Final Newsletter of the Year

Dear Families,

This is always a bitter-sweet time of year. I am looking forward to resting my ankle and seeing my family, but I will miss working with your students. I am sending home a folder on Thursday, May 25th, with letters for your student. They are written by their peers, highlighting admiral traits and examples of when your student demonstrated these characteristics. They are very sweet and range from humorous to tear-jerking. Out of the mouths of babes...  I ask the class to set them aside and read one from time to time, on a rainy day, or if they are having a hard day, to remember how wonderful and how loved they are. I hope you might enjoy reading them as well and hearing what you already know, but in other people's words. Your students truly are unique and wonderful. I also give the students a letter and I encourage them to keep in touch. I hope to hear from them this summer. I'm including a copy of my letter below. 

We will have a fun Friday morning. Please note it is an early release and students will be dismissed following our clap out at 1:00. Students will not need backpacks on Friday. Our class parties will take place at 10:00. Thank you in advance to all of the families for planning and donating to this end of year celebration. Please see Mrs. Nolan's detailed parent email from last Friday for important end of year information. 

I hope you have a wonderful, adventure filled summer. It has been a pleasure serving your student and you this year. 

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Dear Friend,

       It seems like it was just last week that I was welcoming you to third grade and we are now saying our summer goodbyes. Your third grade year is finished, but I hope you will carry much of what we learned for many years to come. Of course, I mean the reading, writing, mathematics and science, but more importantly, being kind and being part of a community, something bigger than ourselves as individuals.

       As a fraction of your life, this summer will be the fastest summer you’ve had. (It always comes back to math doesn’t it?) Make the most of it! Read a lot. Then read some more. Choose rainy day books, tree house books, vacation and pool books, and lie on your lawn and read under the sky books. Make a plan to read a specific number of pates each day. Read different genres. Try books on science and other cultures. Soak up as much as you can, especially great vocabulary words. Terrific words will never let you down.     

       When you aren’t reading, I hope you’ll fill your time outside, even on rainy days. Climb trees and crawl through the bushes. Swim in pools and, even better, lakes and streams. Splash in puddles and chase fireflies. Take someone on a hike or even on a walk around the block. Stay up late and watch the full moon. Get up early and watch the sun rise. Camp in the woods or your back yard. Turn off the TV and the computer. (You knew that was coming.) Play music: ukuleles, guitars, banjos, pots and pans. Sing and dance. Play board games. Make up your own games. You will never have this summer again. Make the most of it.

       Write me a note or a postcard and I’ll write you back. Let me know what you are reading and exploring. I’ll share too. I’m already looking forward to staying up late and playing music with my friends. Then I’ll grab another book from my summer stack .

       I’ll never forget this year. You have grown so much, as a student and as a friend. I have learned so much about you (and about myself ad I have tried to be the best teacher I could for you). I will remember the break through moments in your learning as well as the sing-alongs, film canister rockets, poetry and the wonder of watching a young person eager to learn. Keep learning. I will close with a few of my favorite quotes from Wonder, by R.J. Palacio.

“Kinder than is necessary. Because it’s not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed.”

“Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.”

“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”

With great admiration and optimism for your future endeavors,

Mr. Hudson

2240 Pinebrook Rd

Upper Arlington, OH

43220

Newsletter for May 12, 2017

Important Dates & Reminders

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

May 18 - Device collection - Students should bring their device with the protective case on, keyboard, charging "brick," and power chord. CORRECTION - The most recent information I have received indicates you DO need to return your carrying case. If this is wrong, I will simply have your student take their carrying case home. Devices will be inspected and fines may be assessed if there are damages. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions or concerns.

May 22 - Field Day, Please apply sunscreen before your student arrives at school and feel free to send students with water bottles, old athletic shoes that can get wet, and swimsuits under their clothing. This will be a fun, but hot day. Please click on the following link to volunteer for one of our sessions: AM 8:30-11:05 or PM 11:30-2:30.
  

May 26 - Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 - Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     

May 26 - Early Dismissal 1pm  

Newsletter for May 5, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
The current units of study are complex, introducing multiple word features, so I have extended these units and have broken them down into smaller lessons to focus on individual features. 

We are also continuing to work on our cursive. We have learned lower-case i, u, w, t and j as they all build off of the i shape. 

Reading Workshop
I assessed all of our students using the Developmental Reading Assessment. This is a fantastic diagnostic assessment that looks at engagement, fluency, and comprehension. I will include your student's results in their final progress report. I am very pleased with the results. Students have made a lot of meaningful growth. 

The greatest challenge, as we head into summer reading, is exposing students to a wide variety of genres and getting them to explore books beyond their familiarity, while ensuring they are reading just right books, which may seem easy to them, but are ideal for independent reading (without help). Students tend to find a series or genre and stick with it, but just like having a diverse and healthy diet, I try to get students to read different genres. 

Writing Workshop
Students are continuing to write letters to each other. This has been a great authentic writing exercise. With a meaningful audience, I'm seeing students produce more and they are writing some very insightful and heartwarming letters. 

We continue to celebrate what we are grateful for each day in our Gratitude Notebooks. I have seen students develop more awareness of kind acts, both given and received. 

We are continuing with our play writing for reader's theater. The biggest challenges are balancing the speaking roles (including the narrator) and relying on our voices and lines, rather than props and acting. This is a very challenging project, but they are doing a fine job. Students are also learning how to work together and how to divide a project into smaller, achievable goals.

Math Workshop
I am revisiting fractions as they are the most challenging math concept we learn in third grade. We are using fractions to solve story problems (e.g., 2/3 of 24 students have freckles. How many students have freckles?), adding and subtracting fractions with common denominators. The entry point for any fraction problem is the denominator as it tells us how many equal groups our whole is shared into. We will continue with fractions for the remainder of the year. 

I cannot stress the importance of mastering fact fluency enough in preparing for fourth grade. It will really make a world of difference and I strongly recommend mastering them over the summer if your student is not achieving in all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

ScienceStudents continued sharing what they observed and learned from our year-long Tree Trek using Book Creator, an app on their iPads. 

We are also coming to the end of our design challenge with our fifth grade friends. Student groups will be randomly drawn over the next three meetings to try their marble runs. The group that uses all of their materials, keeps them all on the table and has the slowest time will get to do the ice bucket challenge on the teachers - very motivating. 

Important Dates & Reminders

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

Mrs. Hemelgarn led our Lunch Lady Day celebrations at Windermere by serenading Francie. 

May 9th through 11th - students will eat in the classroom due to the 5th grade musical.
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment

May 18 - Device collection - Students should bring their device with the protective case on, keyboard, charging "brick," and power chord. You do not need to return your carrying case. Devices will be inspected and fines may be assessed if there are damages. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions or concerns.

May 22 - Field Day, Please apply sunscreen before your student arrives at school and feel free to send students with water bottles, old athletic shoes that can get wet, and swimsuits under their clothing. This will be a fun, but hot day. Please click on the following link to volunteer for one of our sessions: AM 8:30-11:05 or PM 11:30-2:30.
  

May 26 - Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 - Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 - Early Dismissal 1pm  

Newsletter for April 28, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Science 
Students began using BookCreator, an app on their iPads, to create books about the Tree Trek. While I am often disappointed with apps, I find this one to be very intuitive and a great tool for students to share what they have learned. It is a true multi-media tool, incorporating images and sound and is only limited by the students' creativity.

    

Important Dates & Reminders

I hope you are able to come to Kid Fest (and that the rain holds off!). Have a lovely weekend.

I will not need reading volunteers for the remainder of the year. We are doing several science, reading and writing based projects and will need to use our WIN time for these. I cannot thank our reading volunteers enough for all of your help!

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

May 2 - Primary Elections, Students will eat in the classroom
May 8 - 19 Terra Nova & Inview Gifted Screener
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment
May 19 - Device collection 

May 22 - Field Day, Please apply sunscreen before your student arrives at school and feel free to send students with water bottles, old athletic shoes that can get wet, and swimsuits under their clothing. This will be a fun, but hot day.  

Happy Spring and welcome to the 2017 Windermere Field Day.  This year promises to be the best field day ever!  In order for this to happen, we need your help.  Sign up to be a field day volunteer.  We are in need of parent volunteers for the morning and afternoon session.  Full day volunteering is also available and encouraged if possible.  Sign up below so we can put on an awesome day for our kids!!  Please contact me with any questions.

AM Session:  8:30 - 11:05
PM Session:  11:30 - 2:30

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050d4bafad23a31-windermere3             

May 26 - Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 - Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 - Early Dismissal 1pm  

Newsletter for April 21, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We continued our cursive this week. We devote out attention to lower case letters based on a common shape. We concluded the first "family" of letters: c, a, d, g, and q. We also continued with our spelling patterns by group.

Reading
Students are creating plays based on favorite scenes from books they've read this year. I love this project as students have to read, interpret, write and present all in an authentic process with an audience. They are excited to do this. The challenge is to get them to slow down and understand it is not about props or acting, but about reading aloud to convey a mental movie. I am modeling this process using a favorite scene from Charlotte's Web.

Writing
Students continued their daily letters to classmates, focusing on attributes and examples of when they demonstrated admirable qualities.

We have also added a daily short write where students have to reflect on something they are grateful for that is specific to today. I will send these home at the end of the year. They are really heartwarming and you will see just how much they appreciate you, their parents :)

We are also writing poetry, describing organic objects in figurative ways. We started with antlers and students were very creative in describing them as a throne, a crown, bony white fingers, etc. They are naturals!

Math
I introduced dominoes with the intent of developing math fact fluency strategies. Scoring is based on multiples of five. As our number system is based on tens, recognizing fives and tens is an incredibly important skill in developing automaticity. I am also explicitly demonstrating strategies for adding and subtracting efficiently, rather than slowly counting each dot on the domino one at a time. Students are also revisiting subitizing (the ability to recognize dot array patterns as a value).

Science
We were lucky this year in terms of weather and blooms for our final Thompson Park Tree Trek. Students were able to revisit their trees and will use their photos to create iBooks that compare their trees over time. Thank you again to all of our wonderful volunteers! We couldn't do this project without you. I believe this project also builds stewardship of our community as we recognize the value of our parks.

We began an end of year science project with our fifth grade buddies in Mrs. McCormick's class. Students will work in mixed grade groups to create table marble runs using Keva planks, marbles, steel ball bearings and magnets. We will introduce a few mystery items as we progress. The challenge is to see which group can build the slowest marble run using all of their materials. The motivation is high as the team that wins gets to dump a bucket of ice water on the teachers.

Important Dates & Reminders

Please make sure iPads are charged and ready each day.

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

April 22 - March For Science    

April 24 - 28 Scholastic Book Fair      

Come visit Mrs. Hemmelgarn during our Book Fair!

April 28 - KID FEST 5 - 8pm Please click on the following link to view the KID FEST raffle basket items: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa9af2da31-star1

We have the Outreach Fund to help those who are currently going through financial challenges. If you are in need of help purchasing Kid Fest tickets or the Dabbing Hawk t-shirts, please email our school counselor, Katie O'Keefe at kokeefe@uaschools.org by April 21st. Please let her know how many family members need tickets to Kid Fest and sizes of t-shirts, if needed. 

Mr. Kerstetter and I will be joined by some wonderful acoustic musicians this evening. We hope to see you there!

May 2 - Primary Elections, Students will eat in the classroom
May 8 - 19 Terra Nova & Inview Gifted Screener
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment
May 19 - Device collection 
May 22 - Field Day, Please apply sunscreen before your student arrives at school and feel free to send students with water bottles, old athletic shoes that can get wet, and swimsuits under their clothing. This will be a fun, but hot day.               

May 26 - Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 - Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 - Early Dismissal 1pm  

Newsletter for April 14, 2017

What We Learned This Week

Word Study
We began cursive this week. We will focus on lower-case letters and reading cursive. We will continue to devote a few minutes each day to proper keyboarding.

Reading
Students began reading poetry and we focused on finding powerful words and short phrases in others' writing that evoke mental images and emotions. Students's work is in the hallway.

Writing
We began our end of year writing project. Each student will end up with a letter from each of their classmates sharing what they admired for. These will come home at the end of the school year and are intended to be read occasionally throughout the summer. I have found this to be a very meaningful writing project as the audience is authentic and very important.

Math
We reviewed all of our math concepts learned this year as we prepared for this week's state of Ohio testing.


Important Dates & Reminders

Please make sure iPads are charged and ready each day.

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

April 10 - April 28 STAR Reading and Math Assessments

April 19 - Field Trip to Thompson Park - 9am till 11am Room 120 (Because we use iPads, this will be a weather dependent trip.)
April 22 - March For Science    

April 24 - 28 Scholastic Book Fair        

April 28  KID FEST 5 - 8pm Please click on the following link to view the KID FEST raffle basket items: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa9af2da31-star1

May 2 - Primary Elections Students will eat in the classroom
May 8 - 19 Terra Nova & Inview Gifted Screener
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment
May 19 - Device collection 
May 22 Field Day             

May 26 Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 Early Dismissal 1pm  

Newsletter for April 7, 2017

Important Dates & Reminders

Please look for the service learning permission slip for girls. This looks like a great project. These are due Monday, April 10.

If you have not already done so, please return your student's permission slip for the Tree Trek. Thank you in advance to all of our volunteers. We have had a great response already. It is a little tricky to plan this trip, given the weather's ups and downs, as I hope to maximize the number of trees that are in bud or flowering. However, it is usually a lovely trip.  

Kid Fest 2016 will soon be here!   One of the highlights of this fun, family event are the GIANT raffle baskets!  This exciting tradition is always eagerly anticipated and a great fund-raiser!  Please click on the provided link to view the third grade raffle basket.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa9af2da31-star1

I will not need any Reading Volunteers next week due to testing.

I will highlight changes and new dates in red.

A Days: No specials (Science, Social Studies, Technology rotation)

B Days: Music and PE

C Days: Art

D Days: Library

E Days: Music and PE

April 10 - April 28 STAR Reading and Math Assessments

April 12 - 15 Ohio Mathematics Assessment (Headphones and fully charged iPads are needed for this assessment.)
April 14 - No School for Staff & Students: Good Friday 
April 19 - Field Trip to Thompson Park - Please email if you would like to chaperone.

April 22 - March For Science    

April 24 - 28 Scholastic Book Fair        

April 28  KID FEST 5 - 8pm

May 2 - Primary Elections Students will eat in the classroom
May 8 - 19 Terra Nova & Inview Gifted Screener
May 15 - 19 Diagnostic Writing Assessment
May 22 Field Day             

May 26 Town Hall Meeting 8:25am

May 26 Last Day for Students; End of third trimester     
May 26 Early Dismissal 1pm