Welcome and/or Welcome Back to Miss Duke's 3rd & 4th Grade Class!

I hope that all of you enjoyed your Christmas break!  

As many of you already know, this blog is my main source of communicating with the parents of the 3rd & 4th grade class at BIS.  If you ever have a question, go to the blog!  If the blog doesn't answer your question, feel free to email me.

Our class is growing!  We will being the new semester with 20 students.  It is very important for you to encourage and help your children enter this next quarter prepared and focused.  Here are some basic steps you can take to make sure you and your child are prepared for this semester!

Parent & Student To Do List

1. Follow By Email - Parents, please follow this blog by email to receive updates every time I update!  (Fill out the section on the and confirm your subscription by responding to the email.)
2. Set up your Engrade account - All of the classes that I teach will be uploaded periodically to  Engrade's online grading software.  Check your student's agenda for their Access Code or email me to receive one so that you can continually check your child's progress.  
3. Supply Check - Please check the supply list and your child's belongings to make sure that they have all of the right materials and are prepared for learning!  (Especially pencils, erasers, and notebooks!)
4. Check Agenda & Reading Log Daily - Remember, if your child forgot either one of these items at school, they can write their assignments/reading log on a separate sheet of paper, followed by a parent's signature for full credit.  
5. Raz-Kids - Students are to read 15 minutes daily.  My preference is that they read online at the  Raz-Kids website.  The 3rd & 4th grade username is: BIS34  Some students have set up personal passwords, while others have not.  If your child cannot read online, they are able to check out 3 library books per week and/or 1 book from our classroom library at a time.  
6. BrainPop - We watch a ton of videos in my class to help the kids understand the new concepts.  Typically, we use the BrainPop website.  Be sure to watch the videos from home to help reinforce the new concepts! 
7. Review math facts.   Congratulations!  Both 3rd and 4th grade have mastered their math facts!  Click to play review games: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Make sure to review before we come back to school!  Here is a website with some cool math games to refresh your math skills! 

Please note:  BIS has chosen to switch International Fair and Science Fair this year.  Science fair will be in February and International Fair will be in April.

January 14 - 18

Your child is responsible for watching the following videos on BrainPop this week:

1. Iroquois Confederacy (Social Studies)
2. American Revolution (Social Studies)
3. Temperature (Science)
4. Heat (Science)
5. Wind (Science)
6. Weather (Science - Pay attention to the Barometer)
7. Clouds (Science)
8. Water Cycle (Science)

We will watch the following videos on YouTube this week:

The Ride - Paul Revere short educational film piece

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "Paul Revere's Ride" Poem animation