Rewards:)

I have printed out these awesome "Caught You Being Good" labels to give to the students. I will have a jar or bucket for them to put them into after they have signed their "Caught You.." On Fridays I want to pick out some Caught You's from the jar for the students to pick out something from our Treasure Box. These is where I need help- I need some loot! I have some pencils, and a few things to put in, but I was hoping to have a variety. Here is where you come in, and an opportunity to get some credit hours! If you have anything to donate to the Treasure Box: stickers, pencils, pens, little toys, anything you think a third grader would like-send it in please! I want a way to reward students for staying on task and without using sugar. Thanks so much!

One Month!

Can you believe we have been going for one month?! Time is just flying by. Our grade level is working on differentiating for math, finalizing our spelling/word study groups, and getting progress reports sent out to our families.

Our class is having a great time:) I try to make the atmosphere fun and engaging. Sometimes our class of entertainers takes their behavior too far, and we are working on that. I don't want to dampen their spirits, but we need to learn when it is appropriate to be silly, and when it is just distracting to the learning going on. We have a class with big personalities, big brains, and big ideas. Our days are never dull.

For those of you concerned about the classroom getting warm when the sun beats through our massive windows: the school is working on ordering window coverings. In the meantime, I am hanging butcher paper over the windows to keep the heat from warming out the room by the windows. We are fine up until about 1pm, then the room has a hard time keeping cool. We don't want to eliminate the natural light from coming in, so we think blinds would be the best option. If you have any other ideas, please post a comment to this post, or email me directly at mbindrup@pinecrestnv.org . There has been a coating/tint already installed on all the windows, but it seems to not be enough.

Homework questions: homework is due on Friday. Your students may turn it in earlier, but with hectic schedules in our families, I understand not every night is ideal for all homework being completed. Please have your student turn in their signed homework form with their name on it on Friday. Thanks!

WEEKS One and Two

I will be posting weekly, but with the first week's work and getting the room together, I combined the two. YES:) there is homework. We will be sending home a homework sheet weekly. Please have the work completed and returned by Friday. Reading 20 minutes nightly is important. I know we get busy, I have children, too. Sometimes my third grader doubles up on Thursday if he has scouts or soccer earlier in the week. You do what you gotta do! We will have word study, but with the time spent making the bottle buddies, we decided to hold off on starting that until next week. I am adding a homework list to the side of the posts to be referred to if you lose the homework sheet. Thanks again and I look forward to speaking with you at open house!