Mr. Benson’s Classroom Blog

Parent-Teacher conferences are now being scheduled for the week of October 29 through November 1st. Please be sure to fill out the conference scheduling form which was recently sent home with your child. If for some reason you don’t have a conference scheduling form please let me know and I’ll send another one home with your child. Conferences are an important opportunity to discuss how things are going at school and I want to be sure everyone gets scheduled for a time that is convenient. If you have questions about getting your parent-teacher conference scheduled please give me a call at the number below, or contact the Harris office. Thanks!

Mr. Benson
687-3286

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Thursday October 11th is school picture day at Harris Elementary School. If you’re interested in ordering a photo package, please return your envelope and payment by Thursday. 3rd graders will be taking their pictures at about 9:00. If you have any questions about school pictures you can check out the LifeTouch link in the blogroll section or give the Harris office a call for details.

Mr. Benson

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Beginning on October 2nd and on each Tuesday for the rest of the school year, your child will have a math homework sheet. My goal is that students spend about 30 minutes completing their math homework each Tuesday. If after working for 30 minutes your child is not finished, they may stop working and turn in what they have completed. Due to the fact that the students abilities differ greatly at this level, the math homework will be leveled. That is, the particular worksheet your child brings home will be at an appropriate level and will be adjusted periodically to match your child’s developing mathematical abilities. In order to make a system like this successful, I count on parent feedback regarding the difficulty or ease with which the math assignments are completed.
This first math homework is the same for everyone. Depending on the feedback I receive, I’ll adjust the difficulty for individual students. I’d appreciate it if you’d check your child’s work after about 30 minutes. If the problems seemed too easy or too difficult, simply write a short note on the assignment and let me know. I’ll adjust things accordingly. If everything is just about right… I’d like to know that too.
I want this homework to be a reasonable challenge for the children. They should be able to experience about 80 to 85 percent success on the assignment. Some of the problems may be new to students, so feel free to help in the learning process by doing a little teaching of your own if you’d like.
Remember, this first homework is just a starting point. Too easy… too hard… no big deal… we’ll adjust. Thanks for your help with this. If you have any questions or comments please give me a call. Thanks

John

John Benson
Harris Elementary School
687-3286

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Dear Room 12 Parents,
Every Thursday your child will be bringing home a homework assignment from the Who Says Homework Can’t Be Fun activity book. These assignments are designed to be a bit different from traditional homework assignments. The emphasis here is on doing real world activities, having fun and using materials that are usually found in most homes… maps, cookbooks, newspapers, phonebooks etc. Frequently the assignments - such as today’s “Kitchen Clean-Up” are based on common home situations. The activities are more “hands-on” and sometimes require parent help or guidance.
Please help your child to complete this assignment and then look for more or these types of activities to come home each Thursday. They will always be printed on a half sheet of orange paper to make them easy to spot when they arrive at home.
Give me a call at 687-3286 or email me at benson@4j.lane.edu if you have any questions. Thanks!

John Benson
Harris Elementary School

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Welcome to our 3rd grade classroom blog! I’m excited to introduce this blog (or weblog) so that you can stay up to date with what’s going on in room 12. If you’re a 3rd grader, or the parent of a 3rd grade student at Harris, you’ve come to the right place to find out everything you’ll need to know to help make this a terrific year of school. Within this blog you’ll find information about our homework assignments, special events at school and links to websites designed to help you support your child’s learning. I’ll be adding more links and information as the school year progresses, so check back often.

Mr. Benson

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We are requesting that your son or daughter provide the following personal school supplies during the school year. If you need assistance in providing these supplies, please let the counselor or teacher know. We are aware that you and your student may wish to purchase additional or other supplies for use at school. If you do, we would recommend that you purchase only those supplies on the SUPPLEMENTAL LIST. Other things will not be used.

GRADE 3
24 #2 regular pencils with eraser (Ticonderoga)
1 large glue stick, Dixon, Prang, Itoya
2 Pink Pearl Erasers
1 24 count regular crayons (Crayola, Binney & Smith, Dixon, etc.)
1 plastic pencil box (8” in length)
3 single subject spiral notebooks (70 pages)
1 box of Kleenex- for classroom use
1 pencil sharpener (non - battery)
SUPPLEMENTAL LIST:
$10 to buy beginning supplies like markers, and colored pencils.
***Please DO NOT bring 3 ring binders***

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My name is Lucien Syman-Degler. I am a full-time student at Pacific University in the Master of Arts in Teaching program. I am studying to become an elementary and middle school teacher.
This Fall I have been given the opportunity to work with Mr. Benson and your children at Harris Elementary. In addition to assisting Mr. Benson with the daily activities over the fall quarter, I will be teaching the curriculum half time for 9 weeks, and full time for three weeks.
As part of this experience, I will be teaching a two-week unit in which we will take an in-depth look at common trees of the Northwest. The class will be studying how trees live as well as some of the prominent characteristics that make the trees in the northwest unique.
If there is anything we need to know about your child so that we may better serve his or her needs, feel free to contact us at the number below. I also welcome any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Lucien Syman-Degler
Harris Elementary School
(541)687-3286

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