difference in the world. The theme is bravery. A phrase that tells me that is I only have one match but I can make an explosion."
"The message of the story is to be strong and not give up."
 "Be kind because it says a single word can make a heart open." 
"The message of this song is if you are feeling sad or alone you can change and make a difference. I think the theme could be courage because she was confident that her song was going to be good even though some people said it wasn't going to be."

I know my team inspired me throughout these lessons and while creating our video. We hope you enjoy it.

Throughout these learning experiences students met the following standards.: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations. What do you think about our work and the message of this song? Please leave us a comment below.

Created with Padlet

What's the Matter?

Team Jordan has enjoyed learning about matter by completing experiments, a visit from the discovery museum, and singing! We still have more to learn but here is a glimpse of what we know so far.
  The Discovery Museum's Ms. Stella reviewed the ways that matter can change. Adding or removing heat can cause physical changes in matter. 

Thank you TESPTO for funding this enrichment program. We loved it!

Commenting

We love blogging! When people comment on our blog it makes us feel good! We can keep the conversation going and have a good dialogue with our classmates and the world! Thank you Mrs.Yollis for helping us understand how to comment! Click the link below to learn more about commenting.
Mrs.Yollis's class on Commenting
Click below to see Team Jordan's blog posts and comments.
Team Jordan's Kidblog

Here is our week from your child's perspective.  Look for it in your child's folder every Friday.

It will tell you what they did at school each week. Now they can never say, "Not much." When asked, "What did you do today?"

Team Jordan's Top 5 for 2016

5. Being healthy is essential for learning!

Remember to dress for the weather, wash hands, cover coughs, and sanitize desks daily.

4. Multiplication practice is a must! 

When children understand the relationship between multiplication and division they are successful.

Third graders must be able to use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.    (T X 7= 56)  

Understand division as an unknown-factor problem. For example, find 32 ÷ 8 by finding the number that makes 32 when multiplied by 8.

In school we say, "What number X's 8= 32.

Third graders do not have to master long division. They do need to have efficient strategies for solving problems up to 100. This is why it is imperative that they memorize their multiplication facts.

Yes! There are many apps to help kids practice their facts. However, flashcards are one of the best ways I have found for students to own their learning. Sort them into know & don't know. Study only a few a night. 

3. Reading is Thinking 

Book Clubs are fun when every member has done his/her part. As you can see below, post-its help us share our thinking!

We take turns listening and speaking. We can use evidence from the text to make predictions, ask and answer questions, make connections, and discuss the character's traits.

2. The grade 3 Portal has lots for kids to do when the weather gets too cold to go out.

Click below to explore all the portal has to offer!

Grade 3 Portal

1.  Don't forget our January and February Enrichment menu!

HAVE FUN!

Click below to find menus.

January and February Enrichment

Practice Makes Perfect

Thank you Margo for sharing your music with us! You showed us that with a lot of practice beautiful music can be made.