AUGUST+26

=__**AUGUST 26**__=

**Wednesday, Sept. 21...No school. Professional Development.**
**Thursday, Sept. 15...VMEPC Meeting @ 7:00 p.m.** **Sept. 26-30...Homecoming Week ("Costume/spirit days" to be announced later!)**

===Each grade level is needing a representative to the Van Meter Elementary Parents' Committee (VMEPC). This person will attend the VMEPC meeting each month (every third Thursday, usually at 7:00 p.m.) to represent your child's grade level. You will help make decisions regarding the elementary fund raisers, money usage, and teacher support. The VMEPC is a great way to be involved and to meet other parents! Please let us know ASAP if you are interested in serving as the rep from either Mrs. Volk's room or Mrs. Skahill's/Miss Stephens' room. Thank you!===

=== Both homerooms will have a "Homework Club" each quarter. We will keep a chart in our rooms, tracking which students return their homework packets on time each week. Students who consistently return their packets each week will be rewarded at the end of each quarter! ===

We have been informed that the kitchen can no longer store items that need to be frozen or refrigerated. You will need to provide a cooler if your child is bringing treats that require refrigeration. Thank you for your cooperation.

__**LITERACY:**__
Please check out the link below to follow our Roald Dahl 50th birthday celebration activities. @https://sites.google.com/a/vmbulldogs.com/van-meter-technology/author-and-book-news/3rd-grade/follow-that-peach We are introducing the 6-Traits of Writing and will be focusing on the trait of IDEAS. In reading, we will make predictions and connections. We will use context clues, identify main events, question, and infer. Please encourage your child to read at home.

__**MATH:**__
The students have taken their first pretest and are working on addition and subtraction strategies/skills. The students will be adding and subtracting two-, three-, and four-digit numbers using the respective properties. They will also be applying those strategies and skills to solve math problems. This would be a great time to review basic addition and subtraction facts.

__**SCIENCE:**__
We are having an amazing time in science with our monarch butterflies! We have several stages going at once...from eggs to chrysalis, and everything in between! A caterpillar goes through 5 stages (or instars) between hatching and making its chrysalis, and we've even gotten lucky a couple times and have been able to witness a "pupa dance" when the caterpillar sheds it skin for the final time and creates its chrysalis. The entire cycle from egg to adult monarch is only 30 days, so it's an excellent classroom project! Our adults will be set free to join the fall migration to Mexico! We are having a hands-on, eyes-on experience with the miracles of life and nature. Milkweed leaves that are clean and bug-free can be wrapped in damp paper towels and brought in baggies for food, because our caterpillars are eating machines! Be sure to ask your child what "frass" is! In between "monarch madness", we have been setting up our science notebooks with a table of contents and glossary, have added some words to the glossary, and have created pages on the monarch life cycle and a close-up diagram of a caterpillar's body parts.

__**SOCIAL STUDIES:**__
We are completing our discussion about symbols and are in the process of designing our third grade flag. The students will be voting for their favorite design, and we will be looking for a volunteer to help us turn the paper design into a fabric flag. The flag isn't due until the end of the year when we host our country potluck. If you are interested in helping us with this project, please contact Ann Volk. Starting next week we will be reviewing the different features of urban, suburban, and rural communities. We will also be learning about how communities change and how people of many cultures live in the communities. We will identify some of the holidays that Americans celebrate together. We have started a year-long project called Daily Detective. The purpose of this project is to not only help the students learn about the countries of the world, but also to help them research. Each day a new clue will go up on our 'detective board'. The students will be able to write the clue down and bring it home so that you can, if needed, help your child to identify the country. The clues start out very broad and as the week goes on, get more specific. Please ask your child about Daily Detective and each daily clue.

__**MRS. VOLK:**__
Thank you to everyone who signed up to help with our parties this year. We are still looking for some helpers. Please let me know if you are interested in signing up for any of the following spots: We are REALLY needing two brave risk-takers to sign up to be the **Person in Charge** of the Halloween party and the **Person in Charge** of the Christmas Party, We are also needing someone to bring in a food and/or drink item for the Christmas party, and another person to bring in a non-edible treat for the Valentine's Day party. Please let me know if you are interested in helping with any of those areas!

Please be sure to return the Third Grade Student/Parent Contact Information sheet if you haven't yet.

Book orders will be coming home next week. They are not due until September 5th. You will have the option of ordering on-line or sending in the paper order form along with a check. If you opt to send in a check, please make it payable to Scholastic. I will be sending home on-line ordering instructions with the book order forms. Please contact me with questions.

Your child has been introduced to the Skills Iowa computer program. This is a computerized program that your child can access at home. S/he can work on a variety of reading, vocabulary, math, or language arts skills. You will find the link on the Van Meter Library and Tech site. S/he has been given a username and password, which should be written on the front pages of their planner. Please feel free to investigate at home. Thanks

__**MRS. SKAHILL/MISS STEPHENS:**__
It was nice to see many of you at Open House on August 11! If you did not have the chance to sign up to help with a holiday party, please let us know which party you would like! We have openings for "chairperson" for Christmas and Valentine's Day yet. (And that's really not so bad...you just make the contacts to get the rest of the committee working!!)

The first Scholastic book order of the year will come home Monday and will be due back on Friday. You may order online, or send back to school the paper order forms with a check made out to Scholastic. Information/directions will be included with the book fliers on Monday.

__**Wish List:**__ colored copy paper ziploc sandwich bags ziploc gallon bags Clorox or Lysol wipes (we go through a lot of these!) paper towels refills for Glade plug-in air freshener ink cartridges for classroom printer...#98 (black) and/or #95 (color)