Once summer began I have been busily landscaping and doing lots of fun projects ranging from plantings, moving 1000 pound rocks around and doing brick patios and walkways.  Its always fun to do projects that challenge me physically and mentally.   I’ll be ready for inside and air conditioning once August rolls around though!

I also was visiting the farmer that we got our chicken eggs from and who now has our now fully grown chicks.  It was interesting to see how much they have grown!  The black and whites ones and the gray colored ones were from the eggs we hatched.

Click to view slideshow.

How is your summer going?

 Name _________________________

Investigators Homework

Week of 5-24-10

As a third grader, you are expected to complete 30 minutes of homework each day.  Listed below are this week’s assignments.  The starred (shown in red online) are the priority assignments for each subject area. Additional assignments listed in each subject area are to be worked on as time permits.  Working diligently for 30 minutes each day, you may not complete every assignment, so start with the starred assignments and include the other assignments as you have time.

Special Homework

Award Ceremony Speech

On Thursday we will have our End of the Year Award Ceremony. At this time each student will present another student with an award they have designed to celebrate that students unique and important contribution to our class.

We will design and create the award at school. At home, please write your speech that presents the award to your honoree. You will give the speech at the awards ceremony. It should be 30 – 60 seconds long and tell what the award is and why you chose to give that award to that honoree.

The speech should be essentially memorized. You are welcome to put notes on a notecard – but it would be best if you are not up reading it when you present the award

 Name _________________________

Investigators Homework

Week of 5-17-10

As a third grader, you are expected to complete 30 minutes of homework each day.  Listed below are this week’s assignments.  The starred (shown in red online) are the priority assignments for each subject area. Additional assignments listed in each subject area are to be worked on as time permits.  Working diligently for 30 minutes each day, you may not complete every assignment, so start with the starred assignments and include the other assignments as you have time.

Special Homework

KC project Part III

This week everyone will have their final drafts and their final presentations to show what they have researched for their Kansas City topic.

Final report:

• Written in cursive or typed
  
• Minimum 5 paragraphs. (Intro, 3 topics, conclusion)
  
• Write down resources you used. (Do not have to be in bibliographic form)
  

Presentation

• Shows what you learned about your topic in a different way than your report
  
• This might be a video, a poster, a PowerPoint, sculpture, model, picture.
  
• Focus of the presentation should be on details and neatness.
  

Bring both in BY the Friday the 21^st. Parents are invited to stop by at 2:30 on Friday to view all of our projects. Other classrooms will also stop by to see them.

Field day Wednesday.

If you are one of the 9 parents going please come up to the classroom with your children in the morning so you can be part of the discussion and preparation at the beginning of the day.  We will plan on leaving at 8:45 or so.

I suggest all parents ride the bus with us since we will be making dozens of small trips and if you are riding separately likely miss most of the trip looking for parking.

Parents need to bring a sack lunch along on the trip since we will not be eating near any restaurants.

Our itinerary includes:

• Riverfront Park
• Clarks Point
• Pen Valley Park
• Union Cemetery
• Liberty Memorial
• Loose Park
• Country Club Plaza
• as well as drive by tour of several Downtown landmarks.

Any question just let me know.  We’ll have lots of fun!

 Name _________________________

Investigators Homework

Week of 5-10-10

As a third grader, you are expected to complete 30 minutes of homework each day.  Listed below are this week’s assignments.  The starred (shown in red online) are the priority assignments for each subject area. Additional assignments listed in each subject area are to be worked on as time permits.  Working diligently for 30 minutes each day, you may not complete every assignment, so start with the starred assignments and include the other assignments as you have time.

Special Homework

KC project Part II

At this time you should have completed the first draft of your Kansas City project. At school on Friday we all edited each others work and gave each other ideas on improvement. This week you should focus on refining and polishing your draft. On THURSDAY, we will go over these newly written drafts. They should be quite close to your final draft.

Your draft should have:

• An introduction paragraph that tells about your topic in broad terms and says why you chose it.
  
• 3- 6 paragraphs about individual topics.
  
• A conclusion paragraph that summarizes and brings all of your topics together.
  
• They can be typed or written in print or cursive. (final will be either typed or in cursive)
  

In addition, you may begin working on how you are going to present your information on the 21^st. This will be separate from your written report. You have a lot of freedom and choices here. It might be artwork, a video, an audio recording, a PowerPoint, a poster with facts, or an interview with an expert. It should be supplemental to your written report.

“It’s Been Fun” Family Celebration

When

Thursday – May 27, 2010 (The Last day of School)

5:30p.m. – 8:00p.m.

Who

Investigators and any family or friends they would like to celebrate the end of the year with.

Where

Antioch Park

Shelter House #4 – See Attached Map

Schedule for Evening

6:00p.m. Potluck BBQ Dinner Buffet

7:00p.m. Investigator Awards

What to Bring

I’ll provide the meat – you provide your favorite Family Side dish

I need volunteers for hamburger buns, sodas and condiments. Let me know if you are interested

Also, please consider bringing reusable plates, cups and silverware for your family. Some disposable will be provided. However, with our classroom’s focus on making responsible Earth-friendly choices, reusable would be more in tune with our classrooms beliefs.

R.S.V.P.

to Jeff Hamons by– May 18, 2010

(913) 993-4141 or ophamons@smsd.org or by evite

(evite preferred)

It is important that I know how many people will be coming so I know how much food to buy.

We will be taking a guided(by me) tour of the Kansas City area – we will visit sites of historic significance all over Kansas City ranging from the Liberty Memorial to ASB Bridge, to Lewis and Clark Point to  the Plaza.

The trip will be all day on Friday May 14th.  The more parents who come the better it will be – so please let me know if you would like to attend.

I have attached a pdf of the permission slip here in case you did not receive it.

Kansas City Field Trip Slip

 Name _________________________

Investigators Homework

Week of 5-03-10

As a third grader, you are expected to complete 30 minutes of homework each day.  Listed below are this week’s assignments.  The starred (shown in red online) are the priority assignments for each subject area. Additional assignments listed in each subject area are to be worked on as time permits.  Working diligently for 30 minutes each day, you may not complete every assignment, so start with the starred assignments and include the other assignments as you have time.

Special Homework

KC project

You have all week to research, and write the rough draft of your research paper about Kansas City.

You should already have an outline completed that shows at least three main topics for your paper and fact you already knew about each topic. In addition, you should have your research notecards filled out and questions you would like to have answered.

What I suggest now is you look at these questions and decide how you would like to answer them. The internet might be one part of your research. However, it should not be all of it. You might also visit the public library and look at books about Kansas City. You might look for old newspapers from the time period you are studying. The only library that has KC Star papers prior to 1991 is the central Library on 87^th and Farley.

You might also want to visit the place you are visiting to find out more information.

You may also want to call or interview an expert who would know more information.

You might want to visit a museum to find out more information.

Rough Draft is Due on Friday. However, I am aware schedules can be busy. If because of a scheduled visit to a landmark or interview with an expert you were unable to complete your rough draft – bring as much completed as you have done and write down your plan and schedule to have the rest completed.

 Name _________________________

Investigators Homework

Week of 4-26-10

As a third grader, you are expected to complete 30 minutes of homework each day.  Listed below are this week’s assignments.  The starred (shown in red online) are the priority assignments for each subject area. Additional assignments listed in each subject area are to be worked on as time permits.  Working diligently for 30 minutes each day, you may not complete every assignment, so start with the starred assignments and include the other assignments as you have time.

Each Friday, please bring to class:

* one assignment of which you are particularly proud and would like to share with our class
This may be a story to read, a math sheet, a science project, etc.
* your homework cover sheet, with each completed assignment initialed by a parent

A Note to Parents:  I appreciate and support parents checking and grading all of their student’s work at home and reviewing incorrect problems.  This is much more helpful to the students than waiting a week to have me look over their work.  Grades are based on whether homework is completed to the student’s best ability and not on amount of correct and incorrect answers.  It is the process of learning that is our focus and that can be reinforced daily as you support your child’s completion of homework. 

Reading  – You MUST read every single night for a minimum of 15 minutes.  Nothing is more important to your reading success at school than your reading at home

• Read a book of your Choice (READ EVERY SINGLE NIGHT) Everyone should be reading a chapter book. From now on forever and Ever you should always be in the middle of a good chapter book and read it every single day. What book are you reading? ___________
  

Spelling

 Spelling is nightly. Look at your spelling folder for the particular words to do that night. In addition you can do any of the following practice activities or find one that works well for you.

• Type your word 5 times. Can you type it with your eyes closed?
  
• Find a list of words that sound like and are spelled with similar patterns as each of your spelling words.
  

   

• Try to write your words on paper so they look correct when you hold them up to a mirror
  

• Make a poster that uses each of your spelling words.
  

   

   

Math  

• Make up 6 of the hardest long divison problems you can do and solve them. Ask an adult to check them.
  

  
  

• Practice you math multiplication facts every single night.
  

Other

• See attached sheet for ideas on research project.