Newsletter

• As a reminder, third grade will be taking a field trip to the Durham Museum and the Pedestrian Bridge on Friday, April 3rd. We will leave Wheeler at 8:45am, and our field trip is scheduled to start at 9:30am at the Durham. We will head to the Pedestrian Bridge for lunch at 11:30am. We plan to leave the Pedestrian Bridge at 1:30pm and return to Wheeler at 2pm. We are excited to take our learning to the Durham!

• We will not having spelling lists and tests next week, March 30-April 3rd due to NSCAS testing and the field trip on Friday. 

• Spring testing dates:

  • • • Reading NSCAS: March 31-April 2

      • Math NSCAS: April 21-23

      • Reading MAP: May 5-7

      • Math MAP: May 12-14

• Spring Break is April 6-10.

• Next week is inclusion week! See the themed days below. 

• Third grade will be taking a field trip to the Durham Museum and the Pedestrian Bridge on Friday, April 3rd. If you are wanting to attend a parent volunteer, please send me an email or fill out the bottom portion of the letter that came home with your student yesterday. We are excited to take our learning to the Durham!

• 3-5 grade students take our state assessment, NSCAS. Third grade students will be taking the Reading NSCAS Tuesday, March 31st - Thursday, April 2nd. Please help me in reminding students to get a good night's sleep, eat breakfast (at home or at school at 8:15), and try their best!

• Spring Break is April 6-10.

• Other Spring testing dates:

  • • • Math NSCAS: April 21-23

      • Reading MAP: May 5-7

      • Math MAP: May 12-14

• Report cards are coming home tomorrow!

• Our Valentine’s Day Party will be on Thursday, February 12th.

  • • • Students can choose to decorate a box/bag to hold their valentines. We will not be decorating Valentine's bags/boxes at school.

      • Students can start bringing their valentine boxes and valentines on Monday, February 9th. If your child would like to bring valentines, please include one for every child in the classroom. Reminder, if you send a treat with the valentines, everything should be nut free. There are 26 students in our class including your child. To make the handing out of valentines a smooth process, students should only write their name next to “From” but will not address the valentines individually.

• Our class will be having a Glow Party on Monday, February 9th during P.E. Wheeler wildcats earned this celebration for donating over 2,000 toiletries last week. Students are encouraged to wear neon colors for the celebration! 

• Happy New Year! We had a great two weeks back from winter break. 

• Report cards are coming home today Friday, January 16th.

• There is no school for students on Monday, January 19th. 

• We have MAP celebrations next week. Students worked so hard on their benchmark assessments!

  • • Monday 12/15: School-wide movie in the afternoon (see information in message from Mr. Wunderlich)

    • Wednesday 12/17: 3rd grade ticket drawing

    • Friday 12/19: PJ day, hot chocolate party and watch The Polar Express

• The end of the 2nd quarter is Friday, December 19th. Report cards will go home after winter break. 

• Unfortunately, there have been patterns of unsafe and disrespectful actions during football at recess which is causing disruptions in the classroom when recess is over. Third grade students are taking a break from playing football at recess this next week. To best support our students during football after winter break, please have a conversation with your child if they typically play football at recess. Thank you!

• Students come back to school on Tuesday, January 6th. Have a great winter break!

• There is no school for students November 26th-28th.

• Students can bring their November reading challenge paper back to school anytime between now and December 1st. We had a typo on our original letter. Thank you for supporting reading at home!

• We will begin benchmark assessments when we come back from Thanksgiving break. Students will take the MAP Reading Assessment December 2nd-4th, and students will take the MAP Math Assessment December 9th-11th. Please help me to remind your child to get a good night's sleep, eat breakfast (at home or at school at 8:15), and to try their best!

• Because of the break this week and MAP testing the following week, we will not have spelling words or spelling tests the week of November 24th and the week of December 1st. We will resume spelling lists and tests on December 8th. 

• The Fall Party is Friday, October 31st! Students can choose to bring a costume to school on Friday to wear during the Fall Party. Please see the most recent Growler for information on the parade and school appropriate costumes. 

• There is no school on Monday, November 3rd.

• With the short week next week, there will be no spelling words or fluency practice. We will resume spelling and fluency when we come back from fall break.

• There is no school for students Thursday, October 9th through Monday, October 13th.

• We are incredibly proud of all our students for their participation in the recent Fun Run Fundraiser. Their teamwork and dedication were truly inspiring!

I am thrilled to celebrate this class of students as they finished in the top 3 classrooms for funds raised! As a reward, these winning students will enjoy a pizza party lunch in their classroom on Tuesday, October 7th!

If your child would prefer home lunch or school lunch, they can still make that choice! I wanted to make you aware for your planning for that experience. 

Thank you again for supporting our students!

Mr. Wunderlich

• Parent Teacher Conferences are Thursday, October 2nd and Tuesday, October 7th. Here are the directions to sign up. Please let me know if you need helping signing up!

• There is no school for students Thursday, October 9th through Monday, October 13th.

• We had a great time on the Fun Run and Bounce House! Our class placed 2nd in the overall donations at Wheeler. We have earned a class party. More information to come!

• The Fun Run is now scheduled for Wednesday, September 24th! Please dress your student in comfortable clothes and shoes. 

• Our class earned an extra ten minutes of recess for having the most families register in one night. Thank you for supporting Wheeler!

• Spelling tests are coming home today. Since it is our first one, the test scores do not count towards the final writing grade. New words will come home on Monday. Thank you to the volunteers we had today!

• Picture Day is September 12th.

• Check out the Growler for information on the Fun Run!

• Our room parent for this school year is Kelsey Nathan. Please see the following information from her:

Our Room Parent for this school year is Kelsey Nathan and can be reached at kelsey.nathan@gmail.com. To be sure you're getting classroom information on things like classroom parties, classroom volunteer opportunities, group gifts, and more, please be sure to enter your info in the PTA directory via the link below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3oZWYk_qsomE3HmzqjhxqiyA4vtGeJC-BiLAHdWm1ee7Fww/viewform

• Spelling words came home yesterday on pink paper. Students take a spelling pretest, which allows us to have differentiated spelling tests for each individual student. Our first test is Friday, September 5th. We will practice spelling words at school, and practicing at home is important!

• If you are able to help with spelling tests, please sign up! You can sign up anytime throughout the school year. 

• There is no school for students on Monday, September 1st and Tuesday, September 2nd.

• Our grade level started walk-to math this week! Because we have students moving from classroom to classroom, a note is going home with all third grade students about safe snacks that are peanut/tree nut free. If you choose to send treats with your child, please help our grade level remain nut free by sending a treat on the list. Thank you for helping keep our classrooms safe!

• We will begin walk-to reading after Labor Day.

• Next week, we will take the Math MAP test. Please help me in reminding your child to do their best!

• We will begin spelling words and tests after Labor Day. We are in need of parent volunteers to support in giving spelling tests to our students. Please see the letter linked HERE for more information!

• Students will bring their planners home every night to show families what they learned that day. Please sign or initial at the bottom of the day to show that you have seen it. Students earn a "happy ticket" for bringing their planner back to school with a parent signature/initials.

• Writing spiral notebooks came home today with directions for decorating them. They are due back by next Thursday, August 21st. 

• As we kick off the school year, the PTA needs a parent or guardian to serve as the room parent for my classroom. This individual's duties involve planning classroom parties with the grade's other room parents (PTA will initiate and lead these meetings, so you aren't on your own!), possibly organizing group gifts for the classroom, and various other little tasks and opportunities that may come up throughout the year. (Parents/guardians with multiple kids at Wheeler: You can sign up for just one classroom per school year.) If you're interested in this role, please sign up here: https://classroom-liaison2025.cheddarup.com

Dear Families,

Welcome to Miss Steensma's Third Grade Class and to the 2025-2026 school year! Third grade is a big year, and I am thrilled to have your child as a part of our class. Our days and weeks will be filled with many wonderful experiences and opportunities for your child to learn and grow.

Open house is on Thursday, August 7th 5:00-6:30pm. Please bring your child's school supplies. School supplies ordered through the school fundraising opportunity are already in the classroom. If you have any questions, please refer to the Third Grade Supply List.

Please take the time to read throug​h this document for important information about third grad​e. If your child has their school iPad at home for the summer, please return it at Open House. 

I look forward to working together to make this a great year!

Sincerely,

Miss Steensma