Happy Halloween!

Thank you, parents, for making this such a special day for the students - from getting up early to do costumes, hair, and make-up, to staying up late for trick-or-treating fun! Here is our class picture and a quick video from the parade and party today. 

Inca Pottery

The students requested that I include the recipe for the clay we used in class.  I know there were a few kids whose pots were "less than whole" shortly after arriving home:) There were also a few kids who wanted to be able to make more extensive projects on their own.  Clay comes in many varieties; the air-dry ones tend to be easier and less-expensive to make, but can be less sturdy, as well.  Baked or fired clay is more complex, but lasts longer.  If you have any ideas or experience with clay that combines the "cheap and easy" factors with the "sturdy" factor, I would love to learn more about it.

We studied Inca artifacts as an expression of their culture and environment before we made the pots.  The kids were very excited to work with clay and to create "authentic" pieces.  I was pleased with their thoughtful work. Below are just a few samples.

Writing!

Dear Parents,
This week the students will bring home their first formally graded writing work.  While the students write everyday, they only have one, formal, long-term project per month.  September's project was writing informational paragraphs about patriotic symbols we researched as a class.  Several students went on to create colorful flyers, using their opinions and reasoning to convince Mr. Jameson to go on vacation to their favorite patriotic symbol.  He actually looked at each flyer and wrote the class a detailed reply.

The new Language Arts Common Core focuses heavily on improving writing, especially in these three genres: informative writing, opinion writing, and narrative writing.  This type of rubric will be used to score all long-term writing projects.  It includes all of the writing skills that students should master by the end of third grade.  However, students will only be graded on skills that have been explicitly taught and practiced in class.  Using the same rubric and focusing on three main writing genres will clearly show the children's progress throughout the year.  This first score is a starting place for each student - the progress they make over time is the most important thing I will be looking at.  Feel free to bring any questions, comments or concerns about writing to parent-teacher conferences.  I have thoroughly enjoyed going through their first writing project.  They worked very hard over a period of 2-3 weeks.  I hope you enjoy their successes, as well!

Sincerely,
Ms. Mallett

A sample product by one of our fabulous 3rd grade writers

October Fun

The students have been doing a fantastic job on their current events! They went through the process of learning how to do them at school, including finding articles on the blog to print off, writing questions, and retelling the event orally, so that they could feel confident when they prepared their own current events.  So far, the current event presentations have followed the instructions in the homework folder, have been understood well by the students, and have sparked many engaging conversations in our classroom!  All remaining current events are due this week.  Click here to see specific due dates for the students.

Thank you for getting online to schedule your appointments! The online scheduler is now closed. Parent-Teacher Conference notes will be sent home this week for confirmation.  If you need to change your appointment time, please contact me.

We have been so busy this month that I am finally posting pictures. Below is just a sample of the activities our third graders have been enjoying.  Thank you for your support, parents!

Parent-Teacher Conferences Online Scheduler Open

Parent-Teacher Conferences are coming up on Nov. 2-3. The Online Scheduler is available on Altara's home page Oct. 10-22, so that you can plan for Parent Teacher Conferences at your convenience.  Instructions are below.

1. Click the following icon:

2. Scroll down to "Altara Elementary" and click "go."

3. Type in the school password (altara) and click "login."

4. Type in your student's ID number.
(hint: The student ID is the username for Envision Math found on the sticker inside of your child's homework folder.)
5. Select an available time slot that works best for you.

If you have any problems or would like support setting up your schedule, feel free to visit the office or call Susan Taylor, our school secretary, for assistance.

Adventurous Field Trip!

Tomorrow, Thursday, October 6th is our walking field trip to the Living Planet Aquarium.  We were given a one-time opportunity for the students to have a free entrance fee and there were limited days available. We grabbed it up quickly, as the lessons and exhibits tie in directly to the third grade science curriculum.

The weather forecast tells us that this is going to be an adventurous field trip with cooler temperatures and rain.  The good news is that we had originally planned on walking to the wetlands, which would have placed us outside, dripping wet all day, so we would have had to cancel.  Now that we're going to the aquarium, we can look forward to being in a warm, dry building after our walk in the rain!  Students should come prepared with coats, umbrellas or hoods, and good rainy day walking shoes.  Our class will be departing from Altara at 9:15, so all chaperones need to arrive about 9:00 to get groups organized.  We will arrive back easily by noon.  So far, these students have volunteers coming with them: Lizdian, Kai, Alexa, Michael, and Marley.  See you on Thursday!