Back-To-School-Night

Mrs. Sarah Schurz

Manchester Park Elementary

• You are welcome to sign up for the parent volunteer opportunities on the back table.

• Please sign the e-mail permission slip on your child’s desk, and hand back to me.

• Finally, please write your student a note with the paper provided on their desk, they will be excited to see it tomorrow.

• We will start the presentation shortly.

• My goal is to create a fun, positive, flexible, risk-free and safe learning environment. I want my students to gain as much knowledge as possible.

As you all know, I am Mrs. Sarah Schurz This is my tenth year teaching third grade. I have been at Manchester Park since it has opened.

I received my Bachelor’s Degree from Baker University with an emphasis in mathematics. I also received my Master’s Degree from MidAmerica Nazarene University in May 2007. I also continue to take hours during the summer to further improve my teaching.

I am starting to get to know your children, and I think that this will be a great year. I am looking forward to all the new learning that will be happening for all of us. Third grade is a big change, and lots of fun new topics are introduced.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call and leave a message at the school, write me a note, or e-mail me at sschurzmp@olatheschools.org. I will respond to you as quickly as possible.

I believe that with good classroom management, the students will be more productive and enjoy

school. I will do several Kagan cooperative learning strategies at the beginning of the year of get to know

you activities. I believe that if the students get the team feeling from the start, they will have a warm and

risk free environment. There will be many cooperative learning activities throughout the day/year on a

regular basis.

I also believe that it is very important to get a routine down within the first two weeks of school. I

have a copy of the class schedule posted on the front board. As a class we will go through the

routine/procedures multiple times. The class will also make a photostory of these routines and procedures to

view themselves following our classroom agreements.

I feel that if you establish a comfortable and cooperative setting at the beginning of the year, it will

make learning a lot easier and more fun for everyone. We will revisit classroom routines and procedures

throughout the year to help make students successful in their learning. There will also be a classroom

routine/procedure book available to all students in the classroom. This book will explain any classroom

expectations, jobs, responsibilities, etc.

I feel it is important for students to praise their peers for their accomplishments and kindness. Each student will have a compliment bucket assigned to them in the front of the room. Student’s can catch each other following our classroom agreements and write them a compliment. Students will be able to view their compliments at the class meeting.

Our classroom will also have a kindness reporter each week. The kindness reporter will “catch” students following our classroom agreements and write them down in the book. The kindness reporter will share their findings at our class meeting. Each person in the classroom will have a chance to be the kindness reporter.

Things to Look for in 3rd grade

• I use Cooperative Learning in my classroom because: – It promotes intrinsic motivation.

– It increases academic awareness.

– It enhances self-esteem among students

– It focuses on teamwork instead of competition.

– It prepares students for the real world where they learn about individual differences.

– It decreases dependency on the teacher.

– It’s Fun!

• Students will read a variety of narrative and expository texts, from newspapers to novels. They will also be reading poetry and plays.

• When we read from our Harcourt series, there will be a home connection letter to keep you updated. Also on Wednesday’s students will bring home their book to read to you, they need to do this by Friday, sometimes the students will have questions to review the story.

• Students will focus on vocabulary, comprehension, and reflection.

• Reading State Assessments are also given, they will be in 3rd quarter.

• This is a time that students can read at home. Students can not add minutes from reading at school.

• They should read or be read to at least 100 minutes per week to equal 400 minutes a month.

• Reading Logs should be turned in and signed at the end of every month for special grade level treats.

• This is a great way for families to get together and “celebrate reading”.

• This will be a part of the reading participation grade.

• Computation review and practice (D.M.D)

• Daily Common Core Review

• Mental Math Games

• Problem Solving

• Focus Lessons – Numeration (reading numbers in

different forms)

– Addition & Subtraction with regrouping and using place value

– Multiplication & Division using patterns

– Time Measurement

– Understanding fractions

– Geometry

– -Measurement

– Graphing

• Students will study: • Continents and Oceans/Map Skills

• Washington D.C./Government

• Kansas City/Lenexa/Economics

• Landforms

• Study different Communities (comparing Mexico, U.S., and Canada)

– Insects

– Animals

– Simple Machines

– Solar System

– Weather/Water Cycle

With science and social studies, I do a lot of projects that will be done at home. I normally give about two weeks for students to complete their projects. I will also give the expectations before they start the project and a rubric on how they will be graded. These projects are to be done by the student.

• Pre-Tests will be on Friday’s. If students pass the regular words with missing one or less, they will add challenge words to their spelling list.

• Monday’s-Wednesday’s we will have spelling lesson’s.

• Thursday’s we will take our spelling test with two dictation sentences. Also on Thursday’s, the spelling

homework is due.

• Writer’s Workshop – The Writing Process

– Mini-Lessons

– Six-traits

– Teacher/Peer Conferencing

– Publishing

– Sharing

Writing will be a focus this year. The different types of writing will be narrative, persuasive, and informational.

Responsibilities

Expectations: Classroom Agreements:

• Be Respectful • Be Responsible • Be Safe

• Each student will be responsible to complete and turn in all

assignments by the due date.

• Each student should have all materials ready at the beginning of school.

• Students will put all assignments for homework in the daily folder, along

with writing each day’s reminders and homework down. This folder will

be taken home every night, and brought back every morning.

• Each student will have a chance to be a helper in the classroom. The

helper jobs will include attendance, line leader, paper passer, teacher’s

assistant, reading center, custodian, equipment manager, etc.

• Students will be helping create class goals each week.

• Students will be responsible for setting individual goals quarterly.

• If students use their time wisely in class, they will have light homework.

• It is recommended that 3rd grade students have 30 minutes of homework three to four nights a week.

• Most of the time there will be reading homework and spelling homework. Occasionally there will be science/social studies projects, and math pages.

• I normally give 2 nights to complete homework, unless it is something a student has not finished from that day of class, it will be do the next day.

• All homework will be review or practice and needs to be completed by the student!

100% A+ 99-91 A 90% A- 89% B+

88-81% B 80% B- 79% C+

78-71% C 70% C- 69% D+

68-61% D 60% D-

59% and below is not passing

Our retake policy states that students may retake class tests and redo class assignments that score below 70%. The initial score and the retake score will be averaged

to determine the final grade.

Individual: If a student is caught being good, they can earn a Schurz Buck. Schurz bucks can never be

taken away once they are earned. Students will be allowed to purchase rewards on Friday’s with their

bucks.

Table Group Rewards: Table groups within the classroom will be able to earn points throughout the day for

excellent behavior. If tables get to 5 points at the end of the day they can earn Schurz bucks. This

helps will teamwork.

Class Rewards: As a class the students can earn rewards for exceptional behavior. In our classroom, we

have a marble jar. Each time the whole class is modeling great behavior, I will add a marble to the jar.

Once a marble is earned, it can never be taken away. When the jar is full, the class can pick an award

together. Some examples of rewards are pajama day, game time, no shoes for a day (while in the

classroom), etc.

• Our school has great technology at our fingertips. In the classroom I use the projector, interactive powerpoints, smart lessons, Airliner, clickers, laptops, video on demand, and others. The students will also get experience in several of these as well.

STAR OF THE WEEK

• Students will be selected randomly before each week.

• Monday’s-use exercise ball.

• Tuesday’s- Play an indoor recess game with a friends during read aloud.

• Wednesday-pop or juice with snack

• Thursday-eat lunch in room with a friend

• Friday-share a prize possession. But please leave pets at home, bring in pictures instead.

Estimation Jar • Students will each get

a chance to bring in an item to put in the estimation jar.

• Students will also be learning other skills with estimation such as range, median, and mode.

3rd grade Tidbits

Our class meetings will take place every Friday during. The class meetings will start by the kindness reporter. We will then discuss any issues that appear to be disrupting our class community and causing us to have tension when working together. We will design a solution as a class and implement it as soon as the meeting is over. Also their will be four different reporters each week that will share their findings. The reporters are: Entertainment, Poetry, Headline, and Word Hound. Each student will get a chance to do all four reporters. Then the student of the week will get to share their poster and something special that they brought in. We will end each class meeting by praising our class as a whole and setting an academic &/or behavior goal for the week.

• Students may bring in only fresh fruits or vegetables that are already cut up.

• This will be eaten around 10:00/10:30 a.m.

• Students may also bring in water bottles when used in a responsible manner.

• Birthday celebrations are fun for the students’, but please let me know before you bring in anything. If you are bringing in treats, we usually have them in the morning if they are a breakfast treat or right after lunch.

• Also remember this is just a small celebration and treat, not the actually birthday party. If you send in a cookie cake or anything that needs to be cut, please provide a knife or have it cut already (THANKS)!

What can you do to help at home?

• Don’t forget to give me the e-mail permission sheet.

• Also don’t forget to leave your child a note so they can read it tomorrow morning.

ANY QUESTIONS?????