May

Dear 3rd Grade families,

It’s the season of field trips and Thursday May 4th will be our field trip to the Schnitzer Music Hall for the Orchestra. There will be 24 other schools with their 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes. Our Grout students will be performing with an audience and we will get the opportunity to experience the Orchestra perform.

Speaking of seasons… we will be graced with warmer weather and please provide your child with a water bottle. These bottles will be kept at their table and can be refilled from the water dispenser when needed.

Always,

Mr. Guron

On another note...

Dear Families, May 2, 2017

We are in the midst of a wonderful unit on the history of Portland.  

We have been tasked with creating a museum showing important people, places and events in Portland’s history and we’ll even have a gift shop! This will raise funds for 3rd grade activities.  The student curators are working hard on researching information on their individual or team topics, and they are looking ahead to creating their exhibits in the museum.

With that said, if you have any supplies that might be useful for making dioramas, models or small statues- we could use the donations!

I don’t want all your recycling to end up in my room, but in talking to your student you might discover something useful to send from home.

Our museum will open on May 19th.  We are planning on having it open during the afternoon/evening of the PTA’s ice cream social (expect more information on that in the coming days).  Please mark this on you calendar! It is a time to come join the community, participate in STEAM activities (science technology engineering art math) and come tour the museum.  

Please come if you can and explore your student’s work.

Sincerely,

Ms. Van Clock, Mr. Guron, Mrs. Neal

December Greetings

2016 is on its way out....where does the time fly?

With only days to go and so much to do! Please, please make sure your child is in class and ready to learn by 8:00. 

We are finishing up our expert topic books. We can't wait for our sharing and celebration time.

We are working on becoming reading detectives with our mystery unit. Students are take notes, watching for clues, and trying to solve the puzzle before the end of their book.

We had a great trip to Reed College Cooley Art Gallery, December 6th. We saw Brad Kahlhamer's Nomadic Studio. Then they got a chance to draw in some journals that will be mailed to the artist.

Hope you have a wonderful break. If possible continue to have your child work on the Symbaloo with Front Row, MyOn, and keyboarding skills.

SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!!

November is upon us!

Dear Families,
Social Studies
We are very excited to continue studying our democratic process.  Next week we will be sending home 'take home' ballots, for you to vote in our mayoral campaign on Monday.  Please take some time to ask your child about what we have been doing to make our campaigns happen.  Please see the links for each precinct (classroom), to see the positive campaign videos the students made.

Parent Teacher Conferences
Please connect with your classroom teacher to sign up for a conference time if you have not already done so.  Conferences are Nov 9 and 10.  I will try to get our conference sign ups posted soon as well.

Recent Assemblies
Last week we had a 'Tarter Patrol' assembly preformed by Oregon Children's Theater
Today we had Ed Edmo, a Native American storyteller, come share some legends that he heard from his grandfather when he was growing up near Celilo Falls.

Other events
We had vision screening today with our school nurse.
Our Halloween Parade was a lot of fun.  To the parents who got pictures: can you send me copies so I can post them?

Upcoming field trip
We have a field trip to Reed College's Cooley Art Gallery.  Mrs. Neal on Dec 6 in the morning.  Mr. Guron on Dec 7 in the morning.  Ms. Van Clock on Dec 7 in the morning.

Happy October!

I am writing to inform you about the new social studies unit we are starting.  It is about elections and campaigns, but not about our current presidential campaign.  That feels too volatile to discuss in 3rd grade.  Please don't let this discourage you from discussing your political feelings with your student, and explain why you believe the way that you do.

Our election unit will focus on the process of an election, and define some of the important vocabulary that comes up during elections.

This week we discussed: election, mayoral, campaign, platform, vote, run for office,

We also discussed issues that are important to us locally in Portland.

Welcome!

Welcome to third grade!  We are so excited for the new school year!  Please bear with us as we learn how to keep up with the new technology and curriculum.  Hopefully this will be a place for us to post information about upcoming events and a place to ask for help.