Hurricane Sandy

Schools will remain closed tomorrow as the city tries to recover from Hurricane Sandy. I hope you and your families stayed safe through the storm and will continue to be cautious as cleanup continues. 

Horatio and I are safe and sound, and we did not lose power in Upper Manhattan. Mr. Fox is also fine and has power in Sunnyside.  

I haven't been able to find much information about Elmhurst. I hope no news is good news. If you are able to, please comment or email to let us know how you are. 

My thoughts are with you and your families.

Feliz Cumpleaños, Señor Fox!

Señor Fox hit a milestone birthday today, and our kids surprised him with these fox silhouettes in celebration of his 30th year. 

Jennifer's polka-dot fox

Read closely...I love Christian's sense of humor here!

Jacqueline's plump fox family

To many, many more birthdays! We love you!

Get Your Kid Hooked on Reading with These Awesome Series Books!

Want your child to become a lifelong reader? Children often become enthusiastic readers when they fall in love with a character in a series. They gobble up book after book, following the adventures of Captain Underpants and laughing along with Junie B. Jones. 

Our second reading unit of the year is fiction series, so our classes will spend the next month following characters across books in both English and Spanish. 

Here are some popular fiction series, sorted by their guided reading levels. All our students know their own levels, so reading within a series will help your child make appropriate choices when you visit your local library, where books are not leveled. 

Level L
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
Pinky and Rex by James Howe
Horrible Harry by Suzy Kline

Amanda and Oliver Pig by Jean Van Leeuwan

Cam Jansen by David Adler

Rainbow Magic by Daisy Meadows

Ricky Ricotta by Dav Pilkey

George and Martha by James Marshall

Level M

Baily School Kids by Debbie Davey

Cobble Street Cousins by Cynthia Rylant

Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows

Judy Moody and Stink by Megan McDonald

Katie Kazoo Switcheroo by Nancy Krulik

Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

The Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne

Level N

Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron

Amber Brown by Paula Danziger

Andrew Lost by J.C. Greenburg

The Zack Files by Dan Greenberg

A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy

Level O

The Magic School Bus Chapter Books by Joanna Cole

My Weird School by Dan Gutman

Geronimo Stilton by Elisabetta Dami
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Mallory by Laurie Friedman

Ramona Quimby by Beverly Cleary

Henry Higgins by Beverly Cleary

Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary

Secrets of Droon by Tony Abbott

Level P

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

Dragon Slayers' Academy by Kate McMullan

Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol

Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper

Time Warp Trio by Jon Scieszka

Level Q

Fudge by Judy Blume 

Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel

American Girl by various authors

Animal Ark by Ben Baglio
Little House by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Celebrating Our Favorite Characters

Our third graders wrapped up their first reading unit last week. They created these fun foldables to celebrate all they'd learned about growing ideas about the characters in their fiction books. 

These favorite characters from students' "Just Right" books open up to reveal their ideas about the character's traits, with evidence from their books to support their ideas. 

Geronimo Stilton (by Gregorio)

AJ from My Weird School: Miss Laney is Zany! (by Vanessa)

Henry from Chocolate Fever (by Alexis)

Narrative Writing Celebration

Yesterday class 3-216 celebrated the end of our first writing unit of the school year! This is the first time our third graders have gone through the entire writing process, a big change from writing in K-2. 

We began by GENERATING many ideas for small moments (quick, true stories that have happened to us).

We CHOSE one small moment to commit to for the rest of the unit.

We NURTURED by planning out how our stories would go.

We DRAFTED our stories by writing them long for the first time.

We REVISED our stories by going back to make big changes to our writing.

We EDITED for capitalization, punctuation, and paragraphing.

We PUBLISHED on special paper, neatly copying all our changes. 

Finally, we celebrated all our hard work with a certificate ceremony. Students rotated around the room, reading each other's stories and leaving compliments for their classmates.

Pondering what each writer did well

It's hard to choose just one compliment to leave these great writers!

Our published work on display

Stay tuned for more amazing writing from our aspiring authors. Next up: realistic fiction!

216's Haunted Houses

Check out these spooky haunted houses! Our class had tons of fun making these mansions with foldable doors and windows. Beware of ghosts and ghouls lurking behind every corner...

 That's one scary neighborhood!

 Nikki's Haunted House

Evelia's Creepy Creation

Happy haunting!

Our New Class Website!

Welcome parents, students, and friends of classes 3-216 and 3-218! 

Thank you for visiting our class website! As our site grows, it will be a place where you can see examples of great student work, art projects, and links to homework help, educational games, and other helpful resources. Check back often to see what we are up to, and let us know what you think!