Welcome "back" from Spring Break!

Dear students and families,

How strange it feels to end our Spring Break and yet not be able to see each other. Well, have I got good news for you! We will be holding a virtual class meeting at 1:00 Tuesday the 14th. Please check parent emails for the sign-in information as well as a survey for future meeting times. I look forward to seeing all of my students then!

Also, remember to check FlipGrid at the beginning of each week for fun activities to share with each other.

Warmly,

Ms. Gallagher

A message to my students

Hello dear children! I miss seeing you all in person but am delighted to have begun seeing your faces again on FlipGrid! Keep those videos and comments coming! Check every Monday for a new FlipGrid topic. Also, I'd love to see you on SeeSaw!

I'll be adding more chapters to YouTube later today. If it doesn't rain, I'll be recording in my favorite childhood hideout for reading. Any guesses where I'll be?

Always remember these things: I miss you. I love you. I believe in you. You are talented. You are capable. YOU are AMAZING! It has been and is my honor to be your teacher. You will always be welcome in my classroom.

Love,

Ms. G.

How your child can communicate with me directly

Hi. I miss my students! If any would like to write to me, they can open a google document, give it their name as a title, and share it with me at kjgallagher@henrico.k12.va.us I will receive notice they shared it and be able to write back.

Some resources I've found which may be of interest...

(site updated periodically at the top of the list)

Read alouds

For children's stories read aloud by members of the Screen Actors Guild (including Betty White!):

www.storylineonline.net

French children's stories read slowly in French & English:

A great chance to read and hear French spoken by a native speaker and the reinforce understanding by listening to the English version! https://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/stories?fbclid=IwAR1SZtfKj3dBuVtlLaErSRbUY8M1SpelQWH5ITP17oQYizc7Goxq2PZHns0

Animals:

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is holding a Facebook Live event each weekday at 3pm. They started yesterday with Fiona the hippopotamus.

Shedd Aquarium has been letting its penguins explore the aquarium now that it is closed to visitors. They've posted a couple of videos of the penguins' adventures already. I looked on their site but could not find the videos there but if you look for them on Facebook, you'll find them along with other great videos such as that of an octopus with a go-pro camera.

Art:

Mo Willems, the author of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and other stories is hosting a daily Lunch Doodles at his page on the Kennedy Center's website https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/

A message for my students

I miss you all so much! I know many of you have been worried about me but I want you to know that I'm getting better every day and look forward to seeing you all again very soon!

A message from our librarian, Ms. Young:

Hello Nuckols Farm Families!

On Friday, students were given the opportunity to borrow 5 extra books from our school library so that they have several choices for reading material during our distance/virtual learning time. I hope your children will take time to discover and enjoy great books, stories, and authors! You can also find some other sources of reading material in my Schoology course (children can login through Clever with their usernames and passwords). The same information is located in a post in the announcements section of our school website. https://nuckolsfarm.henricoschools.us/2020/03/15/reading-literacy-and-learning-resources/

Since many students checked out additional library books, your child could have anywhere from 3 to 10 Nuckols Farm library books. I would really appreciate it if you would help your child to gather all NFE library books and place/store them in one location (either in or next to their school book bag is a great place) during this distance learning time period. They can enjoy the books throughout this time, and then when we return to school, all the NFE books will be easy to locate in order to return them to school. All Nuckols Farm books will have a stamp on the inside saying "Nuckols Farm Elementary Library."

Thanks so much! I cannot check your child's library account remotely, so I cannot let you know exactly how many books your child has until we return to school. However, if you have any other questions for me, I will be checking email daily, so feel free to contact me at skyoung@henrico.k12.va.us.

Thank you,

Sara K. Young

School Librarian

March 13, 2020

Dear Third Grade Families,

Today your child should have brought home a packet of activities and information in his/her take-home folder from Henrico County. These packets should be used to supplement instruction that would have taken place for the upcoming 2 weeks (March 16-27) that Henrico County Public Schools will be closed,

More info: https://henricoschools.us/covid19/

Quick Facts:

1. Explanation of Packet:
   1. The activities packet sent home is a combination of choice menus (various activities from which students may choose from a set number) and materials to print or recreate in order to complete the task of their choice.
   2. These packets will ONLY be graded for COMPLETION.
2. Resources to help you:
   1. Use the directions in the instruction/activity packet to understand specific criteria.
   2. Your students should have taken these materials home with them:

• Writing journals with a list of prompts (students should choose one to complete for each school day spent at home)
• Supply box with glue sticks, pencils, colored pencils or crayons, highlighter, sharpener, and ruler
• Henrico login (to access Clever online/at home)
  • Notes were sent home explaining how to access Clever from home with student logins written.

1. What your child should turn in:
   1. Tradition project (may be completed over the 2 weeks the schools are closed)
   2. 4 activities off the choice board (1 Reading/Writing, 1 Math, 1 Social Studies, and 1 Science) EACH week
   3. 1 reading activity (separate from all-subject choice board) EACH week
   4. 1 math activity (separate from all-subject choice board) EACH week

***Please note: this activity packet is designed to be used for MULTIPLE weeks.

→ For example, a student may choose to complete certain activities from the choice boards during “Week 1” (March 16-20) and select different activities for “Week 2” (March 23-27).

Read directions carefully to avoid confusion and stress! These resources are meant to continue high quality learning at home if we are unable to meet at school to provide it. We appreciate all you do to support your students everyday!

Your partners in education,

The Third Grade Teachers

As we prepare to be out of school during the COVID19 pandemic...

Friday 13 March 2020

If your child has library books to return, please send them in - all students will have the opportunity to check out up to 5 library books during resource tomorrow.

Please make sure to send in your child with room in their back pack as we will be sending home supply boxes with pencils, glue sticks, etc., a packet of materials to work on, 2 notebooks and 5 library books.

Throughout our absence

Please check in here regularly for updates and messages to the class.

Continuing our read-aloud

I'm investigating ways to continue our classroom read-aloud of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin in order to maintain some normalcy during our absence. I'll announce here when it is up and running.

Fractions!!!

We have begun our study of fractions with a chalk art illustration of fractions in the real (okay, assuming trees are really symmetrical) world. This unit will last for about a month as we explore the meaning behind and use of fractions.

Vocabulary Quiz Date Changed

Due to three other quizzes (synonyms, math warm-up, and famous Americans) on Friday I have decided to move our vocabulary quiz to Wednesday 2/26/20. See below for a picture of our list for reference on days your child doesn't bring home their writing notebook.

Monday 2/17/20

Half Day, Pajama Day, & Fox Fest Celebration

Please remember that Monday the 17th of February is a half day for students. They will be dismissed at 11:00.

To culminate a week collecting pajamas for those in need, we are celebrating with a Pajama Day this Monday as well. Looking forward to seeing everyone then!

Coming up in class...

In Math, we are completing our study of money and beginning our study of fractions.

In Social Studies this week we will be studying famous Americans and completing our Famous African Americans projects.

In Reading we continue to study important African Americans.

In Science we will be completing a writing project envisioning life as a water droplet stuck within the water cycle.

Valentine Thanks

I deeply appreciate all of the thoughtful expressions of love and appreciation with which I was showered on Friday. Your children are so thoughtul and dear. Well done, parents!

Heading into February

A benchmark celebration

100% of our class passed the reading benchmark test we took last week! Way to go kids!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Conferences are scheduled to occur on the afternoon of February 6th. I will contact parents with whom I feel a need to meet. If I do not contact you before Saturday 1 February, you may assume I do not have a pressing need to meet. If you are not contacted but would like to meet, please email me with your specific concern so that we can use our meeting time most effectively. kjgallagher@henrico.k12.va.us

The Second Nine Weeks is ending

Benchmark Testing 1/22 & 1/23 - Reading and 2/3 & 2/4 - Math

Benchmark Testing begins this Wednesday. The purpose of benchmark testing is to learn whether students are on track to learn all they should in third grade and, if necessary, to identify areas of weakness.

These are not tests for which students should study but, not unlike other tests, it is helpful to be well-rested and well-fed. Please encourage early bedtimes and well-balanced breakfasts.

Happy New Year!

The end of 2019...

We learned to multiply and divide, had a blast exploring both ancient China and ancient Egypt, and finished off the year with a fun parent-led enrichment lesson. Thanks to all who participated!

As we begin 2020...

I look forward to seeing the children's smiling faces on Monday and our sharing of holiday memories. We will begin the new year by regrouping as a class and setting intentions for the remainder of the school year. Acadmically speaking, the class will be learning about measurement, area, and perimeter in math class and we will continue our study of ancient cultures by focusing on ancient Greece in both reading and social studies classes.

November 11 - 15, 2019

Color Run this Wednesday

If your child is participating, please remember the following:

• they MUST HAVE eye protection
• they MUST HAVE a change of clothes too put on after the Color Run
• send a grocery bag or something to put dirty clothes in once they have changed

Please see the following message from our health and P.E. teacher, Mrs. Griffeth:

Just a reminder, your 3^rd grade child’s Color Run is THIS WEDNESDAY.

If your schedule allows, please consider helping with the event by throwing powder paint on the students as they run the track! If you are able to come, plan to meet me at the track by the playground at 1:05. Please sign in with the office first. I would greatly appreciate your help to make this event a success. 😊 Feel free to email me at kbgriffeth@henrico.k12.va.us if you have any questions.

Thanks for your support in celebrating our 3^rd grade “falling in love with fitness”!

Canned Food Drive

Please remember that we are contributing to the 77th Henrico Christmas Mother Food Drive all this week. Please send in nonperishable items (but no glass jars!). We are accepting Canned Goods, Boxed Food, and Dry Goods. Please refer to the teal letter we sent home late last week for examples of items needed.

Sneakers on Mondays and Fridays

Please be sure to send your child to school in sneakers on Mondays as well as Fridays since we sometimes have large group activities on Mondays requiring sturdy footwear. Fridays remain our usual P.E. day.

Vocabulary and Spelling

Vocabulary

Due to the short week, we are not adding new storytelling vocabulary words this week. Vocabulary (words AND definitions will recommence next week.

Spelling

You will find a spelling page in your child's home folder today. The following explains what is happening with that:

As we’ve been doing more and more writing in our third grade classes, we’ve noticed that many of the students struggle to spell high frequency words correctly. High frequency words are the words that appear most frequently in the students’ reading and writing. In order to help develop better automaticity with high frequency words, students will now have an assessment every other week that tests their knowledge of how to spell these words.

Our schedule will be:

Every other Monday: Students take a pretest that includes 10 high frequency words. This week it was on Tuesday.

Tuesday (the day after the pretest): We will return the pretest to the students. Students who earn a 100% are exempt from the final test and will receive a 100% in the gradebook. Students who do not earn a 100% will receive their pretests and the word list. They will have approximately two weeks to study before they are tested on the entire list once again. The test date can be found on the word list.

Students will not have written homework for these words. To practice at home, you can call out the words for them to spell in the car, have students write them on dry erase boards or paper, ask students to write them in sentences, or choose any other type of practice that may benefit your child.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions! The first pretest will come home today, and the first test will be on October 25^th. Have a great day!

14 October 2019

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Fall conferences are just around the corner! If you would like to sign up for a conference time to discuss questions or concerns regarding your child’s progress at this point in the year, please use the following Sign Up Genius link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050548ABA929A2F58-fall. After signing up for a slot, please send me an email (kjgallagher@henrico.k12.va.us) with the questions/concerns you would like me to address. This will allow me to fully prepare and better utilize our short conference slot. I know that with Home Folders and Power School, you are kept very much up to date on a regular basis and may not have any concerns about your child’s progress so far. If this is the case, I am always available to meet with you at another time during the year if a need or concern arises.

Double Assignments on Power School?

You may have noticed that some assignments appear to have been duplicated on Power School. That is not an error. Tests and Projects count twice as much as classwork. We don't have a function within the online grade book to make that happen independently and so have to enter those assignments twice. The system doesn't allow us to use the exact same name twice which is why you will often see the second entry with a _1 at the end of the name. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

Cursive Videos

I have obtained videos to provide at-home help for cursive practice. They can be found on the Student Links page of this blog.

Coming up in the classroom

In reading, we are continuing our novel study of The Witches by Roald Dahl. In writing, we will be starting our pumpkin journal writing on Tuesday. In math, we are wrapping up our study of place value, rounding, and comparing numbers. At the end of the week we will move into problem solving. In science, we are continuing our study of Food Chains and starting to look at habitats.

Scholastic Book Orders

As promised at the beginning of the year, I have opened up another of our periodic Scholastic book order opportunities. A paper flier and ordering instructions will be going home on Tuesday 15 October with ordering instructions. Orders will need to be placed by October 28th.

School Picture Day coming soon!

School Pictures will be taken on October 24th. Our class portraits will be taken at 12:55 that day. Fliers with ordering information will be going home on Tuesday 15 October.

Young Scientists

Thank you to everyone who has sent in their Young Scientists permission forms and fees. Forms and fees are due by October 16th. Extra copies of the permission form will be going home Tuesday for any who may have misplaced their form.

6 October 2019

Vocabulary Practice

Please note that I provide online opportunities to work on each week's vocabulary through games and quizzes on Spelling City. These are accessible through the Student Links section of this blog.

Young Scientists' On-Campus Workshops

Young Scientists will be returning to Nuckols Farm to Thprovide engaging, hands-on science lessons at four times over this school year. You should have received a letter and permision form with your child's Home Folder this past Wednesday. Please send the forms back in as soon as you can. Thank you to all who have already done so.

A confession...

While I know your children well and have started to recognize many of your faces, we don't see each other often and so I sometimes struggle to remember who is associated with who. Therefore, I ask that you remind me of your name and who your child is when we meet. Thank you for understanding!

In the classroom

We finished up the place value portion of our Number Sense unit and have been working on rounding in Math. We continue on this track in the coming week with comparing numbers.

After a couple of weeks studying nonfiction text features, this week we will turn our Reading focus towards our first novel study of the year. In Writing we continue writing creatively and have begun returning to our seed writing to apply various writing conventions.

Our Science unit on Animal Adaptations has begun with a study of physical and behavioral adaptations. Next up, we will look into food chains.

29 September 2019

Half Day Monday!

Don't forget that tomorrow is a half day for students meaning dismissal will begin at 11:10.

Last week, we... Next week, we'll...

• Wrapped up our unit on Place Value in Math. On Monday we will begin our study of Rounding Numbers. Review of earlier skills continues in our Morning Math Warm-Ups
• Engaged in opportunities to write creatively in response to photographs and illustrations and continued to learn new vocabulary in English. Next week we'll return to some of that creative writing, focusing on specific aspects of it. We'll also find additional writing opportunities
• We finished our study of citizenship, rules, laws, and government in Social Studies and move into Animal Adaptations in Science on Tuesday
• In Reading, we have been learning about nonfiction text features such as headings, captions, and glossaries. The students have also enjoyed additional reading time as I complete individual reading assessments within the class. We'll continue looking into nonfiction texts and enjoying our class read aloud

Grades

All grades are current in Power School.

The NFE Fall Family Picnic

It was nice to see so many of you and your dear children at the family picnic this past Thursday!

15 September 2019

Last week, we...

• established our norms and expectations during Language Arts and practiced the various skills needed for sustained writing, reading, and word study
• started a writing/craft project honing in on what each student considers important about themselves ~ the final products will be on view at Back to School night this coming Thursday
• enjoyed working with partners at a variety of times such as when disucssing aspects of the class read-aloud or engaging in social and emotional learning
• continued Math work started the prior week in the creating and understanding of tallly charts, bar graphs, and pictographs
• in Social Studies we have explored citizenship, what constitutes good citizenship and what constitutes bad citizenship

Next week, we will...

• begin our study of non-fiction text features in Reading
• complete our "Important Thing" writing/craft projects
• extend our storytelling vocabularies
• wrap up our study of tally charts, bar graphs, and pictographs with a test on Tuesday before moving on to our Number Sense unit
• wrap up our citizenship block with a test on Tuesday followed by our unit about rules, laws, and branches of government

We are off to a great start!

We had a great first week together during which we started learning what to expect within the classroom and got to know each other better. The week ended with our "Me Museum" exhibit and gallery walk. All students provided and described very interesting artifacts from their lives which helped us see the many ways in which we are similar as well as some wonderful ways in which we provide a rich diversity of experiences to our class.

Scholastic Book Orders

In case anyone's flyer and ordering information got lost in the busy-ness of the first week, I have opened a Scholastic book sale for our class. As first, a young student, then as a parent, and now as a teacher, I have found Scholastic Books to be an affordable and reliable way to grow childhood libraries. Therefore, I plan to have at least a few order opportunities during the course of the year. Please know that there is never any expectation or pressure for anyone to order. If you are interested in participating this time, the order deadline is Sunday September 15th. All orders are placed online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and our class code is VBH98.

Home Folders and Agendas

I endeavor to update this blog every week or so during the school year but it should not be your go-to for cutting-edge information. Day-to-day communication as to homework assignments, school events, and the like is conveyed primarily through your child's Home Folder and their Agenda (Assignment) Book. As the students grow accustomed to the new level of personal responsibility they are encountering, please reinforce their efforts at home by checking both the folder and the book each night and helping them remember to bring them back again each day. Thank you for your help!

MAP testing

We will be conducting computer-based testing this Wednesday and Thursday. The first test will be based on Reading Comprehension, the second on Math. As I told the students, this test is merely a tool to tell me what they already know so that I know where I can best help them. This is not testing for which the students can or should be studying; the best thing that can happen is for the students to get good sleep the night before and have a healthy breakfast the day of.

Welcome New 3rd Graders!

I am delighted to begin my second year at Nuckols Farm Elementary and look forward to getting to know my new students and their families in the days and months ahead. In the interest of not providing an overwhelming amount of information on this blog I have deleted information from last year with the exception of some fun pictures of class activities.

Getting home that first day and all the others

Please be sure to send in a note confirming how your child will get home on Tuesday and beyond. Anytime that there is a change in transportation, please send in a note.

Welcome to our class blog!

Here you will be able to keep up with what is taking place in the classroom and upcoming events.

Please complete this quick survey

Please click on the following link to access a short survey to help me better serve your child. Thank you so much for your help!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSceC0XQWsfl-WP00XUpKGwwj_zmjL8LxvI4FlDCIOEOO2_nRA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Looking back on scenes from our spring 2019 Veggie Derby

The students used great creativity and effort as they applied our study of simple machines, particularly inclined planes, wheels and axles, and (thanks to an occasional assist from Q.T. when classmate's cars didn't want to roll - a lever). All had fun and did a great job!