Savanna 1-24-14

Dear Parents,

            With the shortened week, I have just a couple of housekeeping items to share with you.

1.     With the snow day Wednesday we will now be adding May 7, 14, and 21 as full days of school, rather than Early Release Wednesdays.  Please mark your calendars accordingly. 

2.    With the heavy boots needing to be worn to school, your child may bring in a pair of slippers or sneakers to leave at school to change into if they would like.

3.    Please help your child practice their multiplication facts for 10 minutes each evening.  We are working on fact fluency and this focused practice will help.

           

Below are a couple of important dates to put on your calendars:

Friday, January 24- Disco Dance-7pm

Thursday, February 6- Report Cards Issued

Friday, February 14- Imagination Stage Field Trip

Monday, February 17- President’s Day Holiday- No School

Wednesday, March 5- Wax Museum

Thursday/Friday March 6-7- Parent Teacher Conferences

            As always, I appreciate your help and support.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. 

 

Savanna Update

Dear Parents,

         I would like to being this week's note with a big thank you to everyone for all the well wishes I received concerning my surgery.  I truly appreciated all the kind words.  All went well and other than not being able to bend down and lift heavy objects, I am well on the road to recovery.  

         We spent this week getting back into the full swing of school.  We took some time to review school and class rules, as well as to talk about expectations for the coming months.  Now that we are finishing up the second quarter we talked about the need for all the children to step up and take a bit more responsibility for their work and actions both in and out of the classroom. 

         We are continuing our unit on Multiplication. In this unit, the children will learn their multiplication facts from 1-12. To help with this, each child will need a set of multiplication flash cards at home to help with the daily review of these facts. I am assigning an additional 10 minutes of practice of facts each night as part of the daily homework.  This practice can be with the flash cards, a computer game, or with an app on a hand held device.  A great resource for computer games is the Tuckahoe web site.  Under the “Links” tab there is a list of Math sites.  One site the children enjoy is both AAA Math, and Gamequarium.  If you and your child find a site you particularly like, please share it with me and I will pass it along to the others in the class. 

         In Science we are learning about ecosystems, habitats and adaptations.  We will be testing this unit out in the next week or so.  We have continued our work on grammar, sentence structure and paragraph writing in Language Arts.  In Social Studies we kicked off our unit on Ancient Rome with a computer scavenger hunt.  All in all it has been a busy week of learning.

Below are a couple of important dates to put on your calendars:

Friday, January 17- End of 2^nd Quarter

Monday, January 20- Dr. King Holiday- Schools Closed

Tuesday, January 21- Teacher Workday- No school for students

Wednesday, January 22- Full day of School-No Early Release

Friday, January 24- Disco Dance-7pm

        

         As always, I appreciate your help and support.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. 

  

12-5-13 Savanna

Dear Parents,

We got back into the swing of school after the Thanksgiving break this week.  Everyone shared what they had done over the break, and all the yummy dinners that were shared with family and friends.  We also spent time this week reviewing the rules and expectations of our class and school.  Once we got reacquainted with classmates it was time to get back down to our daily routines.

In Language Arts, we took the information shared and used it to work on paragraph formation.  Our focus was, and will continue to be, on the creation of general topic sentences, developing three strong detail sentences, and end the paragraph with a concluding sentence that wraps up the entire paragraph.  In addition to paragraph writing we are working on identification of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and other parts of speech.  In Math, we have almost completed Unit 5.  This unit has covered rounding, data gathering, learning about tables and graphs, as well as addition and subtraction.    The children will have a test on these skills on Tuesday, December 10^th.  In Science the children are learning about animal life cycles and will expand their understanding of various habitats prior to the winter break.  We finished our study of Ancient Greece yesterday and will move into our study of Ancient Rome when we return to school in January. 

In the Friday Folders today you will find a note about our annual visit from the London Brass Rubbing Centre.   The program will begin at 9:30 with a 30-minute explanation of the art of brass rubbing and who would have had a rubbing made for them.  From 10-12:00 pm all the children will have an opportunity to make their rubbing as well as complete several other craft projects.  If you can lend a hand for all or part of this special project, please let me know.   Thank you for considering volunteering during this busy time of the year.

         With the basketball season in full swing, several of the children have asked me if I can come to their games.  I would enjoy the opportunity to fit some of these in, but will need schedules to coordinate the dates.  If you would be kind enough to forward me your child’s schedule, I would appreciate it. 

Finally, I will be out from Monday, December 16^th through Friday January 3^rd.   I will be having surgery at the beginning of the week and have been told to expect a three to four week recovery.  Mrs. Hennessey-Niland will be covering the class for me while I am out.  She is very familiar with the class and I am confident that all will go well during my absence. 

I hope you all have a nice weekend.

                                                               Sincerely,

                                                               Mrs. DiNardo

                      Calendar Dates

Friday December 20th-London Brass Rubbings- 9:30-12pm 

Monday December 23rd- Wednesday January 1st- Winter Break

         Thursday January 2, 2014- School Reopens

             

Savanna 11-22-13

Dear Parents-

The first report cards of the year came home with your child today.  As I have told the children, this is a snapshot of where they are academically today. This snapshot has the ability to change all the time.  I have also told the kids, the most important grade, to me, on this report is their work and effort grade.  Please remember that an “S” and a “C” indicate that your child is doing work at grade level.  Overall, I am pleased with how well all the children are doing.  The blue card included in the envelope goes into further detail about the Arlington County grading policy.  Please sign and return both the blue card and the yellow comment sheet in the envelope on Monday, November 25th

         I hope you and your families enjoy the holiday break and the time together.  I want you all to know how thankful I am to be your child’s teacher.   Each child has touched my heart in a special and unique way. I am grateful to be part of their lives.  To all of you, thank you for sharing them with me each day.

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Mrs. DiNardo

Important Dates

Wed., Nov. 27-Fri., Nov. 29- Thanksgiving Break- No School

Fri. Dec. 20- Brass Rubbings (more information to follow)

Mon. Dec.23-Wed. January 1, 2013- Holiday Break- No School

Thurs. Jan. 2, 2014- School Reopens

Savanna- 11-15-13

Sorry for this late post of last week's Savanna.

Dear Parents,

        

This week has been one focused on service to others.  On Friday of last week, we discussed how the Veteran’s Day holiday began and how we can honor the men and women who work tirelessly to protect all the freedoms we enjoy each day.  To show our appreciation, the children made cards that were distributed this week to members of the military serving in our area.  I was really struck by the caring words of thanks the children wrote in their cards.  We also finished up our work sorting all the Unicef monies.  We talked about the typhoon that recently struck the Philippines and how the money we collected may help the children affected by this disaster. 

         As we have begun the second quarter the children and I have spent a good amount of time this week discussing how they are feeling about the amount of work both in and outside of class.  In our talks, it was evident that the kids are feeling a fair amount of stress about how they can manage their homework as well as their extra-curricular activities.  I was very impressed with their honesty.  I am going to switch a few things around in the classroom to allow the kids 5-10 minutes at the end of the day, after they have finished writing down their assignments, to begin their homework.  All the children seemed to think this might be helpful. I will be checking in with the kids to see if this change is helping them get their work done. 

We also had several conversations this week about wearing proper clothing to school as the weather gets colder.  Please know we do go outside everyday and that the children need the proper clothing in order to be comfortable as we do so.  Your help with this matter is greatly appreciated.  Also, if your child is missing any clothing items, water bottles, or lunchboxes, there are several tables of unclaimed items in the front of the building.  Please take a few minutes to see if any of your child’s items may be there. 

Below are a few important dates to put on your calendars.

        

Fri. 11/22-Reprot Cards Issued

Wed., Nov. 27-Fri., Nov. 29- Thanksgiving Break- No School

Fri. Dec. 20- Brass Rubbings (more information to follow)

Mon. Dec.23-Wed. January 1, 2013- Holiday Break- No School

Thurs. Jan. 2, 2014- School Reopens

         I hope you and your family have a good weekend.

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Mrs. DiNardo

                                            

Savanna 11-8-13

Dear Parents,

This week has been full of “teachable moments.”  The Outdoor Lab began our week with hands-on-learning about simple machines.  We had a fun time hiking through the woods to the various learning stations.  Ask your child how many third graders it takes to lift up an Outdoor Lab staff member with a lever.  You may be a bit surprised by the answer you get.  After lunch, the children learned about different animals at the Animal Lab.  We talked about the difference between omnivores, carnivores and herbivores as well as adaptations and camouflage for survival.  Thanks to all of the parents who joined us.  On Wednesday we continued our learning as we discussed representative democracy and how Ancient Greece also used a form of democracy in their city-states. We also spent time talking about Veteran’s Day and made cards to send to men and women who are currently serving our country.  Finally, we continued to collect Unicef boxes and separate the donations into coins and bills and estimating how much money has been collected to date.  All in all, it has been a very good week of learning.

 As you know, Monday was the end of the first quarter.  Overall the children have adjusted to third grade well.  They are taking responsibility for their assignments and their books with ease, and are able to demonstrate what they have learned in a variety of ways.  The pace of our studies will increase (just a bit) during the second quarter. I am confident that the children will be able to meet these new challenges if they keep doing the good job they have done to date. 

         Below are some important November dates to place on your calendars.  If you could please let me know if your child will not be at school on Monday or Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving I would appreciate it. 

Mon. 11/11- Veterans Day Observation- No School

                  Fri. 11/22- Report Cards Issues

                  Wed 11/27-Fri 11/29 Thanksgiving Break

         Enjoy the weekend! 

        

                                                               Sincerely,

                                                               Mrs. DiNardo

Savanna 11-1-13

Dear Parents,

         I want to begin this note with a thank you to Deb Schueren, MarySue Gordon, and Kim McCormick for coordinating a great party after our parade on Thursday.  Thanks also to everyone who contributed to, and joined us for the parade and party.  It was a fun afternoon and the children enjoyed this Tuckahoe tradition. 

 It is hard to believe that Monday will be the end of the first quarter.  The children have made many changes since September which can be seen in all parts of their day.  For the most part, everyone is used to the daily routines, the homework procedures, and done well with test taking.  The pace of our studies will begin to increase (just a bit) during the second quarter. I am confident that the children will be able to meet these new challenges if they keep doing the good job they have done to date.  I would like to remind you to go over your child’s assignments with them when they get home and have them explain what they need to do that evening.  If it is a long term project, use a calendar and help pace out the project.  Once your child has completed their work, review it with them, and then have them put all their work and supplies back in their backpack. 

I would like to remind everyone to let me, as well as Mirna Lopez (mirna.lopez@apsva.us) our attendance secretary, know if your child will be out for the day.  This can be done by email the day they are out.  After your child returns to school, they will have both class work and homework to make up.  They will be given a couple of days to make up any missed work.  If they need a longer amount of time to complete these assignments, please let me know.

         As you know we are headed to the Outdoor Lab on Monday.  Please remember to send your child to school with a bag lunch, including a drink.  There is NO food service at the lab.  Also it is usually 10-15 degrees cooler up on Buttermilk Mountain, so be sure your child is dressed in layers, with closed toe shoes.  We are looking forward to spending the day outside and learning about simple machines.

         Below are some important November dates to place on your calendars.  If you could please let me know if your child will not be at school on Monday or Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving I would appreciate it. 

Sat. Nov. 2- Tuckahoe/H-B 5K and Fun Run

                  Mon. 11/4- Outdoor Lab Field Trip/End of 1^st Quarter

                  Tues. 11/5- Election Day- No School for Students

                  Wed. 11/6- Full Day of School- NO EARLY RELEASE

                  Mon. 11/11- Veterans Day Observation- No School

                  Fri. 11/22- Report Cards Issues

                  Wed 11/27-Fri 11/29 Thanksgiving Break

         Enjoy the weekend! 

        

                                                               Sincerely,

                                                               Mrs. DiNardo