I would like to welcome students and parents to our third grade class. I am looking forward to meeting you and getting to know you all. I’m sure all my new students are excited to be in Third Grad and all of the things you will be learning and doing. We will be some great projects, going on interesting field trips, and yes, we will be doing a play for all your friends and families!

Parents, I hope to see you all at Back to School Night, tonight!

We are presenting the 3rd grade B track play, Vacation on Mars, tomorrow night Tuesday the 18th. The play will begin at 6:00 pm. Students should arrive between 5:30 and 5:45.  The students have been working very hard on the paly and are excited to perform for family and friends. We will be looking forward to seeing you all there tomorrow night.

Here are some pictures of our trip to Indian Grinding Rock.

the roundhouse

learning about the umachas (houses)

Our salmon eggs were delivered today! We got to see them up close before putting them into our refrigerated aquarium. The temperature has to stay around 54 degrees because that is the natural temperature of the rivers. We have begun learning about the life cycle of the salmon and the stages that they will be going through as they grow. They will begin to hatch within the next week, and we are very excited.

a first picture up close

 The past few days we have been discussing the election process. What the requirements are to run for president, what the duties are, the general election, and the electoral process that requires 270 electoral votes. We held an election in our class on Tuesday. Our class predicted the outcome.  Our results were:

Obama  17

Romney  6

(1 person was absent)

We will be getting our salmon eggs this Wednesday, Nov. 7.  Yay!! We will be releasing them in January, most likely at Discovery Park.

Congratulations to all our Carroll students and parents, and teachers) who participated itn the Run Because You Can 5K race last Sunday! Our school was very well represented. We had 40 of our Youth Fitness participants run plus a few other students who registered and ran with their parents.  Our class was represented by Allie M. who ran with her older brother and her dad. She did an excellent job by running the entire way. That’s 3.1 miles!! Way to go Allie.

Allie and family

Teachers who ran along with me were my fellow coach Mrs. Genera, third grade teacher Mrs. Rutherford, first grade teacher Mr. Quidgen, and fourth grade teacher Mrs. Burgess. Carroll Comet runners rock!!

Mrs. Rutherford

Mr. Quidgen getting ready

Ms. Burgess

    Here is a link to the Sacramento Bee article plus  photos:  http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/29/4944779/runnin-for-rhett-event-raises.html

All of our Youth Fitness participanst who ran will be recognized at the assembly on November 16th at 9:00 im the MP room.

waiting for the start

 We’ve been busy the last couple of weeks. Last week we dissected owl pellets to see what type of animal each of them had eaten. There were quite a few mice and voles, but also two students found birds in theirs. Pictures will be posted soon.

visiting the u’machas

Our field trip to Indian Grinding Rock was a lot of fun. We learned a lot about the Miwok Indians.  We were able to experience many of the tools, they used as well as  some of the games they played. Miss Lizzie our museum guide is a Miwok and taught us how to play the hand game.  We went into the uma’chas (houses) and got to look into the round house, as well as see the HUGE grinding rock with 1, 178 mortar holes in it.

Guess who?

Today we had our Dia de los Muertos fiesta. Yesterday we decorated our sugar skulls and made “papael picados” or cut paper banners. Today we made tissue marigolds and celebrated with music and Mexican chocolate to drink

It looks as though we will be getting salmon eggs! Keep checking in for further information about this year’s ‘Fish in the Classroom” project.

We are continuing to work on multiplication concepts and facts. We have covered X 0-5, arrays, and multiplication concepts as “combining equal groups”. Review this week and chapter 4 test.

In Reading we are in the second week of the “City Wildlife” unit. Learning about wildlife that has adapted to urban environments. We will be dissecting owl pellets next week as we focus specifically on birds.

Social Studies will be the last lesson in Chapter 3; California Indians. This lesson will focus on trade, and cultural traditions. We are really looking forward to our field trip on the 29th to  Chaw’se State Park, known as Indian Grinding Rock.