Short Week! October 23-25

Hello Families,

I'm enjoying more and more each day that I get to spend with your children! They really are a great bunch of students. This coming week is short--only three days! Even though it's a short week, my blog doesn't seem to be any shorter...

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 4. Tuesday - Day 5, Wednesday - Day 6.
• Join your child's Seesaw account if you haven't already! You will get to see things that they have been working on in the classroom.
• There have been some issues with students being able to get onto Seesaw at home. If that is true for you, let me know and I'll do my best to figure it out!
• Next week is Red Ribbon Week, a time dedicated to celebrating a healthy and drug-free lifestyle. We will participate in dress up days to raise awareness:
• Monday-"Teaming up against drugs is NO SWEAT!" (Active wear)
• Tuesday-"My future is bright drug-free" (Bright/Neon clothing)
• Wednesday-"Be united against drugs" (Wear red)
• I will be absent for a few days these upcoming weeks for training. Please remind your child to be the respectful, responsible students that they are for the substitute teacher on those days!
• Before I had mentioned that the Unit 1 Math Test will be next week. I decided that we will instead have it November 2nd and 3rd. There are a few more things that I would like students to practice more so they can be successful on the test. Spending more time on the first unit and developing that strong foundation of knowledge with multiplication and division will be helpful for Unit 2 and the rest of the year! Let me know if you have any questions. 
• The first date for Kindred Hearts visit is Nov. 11 from 9-10 am.  Families will meet at Kindred Hearts and read stories and their writing/books to residents.  Families will need to bring books/writing with them.  

Click here to sign up to attend the first visit. Please contact Kristin McEneany kristin.mceneany@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thank you! 

•  Typing Club - Some students were wondering if they could practice typing at home. Of course! They can go to feldkamp.typingclub.com and enter in their username and password. Their username does NOT include the @kaukaunasd.org. Remind them that they can only move on to the next level if they get 5 stars!

Upcoming Events

October 23: Wear Sweats and/or Team Apparel
October 24: Wear Neon/Bright Colors
October 25: Red Day! Be United Against Drugs
October 26 AND 27: NO SCHOOL
October 30: PJ Wear Day
October 30: Miss Feldkamp will be gone
October 31: Wear Orange and Black
November 1: Miss Feldkamp will be gone
November 2: Unit 1 Math Test
November 3: Unit 1 Math Test
November 7 Miss Feldkamp will be gone
November 8: Miss Feldkamp will be gone

Curriculum Update

Math: Students should be proud of all they have learned in Unit 1 with multiplication and division! We have been working on solving story problems and determining the type of problem that it represents. It is tricky to determine if a story problem represents multiplication or division because we can use multiplication equations to check our answers! Most students do not have this mastered yet; don't fret too much, though, because we will be working on this for a couple months yet! We went over some of the review on Friday and will finish up on Monday. We will also be working on writing the correct equation to go with story problems and diving deeper into the distributive property with multiplication. 
**Students should work on the Review at home and bring it back Monday. The review is VERY similar to the test. If your child is struggling on the problems not yet solved, make a note of it so I know. Encourage your child to instead explain a problem to you that we have already went over on the review or try another one like it. 

Writing: This week was exciting for Writing! Students had two days to free write--anything they wanted--while each student and I assessed their Opinion On Demand together. We then moved into Opinion Writing, delivering a persuasive speech to Mrs. Frischmann about how construction workers should not be working on our school during the school day. We discussed how problems are not a cause for whining, but rather a cause for writing :) Next week, we will think of ideas for opinion writing and draft many pieces. 

Word Study: We learned about "glued" sounds (ham, pan, pink, song) and r-controlled vowels (car, horn) this week. Since the Word Study packet was sent home at the end of this week, return the "Week 2" packet on Wednesday! If you are ever working on something in the packet at home and your child does not understand yet, that is ok. We probably did not get to that topic in school yet, so you can just wait a few days and try again when they are ready. Also, I'm open to feedback on how the Word Study packets have been going at home. We talked a lot as a school about what homework in Word Study would look like, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Reading: This past week has been SO exciting! Students have become real live detectives! On Tuesday we started off with solving a mystery and students even had to find clues to find the mystery flavored oreos. We learned that in mysteries we need to pay attention to ANY clue and we learned that ANYBODY is a suspect...at first! The next week and a half we will learn new strategies when reading mysteries. We will also be reading VERY closely so we can try to solve the mystery before the detective in the book. We will even start digging a little deeper in mysteries and think of patterns and characteristics of mysteries. The goal is that students are reading A LOT! Many students already finished a book or two within 3 days! This work should keep on going. You'll notice that your child is reading the SAME book as their partner. Their partners and them have set goals on what to read each night for homework. This has helped their book stamina increase! :)

Content: We have been researching to become quite the expert dam engineers! We built our dams on Friday and will add finishing touches next week. We'll then see if our dams will in fact save the people's homes or if they will be flooded from the water! As our land and water unit comes to a close, we will also reflect on all that we have learned in science so far.



Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

Week of October 16-20

What an exciting week we had!

The fire department taught us about exit drills in the home, we took a field trip to the Trout Museum of Art, and we had our first yoga session! We also have been working especially hard this week to have "three star" partnerships...meaning being the best partners we can be. I must say, students have been rockstars in their partnerships both in writing and math. (I had to take pictures for proof!) We also met our 1st grade buddies and toasted our Kapri Sun's to celebrate our published narrative stories :)

Partnership Work!

 

Trout Museum Field Trip!

Students also requested that I post a picture of the mind map we made to showcase all we learned about narrative writing. It may be my writing, but it was all of your students' ideas!!

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 5. Tuesday - Day 6, Wednesday - Day 1, Thursday - Day 2, Friday - Day 3. 
• Join your child's Seesaw account if you haven't already! You will get to see things that they have been working on in the classroom. They already made a post this week, so don't forget to check it out :)
• We are happy to have yoga with Mrs. McEneany again this year! Please have your child bring a beach towel that can be used as a yoga mat and stay in their locker all year. 
• Our first service project this school year is Postcards for Seniors. Starting in early October students will have the opportunity to decorate postcards that will be delivered monthly to Meals on Wheels participants in Kaukauna.  We are in need of some supplies for this project.  If you have any of the items listed below at home and would like to donate please send them to school and drop off in the Postcards box in the office.
• new boxes of markers
• light colored card stock
• fun stickers
• Questions can be directed to Kristin McEneany at kristin.mceneany@gmail.com
• Typing Club - Some students were wondering if they could practice typing at home. Of course! They can go to feldkamp.typingclub.com and enter in their username and password. Their username does NOT include the @kaukaunasd.org. Remind them that they can only move on to the next level if they get 5 stars!

Upcoming Events

October 16: Badger Sports Wear
October 17: Family Night: Grandfriends, Games, and Goodies
October 20: NDLC Wear
October 23: Wear Sweats and/or Team Apparel
October 24: Unit 1 Math Test
October 24: Wear Neon/Bright Colors
October 25: Unit 1 Math Test
October 25: Red Day! Be United Against Drugs
October 26 AND 27: NO SCHOOL
October 30: PJ Wear Day
October 31: Wear Orange and Black

Curriculum Update

Math: We continued to work with multiplication this week--including multiplication with 1 and 0! Next week, we will finish up Unit 1. We'll solve and create word problems and practice multiplication and division. Since the format of the test is different from any other math test students have taken in the past, we will take two days to go over questions similar to those on the test. I'm hoping this will create less anxiety over the test as students will already know how the test will go. After these two review days, students will take the test! I have the test scheduled for Tuesday, October 24 and Wednesday, October 25 if students need more than one day. 

Writing: We published our writing and finished up our Narrative unit this week! Next, we will start on Opinion writing. Students will get a chance to see where they are at for opinion writing right now, and work to set a goal to be accomplished at the end of this unit. 

Word Study: We learned about bonus letters f, l, s, and sometimes z! Students have been working to spell bonus letter words correctly both with their magnetic boards and on their dry erase boards. Next week, we will continue this work and add on r-controlled vowels and vowel teams. Students will get another Word Study pack on Monday to work on at home throughout the week!

Reading: This past week students practiced summarizing and making sure they always have a reading plan! Ask your child what they are working on-- they SHOULD be able to tell you! :) Friday we watched the movie Stone Fox! We noticed there were similarities to the book but also many differences. This coming week we will be beginning our NEW Reading unit! We will be starting reading Mysteries (but shhh, don't tell your child! -- it's a surprise).. This unit does an amazing job at teaching students some foundation skills like predicting and paying attention to small details in the text!
**Scholastic orders should be returned by October 20th! :) 
**Join your child's seesaw account to see the amazing work they are doing! They recently posted book recommendations!

Content: We are still working with our stream models, discovering what happens when many streams join together or when a stream comes rushing through the soil. Next week, we'll learn about dams and even work to build and test our own dam!!



Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns!

Best,
Jenny

Week of October 9-13

Hello Families,

It's hard to believe that we have already had a solid month of school! I have been enjoying the October/fall weather that we've had this week! We had an assembly this week where Mr. D (self described as "the guy who decides when we get to have snow days") talked to us about what it is to be Kaukauna Strong. It was also nice to see some families at Walk to School Day on Wednesday morning. Another exciting thing happened this week: our chrome book cords finally came in so we were able to log in to our OWN chrome books!!

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 2. Tuesday - Day 3, Wednesday - Day 4, Thursday - Day 5, Friday - Day 6.
• Since lunch is so early this year, I told students that they could have an afternoon snack around 2:30. Feel free to pack an extra afternoon snack if you'd like.
• Our class snack supply is starting to run low. If you are willing and able to bring a class box of snacks, that would be helpful for those times when someone forgets :) 
• We will not be having NDLC's Ride to Read this Sunday. It will be postponed to a date and time that will be more convenient to families. You'll be updated when that date is established!
• We are happy to have yoga with Mrs. McEneany again this year! Please have your child bring a beach towel that can be used as a yoga mat and stay in their locker all year. 
• As it is starting to get chilly in mornings, please make sure your child has a sweatshirt to stay warm. 
• Our first service project this school year is Postcards for Seniors. Starting in early October students will have the opportunity to decorate postcards that will be delivered monthly to Meals on Wheels participants in Kaukauna.  We are in need of some supplies for this project.  If you have any of the items listed below at home and would like to donate please send them to school and drop off in the Postcards box in the office.
• new boxes of markers
• light colored card stock
• fun stickers
• Questions can be directed to Kristin McEneany at kristin.mceneany@gmail.com
• Typing Club - Some students were wondering if they could practice typing at home. Of course! They can go to feldkamp.typingclub.com and enter in their username and password. Their username does NOT include the @kaukaunasd.org. Remind them that they can only move on to the next level if they get 5 stars!
• In a Science lesson coming up, we will find ways to stop a stream by adding hills and barriers. To do this, we need 20 rocks about 2-3 inches in size. If you have rocks about this size available, please send in one or two with your child!

Upcoming Events

October 10: Kaukauna fire department visits our classroom
October 12: Trout Museum of Art field trip in the afternoon
October 13: NDLC Wear
October 13: Third Grade Yoga at 2:30
October 16: Badger Sports Wear
October 17: Family Night: Grandfriends, Games, and Goodies
October 20: NDLC Wear
October 23: Wear Sweats and/or Team Apparel
October 24: Wear Neon/Bright Colors
October 25: Red Day! Be United Against Drugs
October 26 and 27: NO SCHOOL
October 31: Wear Orange and Black

Curriculum Update

Math: Wow we are learning lots as mathematicians! Students continued to learn more about multiplication and division this week with 3's and 4's. We also worked to relate area of rectangles to multiplication. Another thing we started this week is XtraMath. This website helps students become more fluent with math facts. What I like about this website is that it focuses on a few facts at a time that your child hasn't mastered yet. Once they have those facts mastered, it moves on to other challenging facts. If your child would like to log on to XtraMath at home, feel free! (enter MY email--feldkampj@kaukaunasd.org, their first name, and their four-digit PIN number. If your child does not know their PIN number, email me and I'll get it to you!) This next week, we are going to work to become more fluent with groups of 2, 5, 10, 9, 3, 4, 0, and 1. Know that you are welcome to play any of the math games with your child at any time! If you misplaced a game board, or would just like an extra, let me know and I can get you another!! :)

Writing: Students have been improving their stories each day through revision and editing! We worked especially hard to write meaningful endings and punctuate our dialogue correctly. To make the most out of our writing time, we also tried designated writing spots for each writer in the room this week. This has helped students to get to their writing right away! Next week, we will publish our stories and celebrate our achievements! Our next unit will be informational writing :)

Word Study: We finished our first unit of Fundations this week! We learned that closed syllables have one vowel and are closed in by a letter or letters. We will start Unit 2 next week; look for the letter that will come home Monday for more information!

Reading: This past week we thought about different strategies on solving tricky words! We also talked about figurative language and how students need to figure-it-out! :) This coming week we are finishing up our first unit! We will talk about an important skill, summarizing a bit more! Then on Friday we will have our CELEBRATION of our hard work! This will entail watching the movie, Stone Fox. We finished reading this book as a read aloud and students LOVED it. We will watch the movie and compare the book and movie! Then our next unit will be a...."mystery..." :)
 Scholastic orders should be returned by October 20th! :) 

Content: This week our scientists learned about erosion, glaciers, and bodies of water. Next week, we will discover what happens to our land models when a rushing stream goes through. We also have a few exciting things planned during this time, including Typing Club on chromebooks, our field trip, a visit from the fire department, and yoga! Next week, we will be building dams in our land models. If you are able, please send in some rocks no larger than a size of a fist to help us create these dams!



As we make our way into our second month of school, please know that you are always welcome to contact me with any questions or concerns. If something about school is not feeling good for your child, let me know! I want to make this the best possible school year and learning environment for each and every student. 

Best,
Jenny

Week of October 2 - 6

Hello Families,

It was a fun week of dress up days and Homecoming Parade combined with the hard work of MAP testing. I was very proud of our third graders as they took their time on both the Reading and Math MAP tests and tried their best on challenging questions! 

Check out the pictures below! Students dressed up for Superhero Day and Kaukauna Spirit Colors. The class was also so respectful and quiet as their classmates finished up MAP testing, I had to capture the moment!

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 1. Tuesday - Day 2, Wednesday - Day 3, Thursday - Day 4, Friday - Day 5. 
• Our first service project this school year is Postcards for Seniors. Starting in early October students will have the opportunity to decorate postcards that will be delivered monthly to Meals on Wheels participants in Kaukauna.  We are in need of some supplies for this project.  If you have any of the items listed below at home and would like to donate please send them to school and drop off in the Postcards box in the office.
• new boxes of markers
• light colored card stock
• fun stickers
• Questions can be directed to Kristin McEneany at kristin.mceneany@gmail.com
• If you haven't yet, please send the field trip form for Artistic Adventures back ASAP. The field trip is coming up soon!
• We are happy to have yoga with Mrs. McEneany again this year! Please have your child bring a beach towel that can be used as a yoga mat and stay in their locker all year. 
• Typing Club - Some students were wondering if they could practice typing at home. Of course! They can go to feldkamp.typingclub.com and enter in their username and password (this is on a purple piece of paper that was sent home today. Their username does NOT include the @kaukaunasd.org) Remind them that they can only move on to the next level if they get 5 stars!
• In a Science lesson coming up, we will find ways to stop a stream by adding hills and barriers. To do this, we need 20 rocks about 2-3 inches in size. If you have rocks about this size available, please send in one or two with your child!
• NDLC's Ride to Read
• We invite you and your families to join us for our first Ride to Read, family biking event, on Sunday, October 8 from 10-1. 
• There will be activities for all ages and riding abilities at the event.  
• Please visit the link for more information and to register!  

Upcoming Events

October 3: Assembly
October 6: NDLC Wear

October 8: Ride to Read
October 10: Kaukauna fire department visits our classroom
October 12: Trout Museum of Art field trip in the afternoon
October 13: Third Grade Yoga at 2:30
October 16: Badger Sports Wear
October 17: Family Night: Grandfriends, Games, and Goodies
October 20: NDLC Wear
October 23: Wear Sweats and/or Team Apparel
October 24: Wear Neon/Bright Colors
October 25: Red Day! Be United Against Drugs
October 26 and 27: NO SCHOOL

Curriculum Update

Math: We have been working on determining the difference in multiplication equations. For example, 3 x 5 is read as 3 groups of five (I have three friends and give them each five cookies); whereas 5 x 3 is read as 5 groups of three (I have five friends and give them each three cookies.) This next week, we will continue with multiplication and division with 3 and learn about area. You can help your math students by playing a math game with the facts that they need the most help with. If you need an extra copy of any game boards, let me know! You can also help your child by asking how they solved a problem. If they say 5 x 6 is 30, ask "how do you know?" (Let them work to convince you!)

Writing: Students have been writing with more and more independence. We realized that we can go through the same process each time we write a new piece! (Find story ideas, write entries, pick an idea and rehearse it, draft with paragraphs, revise, and edit.) This week we will work on revision by adding a balance of dialogue, actions, and inner thinking and editing with punctuation. We will also choose our best piece this week and work to fix and fancy it up until it is ready to publish!

Word Study: Students learned about blends, digraph blends, and three-letter blends, and are becoming experts at finding these in words! We are starting to use more of our Word Study materials, including magnetic alphabet tiles to build words. We will work on spelling and writing sight words and learn about syllables this week. 

Reading: This past week we learned different ways to understand a story. We can remember to retell before getting back into our books. We also practiced more predicting and envisioning as we read! We also finished our beloved read aloud, Stone Fox! ASK your child about it! It is an amazing book! This coming week we will look at strategies for figuring out tricky words in our book. We want to know how to decode them, BUT we also want to figure out what they mean. Ask your child throughout the week what strategies we are learning! :)

*Because of all the scholastic orders, we got about 30 FREE books for our classroom! Each student ALSO got to take a book home to keep! New orders will be sent home this week! They should be returned by October 20th! :) 

Content: We continued our experiments with our land models this week. We made a stream, examined dry and wet components in soil, and discovered where water goes after it rains. This week, we will learn more with our "stream tables" by identifying the different parts of a stream. We also will learn how slow and fast streams can affect land differently.
**In a lesson coming up, we will find ways to stop a stream by adding hills and barriers. To do this, we need 20 rocks about 2-3 inches in size. If you have rocks about this size available, please send in one or two with your child!


Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns!

Best,
Jenny

Week of September 25 - 29

Hello Families! 

Students are getting back into the swing of things as the third week of school comes to a close. We were busy with drills for Safety Week the past couple of days. A lot of students had questions about the evacuation drill, so feel free to talk to your child and answer any lingering questions they may have. Luckily, the evacuation drill was AFTER we took our pictures of Picture Day! Students were sure looking spiffy and showed their brightest smiles for the pictures. 

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 2. Tuesday - Day 3, Wednesday - Day 4, Thursday - Day 5, Friday - Day 6. 
• We will have MAP testing this next week. On Tuesday morning, students will complete the Reading MAP test and on Wednesday we will have our Math MAP test in the afternoon. 
• Our first service project this school year is Postcards for Seniors. Starting in early October students will have the opportunity to decorate postcards that will be delivered monthly to Meals on Wheels participants in Kaukauna.  We are in need of some supplies for this project.  If you have any of the items listed below at home and would like to donate please send them to school and drop off in the Postcards box in the office.
• new boxes of markers
• light colored card stock
• fun stickers
• Questions can be directed to Kristin McEneany at kristin.mceneany@gmail.com
• If you did not send in the form on Picture Day but would like to order pictures,  you still can! You can mail a check or pay online to Network to order your student's pictures. 
• We are excited to have the opportunity to have yoga with Mrs. McEneany again this year! We are planning to have yoga at the end of the day, from 2:30 to 3:00, on the second Friday of each month. Please send a towel with your child that can be used as a yoga mat throughout the year. 
• Please send the field trip form for Artistic Adventures back as soon as possible; if you need another copy, just let me know :)

Upcoming Events

September 25: Dress Up - Neon or Tie Dye
September 26 AND 27: MAP testing for 3rd grade

September 26: Dress Up - Superhero
September 27: Dress Up - NDLC Wear
September 27: Kaukauna Homecoming Parade
September 28: Dress Up - Sports Teams Wear
September 29: Dress Up - Kaukauna Spirit Colors

October 8: Ride to Read
October 10: Kaukauna fire department visits our classroom
October 12: Trout Museum field trip in the afternoon

Curriculum Update

Math: This past week we have been working to become more fluent with multiplication and division with 5 and 2. We also discussed good practices for solving problems (1. Interpret the problem. 2. Represent the situation. 3. Solve the problem. 4. Check that the answer makes sense.) Next week we will continue this work on multiplication and division with 10 and 9. Another math game will come home for homework -- feel free to keep these at home and play as much as you'd like! :)

Writing: Students have been writing fast and furious on their draft booklets! We have been working to add dialogue, feelings, actions, and the five senses to our stories so the reader feels like they were right there with us. We will start to work on revision to add more to our stories and to build suspense right before a story's problem. 

Word Study: Students are learning all about digraphs and enjoying leading the class with Baby Echo! As we continue with Word Study into next week, students will be building words with their magnetic letters and letterboards and practicing writing on their special Fundations whiteboards.

Reading: This past week we learned why it is so important to understand a story! We know that we can give ourselves a comprehension check after a chapter! This helps us realize if we are on the right track! After your child is done with a chapter you can ask them:

1. Who are the characters in this part?

2. What just happened in this part?

3. Does the part you just read fit with something earlier or is it new?

This next week we will talk about strong predictions and students will also get a reading log. We won't always have a reading log but this week I want students to track their reading habits so we can set goals from them!

Content: We started our experiments with land and water! Students made a model of land and saw the affects of "rain" on the soil. Students will see how land and water interact with and affect one another. Next, we will create a stream in our land model and examine soil types and groundwater.



I hope you enjoy this long weekend and get the most of this "summer" weather!

Jenny

Week of September 18-22

Hello Families,

Hopefully you all have a beautiful weekend!

We made it through our first full week of school together! As a class, we created our very own rules:

1. Be safe
2. Treat others the way you want to be treated
3. Be responsible
4. Mistakes help us improve

We then worked in groups to design a poster for each rule to be hung in our classroom. Below are some pictures of the poster-making process!

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 4. Tuesday - Day 5, Wednesday - Day 6, Thursday - Day 1, Friday - NO SCHOOL. We have will have Art Monday. If you student does not have an art shirt yet, please send one! Mrs. Siegel mentioned that they will need them in these next weeks. 

• If you haven't yet, sign up for the Remind app. No downloading is necessary, just text "@feldkam" to 81010 to receive text messages about last minute reminders.
• Our first service project this school year is Postcards for Seniors. Starting in early October students will have the opportunity to decorate postcards that will be delivered monthly to Meals on Wheels participants in Kaukauna.  We are in need of some supplies for this project.  If you have any of the items listed below at home and would like to donate please send them to school and drop off in the Postcards box in the office.
• new boxes of markers
• light colored card stock
• fun stickers
• Questions can be directed to Kristin McEneany at kristin.mceneany@gmail.com
• We are excited to have the opportunity to have yoga with Mrs. McEneany again this year! We are planning to have yoga at the end of the day, from 2:30 to 3:00, on the second Friday of each month. Please send a towel with your child that can be used as a yoga mat throughout the year. 
• Field trip forms went home this week! Please send them back as soon as possible; if you need another copy, just let me know :)
•  This week is Safety Week, so we will be practicing fire drills, tornado drills, and an evacuation. 
• We are beginning our Land and Water Science unit next week. As Miss Kabara and I were opening the kits, we realized that we need some 2-liter empty (cleaned) bottles to use. If anybody is finishing up some bottles over the weekend or early next week, could you please donate them to our third grade class?
• Your child will have a substitute on Tuesday, September 19th. I will be here to get the class settled in the morning, but will head out for a training for the rest of the day. (But, I will be back that night for Family Night!)

Upcoming Events

September 19: Family Night- Hot Dogs and How to Help

September 20: Picture Day

September 22: Fox Cities Fun Run

September 22: No School
September 25: Dress Up - Badger Sports Wear
September 26 AND 27: MAP testing for 3rd grade
September 27: Dress Up - NDLC Wear
September 27: Homecoming Parade
September 28: Dress Up - Packer Wear
September 29: Dress Up - Kaukauna Colors

October 8: Ride to Read
October 10: Kaukauna fire department visits our classroom
October 12: Trout Museum field trip in the afternoon

Curriculum Update

Math: Last week we worked to develop an understanding of multiplication by using different strategies, such as count by's, equal groups, and arrays, to solve problems (see the chart we made!) This next week we will continue to work on multiplication and division with 5, 10, and 2. You can help your child think about these problems by asking "three groups of five is how many?" (3x5=?) or "15 is how many groups of 5?" (15/5=?). This helps children understand what multiplication and division mean! Students are also encouraged to draw pictures or use cubes to explain their thinking as they work through these problems.

Writing: Students have been writing lots of small moment stories in their writer's notebooks. This week, students will choose their best story and develop that in a draft booklet. We will take this story idea through the entire writing process!

Reading: This past week we learned ways to build our reading lives. We talked about how we can give book recommendations, set goals, and talk with our reading partners.This coming week we will start talking about how we need to comprehend what we read. We can do this by giving ourselves a comprehension check. We will also start doing some heavy predicting! :)

Ask your child about our new class read aloud! (Stone Fox) Students are LOVING it!

** Scholastic money forms are due this TUESDAY! :)

Word Study: This week we started our new program, Fundations. Students seem to love it! Next week we will work more with letters and sounds -- students will learn about digraphs (two letters that together make one sound, like "ch").

Content: We are finally starting our Land and Water Unit! Students will discuss what they already know and what they would like to know about land and water. We will look at pictures of national land forms and see how they have been affected from water. Students will also be working in groups to create their own land model and do some experiments with that!



As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Jenny Feldkamp

Week of September 11-15

Wow, I can't believe how quickly the first week of school flew by! I enjoyed getting to know each one of your children so much. I feel so incredibly lucky to get to share this entire school year with them.

I also am proud to announce that each student has officially gotten hired with a classroom job! They each filled out an application, wrote why they should get the job(s), and learned which job they will be fulfilling on Friday. If they haven't already told you what their job is, make sure to ask! :)

Here is a picture from the first week of 3rd grade! Students decided that they wanted to take the picture by the Writing and Reading bulletin boards, in front of everything they have already learned. I couldn't have come up with a better spot myself!

Reminders/Updates:

• Our agendas are here! They came at the end of the day on Friday, but they will be ready for students on Monday.
• Monday is Day 5 of our rotation. Tuesday - Day 6, Wednesday - Day 1, Thursday - Day 2, Friday - Day 3.
• Some students who did not decorate Writer's Notebook decided that they would like to add some pictures when they saw their classmates' decked out notebooks. This is fine by me! Having pictures of special people in their lives or moments from vacations can sometimes help students to think of a story to write about too! If your child would like to decorate his/her notebook, just please return it the next day :)
• Book orders went home with students; feel free to look through them with your child, whether you decide to order or not
• If you haven't yet, sign up for the Remind app. No downloading is necessary, just text "@feldkam" to 81010 to receive text messages about last minute reminders.
• If you haven't yet turned in all beginning of the year forms, please fill them out and turn them as soon as you can
• Postcards for Seniors


• Our first service project this school year is Postcards for Seniors. Starting in early October students will have the opportunity to decorate postcards that will be delivered monthly to Meals on Wheels participants in Kaukauna.  We are in need of some supplies for this project.  If you have any of the items listed below at home and would like to donate please send them to school and drop off in the Postcards box in the office.
• new boxes of markers
• light colored card stock
• fun stickers
• Questions can be directed to Kristin McEneany at kristin.mceneany@gmail.com

Upcoming Events:

September 19: Family Night: Hot Dogs and How to Help

September 20: Picture Day

September 22: Fox Cities Fun Run

September 22: No School

September 27: Homecoming Parade

October 8: Ride to Read

Curriculum Update:

Math: This week we will dive right into multiplication and division. We start with multiplying by 5 using count-by's (5, 10, 15, 20...) and using drawings and arrays (rows and columns) to represent the multiplication problem. We will explore different strategies for finding the answer; students will be encouraged to use more than just one! These are big math ideas that we will continue to build on throughout the rest of the year!

Writing: Last week we began Writer's Workshop and started to think of how we can find ideas for a small moment story. Many students set goals of writing long and strong during Writer's Workshop; third graders are expected to write about one page a day. We will work on making our pieces of writing stronger by telling the story bit by bit and editing as we go.

Reading: This week we will learn new ways on how to build our reading lives and make them the BEST they can be! Students should start this week with reading 20 minutes every night, Monday-Thursday!

Word Study: I'm excited to begin our new word study program, Fundations, this week! Students will learn what materials we will use and start practicing our letters and letter sounds.

Content: This week we will use Content time to share our hopes and dreams, create our own classroom rules, and discuss logical consequences. I'm also hoping we will be able to practice logging onto our Chromebooks by the end of the week (our brand new class set was in the office on Friday!!) We will begin Content next week with our first Science unit, Land and Water.



I look forward to this week! Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.

Miss Jenny Feldkamp