Weekly News

This is the last week before Spring Break, so please help your student finish strong. Grades from this week's tests will be the first grade entered for quarter 4. 

The Literati Book Fair is going on this week. You are welcome to take your student to visit before or after school, but they must be accompanied by an adult when shopping. It is cashless so make sure your student uses a card or you purchase them a gift card in advance. Our preview day will be Tuesday at 2:30-3pm and our purchase day will be Thursday at 11-11:30am.

Check the school newsletter for more information about Wednesday and the Literature Day Parade and mystery readers. 

Thursday is field day, dress your student in ORANGE, it is 3rd grade's color this year. 

Friday is a half day with dismissal at noon. 

Enjoy Spring Break!

See my email sent this week for our Valentine's Day party coming up on Friday at 11am. We still need some volunteers and kids are welcome to bring in a shoe-box sized box to decorate to collect their valentine's. We have 23 students and no "to" listed on the card. 

Spelling words are getting more challenging. This past week not a single student got 100% on the practice test which shows they need to practice more! I try to have the website updated by Friday afternoons to allow you the weekend to prepare. If I don't, you can always Google the next list of 30 Spalding words!                   

See the email I sent regarding Field Trip Information for tomorrow!

This week's spelling words are for the Spell-A-Thon, so make sure to practice extra to get 100% on the test Friday. 

The kids business fair is on Saturday at the Crismon campus, hope to see you there!

The kids did fantastic on their monthly testing. They have shown growth in every area. The testing days can be long, so be extra proud of their hard work and focus!

With no school on Monday, make sure to study spelling extra early in the week.  The practice test will still be on Thursday. 

Eventhough it's cooler outside, please remember to have a water bottle for your student every day. I have been passing out lots of water from our class stash again lately, so thank you for helping your student remember it in the morning!

Field trip chaperone emails have been sent out, thank you so much for all your interest! Any parent is welcome to join their student at the OdySea Aquarium. After paying for admission, you can meet us inside and join your student's group. They have to ride the bus back to school with the class, but you can check them out early with the office. The plan is to be back at 1:35pm. 

This week is monthly testing week, so attendance is critical to avoid lengthy make-ups! 

Wednesday is the 100th day of school and you can celebrate by wearing a shirt with 100 items on it - yay!

Book report information can be found on the resources tab, if you'd like it early  but will not be passed out until the 3rd grade teachers send them out on the same day (usually 3 weeks before the due date). 

Welcome back! Happy 2026!

I hope you had a restful and memorable Christmas break. I am excited to welcome your students back to the 3rd quarter and all the exciting new things going on.  We head straight into academic week 17 and will follow our normal testing schedule.

This is a fast paced quarter and you may notice the bar rises once again for expectations on your student. Please help them by making sure to check their homework in it's entirety (don't allow simple sentences and incomplete math!) and sign the homework slip so your student has a chance to enter the daily raffle for those who have this completed properly! Also help prepare them for spelling tests by guaging their need of practice based on their practice test scores. If they consistently are missing many spelling words on the practice test, they need to practice more during the week and not just before the test on Friday.  My website is usually updated the Friday before the weekend, so feel free to get a head start the weekend before!

Don't forget to send your student with a full water bottle ready for each day and double check that they actually take it out of the car during drop off :)

It's going to be a great quarter and I look forward to all the growth the students will achieve!

Look for more information on our class party this Friday at 11am. As always, parents (only, no siblings please!) are invited to join in the fun or help out. 

Attendance this week is important! We will have a normal academic week with the exception of spelling review words and review grammar homework. Our goal is to take the module 10 test on Thursday, but I did not add it to the calendar because they may need more review or may be ready early. They've been doing well with this module so far. 

Christmas Concert Info:

"A Christmas to Remember"

Wed, Dec 17th

K-2 - 5:30 pm

3-5 - 6:45 pm

BFHS Center for the Performing Arts

Students wear dressy attire. First come, first served seating (no tickets this year).

Then we will have our Christmas break. I hope you enjoy this extra time with your families and make some great memories!

Welcome back!

From Mrs. Evans for the upcoming Christmas concert:

"A Christmas to Remember"

Wed, Dec 17th

K-2 - 5:30 pm

3-5 - 6:45 pm

BFHS Center for the Performing Arts

Students wear dressy attire

*More details to come

The students did a practice setting map Friday. We talked in great detail about how it needs to look for a full grade. Some highlights include that it cannot be typed or use anything printed out (like pictures), meaning it must be fully created by the student only. I reminded them that I know their artistic abilities and handwriting :) Cursive is required and the placement of the key and descriptions is important. They understand it must be on 12x18 or larger paper and needs to be about a narrative that is at least 100 pages long. Graphic novels are not accepted, they need to use precise language from the book to create the setting. 

A reminder on dress code as the weather cools down...pants may not have holes or be cut off in any way (the handbook states they need to be in good repair). This includes the bottom of pants too.

The Turkey Trot is Friday!! 3rd grades color is orange, so please have your student wear as much orange as possible! Our class will start just after 10:20 and go until almost 11am. 

The food drive is all week, look in the school newsletter for which days to bring what!

Remember to have your student dress in red, white, and blue for the special Veterans Day ceremony on Monday! Our class will be singing so please ensure your student is on time, we will be on the risers and ready to go by 8:15am. If your student is late, they will sit with another class and watch the ceremony.

We will still have 30 spelling words this week, so please practice extra for the test on Thursday!

Poems and book reports have been passed out. If you need an extra copy,  check the resources tab. We will be doing a setting map example in class this week. 

If your student tells you their black white board marker went dry early, they can bring in one from home to use. I give the students one to use for the first semester and one for the second semester. Please make sure it is black so they don't hyperfocus on the colors. 

Thank you for helping your student with long division so they are ready for Tuesday's test! Our curriculum moves quickly and they will need to be ready to build on a solid foundation with long division. 

If your student tells you their black white board marker went dry early, they can bring in one from home to use. I give the students one to use for the first semester and one for the second semester. Please make sure it is black so they don't hyperfocus on the colors. 

The class party willl be at 2pm on Friday. The room mom's will have things ready to share shortly and their plans are so exciting! The kids are going to have a blast!

Don't forget to use the tabs to navigate and find help for homework and other resources along with fun pictures of your students while they are here at school!

This week is officially academic week 9 and we will dive right back into things. Please make sure you are prioritizing homework and making sure your student understands the spelling, grammar and math each night. Extra practice is on the homework/resourses tab. As a reminder, the website is updated weekly, so please check it regularly. Here is the text from the parent email this week in case you missed the important 2nd quarter updates:

I've added some tools and resources to the class website to help you ensure your student is able to keep up with our accelerated curriculum and have a successful quarter. All students can benefit from the extra practice and there are different levels available so you can meet your student where they are at or challenge them with stretch activities. There will also be a few other changes you may notice starting this quarter:

Math lesson pages will be brought home for additional review and/or practice (or to help with homework!). If a student puts an X on a question, we skipped it as a class but all other problems should be completed. This will be a great opportunity for you to review their attention and focus on the lesson as well check their understanding of what they did before we move to the next lesson the following day. 

Just like last quarter, I do not want a nightly record of pages read for the reading log, you will still need to put the number of pages for completed books or parts of a book up to the page requirement. The changes you will notice will be with the type of books - no yearbooks or full picture books will be accepted for pages read and a line is added for a parent signature once the log is completed. I will accept them early again, so if you have an avid reader who completes it quickly, send it in and get it out of the way! 

You may notice grading being a little less lenient. I've given a lot of grace for the students to learn what is expected of fully answering a question. I walk them through every problem on every test and allow them to ask questions during the test. I also give them time at the end of the test where I require them to review what they are about to turn in. If they leave something blank or do not fully answer the question being asked, they will lose points accordingly. 

I will be providing some students with additional handwriting practice sheets who are having a hard time with difficult connections or proper letter formations. If you see these come home in their folder, please make sure to review it and add any additional practice you notice they need. I will be checking their work, but being able to slow down and do it at home really helps. I will also very gradually be requiring more cursive on classwork and things turned in (with the exception of math which will never be required to be in cursive). They have been reminded daily to practice adding more and more so the transition to full cursive is easier. This will be critical for them to be ready for the writing demands of 4th grade and beyond!

Also, an important reminder to make sure your student has a full water bottle ready to go each morning before their school day starts. Please do not send soda, gatorade, or flavored water. This includes what goes inside their water bottle or for lunch...they spill, they leak and they leave a sticky mess behind so please help out by only sending water :) Snacks also need to be suitable for learning and not candy, cookies, or sugary foods.

This  week is spirit week and will be lots of fun. Please make sure your student still follows the dress code for anything they wear.

We have our last science experiment this week We will explore some fun with magnets and learn more about them.

Spelling words are review, but the test still counts! Thank you for helping your student do extra great this week.

Hope you have a great fall break full of family time and rest!

The spelling words this week are tricky, so please make sure to practice carefully for Thursday's practice test!

Book reports and reading logs are accepted early and are due Thursday. They are not accepted late for any reason. If your student will be out on Thursday, they need to turn it in by Wednesday.

Monday night's homework will be the study guide for Tuesday's test. Please review it carefully with your student to make sure they are fully prepared for the test.

It was great to meet with you last week. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to learn how your child is performing in third grade and making for thoughtful conversations. 

Keep working on the book report and book logs as they are due next Thursday. 

I will have a recap of conferences and more information and resources to share soon! 

I look forward to talking with you at the conference about your student.  Don't forget to be on time and know that we have a quick 15 minutes before the next meeting! 

It is still a busy week despite the half days, so don't skimp on homework and spelling practice.

Extra copies of the book report can be found on the Homework/Resources tab. 

It is going to be a full week! Check the calendar to make sure you don't miss anything. 

Thursday is a heavy test day, so please make sure your student is present to take their tests and avoid taking their recess time next week to make them up. 

Make sure you check your student's folder each night and check their homework for completion before signing the homework slip. Lots of grammar homework is being turned in incomplete with a signed homework slip. Each day is 25% of their homework grade and is an all complete or nothing grade. 

Do math facts with your student while riding in the car or when you have down time. Meet them where they are and get them to know addition, subtraction, multiplication and division without hesitation. They should not be using fingers, tally marks, or number lines for mental math anymore.  We do lots of practice in class to help, but extra practice is really needed for all students!

We will have our first science experiment this week, the shell-less egg! They will be using the scientific method to track the experiment from beginning to end, which should take most of the week for it to finalize!

Please practice spelling words as a priority with your student. They need to have strong vocabularies for their transition to reading to learn plus it's a big part of their weekly grades.

Make sure you are practicing math fact fluency and stretching your student to be faster and work with harder numbers, this is a big goal for them this year!

Looking forward to another great week! 

Please practice spelling words regularly and especially in preparation for the practice test on Thursday! Not taking the test with the class on Friday is a HUGE incentive!

Don't forget, cut off jeans need to be hemmed and no holes are permitted. Please make sure to watch for low cut fronts or backs in shirts or jumpers. 

Can't wait to see parents at Curriculum Night on Thursday from 5:30-6:30pm, come get answers to your questions!

Don't forget about the half day on Friday, noon dismissal and no lunch so it's a great day to pack a bigger snack!

What a wonderful first week! We have an amazing class this year!

Thank you for making the extra effort to make sure your student follows the dress code. Don't forget that cut-offs, dangly earrings, shorts 2" from the knee,  and boots are not permitted (for PE especially).

Please practice spelling words with your child nightly and the entire list on Wednesday nights and again on Thursday mornings to make sure they do their best! Those who practice generally do very well; it makes a difference! 

Each night, please sign the homework slip, check your students' spelling, math, and grammar homework.  Don't forget to empty the "Keep at Home" side nightly.

Welcome back!

The blue homework folder needs to come to school each day, cleared out and ready to go. Don't forget to check homework for accuracy and sign the bottom of the homework slip Monday-Thursday nights. 

Please send a labeled water bottle full each day. The water fountains are often crowded after recess. I allow students to keep water at their desks to stay hydrated. Please do not send anything other than water. 

Students can bring a healthy snack for morning recess. It's easiest for students to grab their snack and line up quickly if it is in a separate container/bag and does not need to be refrigerated. Please reserve dessert foods for after school. 

Although the spelling words are review, please practice them with your student this week to set the expectation of practicing them nightly all year long! Thank you so much for supporting your student and helping them be prepared!