"A Simple Act of Kindness Can Change The Course of a Lifetime."

We witnessed a brave firefighter climb up the 100 ft ladder to replace the rope for our flagpole. This simple act of kindness  also inspired us to apply it to our real world learning. 

3rd Grade Peek at the Week News December 12, 2011

Dear 3rd Grade Parents,

Please take a look at this week's highlights:

Vocabulary/Spelling: Unit 16 due on Wednesday. Quiz on Thursday for Vocabulary. Test on Friday for Spelling.

Reading: Using the essential skills of reading, we will begin to apply our knowledge through literary adaptation (the adapting of a literary source, i.e., short story, poem, novel, etc) to a stage play. Students will write their own versions of books they have recently read (Wayside School, Blue Dragonfly, or Terrible Trevor) into plays. They will learn how to recognize cause and effect, compare and contrast different characters, and distinguish fact from opinion.

English: We will review verbs in our parts of speech lesson and identify them as main words in predicates. We will also distinguish action verbs from helping verbs in our grammar review.

Math: An inspired lesson based on real world learning in Math, we began our week by witnessing a simple act of kindness. During our monthly fire drill Monday morning, Mr. Poyant asked the Irving firefighters if they could help us replace the rope in our flagpole by using their ladder. Students in Grades 1-8 gathered around the flagpole and looked on as one of our brave firefighters climbed up the 100ft ladder to unravel and replace the rope at the top of the 40 ft. flagpole. As we took pictures of the brave firefighter climbing up to do this, we witnessed community service at its best. Moving beyond that simple act of kindness, we returned to our classrooms and examined the pictures we took. Using the pictures from this experience, 3rd graders were introduced to the different shapes of triangles (right, acute, obtuse) as well as measurement (conversion from inches to feet). After the lesson was introduced, 4th graders invited us to their classroom to listen to the same topic using a much more complex lesson (finding the area of a triangle, calculating the sides, discussing perimeter, etc). 5th graders showed their expertise in applying the formula by participating in the lesson as well.

Science: Using the same flagpole experience as the foundation of our lesson, we will discover how simple machines work. We will use the flagpole as an example of a simple machine and discover how the pulley works to lift up the flag. Then we will discuss the other types of simple machines such as wheel and axle, inclined plane, wedge, screw, and lever.

Social Studies: Reviewing our community helpers unit, we will discuss the many different ways our Irving firefighters have helped our school community this week.

Religion:   In honor of the Lady's feast day, we will learn about Our Lady of Guadalupe and Juan Diego. We will also participate in a variety of Nativity lessons campus wide.

Notes/Reminder:
1. Our Christmas party is this Friday! Please check your Tuesday folder regarding party information from Mrs. Griffin.
2. Looking for a free holiday event to take the whole family? Consider the ICE FEST 2011! The holiday celebration on Ice is at the Dr. Pepper Star Center in Euless on December 17th, 2011. Our very own 3rd grader Vanessa Griffin will skate alongside other semi-pro skaters such as US National Pair Champions Ashley Cain and Joshua Reagan. 2pm to 3pm: Free Public Skate 3:00 to 3:30 PM Free Skate with Santa 4:00 to 4:45 Free Holiday Ice Show 4:45 to 5:45 PM Skate with the Cast.

Have a blessed week!
~Mrs. Pia Villanueva-Pulido

Excellence is Not a Singular Act

"Excellence is not a singular act. You are what you repeatedly do." - Aristotle

Brother Pio Maria at another guest speaker event, showing an act of excellence! :)

21st Century Learning: Using a Thinking Maps strategy to remember multiple steps of multiplying  a one digit number with a larger number. Sample problems taken directly from their questions in the ALEKS Math technology program.

Speaking of excellence - Congratulations to Serra Marquez for completing the ALEKS Multiplication QuickTables! She is also almost done with all her 3rd grade Math topics in ALEKS. When asked about how she did it, she said, "I used my free time every night to log on to ALEKS, even Saturdays and Sundays."  Aristotle would have been proud! 

3rd Grade Peek at the Week December 5th, 2011

Dear Parents,
Please take a look at this week's highlights:

Vocabulary/Spelling: Unit 15 due tomorrow in textbook. Vocabulary Quiz on Thursday. Spelling Test on Friday.  Please note that this routine will change as we finish the textbook. We will begin to do dictionary skills using the words in the PSIA list possibly next month.

Reading: We are covering the following reading skills this week using the Essential Skills for Reading Success supplementary book to learn practical reading skills applied to all of the other subjects:
a) Identifying Sequence
b) Analyzing Language and Vocabulary
c) Analyzing Plot, Characters, Setting
d) Recognizing Cause and Effect


English: Chapter 10 Test on Possessive Nouns tomorrow. We had a whole class review today with sample sentences directly from the test. Study pg. 460 for the test.

Math: As we continue to drill math facts in multiplication and division, we are now learning multiplication with carrying. We used our Thinking Maps (Flow Map) to breakdown the multiple steps of multiplying larger numbers as well as sample problems from our ALEKS curriculum in the Smartboard. We will continue our progress in Math. Be on the lookout for a paper test on multiplication with larger numbers in the next couple of weeks.

Religion: We continue to cover topics over God's plan of salvation. From the Creation story to the Incarnation and Redemption, we will discuss how we can live our lives with the simplicity of loving God.

Notes/Reminder:
1. Toy Drive is this Thursday, December 8th. Please bring a new toy as an offering.
2. Early Dismissal on Friday, December 9th.
3. Last week's "Already the Best, Uplift The Rest" classroom guest speaker drew in a much larger crowd than our regular classroom audience. Brother Pio Maria from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal spoke to all 3rd - 8th graders in the Parish Hall about his faith and devotion to God. Brother Pio Maria shared with us about embracing the simplicity of loving God. He shared his views on taking vows of the Franciscan life in a way that effectively challenges the worldly values in every age. The spiritual values that unite the friars are a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, and we were most truly blessed to have him share a life much different from ours. Best of all, the kids loved him and thought he was very funny! He was most definitely an uplifting speaker.

Wayside School Diorama Project

Using materials from home, students designed their own version of Wayside School from a unit novel we read in class.

Wayside School was supposed to be 30 classrooms, one story high; but by mistake it was built straight up 30 stories.

This is our class version of the school built sideways!

3rd Grade Peek at the Week News November 28, 2011

Dear 3rd Grade Parents,

Please take a look at this week's highlights:

Vocabulary/Spelling: Unit 14 due tomorrow in the textbook. Vocabulary Quiz on Thursday and Spelling Test on Friday.

Reading: We wrapped up a wonderful novel unit with some creative projects and dioramas of Wayside School! Visit the hallway and check out some of our creations. This week, we will begin using Essential Skills for Reading Success: Strategies for Reading Comprehension and Test Taking, a supplementary reading material provided by the Downes family. This book provides practical reading skill strategies such as recalling facts, main ideas, identifying sequences, analyzing narrative elements, recognizing cause and effect, drawing conclusions, and making inferences. Combining our prior knowledge with the Thinking Maps strategies, we discovered that we already know at least 8 out of the 14 skills introduced in the textbook. Today, the class took an active part in their own learning by identifying which Thinking Map to use to analyze the Table of Contents in the textbook.

English: We did very well in our last English/Grammar test. We will continue with lessons on nouns with a focus on singular and plural possessive nouns.

Math: We are almost finished with our Math Multiplication and Division drill and will continue in our learning mode in ALEKS. This week's focus is the ALEKS QuickTables practice (using the 10 key)Stay tuned for more instructions regarding our "MyPie" learning mode.

Notes/Reminder:
1. Tomorrow Mrs. Grimm and Mrs. Hays will conduct an all-school liturgy practice to go over some of the changes in the responses for Friday's Mass.

Have a wonderful week!
~Mrs. Pia Villanueva-Pulido

3rd Grade Peek at the Week News November 21, 2011

Dear 3rd Grade Parents,

I am thankful for the opportunity to bring you wonderful news this week: NO HOMEWORK! NO SCHEDULED TESTS!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!


Notes/Reminder:

We welcomed our most recent guest speaker, Deputy Constable Charles Woertendyke who came to speak to our class about respecting authority, helping the community, and working hard in school.
His bio is below:

I have lived in Dallas County my entire life. I graduated Skyline High School Dallas, TX in 1989. I worked in the family owned business before graduating high school   I attended the police academy at Cedar Valley College between 1992 and 1993 where I completed basic, intermediate and advanced officer training. I began my career as a Deputy Constable in August 1993. I worked with the Dallas County Constable Office Pct. 1 from August 1993 to April 1994.

I was given the opportunity to work in Ellis County’s Constable Office Pct. 1 in April 1994 and remained there until December 1994. I was transferred over to Ellis County Constable Office Pct. 4 in February 1995 where I stayed until December 2006. I moved to Tarrant County Constable Office Pct. 7 December 2006 to help the new Constable set up his office and now I have returned to Ellis County since the job in Tarrant County is concluded.   I now have an advanced TCLEOSE rating which few Deputy Constables hold.  I guess you could say my entire law enforcement career has been devoted to a Constable’s Office.

I married Cynthia Kaylor of Irving in March 2002. We have two boys, John and Charlie. We have lived in Grand Prairie since we were married or seven years. 

Throughout my life I have been active in the Democratic Party and block walked,  distributed yard signs, and obtained ballot petition signatures for Democratic candidates.  This is the first time I am running for the office of Constable or any office. 

I am available to discuss issues with you and any group which has coffees or meetings to attend. For more information, visit http://www.charles4constable.com/

Thank you.

Deputy Constable Charles Woertendyke