August/September 2015Mrs. Weis’ ClassRoom 205 Welcome to 3 rd Grade Dates To Remember August/September: 31st First Day of School 4th and 7th School closed for Labor Day weekend 10th Open House 6:30 p.m. 14 th and 23 rd School Closed for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur Homework Homework will begin gradually and is due on Friday, but then will slowly transition to daily homework. Typically, third graders spend about 30 minutes a night on homework. If you cannot complete an assignment, a note must be sent to school by a parent or guardian. Homework will be recorded in your child’s agenda at the beginning of each week, along with reminders, upcoming projects and tests. Welcome To Third Grade Welcome back! It is so fantastic to see eager students ready to learn. This year will bring many new experiences and opportunities to grow and learn together. I’m very excited to be teaching your child this year. I look forward to telling you all about our year at our open House on the 10 h at 6:30 p.m. We are going to have a great year! Other Communication 1. Your child is expected to bring his/her communication folder home every night and bring it back to school every day. There are two sides. One is for things that stay at home. Please remove these items. The other side is for things that should come back to school. I plan to send the folder home each night, even if it is empty. Please, try to check it each night. The “Return to School” side is a great place to stick notes for me to see. 2. Agenda books are used to teach record keeping skills. Students will record their weekly homework, projects, and reminders on Monday. Please allow time to look through your child’s agenda daily. Please sign the agenda when your child has completed their homework 3. Please make sure that you review any change of dismissal plans with your child before school. You can also send a note, me or contact the main office. Building Community The first six weeks of school are all about establishing routines and expectations while also introducing academic content. We have taken time each day to work on building a sense of community in our classroom. We will discuss our Hopes and Dreams, create yearly goals and create our class rules. Take a Break As part of the Responsive Classroom approach to classroom management, teachers at Mt. Pleasant employ a technique we call ‘Take a Break.’ When teachers ask students to ‘Take a Break’, students are not in trouble. The action is meant to be non- punitive. It’s true purpose is to redirect a student who is making a mistake, about to make a mistake, or who is heading down the wrong path. We are guiding students to stop and think about what is going on and helping students make better choices or calm down while taking a break. Often, students are sent to the “Think Chair” simply to gather themselves. The goal is to get a student ready to learn and to keep instruction as seamless as possible. Eventually, we would like to get students to notice when they, themselves, need to take a break. Please be patient with teachers and your child as we put this strategy in place in our classrooms. Do not be alarmed if your child tells you they had to ‘take a break’ or even several breaks these first weeks of school. In fact, all students will practice using the “Think Chair”. It’s a natural part of the back-to- school learning curve. It might feel odd at first, but will eventually be a normal part of our classroom. We have used it for many years with much success. Since this is so common in our room, I will not be notifying parents of every break taken, but will contact parents if a trend develops or if taking a break is not working. Specials Every day your child will go to a “special”. Our specials are from 9:00-9:45, except on Thursday. Monday: Physical Education (Mr. Farina) Tuesday: Art (Ms. Vinton) Wednesday: Music (Mrs. Polman) Thursday: Library (2:20-3:05 Mrs. Szostek) Friday: Art (Ms. Vinton) *Please remember to wear sneakers on our PE days. *Lunch/Recess: 12:25-1:30 daily. Parent Teacher Communication If you need to discuss something about your child or anything related to school, please contact me directly. I will be more than happy to speak with you regarding any matter and would like the opportunity to solve any problem that may arise. There is nothing that we can’t problem solve together. To contact me, you may call me at ext or me at I make every effort to respond as soon as possible.