Pay it Forward... The class receives a random act of kindness!

In response to our year-long class project, Pay it Forward, the kids received a surprise visit on Thursday.  School Board Member, Dick Dearwester, was waiting for the kids after lunch to give each of them a coupon to receive a free Frosty at Wendys.  He said he wanted to do something out of the kindness of his heart after being so surprised a couple weeks prior.  If you haven't seen the Frostys coupon, please ask your child about it, along with asking they tell you more about his surprise visit Thursday afternoon.

Curriculum Update February 27-March 2

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. This week, we will begin our Kansas Reading State Assessments. They will take place Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 12:00-1:30 (or longer if anyone needs extra time). Please make sure your child receives a good night sleep. There will be NO homework until Thursday evening.

Thank you for sending in a white t-shirt. The kids were excited to decorate their "team jersey" for our annual KSA Super Bowl. GO Super Pandas!

Please consider sending in non-perishable items for the 5th grade food drive for St. Mary's food kitchen this week. Thank you in advance.

Rigby Reading
Last week, we went over character traits, compare & contrast, predicting, main idea, retelling, summarizing, prefixes/suffixes, author's purpose, text features and cause & effect. The kids created a collage from a variety of Scholastic News demonstrating they understood each skill.

On Monday, we will have the KSA Literacy Super Bowl, a fun way to review for the state assessment through hands-on kinesthetic learning games. Due to state testing, Rigby Reading will resume on Monday, March 5.

enVision Math
We completed Topic 8, division last week. This week, we will begin Topic 15, focusing on liquid volume and mass. We will cover customary units of capacity, metric units of capacity, units of mass and units of weight this week. Tuesday and Wednesday, we will do the homework sheets in class.

Spelling
There will be NO spelling this week due to the reading state assessments. It will resume on Monday, March 5, 2012.

Social Studies
We will begin a unit on economics. All year, we have been learning about economics through our Team Leggett economy, but will continue to learn more in the next couple of weeks. We will focus on wants vs needs, credit, opportunity cost, scarcity, bartering, saving and creating a business.

Science
We will begin a unit on sound. The students will learn how pitch and vibrations effect sound.

Writing
We will begin our published books this week. The students will create an autobiography. Please remember, I am sending all published books to Ethiopia Reads, a program that sends books to Ethiopia to fill their libraries.

Thanks and have a fantastic week! :)

International Festival

Our International Festival was a success! Thank you for sending in all of the tasty food. The kids really portrayed the dress of their ancestor's country. They all did a wonderful job with their research papers and their morning all-school assembly performance. In the afternoon, they did an outstanding job handing out samples of their food. They received A LOT of compliments. Thank you to each and every one of you for your hard work in preparing food, getting the costumes together and assisting in the final phases of the research papers. I really appreciate everything! Here is a video of some class photos before we began our afternoon tastefest.

Symphony Field Trip at the Kauffman Center

We had a wonderful time at the symphony. We learned about sound waves, pitch and vibrations. We also heard great music. A special thank you to music teacher, Mrs. Ronchetti for taking third grade on the trip.

Valentine's Day Party

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day party. A special thank you to Gina Reynolds for organizing and running the party. Thanks to all the parents that helped out at the party and to everyone that sent supplies in. The kids had a great time!

Mt.Kilimanjaro

We studied Africa, learning about Tanzania.  We learned that Mt. Kilimanjaro is located there.  We watched a video,  learning it was the world's tallest volcano and Africa's tallest mountain.  Afterwards, we created our own volcanoes.

Sabrina, Team Leggett MVP

Sabrina is very helpful. She helps classmates complete their work if they are stuck on a problem and helps kids cheer up when they are down.

Sabrina is a great student and very smart, definitely at math and multiplication, where she beats everyone in Last Man Standing. She is like a secret weapon for the girls in this competition.

Sabrina always tries her best from math tests to swim meets or dancing in the Nutcracker. She is just a great person.

By Team Leggett Publicists: John and Brady

Curriculum Update February 21-24

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend.   It was great seeing all of you at conferences.  Your children excelled at leading their conference.  I really enjoyed listening to them reflect and discuss their strengths and stretches.

As we discussed at conferences, this week will be a busy week for third grade. Please remember to send in a sack lunch with your child on Tuesday.  We will leave for the symphony at 10:00 and return by 1:00. We will eat lunch when we return.

The international festival is on Thursday.  Please send in your food dish and have your child already dressed in the attire they will be wearing for the assembly and taste-fest.  The all-school assembly will take place at 10:00 and the taste-fest will begin at 2:15.  You are welcome to attend both events.  We are still in need of volunteers, so you are more than welcome to help serve, decorate, or clean up if you would like.

Please send in a plain white t-shirt by Friday for our KSA Super Bowl.

A big THANK YOU to Gina Reynolds for leading the V-Day party.  It was definitely a success. The children had a fabulous time. Thank you to Mrs. Gipson, Mr. Bidnick, and Mrs. Burton for assisting with the party.  Thank you for sending in all the items for the party.  I really appreciate it. 

The 5th grade is having a food drive for Saint Mary's food kitchen.  Please send in non-perishable items to help support their wonderful cause.  Also, Friday is pajama day.


Rigby ReadingWe will continue working on character traits, determining main idea, retelling, and comparing/contrasting characters and events that have taken place in one story and between two stories. 

enVision Math
We will complete Topic 8 this week with a focus on problem-solving.  We will take a test on Topic 8 on Friday.

Spelling
There will be NO spelling this week due to the short week, field trip, final preparation for the reading assessments and the international festival.  Spelling will resume the week of March 5.

Social Studies
We will conclude our focus on the celebration of cultures, events, traditions and holidays with our culminating international festival on Thursday. 

Writing
The students will receive their research papers this week.  They did a WONDERFUL job! We will also write friendly letters to our pen pals.

Have a fantastic week!  :)

Curriculum Update February 13-15

I hope that everyone has an enjoyable and relaxing weekend!


If your child is attending the board meeting, please have them there by 5:50 pm.  We will be able to leave by 6:15 pm.

Please remember that student-led conferences will take place on Wednesday evening and Thursday.  There will be no school on Thursday, February 16, Friday, February 17 or Monday, February 20.  All students will need a sack lunch on February 21.  We will eat once we get back from the symphony. 

Thank you to Gina Reynolds for organizing our Valentine's Day party.  It will be on Tuesday at 3:00 pm.  Thank you to everyone that has sent in things to help our party be a success.  I know that the kids will have a WONDERFUL time!

If you haven't signed up for the International Festival, please do so.  We are still in need of help with serving and setting up that day. Also, please sign up what food your child will bring in so that the committee can get a better idea about sign up. 
 http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080944A8AC2E5-international
If you have a CD that represents the music of the country your child has been studying, please send it in by Wednesday, February 15 so it can be copied.

Please remember that the final international festival research paper is due Wednesday, February 15.


Rigby Reading
We will continue reading boot camp on Monday.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will focus on inferring character traits and comparing/contrasting characters within text. 
There will be no spelling this week.


enVision Math
We will continue Topic 8.  This week, we will focus on multiple-step problems, making sense of multiplication and division equations, dividing with 0 and 1, multiplication and division facts and drawing a picture and writing a number sentence (problem solving).

Spelling
There will be NO spelling this week.

Social Studies/Writing
We will begin wrap up the study of the country where our ancestors originated from.  The final research paper is due Wednesday, February 15.  We will also write back to our pen pals in California.

Have a fantastic week!  :)

Austyne, Team Leggett MVP

Austyne is a great friend.  She is very creative and is a wonderful artist.  She can use her creativity to create any interesting project or picture.  Austyne has a lot of energy and loves to figure things out.  She is a really nice person. Go Austyne!

By Team Leggett Publicists: Dace & Brady

Country Fotobabbles

The students worked on writing a quick persuasive piece of why you should visit their ancestor's country they have been studying.

Nick-Poland


Libby-Ireland


Emily-Scotland


Jackson-Serbia


Abigail-Germany


Amanda-Italy


Austyne-France


Lake-Canada


Jake-Canada


Kenzie-Germany


Sabrina-China


Ava-Germany


Brady-Croatia


John-Germany


Adam-Mexico


Dutch-Ireland


Alexa-England


Dace-Cherokee Indians


Ben-Lithuania


Josie-Ireland


Ellie-Mexico

International Festival Podcasts

The kids used their research papers on their ancestors to create podcasts on their countries.

Adam's Podcast-Mexico

Voice Recorder >>

John's Podcast-Germany

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Kenzie's Podcast-Germany

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Ava's Podcast-Germany

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Jackson's Podcast-Serbia

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Jake's Podcast-Canada

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Josie's Podcast-Ireland

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Lake's Podcast-Canada

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Brady's Podcast-Croatia

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Dace's Podcast-Cherokee Indians

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Amanda's Podcast-Italy

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Emily's Podcast-Scotland

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Sabrina's Podcast-China

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Ben's Podcast-Lithuania

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Alexa's Podcast-England

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Dutch's Podcast-Ireland

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Abigail's Podcast-Germany

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Ellie's Podcast-Mexico

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Austyne's Podcast-France

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Libby's Podcast-Ireland

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Nick's Podcast-Poland

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Curriculum Update February 6-10

Have a wonderful weekend! I hope that the rain slows down. Enjoy the Super Bowl! With no Philly Eagles or KC Chiefs, I can't say I am pulling for either team. :(
If you have a chance, please don't forget that our class basket is, "Are we there yet?"  Our basket doesn't have many items.  Anything pertaining to books, snack, or small games would be great.

enVision Math
We will be having a Topic 7 test review on Monday and take the test Tuesday.  Wednesday we will begin relating multiplication and division, Thursday and Friday will be fact families 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Rigby Reading
This week will be a reading boot camp.  Each teacher will review a specific skill that pertains to the reading state test.  The topics reviewed will be compare/contrast, test-taking strategies, text features, main idea, prefixes/suffixes, retelling and context clues.

Spelling
There will be no spelling this week.

Social Studies/Writing
We will continue our study of celebrations of cultures looking at traditions, holidays, education, foods, sports, and languages. We will continue to type our research paper, cover pages and bibliographies.

Thank you and have a wonderful week!