Weekend Homework

Since we have a few tests coming up next week, I left the weekend to mostly study for those tests, as well as begin working on the Rome project. Due to a surprise fire drill today we did not have a chance to go through the Rome study guide, but we finished reading everything and they have learned everything to answer all the questions on their study guides. If they do not know the answer to any questions, I have uploaded an answer key to the "Study Guide" album on Bloomz. We were able to make it through the science study guide today, and I have a key up in the "Study Guide" album on Bloomz for that as well, just as a reference.

We also began talking today about making outlines for our Rome projects so that writing the report will be easier. I handed out a single page outline to get them thinking about how they wanted to organize and begin writing their paper.

The parents also have some homework this weekend. I mentioned early in the week that I was sending home a form for the parents to fill out so we could have a better conversation during conferences in January. I have had a few parents who have already returned those forms, and I thank you for your feedback. However I have a lot of parents who have not yet filled those out or have not sent them in with their students. The form says they are due on Monday, December 12, and I will begin checking in earnest whether they have been turned in at that point. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes to fill out that form so we can have better conversations during conferences. Also, please sign up for a conference slot on January 3 or 4, or let me know of another time that works for you. I would like to make sure that is all planned before we go away for Winter break.

Dates to keep in mind: we will begin reciting poems and take our Rome test on Tuesday, December 13; we will be taking our science test on Wednesday, December 14. I am hoping to have Little House on the Prairie finished next week and we might be taking a quiz on the book next Thursday, December 15. It would not be a large quiz but just something to let me know they have understood some of the events of the book.

Have a wonderful weekend. If you have any questions, email or send me a Bloomz message.

~Miss Carnahan

Welcome Back

I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable break. The students are definitely energized to be back in school. We had a great day learning about the Roman army, muscles, and began reading Little House on the Prairie

Since we did not have Spalding homework last week, many of the students forgot that I have begun sending home the week's worth of spelling words on Monday, so be on the lookout for that and keep it for the rest of the week.

We began reading Little House on the Prairie today, and will be reading it for the next few weeks. Please send in your child's copy of the book starting tomorrow so they can participate. Also, we did not finish reading chapter 1 in class, so part of their homework will be to finish the chapter. They can include that in their 20 minutes of reading for the evening. We ended on page 13, so there are only a few pages left for them to read.

I am sending home two different papers for science, one that will be due tomorrow and one that will be due on December 16. The paper that is due tomorrow has the title "Name That Muscle" and requires your student to do as many push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and jumping jacks they can. The back of that page has another activity that they are not required to do. The other paper, which will be due on December 16 is called "Work Out Your Heart" and is just a calendar to keep track of how often a week your student exercises for 20 minutes or more.

The last worksheet for homework today is a reading on the Roman Army. We talked a lot about them in class today so the reading should just be a re-enforcement of what we have already discussed, as well as a few questions that should be in the reading.

I announced to the class today that the poem "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Night" will need to be ready to be presented on December 13. They received a copy of the poem at the beginning of November on a bright green piece of paper. So just add that to your calendar as well.

We have another due date coming up for the Roman Project Week project. They will need to be turning in three details that they will be focusing on in their project soon. This is to ensure that they are learning time management as well as alleviate the stress of leaving it all until the end.

Have a wonderful evening!
~Miss Carnahan

Quarter 2

Hey, as I mentioned in parent teacher conferences, we are transitioning to Bloomz this quarter.

Please email me if you have any questions or are struggling to log on and we will work to fix the problem.

~Miss Carnahan

Quarter 1 Week 7

I apologize for falling off the blog wagon for the past week.

Last week was a fun week: we began learning about Canada last week, as well as began wrapping up our unit on animal classification. We worked on addition with regrouping and subtraction with borrowing and had a great discussion in Touchpebbles on Friday. This upcoming week will be full of tests that wrap up a few units we have been studying

Spalding:
act, been, be, yesterday, among, question, quest, doctor, size, December, dozen, there, tax, number, October, reason, fifth, baking, bake, bowl, cheap, cheerful, chicken, driving, drive, echoes, echo, fairy, knock, leather

Science
We finish our study guide on Monday and then have a classification test on Wednesday. On Thursday we begin Ecology by talking about what it is and what it means

Math
We finish up regrouping and borrowing multiple times and have a test on Thursday. We have started trying to do Rocket Math daily as a warm up to math

Grammar
We will be practicing classifying sentences with prepositional phrases in them and begin learning a list of the prepositions.

Literature
We will talk about sequencing events, begin reading groups this week, and continue our discussion of what poetry is and how to understand and analyse it.

History
We continue to learn more about Canada and will talk about the earliest explorers to discover Canada.

There are quite a few tests this week, but I am confident that the students will do great on them. Have a wonderful afternoon.

~Miss Carnahan

Quarter 1 Week 5

We made it through another great week of class, learning all sorts of new things. We even started touchpebbles this week, talking about revenge and whether revenge is ever ok.

Next week we won't have school on Monday (Happy Labor Day!) but other than that we will have a pretty normal week. I am hoping to start reading groups in the next little bit, so be on the look out for a signup genius being sent out.

Spalding
Because we don't have school Monday, we will only have 21 words this week: learn, wonder, pair, pear, pare, check, prove, heard, hear, inspect, itself, always, something, expect, need, thus, woman, women, young, fair, fare

History
We have been talking about geographical features in class, and this week the students will be making their own islands with different geographical features. I will send home a list of all the geographical features we have talked about as a reference. We will also have a little quiz on some of the newer features on Thursday.

Grammar
We begin talking about different ways of expressing ourselves, both in formal and informal language. We will begin a creative writing project this week as we learn what a rough draft is and how to use a rough draft in writing.

Literature
We continue to read Trumpet of the Swan and have a fun activity with tongue twisters for this week.

Science
We continue with classification this week, learning about both reptiles and amphibians, and the differences and similarities between the two types of animals.

Enjoy your Monday off celebrating Labor Day

~Miss Carnahan

Quarter 1 Week 4

We had a fun, full week of activities last week, from Map testing, to school pictures, to a messy but enlightening lab on bird beaks. We learned a couple new Shurley English jingles this week that helped us figure out what adverbs and adjectives are and had fun reading Trumpet of the Swan. Next week will have just as many fun, exciting things to learn. We will also begin reciting poems on Wednesday, so help your student be ready for that.

Spalding
We continue learning new spelling words with a little bit more challenging words this week. Last week there was a little confusion on Thursday's practice spelling test homework. I am planning on sending home a complete list of spelling words every Thursday so they can practice them.

Science
We continue classification this week by looking at fish and how they differ from birds.

Math
We continue to work on mental math strategies for adding and subtracting math up to four digit numbers

Grammar
We will begin making up our own sentences using the different parts of speech we have learned about and we will have a test on Friday.

Literature
We continue to read Trumpet of the Swan this week, as well as look at a few other literary devices.

History
We are learning about different geographical features and near the end of the week the students will be creating their own islands with different geographical features on them.

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

~Miss Carnahan

Quarter 1 Week 3

Another week has come and gone and I was so glad to see so many of you at Curriculum Night! I will be uploading my power-point to my blog sometime later this afternoon, but if you have any additional questions please send me an email and I'll be happy to answer them. I'll also be looking into the subscription function on my blog to try and get it fixed.

A few notes:

• This week I sent home a poem that the students should be memorizing. The recitations will be on August 31
• This week we begin cursive in earnest--everything but math will be completed in cursive.

Spalding

We begin spelling words this week! Their homework will include writing their spelling words (with markings) each evening and the spelling test on Friday.

Science

We are using the classification information we have been learning to begin classifying birds this week.

Math

We begin working on mental math strategies for both addition and subtraction for 1, 2, and 3 digit numbers

Grammar

We are working on parts of speech and sentence structure. We will be adding another jingle about adjectives sometime during the week.

Literature

We continue reading Trumpet of the Swan.

History

We will be solidifying our understanding of latitude and longitude as well as begin talking about different types of land forms found in the world.

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Miss Carnahan

August 14, 2016

Dear Families,

A week of school has come and gone and we are already getting into the swing of things and creating a good rhythm in the classroom. I began to send home reading logs this week, and have enjoyed reading the summaries of all the different books our students are reading. It makes me itch to go to the library and check a few of them out myself because they all sound so interesting and entertaining. This week we also began our differentiated math classes, and the transitions between teachers during math time has been quick and smooth. I hope the students can keep that up all year :) We are having Curriculum night this week on Thursday, August 18 where you will get a chance to meet your student's math teacher-be on a lookout for a flier with the schedule of events coming home with your student Monday or Tuesday.

This week I also started sending home missing homework papers. Some of your students got those papers for missing reading logs on Friday. Because there was a weekend spot many had planned on filling that out this weekend, but I sent home a new one which I would like to be filled out for this weekend. The missing homework sheet mentions that students have "extra homework" if they receive one of those papers. What it means is that if the homework was not completed it must still be completed and turned in the following day. If the homework was completed but left at home, the sheet merely must be stapled to the late homework and turned in the following day. Because I was not clear with my instructions on reading logs this week, the missing homework sheets will not count against students this weekend.

The students have been flooded with a lot of content information this week and we are already beginning to quiz them on some of it, and there will be a grammar quiz on Monday, a math quiz on Thursday, and a geography quiz on Friday. The grammar review was sent home with your students on Friday (Shurley English Review). I encourage you to ask your students about the sentence "jingle" we learned this week. If they don't understand what that is the first line is "A sentence, sentence, sentence..." and they should know the rest.

The rest of this week we will be learning a lot of fun things as well:

Grammar
We will start learning about different parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives and we will probably be learning another jingle or two. A link for the next few jingles we will be learning can be found here. I also plan on sending home a list of punctuation and capitalization rules that we learning this week so you can reference them at home. Some of the quizzes and worksheets might ask for specific rule numbers and I want you to have a reference at home to look things up.

Science
We continue our unit on classification and will begin learning what Cornell notes are and how they can be useful study tools.

Math
This week we will continue our exploration of rounding to the nearest tens, hundreds, and thousands as well as talking about what estimating is and how it can be useful. We will be having a test on Thursday, and begin talking about strategies for adding and subtracting using mental math skills on Friday.

Literature
We will read chapters 3 and 4 of Trumpet of the Swan this week. The students will also start thinking about cause and effect.

History
We continue to look at and learn about the different parts of maps, such as the compass rose and lines of latitude and longitude. On Friday we will have a quiz on the continents and oceans of the world.

While I plan to send most papers home on Fridays with the students, occasionally, with homework, I will send it home the same day. That happened this week and many of the students noticed a CAN in the upper corner of their paper. I did not have time to explain what that meant to them at the time, but I want to clarify it with all families now. CAN is an acronym meaning C-complete; A-accurate; and N-neat, and I grade homework on those standards.

I hope you are having a great weekend and I look forward to seeing your students on Monday

Miss Carnahan

News from around the school

At the beginning of the school year there seem to be so many little details that need to be passed on and attended to, and I have been asked to remind families of a few things from different teachers and organizations around school:

From Ms Blasi:

Dear 3rd Grade Parents,

It was brought to my attention that the Theory Time - Grade Three workbook did not make it onto the Archway Lincoln consumable book list. This was an oversight on my part, and I want to apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this might have caused you. We will be using the Theory Time - Grade Three book in music class. However, since it was not on the original consumable book list, it will be optional for your student to have it. If you have purchased the book for your child, please have them continue to bring it with them to music class.

From the front office:

SchoolMessenger is a popular tool that the front office uses for important information. If you would like to receive text notifications directly to your cell phone, please text yes to, 68453 to opt-into text messages.

Quarter 1 Week 1

Even though this week lasted only 2 days, there was so much happening that it feels like it lasted a lot longer. I am so happy I got to meet all my students this week and started getting to know them as we had some getting-to-know you activities and began to dive into the material for this year. This next week we are beginning the curriculum in earnest.

Just a few notes:

• We are a nut free classroom. There are a couple of students allergic to nuts so your student cannot bring in snacks with nuts in them. 
• If you have not already sent in the Info sheet and Signature page that I mentioned earlier in the week, please send that in with your student by Tuesday August 9. Thank you to everyone who has already done so.
• We will begin switching for Math on Monday, so prepare your students for that. You should be receiving an email by the end of the day Monday informing you who your scholar's math teacher is.

This week we will be learning a lot of different things:

Spalding

We are not starting spelling this week, but instead will begin reviewing phonographs and good handwriting. We will review manuscript early in the week and end the week with cursive. 

Grammar

We use Shurley English for our grammar curriculum. On Monday we will be taking a pretest and on Tuesday we will begin reviewing what Synonyms and Antonyms are.

Science

We are beginning our science unit with classification. The students will be learning what "kingdom" "phylum" "class" and "species" mean in terms of taxonomy

Math

This week in math we will be reviewing place value and rounding. We will have a quiz on Thursday 8/11 on what we have been reviewing.

Literature

We will begin Trumpet of the Swan this week, as well as learn what cause and effect mean.

History/Geography

We will begin our unit by reviewing the continents and oceans and talking about where we fit in a global sense. 

I look forward to seeing the students on Monday morning. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to email me.

~Miss Carnahan

Welcome

Dear Families of 3C,

Welcome to the new school year at Archway Lincoln. My name is Miss Carnahan and I will be your teacher for third grade this year. I am excited to be joining the staff at this school and look forward to getting to know you and your students. I am sure we will have a lot of fun learning together.

I was born and raised in Phoenix proper, growing up 15 minutes from downtown Phoenix. I graduated from Veritas Preparatory Academy, and supported Great Heart’s goals since the beginning. Last year I moved to the east valley and have found the Mesa, Chandler, and Gilbert areas very welcoming and fun places to live and explore. Before moving out here I spent some time in Utah, Italy, and China.

This will be my first year as a lead teacher. I worked the last two years at Archway Arete as an assistant teacher, both in 4^th and 2^nd grade, but wanted to be a lead teacher. I attended Brigham Young University and graduated with a bachelor’s in Classical studies emphasizing both in Latin and in Greek. After graduating I took the opportunity to volunteer teaching English to preschoolers in China where I solidified my love of teaching and working with students, as well as my love for learning and exploring.

When I’m not teaching I love going to museums, to farmers’ markets, to national parks and on bike rides. I have already been to five or six national parks this year, including the Grand Canyon and the Golden Gate Bridge. My favorite museum at the moment is the Getty Roman Villa right outside Los Angeles but it’s hard to choose. I also love going to the theater especially when it is Southwest Shakespeare.

I will do my best to keep the lines of communication open this year. Feel free to contact me via email if you ever have questions or concerns. I will also have a classroom blog that I plan on updating weekly and I encourage you to visit that regularly for news on what we will be doing during the week.

I am thrilled to be a part of Archway Lincoln’s family and teach in such a rich and uplifting setting as the Great Heart’s model. I love many of the units we will be studying this year and look forward to learning along with your children. I can’t wait to meet you and your students this week and start our adventure together.

Yours in Learning

Ms Clara Carnahan

ccarnahan@archwaylincoln.org