FALL FESTIVAL & "Kids Helping Kids" FOOD DRIVE

FALL FESTIVAL:

On Thursday, October 28th, 2010 from 5:45-7:00PM, come enjoy the FALL FESTIVAL in the Garden Springs Cafeteria!!!  Join us in painting a small pumpkin (or you may bring your own) with your GSE student!  There will be 'first come, first serve' FREE Scholastic books for GSE students!  Pizza will also be provided and a guest reader will be here to read a short fall story!  A letter was sent home today in your child's 'take-home' folder with a place for you to RSVP so Mrs. Runyon can plan on how many will be attending.  RSVP by October 22nd and if you have any questions, you can contact Mrs. Runyon at the Family Resource Center at 381-4543.  We hope you can attend!!!

"Kids Helping Kids" Garden Springs 'Hunger Heroes' Food Drive:

Let's be HUNGER HEROES at Garden Springs by getting started wuth our annual Thanksgiving food drive!  Beginning Monday, October 11th - Friday, October 29th, please bring in cans of food or boxed food to donate to help with our Thanksgiving food drive ("Kids Helping Kids") here at Garden Springs.  All food donations go to God's Pantry!

How our "Kids Helping Kids" food drive will work:

Each homeroom will have a box inside their classroom designated for the food donations.  The donated food in the box will be counted each Friday morning, and emptied into God's Pantry Blue Bins which will be located in the cross hallway.  After the donated food is counted, the homeroom with the most donated food will be awarded the 'Hunger Hero' on Friday afternoon.  The winning homeroom will keep the trophy for 1 week, and will have the privilege of being known as 'Hunger Heroes'!  At the end of the food drive, all classrooms that won will get an extra special treat from Mrs. Runyon in the FRC. 
**Please bring in any of the following food items any day during the drive (October 11th through October 29th) and place them in our classroom box (any not put in our box and directly in the blue bins will not be counted for our classroom total):
Instant Mashed Potatoes            Dressing Mix                           Gravy Mix
Dessert                                                Corn Muffin Mix                    Canned Yams
Cranberry Sauce                             Canned Fruit                          Macaroni and Cheese
Canned Vegetables

**A SPECIAL NOTE: This is an absolutely AMAZING cause and my very most favorite contest we can ever participate in so I take it very seriously as it is extremely touching.  Therefore, if we win this contest, I have promised the class a pizza party in addition to whatever prize we win from FRC!!!  So let's do some good and put smiles on the faces of as many families as we can this holiday season!**

FALL BREAK BEGINS...TODAY!!! Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Happy Birthday, Lisa!!!  We LOVE YOU!!!

Can you believe we are already at Fall Break?!?  Wow, time flies!!!  Do NOT forget that there is NO school the remainder of this week (Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday)!  See you back here on Monday, October 11th! 

Since this afternoon marks the beginning of our Fall Break, we treated today like a Friday.  It is our GSE policy that there is "No new Teaching" on Fridays as it should be a day of review to keep all our content we have learned fresh on our minds.  Therefore, we DID switch for Math because Mrs. Thomas' math class needed to finish their Chapter 4 test, but we did not switch for reading. We are working very hard on it and we are all trying to get a '4'.  We had one more student earn a '4' for our 4 board...Ahmad!!!  Way to go AHMAD, we're sooo proud of you!!!  YOU ROCK!!! 


Instead of Reading, Mrs. Ingold's class and our class got a reward.  Because we have earned enough 'Paws for Compliments' from other teachers around the building, both classes got to watch a movie!  Group members from our Reading class WILL need to read a couple of chapters from their group's chapter book over the break, though!  After our movie, we went outside for Recess and then attended Computer for Special areas.


LUNCH BUNCH DID NOT take place today because of our talking and recent behavior.

This afternoon, we had Guidance with Mrs. Moses where we continued learning about the negative effects of bullying and what to do if we are being bullied or if we see someone else who is being bullied.


Finally, we ended our day with Book Buddies with Mrs. Hubers' Kindergarteners.  


I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC Fall Break!  I will miss each of you every day, thinking of you often, but happy to have some time off as well :)  I can't wait to see you again on Monday!


xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

Things around the owl nest...

Here are some things that have been mentioned in previous blogs or just some exciting happenings around our classroom:

Caroline wore an AWESOME Owl shirt today!  Of course, Mrs. Thomas was L-O-V-I-N-G her style!

'Sir midKNIGHT' and Bob the Owl...our class mascots!

Sir MidKNIGHT likes to be dressed up.  So search through your house for any old clothes or dress-up clothes that won't be missed (be sure to ask your parents' permission) and bring them in so he can show off his many personalities! One year, he was a ballerina Elvis!  Uh-HUH!

Griffen modeling our new monster Reading fingers

These were a gift from Mrs. Hawthorne.  Mrs. Salsman's class has these for her students to use to track text as they are reading and Mrs. Thomas went CRAZY over them so awesome Mrs. Hawthorne got some for our class!  We are absolutely having a BLAST reading with them! We even took them to Book Buddies with Mrs. Hubers' Kindergarten this past Friday so we could share our fun!

they help us stay on track as we are reading aloud...see?!?  Aren't they FUN?!?

our 'Classroom Nation' scoreboard (see post from Thursday, September 30th)

 This is our scoreboard for keeping track of each team's points.  None have been added to the board yet because it was just completed today, but Mrs. Thomas has been keeping track of points.  Currently, the BLUE team is in the lead with 6 points.  Way to go Oliver and your Blue Wildcat team!

Kindness Hearts
Kindness Hearts were started as a way to encourage us to be nice to one another.  A student can earn a Kindness Heart by doing something nice for a classmate without expecting anything in return.  To get one, you MUST be nominated by a peer and not yourself.  At the end of the week, a heart will be drawn.  The student whose heart is drawn gets a prize.  The more hearts you have, the better your chances of winning!

Our fall door display!

 On the leaves, we wrote what our favorite book is and why, and on the pumpkins, we wrote our favorite things about autumn.

Our '4' board

This is an incentive board.  As 3rd graders, we are expected to really step up our game in Open Response Questions.  A score of '4' is the best you can get, but it takes a lot of effort and us doing our personal best to get one.  Therefore, a 4 on the first try, without any coaching from Mrs. Thomas or another teacher will not go unnoticed; it will be rewarded!  How this works is, if a student gets a '4' the first time he or she answers an ORQ, they will be given a dot (point, in math lingo) in which he/she writes his/her name.  The student then plots that dot in the middle of two intersecting lines and writes his/her coordinate (ordered pair) on a white index card and places it in a bag.  Every couple of weeks. after several ORQs, Mrs. Thomas will draw an ordered pair from the bag.  The student whose ordered pair is drawn gets to pick a reward from the Treasure box/ menu.  Every '4' you score, the more ordered pairs you have...the more ordered pairs you have, the better your chances of getting a prize!  4s are rewarding!!!

He was a gift to Mrs. Thomas from her parents her very first year of teaching!  He's had LOTS of names, but his this year is pretty clever!

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Happy Monday everyone!!!  Doesn't it feel not so much like a Monday since we only have two days of school this week?!?  Fall is definitely among us!


First, I would like to congratulate Anthony and Caroline...they are our students of the month for September!!!  Way to go, guys!  You really are GREAT role models to your peers and exhibit qualities that are a positive influence on others!  I am SO proud of you!

Anthony

Caroline

Since it is a short week, we are working on reviewing concepts from last week and others from the previous weeks.  In reading, we continued reading, "Wolf!" from our Treasures Book where we are studying differentiating between fantasy and reality.  In Reading groups, we worked on our new Reading comprehension folders focusing on either, Main Idea, Problem and Solution, or Character Analysis.  Groups got to pick their activity!  One was creating a comic strip, another was using your hand to trace and retell the story with only 5 sentences, and another was creating a pocket chart.  There were 9 activities to choose from and all were really neat and very hands-on.  Groups also focused on grammar analysis of run-on sentences and completing their novel ties for their chapter book.  All group members will need to read from their group chapter book over fall break.  We'd like to start and finish a new chapter book within the groups before Winter Break.

My math class began their assessment over Chapter 4: Subtraction with borrowing and regrouping.  We did not get finished so we will be completing it tomorrow.

In Science, we took that time to work on our "Together we Can" writing pieces that are due to PTA before Fall Break to be in the contest. 

We are still working on our talking and volume level but things are getting better.  I love each of you and know you can succeed in being your best self!

xoxo,
Mrs. Thomas

PS, Check back later this evening and I will have some special pictures posted of things around our classroom!

WEEKLY EVENTS

This Week at Garden Springs

Innisbrook has been extended. The new deadline is October 13. 
New program from Campbell 's Labels for Education.  Garden Springs can earn potentially a TON of points if everyone would sign up. Read blog post  http://bulldogbargains.blogspot.com/ about the new program.  Please share it everyone because we earn points for just signing up.  No purchase and they don't even have to leave their house. 

Oct. 4—Day 1
1st MAP Testing Window Continues (8/30-11/12)

2:45-3:45p:
Performing Arts Club Rehearsal

3:00p: SBDM

6:30p: PTA

Oct. 5—Day 2
1:15p: Fire Dril

Oct. 6 NO SCHOOL
7:45a-3:15p: Peer
Mediation Training
for peer mediators
(GSE Library)

Oct. 7 NO SCHOOL

Oct. 8 NO SCHOOL

Our WEG Girl... AND... Tales of THE Step Counter...

Our very own, Tabitha was in the opening ceremonies of the World Equestrian Games!!!  She has an absolutely amazing voice and we are so proud to have our very own local celebrity in our class!

Tabitha and Mrs. Thomas

We are so lucky to have her!



and...

                       TALES OF THE STEP COUNTER:

Your student may or may not have told you about the new PE program from Ms. Timaji.  At the beginning of the year, Ms. Timaji gave every class a step counter.  Each month, the class with a high number of steps is drawn from a bag for a popcorn party, courtesy of Ms. Timaji.  Well, we want to win, win, win so we made it into one of our "Hooty Duties" and a different student gets to wear the step counter everyday each week.  This week, Alyssa was our step counter and boy, was she INCREDIBLE!!!  She really worked hard to make sure she got in plenty of steps.  Everyday, she had more than 30,000 steps which was between 17-23 miles!!!  Isn't that amazing?!?  Here's our girl with the ol' step counter...she's tap, tap, tapping away...

Friday, October 1, 2010 - Creepy, Crawly, Oh my GOLLY!

Have you ever heard the expression, "Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits"?  Well, I have always heard that that should be the first words you say on the first day of a new month for good luck and prosperity through the month ahead...so, "RABBITS RABBITS RABBITS" to YOU!!!

We started the morning with a guest: our Creepy Crawly Science guy...and BOY was he COOL!  He talked to us about adaptations of amphibians, reptiles, insects, and birds.  It really was neat.  He had TONS of pictures and even had animals here for us to see as he talked about them.  We even got to touch a snake!!!  Here are some pictures of our morning (sorry that aren't too great quality - they're from my phone):

Add caption

This is a reptile in the lizard family.

Ahhhhh....a SNAKE!!!

He's eating her!

I am SOOOOO...scared of snakes, but I am conquering my fear :)

He's SCARY!

There are more pictures to come, and some with better quality, but this is all we have for now.  It really was neat not only hearing about all the animals, but seeing them as well.

After our presenter, we went back to our normal schedule.  We began Reading late, so we turned in our Spelling packets and took our test.  Then, the students were given a chance to work on ORQs on their own while I administered our weekly Fluency assessments to students.  Be looking for these to come home.  I have your student read with me from a leveled card for a timed minute.  At the completion of the minute (when the sand timer runs out), I calculate how many words were read by the student and subtract any mistakes from that number so you can see how many words per minute (WPM) your child reads.  I also check off skills for fluency and ask comprehension questions about what was read to determine understanding.  These are administered weekly and will be sent home.  If your student has less than the full card's WPM, please reread with them at home.  Keep these copies for your record at home.

In Math, we again played our card game that is so much fun!  We also reviewed Chapter 4 and plan on taking our assessment on Monday.  It should be graded and returned to you before Fall Break.

We will have book buddies with Mrs. Hubers' class this afternoon.  Your student is absolutely AMAZING with reading to these Kindergarteners and being good role models and leaders to them.  You would be so proud to see them being positive influences on the younger students!

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!  Only two more school days until Fall Break!

xoxo,

Mrs. Thomas