Friday, May 20, 2022
Dear Third Grade Families,
Can you believe that we have made it to the last week of the year? It feels like yesterday that the kids joined us for their first day of third grade. We have truly enjoyed spending the last year with your children, and we look forward to them stopping by to say hi next year.
Final Week Themed Dress of Choice
For the final week of school, we want to have some fun with themed dress of choice days. Please make sure to refer to the dress of choice link for questions on appropriate clothing for those days. Remember, no shorts or leggings that are shorter than arm's length, no ripped jeans, or sleeveless shirts.
Monday: Pajama day or regular dress of choice
Tuesday: Favorite sports team or regular dress of choice
Wednesday: Favorite Superhero or regular dress of choice
Thursday: Field day-make sure to dress for spending the whole day outside having fun and being active. Also, make sure to have them bring water bottles, quick-drying clothes, and a healthy snack. Field day shirts will be tie-dyed during Field Day.
https://www.aak8.org/apps/pages/aa-dressofchoice
End of Year Party
The end of the year party is on Wednesday, May 25. Our wonderful room parents have planned a lunch filled with playtime and pizza. If your student has allergies related to lunch, please email your room parent with your student's needs. Also, room parents sent out an email last week with items needed for the party, so please make sure to check your email for items that you can donate to make the event a success. This event will be held during lunch time, so third graders will not need to bring lunch that day.
End of Trimester 3
The end of the third trimester is here, so all missing and late assignments will need to be turned in no later than Monday, May 23, 2022. Check Infinite Campus for any outstanding/missing assignments that are not older than 5 days and have students get those turned in right away. If you have any questions about an assignment, please contact your student's teacher for that assignment.
Autograph Party
On Tuesday afternoon we will be allowing all the kids to circulate around the school to receive autographs from favorite teachers and friends. This is a great opportunity to get fond memories documented into yearbooks, but if you don't have a yearbook and your child has something else to get signed, please be sure to sent it on Tuesday. We will also be putting together some 'booklets' for anyone who doesn't have a yearbook/journal to get signed so everyone can participate.
Library books need to be turned in
Please ask your 'soon-to-be fourth grader' if he/she has an AA library book that needs to be turned in. Currently, our grade level has over 60 books outstanding that need to be turned in next week.
So, please, check under the beds, in the closets, and in toy boxes for any book with an American Academy barcode on it and send it to us, sooner rather than later. Ms. Bunyak really appreciates your help so she can start her summer vacation on time.
Cleaning Up Third Grade
Wednesday, May 25th, will be our last day switching classes. On that day, students will be taking their belongings from each of their classes as well as cleaning out their desks in their homerooms. Please send your student with a bag, pillowcase, etc to take home all of the things they have been storing at school.
Axolotls for adoption
You may have heard your child murmuring a strange word around your house and wondered what they were talking about. I am sorry if you thought maybe the third grade team had lost their minds and started teaching gibberish, but nothing can be further from the truth (or possibly not), but in this case, we are sane.
We have been raising baby Mexican salamanders in science as part of our life cycle unit. I have 6 in my classroom, and middle school has many more. I am only planning to keep 2 of these critters for my science classroom, so I need to adopt out the rest.
They are still in their infant stages and are similar to fish at this time, having not grown their legs yet. During this stage they take a lot of care to survive, such as daily water cleaning (too small for a filter), growing live brine shrimp as food for daily feedings, among other tasks. Once they grow legs and develop their sense of smell, they can eat frozen blood worms or other meals that don't move around.
Axolotls are an endangered species as their native habitat is a lake in Mexico City that has been overrun with urban development. Most of these animals are in private households and could be found specialty pet stores, so this is a great opportunity. They live 15-20 years, grow to 10.5 inches, and require an aquarium for themselves and maybe one other of the same species.
If you are interested in adopting one of these salamanders, please read the following links, then parents only should submit a written justification to me via email for why you think you will be a good caretaker. I will pick the best submissions for adoptions next week and send you an email with instructions.
Thanks, Mr. Sells, tsells@aak8.org
https://www.axolotl.org/rearing.htm
https://reptile.guide/baby-axolotl/
https://axolotlnerd.com/baby-axolotl-care/
Weekly Plans
Here are the assignments for the various classes:
Your Third Grade Team,
Ms. Hein
Ms. Mitchell
Ms. Newman
Mr. Sells
Ms. Thielk
Upcoming Events |
|
May 25 |
End of Year Party |
May 26 |
Field Day/Last Day of School |