It sure didn't feel like a half day

Thank you parents for getting your children to school today. I know that these early dismissal days can cause some scheduling headaches. It has been a busy week. Rather than write about everything, I'll post some photos, each of which is worth a thousand words.

Conduct the experiment.

Describe results, draw a conclusion.

Record data.

Science is a taxing business, but we're up to the challenge.

A visit from the Mobile Dairy.

Language arts journal page about suffixes.

Theme vs. Topic, who will win?

Upcoming events

1. This Wednesday, 9/24, school dismisses at 12:45. However, it is important that your child be at school, as we will be taking a reading snapshot test and preparing for the math snapshot that will be given on Thursday.
2. What is a snapshot you ask? The snapshots are district level assessments administered about every 4 weeks to gauge student progress through the year. The window for administering these tests is this week
3. I am still looking for one more volunteer to join us on the field trip to the MFAH on the 1st of October. You will need to be approved by the office and that process takes a about a week.
4. If you did not get a chance to see it yet, please check out our Constitution Day video. You can find the link below, in the previous post.

Happy Constitution Day 2014!

As you may know, we have been studying the Preamble to the US Constitution. We also learned a song from way back in the 1970s to help us remember the words to the Preamble. Our 3rd grades had visitors from the Houston Bar Association come to read a book called "John, Paul, George, and Ben" by Lane Smith. Thank you Ms. Christine and Mr. Danny!

You can watch our class singing "The Preamble".

Parent Orientation Night and a Field Trip

Tomorrow night, September 11, is parent orientation night at Sinclair Elementary. We will begin at 5:30 in the classroom with a presentation regarding policies and procedures. Also covered will be the academic expectations for 3rd graders at the district and state level. Finally, I hope to answer any questions you may have about the curriculum, testing, and anything else you would like to know about. This meeting is informational. It is not Open House. That event will be in October and will provide an opportunity for you to come in and dig into all of the work your child has been doing.

On October 1, from noon until 2:30, we will be taking a field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. I will need one or two parent volunteers to go along as chaperones. These people will need to be VIPS approved. This approval needs to be redone every year so even if you were cleared last year, you will need to fill out the form in the office once again. It takes a week or two to get back, so if you can help out with this, check with the office to see if your VIPS registration is current.

I hope to see everyone tomorrow night. If you cannot make it, fear not, I will post a link to the presentation so you will not miss anything.

We had a great first week!

As it always does, the first week of school flew by. The children enjoyed catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. We jumped right in to our work, and began reading the novel "Sideways Stories From Wayside School". It is an excellent book for learning about character, setting, plot, and summarization. We worked with parts of speech; nouns, verbs, and adjectives. In math, we covered basic problem solving strategies and reviewed place value. Science safety rules and procedures were covered as well, and we began working on map skills by learning to read a coordinate grid.

Perhaps most importantly, we talked about setting goals for the year. Before beginning any endeavor, it is best not just to know what it is you want to achieve, but to make a plan to help you get there. I told the class that I have certain goals for myself for this school year centered on what I want all of my students to accomplish. I described some of the practices and procedures that I have put in place that will help me to reach those goals. After talking about the goals I have set for the class, and discussing what goals they might set for themselves, Friday morning each child selected a goal for reading/language arts and one for math that they will work on through the year. Additionally, they had to come up with an action step; something they will do to help them attain their goals. All of our class goals are prominently posted near the door. We will revisit these frequently and assess our progress towards these goals.

Below are some pictures of some of the things we worked on this week. I am excited by the energy and enthusiasm this group has for learning. It's going to be a great year.

Welcome to the Best School Year Ever

It was great to meet those of you who were able to make it to Meet the Teacher on Friday. I am looking forward to meeting the rest of the class on Monday.

The first few weeks will consist of establishing classroom procedures and routines and getting down to work. We will begin the year in reading with a unit of realistic fiction in which we will learn about the elements of fiction and write summaries. We will also read the novel "Sideways Stories From Wayside School". Math begins with problems solving procedures and place value to 100,000. In science we start with safety and measurement. Maps and geography will be our focus to start the year in social studies.

On Monday, the students will bring home a packet of forms that will need to be read, signed,and returned to school at you earliest convenience.They will also have the homework schedule for the first 9 weeks as well as the spelling lists for the quarter. Please know that the homework schedule is not set in stone. If I feel that it need adjusting to better serve the class, I will change it. In the event that the schedule is altered, I will provide the students with a new one and post the updated copy in the links to the right. The reading log is to be returned, completed, the following Monday, I do not check it daily.

I am excited to work with your children this year. If you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you for a wonderful year!

I cannot say enough how very much I have enjoyed working with your children this year. They are one of the best groups I have ever had, and I will miss them next year.

There are just a couple of final things to pass along:

1. A note went home today from the PTA regarding HISD's budget plan for next year and its potential impact on Sinclair. In short, the school would lose about $145,000 from its budget over the next 2 years. If you are concerned about this, please contact the Board of Education and Superintendent Grier. You can read about the proposal here: HISD Magnet Budget Proposal
2. It probably goes without saying, but please make sure your children read over the summer. A note went home today with information about the summer reading program HISD and Sinclair are sponsoring. They can also use TTM over the summer. If they have forgotten their login information, just email me and I will send it to you. A little bit of reading and math, say, a couple hours a week each, will keep them from losing the skills they have worked so hard to acquire this year.
3. Finally, I encourage you to get out and explore some of the city's wonderful museums and performing arts groups. Many of the museums in the Museum District have free days once a week. Miller Outdoor Theater has a great array of free performances going on all summer. My personal favorite thing to do in summer is to go to Padre Island National Seashore to watch a hatchling sea turtle release. The Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is highly endangered, so when nests are found, the eggs are collected and incubated until the turtles hatch. When they are ready, National Park Service scientists release them on the beach at sunrise. I have found that if you leave Houston at 2am, you can be at the release site by 6:15 or so, even if you stop for donuts. You may prefer to stay overnight in a hotel in Corpus Christi which would leave you with just a 30-40 minute drive to the release. Park admission is waived if you are attending the release. Read all about it here: Padre Island National Seashore sea turtle releases

Baby sea turtles crawl across the beach at Padre Island Nat'l Seashore