Have a look at this!!!

Have a look at some of the students' work.  They had to imagine they are from the Navajo tribe and had to write a postcard to a friend in the Kwakiutl or Cheyenne tribe. It was assigned for journal writing. They made these postcards in the Computer class.
Excellent work, Gr.3's!!!

Open publication - Free publishing - More postcard

It's nearly Christmas!!!

Dear Parents and Students,


What a great show we had on Friday night! Beauty and the Beast was an enormous success! And this is because of YOU! Students, thank you for all the hard work, your endless energy and constant enthusiasm. Parents, thank you for your patience, support and cooperation. You all made the show incredible! Students, you are the STARS of the show! Well done! A huge THANK YOU to you all from the bottom of my heart!


Here is a link where you can look at some photos:  
http://www.hdis.hc.edu.tw/files/6f64c54e000c58024e6b82962a30afea-118.html


Some arrangements for the last week before the Christmas break:


Students will get another book report assignment this week which they can finish during the vacation. On Tuesday, December 14th, they will all have the chance to choose a book from the school’s library to base the book report on.


Friday, December 17th, will be our last day before the break. We will do class work until around 11.00am. Then we will have a class party/gift exchange to celebrate Christmas. I will take care of drinks and snacks. For the gift exchange, could you please send a nicely wrapped gift (valued around 250NT). It might be best if your child doesn’t know what is in the box/bag, so there are no surprises given away. You can even put something small in a bigger box so they can not easily recognize what is inside the package. (This will add to the fun!)
Girls will exchange with girls and boys with boys. We will play a game to make exchanging the gifts exciting.


Friday will also be Hiromu Matsuyama’s last day at our school. He and his family are moving back to Japan. We are very sad that he is leaving us, but we wish him all the best. Hiromu, we will definitely miss you. Come and visit us!


Our student of the week is Ryan Huang.  Ryan is making great progress in Math!  He is a shining star when it gets to multiplication!  Well done, Ryan!  You are performing very well!

Since this will be my last official letter before our winter vacation I would like to wish everyone a “Merry Christmas” and “Best wishes for the New Year”! Have a great time during the vacation. Thank you for all you have done. It is a great pleasure to work with a team like you!


Merry Christmas!


Take care!


Kind Regards,
Ms. Crous

Television Interviews

Teressa Lee and Hiromu Matsuyama


Stanford Yu and Airi Saito


Sharon Tang and Leo Hsu


Ryan Huang and Tatsuya Ochi


Alex Lee and Shawn Kao


Yehna Jung and Evelyn Hsu


Jonathan Sun and Michitaro Yasui

6 Days Before Our Christmas Production!

Dear Parents and Students,

It is only 6 more days before our Christmas production, Beauty and the Beast!

Some important information for the coming week;

Monday (December 6th) and Wednesday (December 8th) we will have rehearsal at the Science Park from 8.30 – 12.00. Please drop your child at the Science Park both days at 8.30. The school has arranged transport back to the school at 12.00. Students bring their schoolbags, water bottles and a snack with them at 8.30 to the Science Park.

On Thursday (December 9th) we will have rehearsal at the Science Park from 8.30am – 5.00pm. Please drop off your child at 8.00am and collect them from the Science Park at 5.00pm. The school will provide lunch but please ensure that you still send a snack and water.

Friday (December 10th), please ensure that your child is at the theater by 5.00pm so that we can ensure that they are ready in time. Please don’t do make-up or hair, everything will be done at the Science Park, at 5.00pm.

On Tuesday (December 7th) our class photo will be taken. Please make sure all students are dressed properly and bring your beautiful smiles along!

Parents and students, thank you VERY much for your cooperation and all your patience. I am working with a star team!!!

It was Yehna Jung's birthday on Tuesday, November 30th. Happy birthday, Yehna! We wish you a wonderful year to come!  Thank you for treating us with pizza and cake!  We had a great time with you on your birthday!!!

Congratulations to Michitaro Yasui! He is our student of the week!

See everyone on Friday, at the Science Park!!! Beauty and the Beast! It's going to be a night to remember!!!

Take care, everyone!

Thanksgiving

Dear Parents and Students,

What an extremely enjoyable week! Alongside learning and rehearsals this week we enjoyed a birthday party and a celebration!

It was Leo Hsu’s birthday on Wednesday and he treated all the Gr. 3’s with delicious pizza and cake! We had a lot of fun partying with him! Happy Birthday, Leo!

Together with Leo’s birthday we had another fantastic celebration ~ Thanksgiving! Thank you to all our parents for your generosity and providing all the superb dishes and treats. Thanksgiving 2010 was a fabulous event with all of you. Happy Thanksgiving Gr.3’s and Parents!

The Christmas show is only two weeks away and it is absolutely great to experience the progress of such a wonderful musical. Students and teachers have the privilege of the experiences that go along with performing in such a show. We are making memories everyday when rehearsing for the show! I am VERY excited! Only two more weeks!!! Thank you, Students, for your hard work and for also working hard in class and on homework and assignments. You make me proud!

Gr.3’s, please remember about next week’s tests. We will be writing English Test on Monday, November 29th (on Unit 5) and Social Studies Test on Wednesday, December 1st (on Chapter 5 and 6).

Also remember about the Oral Presentation – Television Interview. Work hard on this! Remember, you will be video recorded!!!

Our student of the week is Tatsuya Ochi. He is becoming a good leader and he is doing a very good job at his class duties. Congratulations Tatsuya! You are a great student!

Enjoy the weekend, everyone! Have fun!

Fun learning

Dear Parents and Students,

It has been a busy week in the Gr.3 classroom!  We are attending rehearsals, writing tests and keeping up with the curriculum!  All the praise to the students in Gr.3!

This coming week will include Thanksgiving Day!  The Gr.3’s will join Gr.1 and Gr.2 for Thanksgiving celebration and we will enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with them. .  What an exciting event!  Thank you to all the parents who responded on the letter and for offering to provide some of the dishes for the lunch.  We are looking forward to this special time with parents and students on November 25^th at 11:30am.

It is time to write chapter tests again.  Students, these scheduled tests will be the last ones before our winter break!  So please put in the last bit of effort to study for them!

The dates are as follow:

Math Test ~ Chapter 7:  Thursday, 24 November 2010

English Test ~ Unit 5:  Monday, 29 November 2010

Social Studies Test ~ Chapter 5 & 6:  Wednesday, 1 December 2010

Gr.3 students were given their oral assignment this week.  They are divided into pairs and they have to host a television interview with a famous person.  Students had the opportunity to do some research on the famous person during Computer class.  They also worked on this assignment during English class and Oral presentation class.  Students, please be ready for the television interview on December 3^rd.  Be creative.  You can also dress up…!  I will set up the television studio in our class on December 3^rd. 

This week in Math we started Chapter 8.  It is all about multiplication.  Here are some links where you can play some exciting games to practice your multiplication skills!  Have fun with the games!  And remember:  “Practice makes perfect!”

http://www.abcya.com/kids_match_multiplication_game.htm

http://www.abcya.com/100_number_grid.htm

http://www.abcya.com/math_facts_game.htm

http://www.abcya.com/math_quiz.htm

http://www.kidsnumbers.com/times-tables-games.php

A friendly request to all parents and students:  Please read our blog regularly.  Also have a look at the blogs of the other teachers, including  Mr. Harris’s blog (http://harrisathis.blogspot.com) and the music blog (http://his-musicclass.blogspot.com).  This way important information will not slip past you.

Our student of the week is Shawn Kao.  Shawn is an extremely friendly and spontaneous student, with an excellent attitude and his scores are looking good, too!  Congratulations, Shawn! 

Have a fantastic weekend and make sure to rest and fill up the energy levels!  

No time for cooling down!

Dear Parents and Students,

The weather is cooling down, but don’t think that the Grade 3’s are!  The Grade 3’s are in the highest gear!  No time for cooling down!  The students in third grade are full of energy, always participating and very cooperative!  So are the parents! 

Thank you, Parents, for meeting with me this week.  It was delightful to see all of you and get to speak in person!  Thank you for making time in your busy schedules to come to school and thank you for all your assistance, cooperation and support! 

Thank you, Third Graders, for all your hard work, attending all the rehearsals, staying positive and also still learning productively!  I am greatly impressed by you all!  Also, thank you for the effort to attend rehearsals and getting the correct costumes for the Beauty and the Beast production!  You are STARS!

Third Graders, please remember about the Math Test on Monday, November 15^th, the English Test on Wednesday, November 17^th and the Social Studies Test on Friday, November 19^th.  Study hard!

Happy Birthday to Teressa Lee.  It was her birthday on Thursday, November 11^th.  We all got spoiled with pizza and fried chicken from her mum for lunch.  Thank you very much, Teressa.  We enjoyed it a lot and had so much fun with you.  We wish you endless happiness and great health!

Our Student of the Week is Leo Hsu.  He is a wonderful example of someone with loads of enthusiasm and a wonderful attitude!  Leo is always excited and positive, no matter what the task or circumstances!  Congratulations, Leo!!! 

Have a great weekend, everyone!  I will see you all at the rehearsal on Saturday!  You are the best!!!

Time is flying!

Dear Parents and Students,

I can’t believe how fast time flies! I realized today that it is a month before our Christmas show! Teachers and students are all working very hard on the Beauty and the Beast production. What an exciting month lies ahead! All the Grade 3’s are making me very proud because, along with their class work, they are enthusiastic and putting in a lot of energy to make the Christmas show a successful event.

As we are nearing the date for Beauty and the Beast we will be spending more time on rehearsals. The Grade 3’s know how to work hard, so school work will not stay behind. I also want to kindly request students to stay till 4.00pm on the required days. I will make sure that everyone knows in advance when and where rehearsals will take place. It is very important that everyone attends these after school rehearsals.

On Wednesday, November 10th, the Grade 3’s are requested to stay till 4.00pm to rehearse for Beauty and the Beast. Also on Friday, November 12th, the Grade 3’s presence is also needed until 4.00pm – their acting presence, enthusiasm and energy! School will arrange the usual buses for bus children on Wednesdays but we are unable to provide buses and escorts on Fridays. Is it possible for you to collect your child or maybe help carpool for the Friday rehearsal? Thank you very much!

Curriculum Progress during Week 11:

Math: We learned about surveys, data, range, median, mode and mean. We also learned how to make tally charts, line plots, tables and pictographs.
Social Studies: We learned many interesting things about the Kwakiutl and how they used the ocean and forest to their benefits; we also learned about their great respect for nature.
English: We were very productive in the English class! We learned about adjectives and we completed many exercises.
Reading: We spoke about traditions and we read our first two stories, The Keeping Quilt and Nesting Dolls.

We will be writing tests soon…
Test dates are as follow:
Monday, November 15th : Math Chapter 6
Wednesday, November 17th : English Unit 4
Friday, November 19th : Social Studies Chapter 5 and 6
Monday, November 22nd : Reading Comprehension

Our student of the week is Teressa Lee! She is a good example of a student with great behaviour. She is always punctual and she is working hard. Congratulations, Teressa!

I am looking forward meeting with some of the parents this coming week. Thank you for arranging your schedules to come and see me.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone! Stay warm and dry!

No typhoon in Grade 3!

Dear Parents and Student,

I hope you all had a great week with the wind and the rain!  Everything went smoothly in the Grade 3 classroom this week though.

Thank you, students, for your brilliant science presentations.  It was very interesting to hear of some extinct animals.  We all learnt a lot from each other.  Thank you for your hard work and for sharing your knowledge with us all.  We had a lot of fun!  I can see many future teachers!

On Wednesday, October 27^th, we will have our Halloween Fancy Dress Day.  We will start the day with a parade to the basketball court where classes will give a short performance.  The rest of the day will be spent on fun Halloween activities.  We allocated some class time towards practicing our Halloween parade song.  We hope that you can come and join us as we are going to make our debut with Monster Mash!

Parents, please keep in mind the dates for the parent-teacher appointments.  They are November 9^th and November 10^th.  I also want to thank all parents for supporting your children in their schoolwork.  I want to encourage parents to get involved with your child’s homework without doing it for them.  They are all very capable and they are learning to be more independent.

Curriculum Progress for week 8

Math:  We finished Chapter 5 (Subtraction)

Social Studies:  We completed Chapter 3.  It was very interesting learning about mountains and deserts. 

English:  We also finished Unit 3 and did many exercises on verbs. 

Writing:  We all wrote a friendly letter this week.

Science:  We learnt about how species and individuals in a species vary.  We learnt about extinct animals from each other.

Our student of the week is Airi Saito.  Airi is a very helpful student and has beautiful manners.  She is conscientious and her work is always neatly and well done.  Congratulations, Airi!

Have a splendid weekend, everyone!

Champions!

Dear Parents and Students,

What an exciting week of oral presentations, a birthday celebration and hard work is behind us.  First of all, Happy Birthday to Evelyn Hsu!  Evelyn celebrated her birthday with us on Friday, October 15th.  Thank you Evelyn, for treating us with super delicious pizza!  

Curriculum progress for Week 7

Math:  We started with subtraction this week.  All students are doing a fine job in Math class!

English:  We are still busy with Verbs.  This week we worked with helping verbs and the verb ‘be’.

Science:  We looked at plant and animal cycles.  We also reviewed vertebrates and invertebrates.

Reading:  This week we read different styles of poems.  Students seemed to enjoy all the poems.  Next week we will continue with poetry, and also try to write our own poems.

Social Studies:  We will continue with Chapter 3 in the coming week, and take a little break from Science.

Students did extremely well in their oral presentation “Show us how to…”  We learned a lot from each other.  I believe that many new recipes will be tried out this weekend!  Thank you for all the trouble and for working so hard on the oral presentations. 

Students will also receive a book report assignment during the coming week.  Everything is clearly stated on the assignment paper.  The due date for the book report is November 2^nd, 2010.  That is the day the school will reopen after the mid-term break.  Students, choose an interesting book to read.  You cannot use a book you have already read.  Choose a new book and improve your reading skills, vocabulary and general knowledge!  

Students, remember about the Science project.  Come present your choice of an extinct animal on October 22^nd. 

Our Student of the week is Alex Lee.  Alex is not only a hardworking student, but he is also showing a lot of improvement in all areas of school.  Alex is also performing very well outside of school!  He is a chess expert and he is going to represent Taiwan in Greece!!!  Alex, we wish you all the best for the competition and for your trip.  You are already a champion!!!  Congratulations!   

Our Fancy Dress Day at school is getting closer!  Get those costumes ready, everyone!

Have a fabulous weekend!  

Fun and work!

Dear Parents and Students,

Another successful week is on its back!  Students did well in all the tests and during class they were all very productive and energetic. 

We started to talk about Halloween.  On 27 October we will have a Fancy Dress Day at school.  Students, you may dress up in a beautiful or funny costume for our Fancy Dress Day - it does not need to have a Halloween theme.  So start thinking about something creative to wear on October 27^th.   We will send home more information closer to the date.

More exciting news for our students  is that our Mid-Term Break is from October 28^th to November 1^st.  The school will re-open November 2^nd. 

That is not all!  There is more!   On Monday, October 11^th, there is no school for students.  A professional development day is scheduled on Monday so teachers will be working hard while you are having a free day! 

Curriculum progress for week 6:

Math:  We finished Chapter 4 – Addition.

Science:  We studied the two groups, vertebrates and invertebrates, and we can categorize animals into the two groups.  We also learned about extinct animals and endangered animals.

English:  We did the 3 different tenses, present, past and future tense and we worked with verbs.

Reading:  We were very productive and did a lot of comprehension, sequence of events and cause-and-effect.  Next week we will start with poetry!!! 

Science Project:

Each student has to choose an extinct animal he/she finds interesting.  Students need to do research on this animal (we will also use one of our science classes and make use of the computer room at school to do some research on the internet).  They then have to make an attractive poster with interesting facts and come and present it to us on October 22^nd. 

Our Student of the Week is Sharon Tang!  Sharon is an outstanding student who is a good leader and a hard worker.  Congratulations, Sharon!

 

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!  

Very Productive!

Dear Parents and Students,

What a busy, but productive, week.  Students showed what they are capable of in the tests and assignments of this week.  I am very impressed! 

Curriculum progress for week 5:

Math:  We are busy with addition (Chapter 4).

Science:  We finished the first chapter in Unit A.  We looked closely at leaves and stems through magnifying glasses.

English:  We completed Unit 2 and know a lot about nouns now.

Reading:  We are busy with our fourth story. 

Tests:

Next week we are going to write a Science, a Math and an English test. 

The Science test will be on Monday, October 4th.  Students will get tested on Chapter 1, Parts of Plants.

The Math will be written on Tuesday, October 5th.  Students need to study Chapter 3, Money, for the Math test.

The English Test will take place on Thursday, October 7th.  For the English test students need to study Unit 2, Nouns.

Oral Presentation:

The next presentation is scheduled for Friday, October 15th.  The title of this presentation will be “Show us how you …".  Students should focus on giving the class clear directions on how to make something or how to do something.   It could be how to make a sandwich, how to make something artistic, how to make a card, how to play a game, etc.  Presentations can include cue cards that students can refer to if they forget their directions.  Please remember that students should not be reading their directions directly from their cue cards.       When choosing a topic, students should keep in mind that they need to demonstrate the actions as they give directions.   Props are therefore a necessity.  Students should also remember to speak clearly and audibly.

Our Student of the Week is Hiromu Matsuyama.  He is a very friendly student who is performing very well in all areas of school.  He also got very good test results.  Congratulations, Hiromu!

Enjoy the weekend!  And don’t forget to study! 

Look at us!

Grade 3's are having fun! 

Yehna Jung was Student of the Week for week 5!
Congratulations, Yehna!

Tatsuya got one year older on September 24th.
We had a great time celebrating his birthday with him.

What happened in week 4?

Dear Parents and Students,

First I want to say happy birthday to Tatsuya Ochi.  We wish him loads of happiness and good health!  Plus good scores!  J  Thank you Tatsuya for the delicious pizza!  What an enjoyable pizza party we had today!

Curriculum progress for week 4:

Math:  We are nearly finish with Chapter 3.  All students are showing good knowledge of the money concept.

English:  Students can write with nouns and learnt different plural forms.

Science:  We started this week with the first Chapter of Unit A.  Students know all the different plant parts and the functions of them.

Reading:  We started with our third story – Lost and Found.  We also already started with questions about the story.

This week we also had a lot of fun with dictionaries.  One of our problems of the week was a problem based on dictionaries.  Students worked very well in teams and completed the problem successfully. 

Our Student of the Week is Yehna Jung.  She is performing very well in all the subject areas and got full scores in tests, homework assignments and classwork.  Well done, Yehna!

On Monday, September 27th, we will have a Social Study test about Chapters 1 and 2.

Next Thursday, September 30th, we will write a Reading test.  The reading test will include comprehension, phonics and spelling we did in the units.  The test will be based on theme one.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Dear Parents and Students,

I want to start this week’s blog letter with a huge thank you.  I had an unforgettable birthday and felt very spoiled.  Thank you for all the lovely gifts, the beautiful cards and the delicious snacks!  I appreciate it a lot!  Thank you very much.

I want to remind all Gr.3 students about Monday’s test.  We are going to write an English test on Monday, 20 September based on Unit 1. 

Also please take note of the Math test on Thursday, 23 September.  In the Math test students will get tested on Chapters 1, and 2. 

On Monday, 27 September, we will be writing a Social Studies test.  The test will be about Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

Curriculum Progress during week 3:

Math:  We started with Chapter 3 this week.  Students learned about the Value of money and how to count coins and bills.

English:  We are busy with Unit 2.  Unit 2 is about Nouns and students can already identify proper nouns and common nouns.

Social Studies:  We finished Chapter 2 this week.

Reading:  We are nearly finished with questions about our second story - The Legend of Mulan.

 

Student of the week for this week is Stanford Yu.  Congratulations Stanford!  He always shows excellent manners and respect to students and teachers.  He is also a hard worker.  

Well done all students with the great oral presentations!  What an enjoyable day it has been with all the extraordinary performances.

Have a wonderful weekend!  And study hard!  

Grade 3's are great performers!

Dear Parents and Students,

What an exciting Friday to finish off the second week of school.  We had very interesting and fun Show-and-Tell performances.  Seven students came and share their favorite book with us.  We saw some professional presentations by Michitaro Yasui and Hiromu Matsuyama.

  

We awarded our first Student of the Week for the school year.  Congratulations to Jonathan Sun.  He is a very good example of a student who works hard and has great attitude.

A reminder of next week’s oral presentations, My Favorite Animal:

Students' oral presentations will be graded according to these criteria:

1. Preparation – notes or cue cards
2. Depth and breadth of material; organization of material
3. Expression – usage of tones (intonation)
4. Clarity – pronunciation, voice must be audible and clear

5. Delivery – confidence and direct eye contact with audience

Each item is worth 4 points with a total of 20 points per presentation. Presentations should be between 3 to 5 minutes. Parents and students please practice at home.

Here is an update about our curriculum progress this week in Gr.3:

Math:  We started with Chapter 2 and most students are already confident in comparing and ordering numbers.

English:  Students identified subjects and predicates of sentences. They also practiced how to correct run-on sentences. (Unit 1 will be finished early next week)

Social Studies: Chapter 1 is close to an end. We learnt about oceans, rivers and lakes.

Students also showed great score results in their first spelling test in Gr.3!

Please watch this space for the dates of upcoming tests.

It was a pleasure for me to meet some of the parents on Thursday evening.  I am looking forward to meeting the parents who were unable to attend our Parents’ Introductory Evening. I am excited about working together with you all.  

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!