December 14th - 19th

Our last full week of school this year!  Hard to believe we are almost to Christmas and a new year!!  This week will be full of activities, play practices, and tying up loose ends.

We will have spelling words coming home this week.  They have been doing a wonderful job with these!  We have had many 100's!!!!

We are having a small birthday party Monday afternoon for Ms Ploederl.  The students brainstormed words to describe her last week and we put the words into a word cloud.  We framed the word cloud and the students all signed it.

We made a quilt to give to Jesus for his birthday.  Each student made a quilt square and Ms. Ploederl is sewing the quilt together.  We want this to be from the students so we are asking each student to bring a dollar for the supplies.  Thanks in advance!!

Our Christmas Concert is on December 22nd. There will be a 9:30 am and 6 pm performance.   Students in our classroom were either sent a note of what they needed to wear or they have a costume at school.  If they are in the choir they should be in their Sunday best and then they will change before the play.

December

14th - Ms. Ploederl's Birthday

18th - Mass

22nd - Christmas play 9:30am and 6pm

23rd - Early release and start of Christmas vacation

25th - Christmas

24th - January 3rd - Christmas vacation!!!

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!!!

Ms. Ploederl and Mrs. Cowart

December 7th - 11th

We have been very busy in our classroom!  We have been working on a number of activities and added play practice to our schedule.  Needless to say the students have been great and we have been very proud of their behavior and effort!

Guided reading groups are meeting each week.  The books we are reading are so much fun!  We have been focusing on character traits and text to self.  Please help to remind your student to complete the assignment on time.  If they aren't prepared when our group meets, they miss a lot of important information.

We will be having a math test on either Wednesday or Thursday this week.  They should do great on it!  They need to know how to find answers to math facts 6, 7, and 8's.  They also need to be able to multiply math facts by groups of 10's.

We have been asked by Ms. Morrin to make a gift for baby Jesus to put under the tree at school.  The class voted on making a quilt.  Each student has chosen their quilt square they are going to make.  Ms. Ploederl will sew the quilt together for us.  This is a secret between classes, so please don't share outside of our room.  Thanks!

December

8th - Mass for the Immaculate Conception

9th - Early Release

11th - Mass

14th - Ms. Ploederl's Birthday

18th - Mass

22nd - Christmas play 9:30am and 6pm

23rd - Early release and start of Christmas vacation

25th - Christmas

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please let us know.  

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

November 30 - December 4th

Happy Thanksgiving a little late!  I hope all of you enjoyed your family time and ate a lot of turkey!  I had a wonderful Thanksgiving and am looking forward to the Christmas season.

We will leave at 8:30 am Monday morning for our field trip to the Grand Old Opera House in Oshkosh.  We will be watching the play, Ms. Nelson is Missing.  We read the book and are really looking forward to watching the play!

We will be sending a spelling list home this week.  Please remember to study the words each night.  The students have been doing excellent on their tests!  We have had a lot of 100+ test scores.  It would be great if we could get the entire class to get a 100 one week.  We were very close a couple of weeks ago.

In math we will be finishing our unit on multiplication and either taking a test at the end of this week or beginning of next week  That also means we will be starting to take our timed tests very soon.  I will be sending home a form explaining how the tests work very soon.  I also send home flash cards for them to practice with.

We will be having play practices during the week to get ready for the Christmas play at the end of December.  It looks to be like another great play!

November

30th - Field Trip to Oshkosh

December

4th - Mass with rosary after

8th - Mass for the Immaculate Conception

9th - Early Release

11th - Mass

14th - Ms. Ploederl's Birthday

18th - Mass

22nd - Christmas play 9:30am and 6pm

23rd - Early release and start of Christmas vacation

25th - Christmas

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please let us know.  

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

November 17 - 20

Hope the students all enjoyed their day off today!  We went to a teacher inservice and listened to a dynamic speaker.  It was a very energizing day and I hope to be able to use some of the ideas we were given today.

This week we will finish typing our persuasive essays.  In writing we wrote a four paragraph essay on why their chosen classroom pet would be a great idea for our classroom.  This is their first long essay and I think they did a wonderful job!

We will be meeting with our guided reading groups this week.  Please continue to check for their assignments on a post it note.  There were some students not prepared for their reading group last week.  Thanks for your help!

We will be doing another Science activity this week.  This time they are going to be building a simple machine.  I can't wait to see their creativity at work!

In math we will be working on multiplication and division for 0-10 facts.  We are also going to learn how to multiply by multiples of 10.  Our math test will either be the Tuesday before Thanksgiving or if we need a little extra practice, it will be Tuesday or Wednesday after Thanksgiving.

Calendar:

November

20th - Mass

24th - Thanksgiving lunch for students

25th - Mass and early release

26th - Happy Thanksgiving!!  No School

27th - No School for Thanksgiving break

If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know!  Have a wonderful week!!

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

November 9 - November 13th

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend!  This is a very busy week!  We have conferences on Tuesday and Thursday and you will get your child's report card at your conference.  This is a big year for third grade, since they will get letter grades on their report cards for the first time.  

This week we will be taking a spelling test on Monday from the words last week.  They will also be getting a new list this week and having a test on Friday.  

We started new guided reading groups last week.  Ms. Ploederl and I both have two groups again, but have moved some of the students around.  We try to meet with each group twice a week.  Guided reading assignments are written on post it notes and put in their student planners.  There are at least a couple of days between assignments and due dates, so the students have had to learn time management in order to get these assignments finished.

We have been working on persuasive writing essays.  The students had to pick an animal and try to convince their audience why it would make a good classroom pet.  I have been working on teaching them how to color code their essays to make it easier.  They will be typing their final copies this week.  I have to say I am very impressed at how well they did on these.  Next we will start on expository essays.

We finished learning all of our math facts from 0-10.  The rest of this unit is geared toward becoming better at these facts.  Practicing these at home will really help them!

Calendar:

November

10th - Conferences

12th - Conferences

13th - Mass with rosary after

16th - No School/ Teacher Inservice

20th - Mass

24th - Thanksgiving lunch

25th - Mass and early release

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please let us know.  See all of you at conferences!!

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

November 2nd - 6th

November is here, but the weather sure feels like the end of September!  The morning recess tends to be quite chilly, so please be sure the students are dressed appropriately.  We had some cold kids last week that didn't bring jackets.

The end to the first quarter is Friday.  It is hard to believe that we are a fourth of the way through school.  If you haven't signed up for conferences yet, please do so.  We look forward to meeting with each one of you.

In math we only have a couple of multiplication facts left to learn.  We have to learn the 7's, 8's, 11's, and 12's.  Please work on multiplication facts at home.  Once we have learned all of our facts we will begin our timed tests and work for an ice cream party.  Each student will be responsible for his or her own success.  More information will come home as we get closer to starting the timed tests.

In science we are working on simple machines.  We will be doing some fun activities in this unit.  I will post pictures when we do.

We have started our cursive letters.  I love how eager they are to learn cursive and how excited they are every time we learn a new letter.  I don't allow them to write any cursive in their school work until we have learned all of our lower case letters.  Then we begin to slowly allow them to write some cursive in their daily work.  Our goal is to learn all of our cursive letters by April, so they have two months to write all of their work in cursive.  Next year they are expected to write in cursive exclusively.

Calendar:

November

4th - Mass

6th - No School/ End of 1st Quarter

10th - Conferences

12th - Conferences

13th - Mass with rosary after

16th - No School/ Teacher Inservice

20th - Mass

24th - Thanksgiving lunch

25th - Mass and early release

30th - Field Trip to Grand Opera House

Have a wonderful week!  Enjoy the weather!

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

October 26-30th

It was very nice to see many of you at the Harvest Moon Festival on Saturday night.  It was a great night with a lot of wonderful prizes!

This week we will have a spelling test on Friday, so watch for the new list to come home tomorrow.  The students have been really proud of their tests!  Thanks for studying each night at home.

There will be a math test this week, probably Tuesday.  I will review with them tomorrow and send home a study guide.  If I feel we need another day of review, then I will move the test until Wednesday.

Guided reading groups will be getting new books this week.  When there is an assignment in guided reading we write out post it notes which the students are to put in their student planners.  If you aren't seeing these notes, please ask your child where they are, and let us know so we can be sure they that it gets resolved.

Calendar:

October

30th  - Mass and wear Halloween colors after Mass

November

4th - Mass

6th - No School/ End of 1st Quarter

10th - Conferences

12th - Conferences

13th - Mass with rosary after

16th - No School/ Teacher Inservice

20th - Mass

24th - Thanksgiving lunch

25th - Mass and early release

30th - Field Trip to Grand Opera House

Have a great week!  

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

Making our boats out of aluminum foil.

Madison's finished boat.

Walker finding out how many dice his boat can hold before it sinks.

Happy boys

Fun at the Resch Center before Mass.

Sorry this is a day late!  I was having issues getting on to the blog yesterday, so I decided to send it from school today. This is a short week with our two field trips and Friday off!!

There will not be a spelling test coming home this week.  

There will be a Science test on Thursday.  They will be bringing home a study guide tonight.  Some of these concepts are a little difficult so please study every night.

We attended Xavier High School play today.  It was very cute and our students were well behaved!

Wednesday we travel to Green Bay for the Diocesan Mass at the Resch Center.  Father has asked that all students get a good night sleep the night before.  We leave first thing in the morning so there won't be snack.  Please have students eat a good breakfast so they can make it through Mass. Every student needs to bring a disposable bag lunch.  I am excited to see them dressed up to celebrate Mass with our Bishop!!

October Calendar:

21st - Mass at Resch Center with Bishop Ricken
23rd - No School
24th - Harvest Moon Festival
30th - Mass and then wear Halloween colors

Hope to see many of you on Saturday at the Harvest Moon Festival!!  It is always a lot of fun!!

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

October 12th - 16th

What a beautiful fall day!  A Packer win made it even better!!

Last week we took our MAPS tests.  There are a few students who need to finish a test, but they all did well!

Please continue to sign the student planners every night.  Even if there isn't any homework that night, please sign it letting us know that you saw the planner.  Thanks in advance for your support with this.

We are asking that students spend some time each week on RAZ kids.  This is a great way for us to look for areas that we need to spend extra time on in class.  We receive updates alerting us to problem areas.  If you have questions about RAZ please let us know.

Students have been working on character traits, while learning about the author Tomie de Paola.  They have also been working hard on predicates and subjects.

In math we are nearing the end of our first unit.  This week we should finish the lessons, which focus on problem solving and multiplication and division review.  The following week will be our first test.

October Calendar:

16th- Mass and choir to sing

19th-(AM) Grades K-5 field trip to Xavier for Hansel and Gretel play.

21st-(All Day) Grades K-5 mass with Bishop Ricken

23rd- No School

24th-Harvest Moon Festival  5pm

30th - Mass

Have a great week!

As always, please let us know if you have questions or concerns.  

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

Walker, Jon, and Bradey searching for signs of Jesus in church.

Bradey enjoying popsicles on a warm day.

Walker enjoying his popsicle on a warm day.

Braeden and Jon with their 3K reading buddy, Joshua.

Prestynn working on his art.

A selfie!!!  Randi Jo, Addy, and Mrs. Cowart enjoying some extra recess time.

Madison and Jade enjoying some much needed extra recess time after MAPS testing.

October 5-9th

I am having a hard time believing that we are into October already.  We are definitely having a great time and are all settled in!

There will be a new spelling test coming home on Monday.  The students have been doing a wonderful job on their tests.  Keep up the great work at home!!

In Science we talked about a Physical Change last week and this week we will discuss a Chemical Change.  There will be an activity they will do to practice being able to pick out which change is taking place.

In Social Studies we will begin the October newspaper.  They all did quite well on September's paper.  It will take a little while for the students to learn how to find information in the text, but they are starting to get the hang of it.

We took our MAPS tests last week.  There are a few students who  need to finish a test or two and they will be doing that sometime this week.  So last week was a little different then other weeks.  We should be back on track this week.

Here are some important events happening in October:

6th- Fire Department Visit 10:00 am

9th- Mass/Pet Blessing from 2:20-3:00 pm

13th- Home and School Meeting 7 pm

16th- Mass

19th - Field Trip to Xavier High School in the morning

21st- Catholic School Mass With Bishop Ricken at the Resch Center All Day

23rd- No School

24th- Harvest Moon Festival

30th- Mass

Have a great week!!

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

September 28 - October 2, 2015

What a beautiful evening!  I spent the last hour outside watching the Lunar Eclipse in amazement!  I hope many of you were able to view the Blood Moon also!

This week there will be a new spelling list coming home on Monday.  Please continue to study the words each night.  They are so proud of themselves when they get an A or A+.

In math we will continue to work on multiplication by 3's and 4's.  So far they know how to multiply by 2, 3, 5, 9, and 10.   Believe it or not, they also know how to divide by these numbers!  Please try to practice these facts at home.  We have been making different fact projects to help us practice our facts.

In social studies we finished reading our September newspaper.  We learned about glaciers and what they did to the land in Wisconsin.  We also learned the five different regions of Wisconsin.  The last page of the newspapers are due on Thursday this week.

Guided reading groups are well under way.  The four groups are enjoying their books and the projects and activities that go with them.  We are spending a lot of time learning how to find information in the book after we read it.  Sometimes the information isn't right there in print and we have to infer what the author is telling us.

Here are some important dates coming up to remember

October:

2nd- Mass with Rosary to follow/Pet Blessing from 2:20-3:00 pm

6th- Fire Department Visit 10:00 am

9th- Mass

13th- Home and School Meeting 7 pm

16th- Mass

19th- Field Trip to Xavier High School to see a play

21st- Catholic Schools Mass With Bishop Ricken at the Resch Center All Day

23rd- No School

24th- Harvest Moon Festival

30th- Mass

Have a great week!

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Mrs. Cowart and Miss Ploederl

September 20, 2015

We are finally settled into our routines and the students are understanding the expectations of being a third grader.   Just a reminder that school starts at 7:45am.  If they are not in school by this time they will be marked tardy.  

Thank you for remembering to sign their student planners.  This class is really good at making sure they are signed.  We will be sending home a folder each week that has all of the students corrected work from the week.  We try to send this home on Friday, but sometimes we don't have enough to put in them and we wait until Monday.  Please remove the papers from the folder and sign the front.

This week the spelling test will be on Monday.  The new list will be coming home Monday night. Students should practice their words every night.  

We started guided reading groups last week.  Students now know the level at which they should be checking out books from the school and classroom library.

In English they have been working on sentences and fragments.  We have been stressing the importance of using capital letters in the appropriate places and using ending punctuation.  

In math we have learned to multiply and divide by 2's, 5's, and 10's.  This week we will learn 9's, 3's, and 4's.  We use these facts in story problems and the students have to decide whether to multiply or divide.

The newspapers came for Social Studies and we began reading them last week. We talked about how Wisconsin has never had dinosaur bones found in it.  This week we will talk about how the glaciers moved through parts of Wisconsin.

There are a number of important dates coming up:

September:

22nd- Back to School Night Pizza, Meeting, and Check out our Classroom

5:00 pm Pizza, 5:45 pm Meeting, 6:30 pm Classrooms

24th- School Pictures

25th- Mass

October: 

2nd- Mass with Rosary to follow/Pet Blessing at 2:20-2:45 pm

9th- Mass

16th- Mass

21st-All Catholic Schools Mass With Bishop Ricken at the Resch Center All Day

23rd- No School

24th- Harvest Moon Festival

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please let us know.  Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

September 13, 2015

This will be our first five day week of school.  The third grade students are settling in nicely.  We are working hard as a class to remember to use our time wisely and to listen to directions the first time.  This not only means listening in the classroom, but also in the lunchroom and at recess.

This week the students will have their first spelling list.  The students are given a pretest.  If they get a 100 on their pretest they do not have to take the spelling test on Friday.  The spelling words will be written in their student planner and the test will be on Friday.  Please practice the words each night.

We will begin our guided reading groups this week.  We will each have two groups to work with, which means we will have a good amount of time to spend with each group.  The students will receive their guided reading level on Monday, so they will be choosing books to read at this level in the classroom and in the library.

In math we will be learning to multiply and divide by 2's, 10's, and 9's.  Keep practicing x5 multiplication facts.  They should be able to quickly find the answer to all x5 facts through 10.

There is an early release this Wednesday, September 16th at 12:30.

Other important dates are:

September

16th- Early Release at 12:30pm

18th- Mass/ Fox Cities Kids Run

22nd- Back to School Night Pizza, Meeting, and Check out our Classroom

5:00 pm Pizza, 5:45 pm Meeting, 6:30 pm Classrooms

24th- School Pictures

25th- Mass

Have a great week!  If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

Welcome to 3rd Grade 2015-2016

Welcome to 3rd grade!!

We have had a fun first week and are enjoying the third grade students!  They are very creative and have some wonderful ideas!

The first week we spent time learning our classroom and the expectations that are new this year. Students are going to bring home a student planner every evening and are going to ask you to sign it when they finish their homework.  If they have their student planner signed every night in September, they will get a surprise from us.

Your student will have homework this year.  They will have time to work on it in class, but expect them to bring something home most evenings.  Our expectation is that they bring it back finished the following day, unless specified in their student planner.

Both of us will be working with different groups in guided reading.  We finished running records with the students this week to see what reading level they are at.  Their level may be different than it was at the end of last year.  Our expectation is that they choose books at the library and in class to read based on the level they are at.  We will test students through out the year to be sure they continue to make progress.

In math the students will begin their book learning multiplication and division.  They learned times five facts the first week.  At home they can practice times five facts through ten.  This week they will learn what equal groups mean, the commutative property, how to divide, and their times two facts.

Our science unit will start with physical science and matter.  We will be learning about solids, liquids, and gases.

Social Studies in third grade is mostly read from newspapers and relates to Wisconsin history. Each month we will have a new newspaper to work from. We will periodically work out of a textbook, but not very often.  The newspapers are not delivered yet, so we will begin talking about Communities and Map Skills.

This week we will begin working on our first cursive letter.  The students will make a learning permit and promise to write in their neatest handwriting.

Important dates for September:

11th - Mass - Please remember No shorts!
16th- Early Release
18th - Mass and Fox Cities Fun Run
22nd - Back to School Night - 5:00 Pizza, 5:45 Meeting, 6:30 Visit Classrooms
24th - School Pictures
25th - Mass


Please let us know if you have any questions.  We want to work together to make this a great year!!

Ms. Ploederl - lploederl@stedwardk5.org
Mrs. Cowart - rcowart@stedwardk5.org