The Final Countdown to Christmas Begins

• The children did such a wonderful job at the concert today! I was very impressed. Thank you to all the families who helped support the costume effort. Everyone sounded and looked terrific.
• We are down to our final 5 school days of 2012! We will still be working hard right up until Thursday, but Friday we will leave lots of room for fun with our Gift Exchange, a movie, treats and an afternoon skate.
• Permission Slips for the skate will be sent home at the first of the week. All students must wear a helmet.
• We will have our 2nd Class Spelling Bee this week and a big review test of our words.
• We have done so well with 2 digit addition we are moving up to the 3 digit problems this week. I see a HUGE improvement in the student's math facts since interview time. - Thank you for the support at home.
• I would strongly suggest to keep reading and practicing facts whenever you get a chance over the holidays. Two weeks is a long break and with such great gains lately, I would love to see the student's maintain their current skill levels.
• Happy 8th Birthday to Jeanna! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Merry Christmas to you all and
a Very Happy New Year!

Concert Week

• I hear that the Wizard of Oz Play was outstanding! Unfortunately I was at a Math Inservice and didn't get a chance to see it.
• This is Concert Week, so we would like everyone to start to take in any part of their costumes that they would not be just wearing to school on that day. It would be ideal to have everything at school by Wednesday.
• The concert begins at 1:00pm pm Friday.
• We have been working very hard on our Christmas Magazine - "Cocoa" and it hopefully will be ready to go to press next Weekend.
• A lot of our extra time spent on Mental Math strategies and place value seems to be paying off as we started 2 digit addition this past week and everyone is doing AWESOME!!!
• We picked names this past week for our Class Gift Exchange so if your child has not told you who they have- please ask them. It would be great to have all gifts to the school by next Monday, Dec.17th. (Just to make sure everyone has a gift to open on the last day of classes.)
• I believe that the plan is for the school to go skating on the Dec.21st. No time has been set, but if you are free we would love to have you join us.

Decemberrrrrrrrrrrrrrr has Arrived!

• Monday is Drink order day for the month of December as well as for the Food Orders for the Week.
• I am very excited to share that when the children go to the Wizard of Oz on Friday there will be no charge to parents for the play. The cost is being covered by the school and the Home and School Committee. We will be stopping at a restaurant for lunch so that will be the only cost to families or students can take a packed lunch. Food Order forms and permission slips will be sent home at the first of the week.
• Thank you for returning the Dental Forms so quickly everyone. Our class is scheduled for their follow-up appointments on Tuesday afternoon.
• We will be picking names for Christmas on Monday. If you do not wish to participate please let me know and gifts are set at a $5.00 limit. ( I can't believe there are only 15 school days left!)
• Happy Birthday to Darra this Week!! We hope that your day is very Special.

Term 2 Begins

• I hope that everyone received a copy of your child's report card. Please keep the report, and return the attached sheet to comment or state that you seen the card.  I am very proud of everyone's work in First Term and am so excited to see what Term 2 has in store for us.
• A big Thank You to all parents for having Food Orders separated and with the correct change last week, it made a huge difference.
• This is a four day week for the kids with no school on Friday.
• I am sure you have heard your child mention that they are recreating the Nativity scene for the Christmas Concert. So, they do not need a fancy dress or shirt and tie this year. Mrs. Brennan would really like if everyone could dress in character (as much as possible). For example: The angels should wear white, Shepherds and Joseph maybe dark robes, Mary maybe wrapped in a baby blue or white bed sheet, Wisemen - we have some stuff at the school but maybe some extra costume jewelry - necklaces. Thank you for your support here and DON'T stress or search too much for anything- it always comes together just fine.
• Our Poetry Unit has been a huge success. Every child in the room is officially a Poet. They are so creative, some hilarious and others heart warming. We will continue to add to our poetry booklets throughout the year.
• Last week we starting learning about magazines, and began reading the Sports magazine that is a part of the Grade 3 Literacy Place program. We will use this as a spring board to create our own class Christmas magazine. So, don't miss your copy of that when it comes hot of the presses in mid- December. 
• ACC is heading to Charlottetown next Friday (Dec.7th), to see the play the Wizard of Oz. This will be a very exciting experience for the children. Permissions slips will be sent home the first of next week. I have already had some parents volunteer to come along, unfortunately there is only a limited number of seats booked and any extra seats would be going to the K-2 classes where they really need some extra eyes to keep everyone together.

Report Card Week

• Report Cards will be sent home this Thursday.
• Monday is food order day for the meals this week. Just a friendly reminder if your child is purchasing both meals to please have the money in separate bags with exact change, as the money is going to two different places and often it is difficult to make the correct change needed in the classroom to have all the orders straight. (This is especially true on a Milk Ordering Day when a $5 & $10 bill are sent in to cover orders going for milk, sub, and a home & school meal.) If the exact change is there in separate bags, it saves a lot of time and confusion on ordering days.(THANK YOU)
• We have FINALLY finished all the letters in Cursive Writing. So, for this week we will finish up the book and review how to make all the letters. We will probably start writing everything in Cursive Writing the following week. At first this really slows down their writing but within a couple of weeks of practice it will become faster than their current printing.
• Speaking of writing this week the students all have really impressed me with the amount of detail and organization that went into their writing pieces. They are really putting their best effort forward and are caring about making their work the best they can make it. (Way to go Team!!)

Back to the Books on Tuesday!

• It was great to meet with all the parents during the interview times. Your children are very lucky to have such wonderful supportive families.
• Last week I forgot to Thank Colby and Keagan for the the Very Yummy Halloween Snacks. The Carmel Dip with Apples and Cupcakes were a huge treat for the kids and they loved them.
• A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Colby who turned 9 this past Wednesday! We hope you had a great celebration Colby!
• This week is Bully Awareness Week and in honor of it this Friday everyone is asked to wear Pink.

What is Wear Pink Day?

The first Wear Pink Day happened in a Nova Scotia high school in 2007.  It all started when a grade 9 boy was teased by a group of older boys because he wore a pink polo shirt on the first day at his new school, and they threatened to hurt him if he ever did it again. There were two grade 12 boys who heard about what happened and wanted to do something about it. They went to a discount store and bought a number of pink shirts. They also e-mailed their friends to spread the word. The next day, over half the school, about 400 people, wore something pink. The bullies were not impressed, but they got the message, and the boy who was bullied was relieved to know that people would stand up for him and maybe his new school wouldn't be so bad after all. News spread quickly about Wear Pink Day all over the world, and the two grade 12 students who started it were interviewed by many radio and TV shows. Many other schools also organized Wear Pink Days. This certainly proves how powerful bystanders can be.

By adding something pink to your wardrobe, you will be showing your support for the anti-bullying message that these high school students wanted to spread.  It could be a shirt, your socks, a bandanna, a belt, a bracelet, a head band, mittens or a scarf.  Whatever it is, let’s turn ACC into a “Sea of Pink”, and, more importantly, let’s take a stand against bullying!

3 Day Week Ahead

• This is a short week with the students not having classes on Thursday or Friday.
• I really look forward to meeting with Parents this week on Wednesday & Thursday to discuss your child's progress. If you have not yet returned your interview slip please do so.
• This Monday is Food & Drink Order Day for the Month of November. 
• We have a Remembrance Day Service at the school on Wednesday at 10:30am.
• This week we will have a Review of all 36 of the Words we have done this year, by having a Spelling Bee on Tuesday and a Test on Wednesday.
• We have been having an on going issue this year with a number of students forgetting to do their homework or leaving it at home. The students have very little assigned to do at home, and when students do not have their work complete or at school at all it really slows down the entire class. I usually give 3 homework checks and then a detention, this year I have been very lenient and have wiped the slate clean of checks twice. The latest time was this past week and after Monday and Tuesday night there were 9 new checks on my homework check sheet. I have informed the students that from this past week on, once an individual gets 3 checks it will be a detention. I would really appreciate your support in improving this issue.

Happy Halloween

• Lots of Thank Yous this week to all the families who sent in materials for our art projects. The Pop bottle characters turned out so cute and the students will be taking them home this week. We will be trying out our leaf project on Wednesday.
• Also, a huge Thank you to Ashton and his Mom for the very thoughtful and delicious Halloween Boxes. The kids were so thrilled with them.
• Today our class Won a prize for having the class with the most participation for Crazy Hair Day. We definitely have lots of school spirit and Wild Hair in Grade 3. ( I even tried to rock my old HIGH 80's hair.)
• We started our Poetry Unit yesterday and the children seemed very excited about it. We will be doing poetry throughout the year but over the next couple of weeks it will be our primary focus in Language Arts.
• A reminder that for Halloween treats on Wednesday, we have Colby and Keagan's Families signed up to take in a treat.
• This week the teachers are meeting to set up times for Parent Teacher Interviews on the afternoon/evening of Wednesday, November 7th and during the day on Thursday, November 8th. If you have a specific time or day that works better for you and your schedule please let me know through email by Monday and I will do my best to accommodate everyone.
• Happy Birthday on Tuesday To Kirstin!!! Enjoy your BIG DAY!

Where is this Year Going?

• The students had lots of excitement this past Wednesday between Mrs.Jay kissing a pig, and their Donut/Dance Party in recognition of all their support for the school fundraiser. Our class was the top fundraising class and received all the top prizes. 1st Place was Madison, 2nd Place was Claire (& her brother William) and 3rd Place was Colby(& her brother Lucas). Thank you to ALL families for your support.
• Friday, we also had an informative visit from a few members of the Borden Fire Department. They emphasized the importance of having a planned escape route for your house. They are encouraging all families to have two ways out of your house in the event of a fire. This week I will send home a little grid that as a family you could draw out a map of your house and plan or review your two ways out.
• Good Luck today to Lydia, Quianna & Ethan who are representing Amherst Cove at the Provincial Cross Country Meet.
• We have another quiet 5 day week here at ACC, which means lots of quality classroom instruction time. I am really impressed at how the students have settled into the routines & responsibilities of grade three. I see great growth in many of the students already.
• A reminder that this Friday is Pizza/Garlic Finger/Sub Day.

Back to a Full Five Day Week

• We are back to school with a full five days this week, and my calender is showing no interruptions this week, beyond our big Fundraising Assembly on Friday to name the top winners and give a special treat to everyone as the Fundraiser was a huge success. Thank you Parents as we all know that is in large part due to your great efforts. Unfortunately, we did not quite raise enough for Mr.Q to shave his head. (That would have been entertaining to say the least).
• We started working with Money last week in Math, so it would be very helpful if you could be getting your child to continue to count out the values of coins or ask them to show you a certain amount. The next step will be having a certain amount like $1.00 and spending $.87 and then figuring out that they would still have $0.13 left. Again, don't make this "school work". Keep it light and fun, it'll be less stressful for everyone. And it is such a powerful way to strengthen number sense and problem solving skills.
• One thing in writing we are really focusing on is to get the children to take more ownership over their writing and to keep going back to their written pieces to be the one to notice when they have forgotten a word, capital or period and fix up those errors before they share it with someone else. Some students are already doing a wonderful job of Self-Monitoring their work.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

This is a very short school week for the kids, with there only being classes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Due to the short week we will not have new words of the week and for home reading the students will have open reading nights.

Also, a big reminder that all fundraising orders and money are due back TOMORROW!

Our 2nd Month Begins

• We were all very excited that our Cursive Writing Books finally arrived and we already have mastered 5 letters. What a group of beautiful writers.
• We have been working a lot with Numbers in Math and the students are really doing a terrific job of making connections between numbers and manipulating them. Please encourage your child to use the numbers and Place Value Mat that was sent home. This will really strengthen their understanding of how numbers are connected. You could ask them to create a number and then get them to change it show you 3, 10, 20 , 40 , 300,etc. more or less than the first number. You could play a game where you randomly pick out 3 digits and create the largest or smallest number possible, and the person with the biggest or smallest(you decide) number scores 10 points and the first person to 100 is the winner. You could do anything just have fun with them. 
• A big Welcome Back to Noah! So glad you had such a special family vacation. Thank you for all the pencils and silly bands from Disney World.
• This Monday is Drink/Food Order Day for the month of October.
• Cross Country team members need to return their permission form for the Meet on Thursday. Good Luck to our Runners!
• School Picture Orders are due back by Friday.

This Week Wraps up September

• Our school Terry Fox Walk was a huge success and involved a lot of fun energy from everyone involved. Thanks so much to Parents who came out with the Snacks.
• It was wonderful to meet all the parents who were able to come to the school on Monday night. If you were there or not please always REMEMBER if you have any concerns call or email me.
• I am SO impressed with the effort the students were putting into their work this week, we are off to a wonderful start.
• We have begun an author study on Arnold Lobel this week and the students seem to be enjoying sharing his books.
• I have added a new tab to the top of our blog page called, Helpful Websites. If you click on it you will see a list of educational  websites that your child might find helpful to reinforce some of the skills we are learning in school.

Meet the Teacher Week

• Monday is Meet the Teacher Night at ACC.  I hope everyone can make it at 6:30. 

• Monday is also Picture Day, please send in your choice of pose. 

•  Our school fundraiser begins on Tuesday. The students will be asked to sell items from a cataloge, like in years past. More information on this will be available at Meet the Teacher Night.

•  This Friday is our school Terry Fox Walk. A special thank you to the parents who are planning to come to pass out water & snacks during the event.

•  Friday we are asking everyone to dress in blue and gold (ACC school colors- their playground shirts would be perfect) and make a final donation to support Terry Fox's dream of helping others beat cancer. 

•  A special thank you to Darra and her family for sharing the yummy Rice Krispie Squares with the class. 

The Weekend Already?

• Well we have completed our first very short week. Thank You very much for reading and completing the information sheets on your children. They are very helpful in learning more about the kids and your concerns right away.
• They really enjoyed getting to share their special items from home today. Today we also read the book Chrysanthemum, which we followed up with a conversation about how their names were chosen so if you get some questions about how you selected your child's name that is where it is coming from. On Monday, they will be doing a little write up associated with that.
• Next week we will be reading a couple of stories related to "Filling Up" people's Buckets. Be sure to ask them about this next week. We will also focus on learning about one of our Great Canadian Heroes, Terry Fox.
• Next week  to get everyone excited about what they are reading at home the students will be able to select what they want to read. This could be a book/magazine from home or school. It could also be reading from the newspaper or the Internet. The following week I will have a better idea of what levelled books would best suit your child at this time. The books they read at home should not be hard or too easy. Ideally I 'd like them to be using "Just Right" books for them, but it is also important that they are interested in the books. If you find that books coming home are too easy or hard please write me a quick note.
• We will begin our Speller Program on the week of Sept. 17th and I will talk more about that at Meet the Teacher.
• Speaking of Meet the Teacher the date has changed from the information I sent home on Thursday. It is now Monday, September 17th @ 6:30pm.
• I would really appreciate any families who have not yet paid for your child's school supplies if you could do so as soon as you can.
• This Monday is Drink and Food Order Day for the month of September.
• Book Orders are Due Friday.

Awesome 1st Day!

Just to let parents know we had an awesome 1st day. I just know that it is going to be a terrific year. I am sorry for all the reading material for you parents tonight but I figured it would be better to get it all sent out at one time. I would really appreciate if you could fill out and return the Student Information Sheets as soon as you can.

Calling all Third Graders

What an outstanding summer it has been here on P.E.I.!  But it is coming to an end which means it will soon be Back to School Time.  I am really looking forward to Thursday, September 6th, when I start working with a new fantastic team of 14!


In the meantime here are some Great Books Online!
If your child is ever looking for something to read at home here is an excellent site  (Tumble Books) with a huge number of free titles on it. The stories are narrated or the kids can do the reading themselves. Here's how to access it:

1. Go to http://www.library.pe.ca/
2. Under Library Services Click on TumbleBooks- E Books for Kids

3. Click on Index.

4. Now you should see a long list of titles. Click on a title.

5. Click View Online. Now you should be able to view the story.

** This is a great one to put in your Favorites but it seems you have to bookmark the PEI Provincial Library site to gain access.

There is a great selection of fiction and non-fiction (there are even a few chapter books), as well as games and activities to go with the stories.    

Enjoy the final days of summer Everyone and I'll see you soon.