Newsletter for November 13, 2015

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We continued our study of short and long o sounds and patterns.
Long o patterns are VCe (e.g., home), VVC (oa - e.g., coat), CVV (ow - e.g., glow). Students should recognize that oa words produce a long o sound in the middle of the syllable and ow words produce a long o at the end of the syllable.
Short o patterns are VC and VCC (e.g. sock).
Oddballs follow the VCe pattern, but make a short u sound (none and love).

Reading Workshop
We are continuing to develop our ability to infer, relying on evidence from the story. Students are also working on identifying the lesson of a fable or folk tale, an important third grade genre which we will revisit in writing later in the year.

We wrapped up our read aloud, Wonder. It is hard to follow up such an inspiring read aloud. We will will continue this theme with Out Of My Mind by Sharon Draper.

We also read, Waltz of the Scarecrows, by Constance McGregor in preparation for her visit next week. She will support our "Show - Don't Tell" work and we are excited to have her join us. Mrs. McGregor visited us last year and, in addition to being a talented author, is a Windermere grandparent.

Writing Workshop
Students began to share their opinion pieces through "debates" where each of our three tables shares their essays. They are awarded points for the following:
- Strong topic sentence
- Evidence from the text
- Strong conclusion
- Referencing the text (e.g., "In the story, Pioneer Days, the author...")
- Including the other argument's perspective (e.g., "Even though life was hard, the text shows the Wilder family was happy.")

Math
We continue to study multiplication. Students should be fluent with any basic fact that includes a 0, 1, 2, 5 or 9 and should understand that multiplication is efficient addition of same sized groups. We are relying on the distributive property to help us with other factors (3, 4, 6, 7, and 8).

Example:
7 x 8 = (5 x 8) + (2 x 8)

I will eventually want students to master all of the basic multiplication facts, but find the distributive property is invaluable for their mental math, as well as being an important standard. It will also support their understanding of division.

I introduced multiplication story problems with an emphasis on identifying the groups and how big they are. Students represent the story problem with a picture of the number of groups and the size of each group labeled inside the groups. They then write the multiplication number sentence. Have your student explain this process to you.

Important Dates and Reminders

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

November 19 - Thompson Park Tree Trek 
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

Newsletter for November 6, 2015

I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to meet with you this week and sincerely appreciate your partnership. We are so fortunate to work with such supportive and invested parents.

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We continued our study of short and long o sounds and patterns:
VC/VCC (e.g., clock), VCe (e.g., vote), VVC (e.g., boat), and oddballs (e.g., love which has the VCe feature but makes a short u sound, instead of a long o sound). I have modeled and directed students to sort by letter patterns first (visual strategy) and then to check for oddballs using sound (auditory strategy).

Reading Workshop
Students continued to develop their ability to make inferences based on evidence. We also continued our ability to identify the lesson or moral in a fable. We are concentrating on Aesop's Fables. Students are learning there are more ways than one to say the lesson. They are transitioning from applying common precepts (e.g., Treat others as you would like to be treated.) to precepts that relate to the actual story. We are also developing our understanding that the moral is not literal. For example, the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare is not about turtles and rabbits, but rather the animals represent different dominant character traits of arrogance and perseverance.

Writing Workshop
Students concluded our initial "show - don't tell" with a descriptive writing for "It was a dark and stormy night..." These are in the hallway and have impressed the other 3rd grade classes (and their teachers). I had hoped to have these up in time for conferences, but did not want to rush them. Please stop by and read some when you have the chance.

Students are learning a key 3rd grade focus, responding to text. I am modeling planning and writing opinion pieces that are fully supported by evidence from a short text. I'm very pleased with the students' progress with this important and challenging merging of reading and writing. I am holding students accountable for editing of convention (indenting, capitals and punctuation) and am requiring them to check their work for these essentials.

We continued our Friday "Thank You" cards. I hope your student finds these meaningful to receive and to create. I ask students to wait till they get home to read them.

Math
Students worked on their 9's multiplication and division fact strategies.  Students should find the non-9 factor in any single digit multiplication problem, reduce it by one and put it in the tens place of the product. Then they put the difference between the numeral in the tens place and 9 in the ones place. If this sounds confusing, take a look at the example below and challenge your student to explain it to you.

7 x 9 = ?
One less than 7 is 6. 6 goes in the tens place of the factor.
7 x 9 = 6?
The difference between 9 and 6 is 3. This goes in the ones place.
7 x 9 = 63

Division can be represented in many different ways so it is important to me that I present division problems in several ways to develop familiarity and comfort.

Any problem with a divisor of 9 can be solved using the following strategy.
45 / 9 = ?
The tens place of the dividend (45) is 4. One more than 4 is 5. So the answer (the quotient) is 5.

See if your student can show you these two reliable tricks for 9's. Ask them to show you our magic trick. More importantly, can they explain it.

I have also signed your student up for Front Row Math. This is a free online math program that I learned about during this week's professional development. Your student can access it by going to
https://student.frontrowed.com
They will be prompted to enter their first and last name and our class code. The code is 5vmnke. Students will take a short diagnostic assessment and then they will begin a personalized instructional program. This will offer students at all levels additional learning opportunities. I'm interested to hear your feedback and see if students are engaged in this. Please let me know if you are unable to log in and I'll check on my end. If your student goes by a nickname, I have probably used it.

Lastly, I introduced the commutative property. My favorite question regarding this property was, "Why do we need to know this?" This is always my favorite question and if I can't answer it, I need to figure it out! We learn the commutative property to understand which operations can occur in a particular order and why. We can use the commutative property for addition and multiplication, but not for subtraction or division. We also find that the commutative property can simplify math for us. For example: 2 x 8 (two groups of eight) is easier to think of for many students than 8 x 2 (eight groups of two). 6 + 1 (six and one more) is easier to do than 1 + 6 (one and six more). Here are some real life questions you can use to engage your student in their understanding and appreciation of the commutative property: Which of the operations below are commutative and which are not (and always important, why?)?
- To put on your coat and to pick up your boots.
- To wash your clothes and to dry them.
- To put on your left shoe and to put on your right shoe.
- To hand up the phone and to say goodbye.

Important Dates and Reminders

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

November 9 through 13 - Terra Nova3/InView
Next Week's special area schedule is changed due to our TerraNova and InView assessments. 
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Music
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Music

Friday - PE

November 19 - Thompson Park Tree Trek Please let me know if you can chaperon. 
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

Newsletter for October 23, 2015

What We Learned This Week

Word Study

We reviewed and assessed our a sounds and patterns: VCe and vowel team (ai) and VC. I'll send these home on Monday. I also introduced nouns. Students should be able to distinguish between common and proper nouns.

Reading Workshop

I introduced fables and folktales. Students worked to identify the moral or lesson in the story. We will continue this and eventually construct our own fables.

I also started our study of inference. Students know they have to cite evidence to support their inferences.

Writing Workshop

Students planned and wrote short first person narratives. We will use these for revision next week where I will encourage students to "show, don't tell," by adding details that create a mental picture for the audience.

Students demonstrating the parts of a friendly letter kinesthetic.

We are anxiously awaiting our pen pals responses! 

Math

Students began their multiplication and division fact fluency with the following strategies: zeroes (zero groups of n), ones (one group of n), and doubles (two group of n). I define multiplication as "efficient addition of same sized groups." I will never say 8 x 3 as "eight times three," but will instead call it "eight groups of three." This subtle difference is very helpful in developing understanding of multiplication.

Students should be able to represent a multiplication fact as a number statement, addition, groups, and arrays. They should be able to represent number statements, addition of same sized groups, groups, and arrays as a multiplication statement.

Science

I showed a short video of the famous Apollo 13 space mission and its "Houston, we have a problem" situation to stress the importance of being able to communicate clearly.

Apollo 13 Clip

To practice this, students took turns designing shapes behind blinds and talking their partners through the design process using only words. The results were interesting.

 

These first two were close, but you can see the miscommunication.

This example and the next show great communication.

It is also interesting to observe students' complexity of shapes they choose to build.

Important Dates and Reminders

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

October 26 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
October 29 - UA Trick or Treat Night
October 29 - Progress Reports Sent Home
October 30 - Halloween Party and Parade (Thank you room parents!)

November 2 - Early Dismissal at 11:05 NO LUNCH SERVICE
November 2 through 4 - Fall Conferences 
You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa5ac2ea64-fall3
November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 5 - Picture Retakes
November 9 through 13 - Terra Nova3/InView
November 19 - Thompson Park Tree Trek (Please let me know if you can chaperon.) 
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

Newsletter for October 16, 2015

What We Learned This Week

We concluded the first quarter! Students were challenged to come up with specific goals for each key subject area. I will share these with you during conferences. Students were encouraged to write down achievable and specific goals.

I am very pleased with the class' progress in general. However, the class needs to develop focus, perseverance, and engagement. These are great words for home discussion. The majority of questions missed on this week's end of quarter assessments were the result of not reading questions carefully or rushing, rather than not knowing the content.

Word Study
I conducted the Developmental Spelling Assessment, which I will share with you during our upcoming fall conferences. This detailed assessment identifies specific spelling features such as r-controlled vowels, long vowels (VCe), and doubling.

Reading Workshop
We continued to study character change over time and providing evidence. I assessed students' ability to correctly identify the main idea of a short passage and to differentiate between the main idea and supporting details. I also conducted the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) on all students who were below or close to our first quarter benchmark to look for growth. I am very pleased with students' progress.

Writing Workshop
Students learned the parts of a friendly letter: heading, greeting, opening, closing, and signature. See if your student can demonstrate this for you. Many students are struggling with convention (primarily indenting, capitalizing the first word in a sentence and proper nouns, and ending punctuation). Their content is generally very good. Students published their pen pal letters and we mailed them to London today.

Math Workshop
I reviewed and assessed fact fluency (addition and subtraction) and all of the numeracy and operations and algebraic equations content we have learned thus far this year.

We started multiplication and division fact fluency on Thursday. I am sending home students' addition and subtraction fact fluency assessments today. If your student correctly answered fewer than 23 in the time allowed, they have not mastered their facts and should practice them nightly. I will offer study strategies during fall conferences. Prior to meeting, students should be using the following strategies, which allow them to focus on an "anchor" number that will support their recall:
- zero more
- one more
- two more
- doubles
- near doubles
- sums to ten
- 7s, 8s, and 9s/build tens

Science
We continued to study biotic and abiotic factors as well as plant and animal interdependence. Students should know that plants produce oxygen and food for animals and animals produce carbon dioxide and nutrients for plants.

Important Dates and Reminders

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

October 19 - No School Teacher Grading Day
October 26 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
October 29 - UA Trick or Treat Night
October 30 - Halloween Party and Parade

November 2 - Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
November 2 through 4 - Fall Conferences 
You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa5ac2ea64-fall3
November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 5 - Picture Retakes
November 9 through 13 - Terra Nova3/InView
November 19 - Thompson Park Tree Trek (Please let me know if you can chaperon.) 
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

Newsletter for October 9, 2015

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We reviewed and assessed our two most common patterns of closed syllables (short vowel sound - VC/VCC) and long vowel sound - VCe. The assessment contained a, i, o, and u vowel syllables. I introduced our new long a pattern ai (e.g., paint). I encourage students to write both patterns of they aren't sure and assure them that often one will "look right." For example, if a student uses the word "snail" in their oral vocabulary, but isn't confident in their spelling they can try out both of our long a patterns (paint versus pante). Most students will recognize "paint" as the correct spelling.

Reading Workshop
I employed picture books to study how characters change throughout a story and how to support our observations with evidence.

Writing Workshop
Students began drafts of their multi-paragraph pen pal letters. I focus on the concept of a paragraph consisting of a single topic, a challenging concept for many young writers who tend to jump from one theme to the next. Common paragraph topics include family, hobbies and interests, school, and Halloween. I am very pleased with students' content and productivity. We will work on revision and editing next week with a goal of mailing them to Middlesex next Friday.

Math Workshop
Challenging concepts of numeracy and operations were wrapped up and reviewed this week. Identifying missing addends, rewriting number stories as story problems and identifying the number of ones, tens and hundreds in numbers within one-thousand are key concepts that support students' ability to handle more complex multi-step problems. Students are beginning to work on solving two step problems.

Science
I introduced ecosystems, biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors, the energy pyramid and how interdependent biotic and abiotic factors are in an ecosystem.

Important Dates and Reminders

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

There were a lot of great scarecrows, but I have to admit I'm a little partial to this one:) I hope to see you tonight!

October 9 - Fall Family Night 
October 16 - End of First Quarter
October 19 - No School Teacher Grading Day
October 25 - Scarecrow Display Contest
October 26 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
October 29 - UA Trick or Treat Night
October 30 - Halloween Party and Parade

November 2 - Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE

November 2 through 4 - Fall Conferences 
You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa5ac2ea64-fall3

November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 5 - Picture Retakes
November 9 through 13 - Terra Nova3/InView
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

Newsletter for September 25, 2015

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
This week's word study assessment is coming home today. I introduced our new sort, long and short u sounds that follow our previous patterns of VCe and VC respectively. Students sort, alphabetize, and copy their words daily. We also generate words we think will follow our two patterns. This is a great exercise as it exposes misunderstandings and gives us lots of "oddballs," words that follow a sound, but not a pattern or vice-versa.

Reading Workshop
Reading conferences have focused on helping students learn how to select appropriate independent level texts. Many students are still choosing books that are too hard (e.g., the miss too many words, or decode so slowly that it interferes with comprehension; they decode too slowly to read with expression; the can decode words, but don't understand them; they can read most words, but cannot comprehend what they're reading). This is a significant hurdle as reading too challenging a text, does little to develop the key reading skills of fluency, comprehension, acquisition of vocabulary, and expression.

Students are still developing the skill of identifying the main idea. They are learning they must have a who (the subject or noun: a person, place, idea, etc.) and a what (the predicate, verb or action).

I reviewed reading homework and answering questions with complete sentences. Students are also learning the answer to a "why" question should always include what happened followed by a "because." We will study cause and effect more explicitly later in the year.

We are also comparing and contrasting using Venn diagrams.

We continue to read Wonder. It is great for discussions on developing empathy and the writer's craft as the perspective changes throughout the chapters.

Writing Workshop
We continued with quick writes this week, drawing inspiration from opinion pieces and personal narratives. I tried to introduce figurative language, but backed off as it became the focus and negatively impacted student production.

Math Workshop
We worked really hard and strategically in math this week. I assessed students today on a whole host of numeracy (numbers and operation in base ten) concepts. This will come home on Monday.

Science
We watched a Bill Nye movie on forests to broaden students' understanding of trees and life science. Students also took notes while watching the film. This is an important skill. I scaffold it by giving them most of the content and ask them to fill in key words.

Important Dates and Reminders

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

September 29 - Thompson Park Tree Trek Field Trip
Please let me know if you are able to volunteer! 
Chaperons should arrive in Mr. Hudson's room at 9am. Thank you in advance!

October 9 - Fall Family Night
October 16 - End of First Quarter
October 19 - No School Teacher Grading Day
October 25 - Scarecrow Display Contest
October 26 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
October 29 - UA Trick or Treat Night
October 30 - Halloween Party and Parade

November 2 - Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE

November 2 through 4 - Fall Conferences 
You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa5ac2ea64-fall3

November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 5 - Picture Retakes
November 9 through 13 - Terra Nova3/InView
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

Newsletter for September 18, 2015

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We continued our focus on vowels by studying short and long i sounds and their corresponding patterns of VC/VCC and VCe. I assessed students on Thursday and introduced a new sort on short and long o sounds and patterns. Repeating these patterns for each common vowel reinforces student learning and application.

Reading Workshop
We continued our study of main idea and writing answers in complete sentences. I also introduced using Venn diagrams to compare and contrast, which research supports as a leading comprehension strategy. We also read Zen Tales by Jon Muth, a story which contains three well known Zen stories, to develop our understanding of the author's message.

Writing Workshop
Our focus this week was on quick writes. While students have learned the writing process of planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing, the single greatest need for most students at the beginning of the year is to get them to produce. I presented students with choices ranging from the silly, Would you rather be able to fly or breathe under water?, to the more authentic, Which two specials would you keep if you had to eliminate one? I was VERY pleased with student progress. We will continue this and then begin to develop our paragraphs as we look forward to crafting pen pal letters next month.

Math
We are continuing to develop mastery of rounding to the nearest ten and hundred using empty number lines and by looking at the ones and tens place respectively. Students are developing their understanding of multiples of tens by writing expanded form in terms of place. Typically, expanded form would appear as: 735 = 700 + 30 + 5. We are writing it as (7 x 100) + (3 x 10) + (5 x 1). You may also hear your student use the language of "three groups of ten" rather than "three times ten," which I feel is helpful in developing their understanding of multiplication. Fact fluency strategies we should have mastered include 0 more, 1 more, 2 more, doubles, and near doubles.

Science
We started our science, social studies and technology rotation this week and I kicked off our life science study on plants as we prepare for our upcoming field trip. Students explored our campus and began using decision trees to identify trees as coniferous (needles or scales) or deciduous (simple or compound). We also looked at and described bark. Finally students were encouraged to observe the trees (e.g., seeds and fruits, sap, nests, soil under the tree, etc.). Your student should have brought their decision tree packet home to look at trees in your yard and neighborhood.

Constitution Day
We celebrated Constitution Day this week. Students learned about the process of writing this fundamental document.

Elise brought in her copy of the Constitution!

Guidance

Ms. O'Keefe visited us this week to talk about her job and how she can support students. She also led us in the Windermere Way pledge, "As  a Windermere Hawk, I promise to practice the Windermere Way. I am respectful, responsible, and ready to learn."

Bella celebrated Rosh Hashanah with us by bringing a book as well as the traditional apples and honey as we hope for a sweet new year:)

I am still in need of volunteers for our upcoming field trip. Please let me know if you are able to volunteer.

Important Dates and Reminders

I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

September 23 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
September 24 - Picture Day
September 29 - Thompson Park Tree Trek Field Trip

October 9 - Fall Family Night
October 16 - End of First Quarter
October 19 - No School Teacher Grading Day
October 25 - Scarecrow Display Contest
October 26 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
October 29 - UA Trick or Treat Night

November 2 - Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE

November 2 through 4 - Fall Conferences 
You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa5ac2ea64-fall3

November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 5 - Picture Retakes
November 9 through 13 - Terra Nova3/InView
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students