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

November 9, 2014

Once again the students have written about some of the important things we have been doing in class.  

Religion by Alyssa and Ava

Dear Parents, let's take a quiet moment and pray:
Dear God,
Thank you for our parents, food, and friends.
Amen
In Religion we just recently took a test.  We have been learning about how Jesus has the power over life and death.

Science by Emily and Aoife

In science we did an egg experiment and we put the egg in vinegar to see what happened to it.  Mrs. Cowart dropped and broke the egg the first time.  We got a second egg and the shell turned out rubbery and we could see through it.  We also did an experiment about animal adaptations and we learned about different bird beaks.  We used all kinds of different things, like straws, clothes pins, popsicle sticks, and scissors and had to pick up little things in one minute.

Math by Emily and Aoife

In math we have learned all of our multiplication and division facts from 0 to 10.  We did an activity called Packing Up Our Wagon and we had to take things adding up to 2,000 lbs.  We also had a math race with fast arrays on the board and Team 2 won.

Social Studies by Miranda and Josey
In social studies we are learning about Wisconsin Regions.  We read monthly newspapers and are reading about Pancake Paul and Larry the Lumberjack.

Reading/English by Ava and Alyssa

In reading we were each given a level that we are allowed to read in the classroom and for RAZ.  Ms. Ploederl tests each of us and we have to read into the computer.  We have also been learning about a lot of different kinds of sentences in English.

Apple Valley School by Miranda and Josey

In Apple Valley School we were given new names and families and a new age.  We are pretending and learning about pioneers.  There are a lot of ways that we can earn and lose points.  We are pretending to be  back in the 1800's.

Christmas Play by Rudy and Collin

Our class has many parts in the Christmas Play.  We have sheep, angels, a mother, and a shepherd.  The play will be on Dec. 4th.  It is very fun doing play practice.  The kids in school all have their parts memorized!


We look forward to seeing you all at conferences this week!  You will receive your child's report card at our conference.  If you ever have any questions or comments please email or leave us a message. 

Mrs. Cowart and Ms. Ploederl

Hello Third Grade Families!!!

We are finally up and running this year!  We wanted to do something a little different.  The students are going to help us to update you on all of the great things we are learning and doing in school.  The students are going to be given a subject that they are going to write about.  They will be filling you in on the past couple of weeks.

Religion by Collin and Miranda

Dear Families, let's take a moment to pray.  Dear God, help us to stay safe in all our days.  Amen

In religion we are learning about Lazarus.  Lazarus is the one who died and Jesus rose him from the dead. We also learned that the Kingdom of God is always active in the world.  In the Lazarus story Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life."

Science by Rudy and Josey

In science we have a blast!  We are starting to learn about chicks and baby animals.  We are done learning about plants.  We saw the roots of the plant with a magnifying glass.  We are having fun and getting good grades.

Reading by Emily and Ava

Reading is fun!  Our reading buddies are a blast!  My (Emily) reading buddy is very quiet, but she pays very good attention to the book.  My (Ava) reading buddy is very quiet and does not pay attention to the book very well.  We are learning about sequencing.  It is very fun!  We are making a class book called, What Should I Give the New Born King. The book will be $20.  We love the book so far!

Math by Miranda and Collin

In math we have been learning addition and multiplication properties.  We are understanding it well.  We are also learning multiplication and division.  We have a test on Thursday, October 15th.  We got to use shaving cream one day to do our math problems on our desks!

Field Trip by Alyssa and Aoife

When we got off the bus we went to the many stations.  We liked all of the stations but these are our favorites: the shop, tug-of-war, stilts, corn in the field, and rolling wheels.  In the shop we got to buy things such as Jacobs Ladders, marbles, quills, and Cup-in-Balls.  In tug-of-war the girls beat the boys a lot.  It was so fun because the girls got Mrs. Cowart.  In stilts we got a partner to help us on the stilts.  In the corn station the guy showed us how to harvest corn.  In the rolling wheel station we also got partners.  We had a stick and a wooden wheel and had to run on the side.  We got to see the Grignon Mansion.  It was so cool!  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!

If you have any questions or comments please let us know.  We are off to a wonderful year and feel very fortunate to have such a wonderful group of students to work with!
Mrs. Cowart and Miss Ploederl