Seeds, and Leaves, and Pinecones, OH MY!

Graphic by MyCuteGraphics

We're off to visit the Gilbert Greenway 

and Discovery Trail! 

3rd graders began their morning in the outdoor garden. We were measuring our cabbage plants to see how much they've grown. The data collected was charted on our Vee map in the hall. Before planting our Bonnie Cabbage plants, each student made a prediction as to which growing conditions were best for the cabbage. Choices were water only, water & fertilizer, water & compost, and water & plant food. Today, students added their fertilizer, compost, and plant food. Every plant was watered. Wish us luck!


Students also participated in a scavenger hunt on our Nature Trail. They had to find and collect several items including 2 types of seeds, 4 different kinds of leaves, a pinecone and other items from nature. Students were also equipped with an iPad mini. Students used the iPad to photograph items that were too big to bring back to the classroom. Items included a small tree, the tallest tree, a spider's web, a small animal habitat, a photo of your favorite vegetable, etc. It was a fun learning opportunity! Here's a peek!

Shout Outs!

We would like to recognize the students who were recently recognized at the Chattanooga Lookouts Game for being the Most Improved Students. Teachers were asked to choose five students in each homeroom that has worked really hard this year and made lots of progress. The following students were chosen in 3rd Grade:

Erik Gruber
Lexie Chambers
Zen Cauthen
Jayden Peace
Jaylee Samples
Lucas Fink
Logan Kendrick
Leely Lonas
Aiden Selman
Ethan Gruber
Tanner Barrett
Chesnie Ramsey
Lauren Hunter
Landyn Cameron
Emily Barrett

Wow, our time is almost over!

There will be no homework again this week. We have covered all of our standards. Thus, we have some time to celebrate our accomplishments.

This week students will be allowed to participate in the 3rd grade talent show. This will give the students who are performing in the Gilbert Talent show on May 12 some time to practice performing in front on an audience. It will also give those who didn't make the cut a chance to perform their talent. It's a very low key event that only includes 3rd graders.

I can’t believe the end of the year is here. I just wanted to touch base with you to ensure you were aware of everything we have going on at Gilbert next couple of weeks! 

Friday, May 8

Georgia STEM Day

Monday, May 11

Third - Fifth Grades Field Day

Tuesday, May 12

Talent Show & School Cookout 

Wednesday, May 13

3rd Grade Luau 

1st & 2nd Grade Awards Presentation @ 8:00 a.m.

Thursday, May 14

3rd & 4th Grade Awards Presentation @ 8:00 a.m.

5th Grade Promotion @ 6:00 p.m.

Friday, May 15

Third Grade End of Year Bash @ 10:30 a.m.

For the Awards Ceremony on Thursday, every student will go across the stage. There will be a special slide show at the end of the presentations. You will be asked to remain seated until the end of the presentations to minimize disruptions. Students will be dismissed to the classrooms before the audience. You may check your child out if you wish. Just pick him/her up in the classroom. 

On Friday, our class will host an end-of-year bash. Please plan to join us for refreshments and a more personalized (class specific) slide show. We should wrap things up by 11:00 at the latest. We would like for each family to bring a package of cookies. We could also use help with canned soft drinks (12 packs). Students should bring cookies and drinks to school on Thursday so that we may purchase any needed items. 

See you all soon!

3rd Grade Luau

THIRD GRADE LUAU

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

On Wednesday, May 13^th, we will have our Third Grade Luau to celebrate the end to a wonderful school year.  We will provide leis for each student. Students will enjoy fun luau type activities including limbo, dancing, and games. We’ll also have a special “themed” snack that students will help create!

WE NEED YOUR HELP! We are planning to make fruit kabobs as part of our themed snack. We need your help in gathering the fruit. Notes were sent home last week.

q  Grapes (white/red)

q  Bananas

q  Pineapple (canned sliced)

q  Apples

q  Cantaloupe

q  Watermelon

q  Oranges

q  Mandarin Oranges (canned oranges)

We need to make sure that we continue to follow the dress code, so no swimsuits please. Thin straps on shirts are also not allowed. Refer to your school handbook for more specific information.

Reading & Library Note

Graphics from: www.mycutegraphics.com

I just wanted to take a moment and update everyone on the current reading/library information. Students will not have a written response/summary due this week or the remainder of our school year.

During the two week testing window, we do not assign homework. You will find out more about that in the letter coming home soon. Our school will operate in testing mode for those two weeks. Students must remain inside classrooms and be considerate of those who are still testing until the all-clear announcement. Pretty much that means, we cannot do anything noisy. So we'll read daily when we complete our testing (within our classroom) until the announcement is made.

The media center will be closed during the two weeks of testing. As a result, I will be asking students to get two chapter books to last them an entire week. Many of them recently moved to a higher level and this will give them a chance to try it out. Students are invited to share a review/recommendation on Fridays. We call them "book commercials". Some feel more comfortable making a few notes as they read to remind them of really good parts they want to share. Sharing is not required, but is encouraged. :)

Difficult as it is to believe, we only have 27 days left in this school year! The media center will close about two weeks before school is out in order to get all books in and inventoried. This means we will only check out books two more times (April 13 and April 20). If you have misplaced a library book, please take care of it as soon as possible. The lost ones will have to be replaced. It will need to be cleared up before awards days and the end of the year, as you will not be allowed to receive your awards if you owe for a lost book.

Until next time, HAPPY READING!

Mrs. Richardson :)

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Aubry Price! Aubry's writing took first place in the Walker County Young Author's Fair competition! She beat out eight other third graders! We are so very proud of you, Aubry! Kudos to Mrs. Thornton for being a great writing teacher, too!

Aubry @ the awards ceremony on 3-26-15

Super Heroes Spotted @ Gilbert

On Wednesday, March 25th, Gilbert Elementary was taken over by super heroes! We were all dressed up to celebrate some super writers. Our very own Mrs. Thornton, a.k.a Leonardo the Ninja Turtle was the emcee for the event! Here's a peek!

Leonardo, breakin' it down!

Bat-people

Ninja Turtles in the house!

Super-people!

So many heroes!

Preparing for the Georgia Milestones

The Georgia Milestones Assessment is just around the corner for third graders. We are reviewing material learned throughout the year in preparation for this assessment. Here's some information that may help you and your child.

  

What is the Georgia Milestone?

The Georgia Milestones Assessment System (Georgia Milestones) is a comprehensive summative assessment pro​gram spanning grades 3 through high school.  Georgia Milestones measures how well students have learned the knowledge and skills outlined in the state-adopted content standards in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.  Students in grades 3 through 8 will take an end-of-grade assessment in each content area, while high school students will take an end-of-course assessment for each of the eight courses designated by the State Board of Education.

Features the Georgia Milestone Assessment System include:

• open-ended (constructed-response) items in language arts and mathematics (all grades and courses);
• a writing component (in response to passages read by students) at every grade level and course within the language arts assessment;
• norm-referenced items in all content areas and courses, to complement the criterion-referenced information and to provide a national comparison; and
• transition to online administration over time, with online administration considered the primary mode of administration and paper-penc​il as back-up until the transition is complete.

Click here to download the EOG Assessment Guide for 3rd Grade. It has sample test items for each subject.

There's an online platform that allows you to see what the online version of the test is like. As of right now, we are not supposed to do our testing online. However, this should give you a good idea of what the questions on the Milestone are like. http://experience-ga.ctb.com/

3rd Grade Composting Video

In case you missed our commercial debut on FaceBook, here it is! We are very excited about the composting program here at Gilbert!

Snow Day

 Walker County Schools will be closed tomorrow! The snow has arrived! Everyone enjoy playing in the snow! Bundle up and be safe!

Here are a few Gilbert Gators enjoying this afternoon's snow!

Aubry (3rd) and Maddie give the snow two thumbs up!

Logan, Lucas, and Kayla are ready to play!

 If you have a snow photo you'd like to share, email Mrs. Richardson.