Ms. Ammons' Classroom
Information and resources you'll need for the school year!
Welcome to Ms. Ammons's smore page. I'm so glad you're here!
November 2, 2026
Monday, Nov 9 - Friday, Nov 13 - Kindness Week
Monday, Nov 16 - Play auditions and interviews
Friday, Nov 20 - Play cast and crew email sent out
Nov 23 - Nov 27 - Thanksgiving Break NO SCHOOL
I hope you all had a great weekend and survived trick or treating and the time change. I was expecting Monday to be a bit rough with all that went on over the weekend, but the class did really well. We got through all of our lessons and completed all of our assignments. I'm so proud of them!
In 95% Phonics this week we are working on long-vowel silent-e. Words that have one vowel, followed by a consonant, and ending in a silent e. Some words that might show up on our spelling test are: truce, theme, smile, zone, grade, dispute.
In CKLA, our language arts curriculum, we are learning about the last groups of our animal classification unit. Reptiles, birds, and mammals. Today we did a fun diorama on the metamorphosis of a frog from egg, tadpole, froglet, and adult frog. It was so fun seeing all of the different ways the students colored their dioramas. I will be sending out information for our November book report tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov 3rd.
October 26, 2026
Friday, Oct 30 - Halloween Parade and classroom party
Monday, Nov 2 - Parent Play Meeting 7:30am
Monday, Nov 9 - Friday, Nov 13 - Kindness Week
Monday, Nov 16 - Play auditions and interviews
Friday, Nov 20 - Play cast and crew email sent out
Nov 23 - Nov 27 - Thanksgiving Break NO SCHOOL
Book reports were due today. Of course I will accept book reports late. Just be aware that we are doing book report class presentations Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. I won't be extending presentations beyond this Thursday so book reports have to be turned in tomorrow. If those who are late turning it in wait until Thursday, we may run out of time to have everyone present. I will have those who turn their book reports in on time, present first. If we run out of time, those students who didn't get to present will receive half credit due to turning it in late.
In 95% Phonics we are learning about the schwa this week. The focus will be learning to read and spell words with the closed syllable type and a schwa pronunciation. Typically, closed syllable words have 1 vowel letter followed by 1 or more consonants, and the vowel sound is short. For this focus, the vowel sound will be a schwa. The sound is a vowel that is less distinct than normal and appears in an unaccented syllable.
We'll also continue our work with decoding affixes and roots with the include the morphemes that we have learned thus far.
We learned about two different kinds of frogs this week, tree frogs and poison dart frogs, and what makes them similar and different. The similarities go along with the main ideas we are learning. They are amphibians, cold-blooded, vertebrates and go through a metamorphosis where they live in water to primarily living on land.
We finished up our Haunted House writing. We ended it by drawing their Haunted Houses and will have them displayed in the classroom. I'll take a picture and include it in the newsletter next week so you can see how good they turned out.
This Friday is the Halloween Parade and classroom party. Send students to school in their costume ready to go. Parents will not be allowed to do any finishing touches prior to the parade. Also, no masks or hoods, excessive gore, or weapons allowed at school. Students must be able to go through doorways easily as well. We are so excited for the festivities!
October 19, 2026
Tuesday, Oct 20 - Term 2 begins
Monday, Oct 26 - Book Reports due
Friday, Oct 30 - Halloween Parade and classroom party
I hope you all had a nice fall break. We have lots of fun to look forward in the next two weeks. Book reports are due this coming Monday. I handed out the book report sheets at the beginning of the month. If your student has misplaced theirs, I can make some extra copies. I included a book list in the email I sent home last week if your student is still in need of a book.
We are working on 2 syllable, closed-syllable patterns in phonics this week. We'll also continue working on deciphering words into prefixes, suffixes, and root words. A prefix goes at the beginning of a word. A suffix goes at the end of the word, and the root word is in the middle and gives us the meaning of the word. This is tricky work and it takes some practice to learn the different definition of each prefix and suffix and how it affects the meaning of the root word.
In CKLA we are continuing with our animal classification unit learning about amphibians. We'll learn about frogs and what the word metamorphosis means.
In homeroom we will be finishing up some draft writing for our haunted house creative writing projects in preparation for our final drafts. This has been such a fun project for the students.
A link was sent out last week to volunteer for our Halloween party. There are two volunteer spots left if you are interested. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0549A8AD2BAAFD0-66731469-mrs#/
If you have questions about Halloween costume dress code, please refer to the Wednesday note sent out last week. Here is a link if you missed it. https://app.smore.com/n/f9k8c-wednesday-note
October 15, 2026
Wednesday - Friday, Oct 14-16 Fall Break NO SCHOOL
Monday, Oct 19 - Professional Development NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, Oct 20 - Term 2 Begins
Monday, Oct 26 - Book Reports due
Friday, Oct 30 - Halloween Parade and classroom party
We had so much fun on our field trip. Thank you to our parent volunteers. From what I heard, all of the students were respectful and did a great job representing WPA as we enjoyed the zoo and practiced being animal researchers. With the observations we made, the students completed an assignment answering questions about a specific animal they saw at the zoo and drew a picture of it and it's habitat.
With our short week this week, we reviewed the five groups of vertebrates we'll be focusing on in Unit 2. The students learned what a mnemonic device is and learned one for remembering our vertebrate groups. All My Best Friends Represent Vertebrates. Amphibians, Mammals, Birds, Fish, and Reptiles. We learned the difference between vertebrates (have a backbone) and invertebrates (do not have a backbone). As well as some of the differences between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals.
We'll also be doing a chapter study on each of our vertebrate groups. This week we studied Fish and the unique characteristics of fish.
We began working on the brainstorming phase of our Haunted House creative writing project for this month. Students are pretending they are a realtor and have to market a haunted house to normal people. Turning negative aspects of the house into positive selling points. I'm excited to see how these turn out. It's always fun to see their imaginations come to life with projects like this.
As a reminder, book reports are due 1 week from this Monday. Students are choosing a mystery novel at least 75+ pages long and it needs to be approved by me. They need to either decorate a paper pumpkin, or paint a real pumpkin to look like the head of the main character. There are questions that need to be answered about the book and turned in with their pumpkin. Students will stand and present their books and pumpkins to the class as part of their grade. I will include a list of books options in an email I send out if your student is still needing to choose a book.
I hope you're all enjoying your Fall Break! I look forward to seeing a full classroom on Tuesday!
October 5, 2026
Monday, Oct 5 - Costume Closet donations start
Wednesday, Oct 7 - 3rd Grade Field Trip
Thursday, Oct 8 - Make up picture day
Friday, Oct 9 - Term 1 late work due
Tuesday, Oct 13 - End of Term 1
Wednesday - Friday, Oct 14-16 - Fall Break NO SCHOOL
Monday, Oct 19 - Professional Development NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, Oct 20 - Term 2 Begins
Friday, Oct 30 - Halloween Parade and classroom party
It was so fun to see so many of you at our Fall Festival this past Friday.
In 95% Phonics this week we are focusing on reading and spelling words with the closed syllable type. Closed syllables have 1 vowel letter followed by 1 or more consonants, and the vowel sound is short. Words that may show up in our spelling test this week are: conduct, commit, obstruct, instruct, impact, invent.
Every student did really well with vowel-r syllables o-r and a-r last week. I'm so proud of how well they did on the spelling test. Encourage your student to keep working hard in class and participating in the phonics lessons. It does pay off.
We started CKLA Unit 2: Animal classification. We will be learning about how to use text features in our student readers. We'll also dive into different habitats and the animals that live in them as well as the characteristics those animals would have.
I'm very proud of how well the class did with their opinion paragraphs. I will be putting them into their student portfolios that will be given to the students at the end of the year, so you won't be seeing it sent home.
We finished our weather unit and will be starting our government unit in homeroom this week.
This Friday is the last day to turn in late work for term 1. It's just crazy to me that we are already at the end of our first term of school! This year is going by so fast. I updated grades in Aspire this past weekend. If you have questions about any missing work, reach out to me by Wednesday at the latest to get any missing work for your student to turn in by Friday.
Our field trip is this Wednesday, the 7th. To make it easier to keep track of our WPA students, dress your student in a red polo for the field trip. The forecasted weather looks like it should be a warm day. Please have your student bring their home lunch, if you circled home lunch on the permission slip. If you circled school lunch, then a lunch will be provided by the school.
September 28, 2026
Friday, Oct 2 - Fall Festival
Wednesday, Oct 7 - 3rd Grade Field Trip to the Hogle Zoo
Thursday, Oct 15-16 - Fall Break, NO SCHOOL
After a long weekend we are back on track with our regular schedule. Thank you to those of you who made the time to come to parent-teacher conferences. It was great to meet so many of you and talk about your wonderful students. I am still happy to meet with the very few of you who weren't able to meet last week.
Also, thank you to those of you who purchased books from the book fair to add to our classroom library! That was so kind and thoughtful of you!
In 95% Phonics we are focusing on vowel-r syllable patterns using a-r and o-r. Some words that might show up on our spelling test this week are: world, chart, far, hurt, farm, mart, fork, work, hark, dark. We will also be learning about suffixes which are part added to the end of a word or root. It changes the meaning and/or the part of speech. An example of a suffix is -ment and -est. The suffix -est means most or best. When added to the end of the word small, it says the noun of the sentence is not just small but the smallest. An example sentence is, Jack picked the smallest kitten in the litter.
We will be finishing up Unit 1 of CKLA (Language Arts) this week. The students have done so well with their opinion paragraph. I have noticed in other assignments in class that, as a whole, students are struggling to write in complete sentences. I think this has more to do with them not wanting to put the effort in to writing a complete sentence and less to do with understanding what a complete sentence includes. I'll be reviewing this with them either way and reinforcing that writing in complete sentences is the expectation and what is required for writing assignments.
We had our first Magical Monday today! There were some students who still needed to turn in a few missing assignments, they completed those in study hall and were able to join the fun. We decorated fall candles with fun temporary tattoos and played a couple of class games with the time left. Thank you to the parent volunteer who came up with the activity and provided materials for it. The students loved it! I'll have opportunities for more parent volunteers in the future. Having you in the classroom makes such a difference with these fun activities.
In homeroom this week we are going to make rain gauges and finish our weather unit. It's been so fun collecting data on the different weather we've been having and learning about how the different weather conditions are formed.
This Friday is our Fall Festival. Pre-order tickets have been extended until this Wednesday. You can save $2 per ticket by ordering early. See you all at the festival this Friday!!
September 21, 2026
Wednesday, Sept 23 - Parent Teacher Conferences EARLY OUT
Thursday, Sept 24 - Parent Teacher Conferences EARLY OUT
Friday, Sept 25 - NO SCHOOL
Friday, Oct 2 - Fall Festival
Wednesday, Oct 7 - 3rd Grade Field Trip to the Hogle Zoo
Thursday, Oct 15 - 16 Fall Break NO SCHOOL
We have a wacky week with Parent-Teacher Conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. I will be doing conferences on Wednesday only. Please be sure to sign up for a time. If Wednesday doesn't work for you, email me and let's figure out another time we could meet. Even if that is by phone call.
Given the short week, we won't be doing phonics this week. We started planning for our opinion paragraphs last week by brainstorming examples of irresponsibility by Toad in our novel The Wind in the Willows that we are reading as a class right now. We talked about O.R.E.O. writing and how to organize our paragraph. O=opinion, R=reason, E=example, O=(restate)opinion. We are doing a triple stuff O.R.E.O. which means we have to come up with three different reasons with supporting examples from the text that show why Toad is a good example of irresponsibility. We'll continue working on a rough draft and editing it as a class.
We don't have homeroom this week due to rotations on Tuesday afternoon, and then PTC on Wednesday and Thursday. Because of this we will be making our rain gauges next week.
We did a fun science experiment last week where we learned how clouds are made and made our own in class!
Grades are mostly updated in Aspire (minus a few assignments that were turned in last week). Please check to see if your student is missing anything. I'll continue to get the most recent assignments graded and recorded this week. If your student is missing anything, let me know. I'm happy to work with them to reprint any missing assignments so they can get them completed and turned in. I do have a pile of "no-name" papers that I will make available for students to look through tomorrow.
This coming Monday will be our first "Magical Monday" where students who are all caught up on their work get to participate in a fun class game, art project, craft, etc. This is the week to get all missing work turned in so your student can participate this coming Monday. For those who have missing work during "Magical Monday", they will work on that missing work. If they complete it during the fun, they can join in. As a 3rd grade team, we are hoping that these fun class times will be motivating for students to stay on top of getting all of their assignments turned in regularly.
REMINDER! Reading logs are an easy way to earn points or an easy way to lose points. Make sure your student is turning in their reading log each week so they get the points.
Zoo permission slips are due by this Wednesday, the 23rd. Make sure to mark if your student is getting home or school lunch. We have to turn in our lunch count to the Lunch Ladies this Wednesday.
Fall PTC 2026 WEDNESDAY September 23 (IN-PERSON CONFERENCES)
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040A49ACA82EA2F85-65576710-fall
Fall PTC 2026 WEDNESDAY September 23 (VIRTUAL CONFERENCES)
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040A49ACA82EA2F85-65576725-fall
Thanks for all you do!
Dates to remember:
Monday, Sept 21 - Professional Development NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, Sept 23 - Parent Teacher Conferences EARLY OUT
Thursday, Sept 24 - Parent Teacher Conferences EARLY OUT
Friday, Sept 25 - NO SCHOOL
Friday, Oct 2 - Fall Festival
Wednesday, Oct 7 - 3rd Grade Field Trip to the Hogle Zoo
Thursday, Oct 15 - 16 Fall Break NO SCHOOL
Just a reminder that field trip permission slips need to be turned in by Wednesday, Sept 23rd. Don't forget to check whether your student is having home or school lunch on the back of the form.
We have about a week left with our weather unit in homeroom. Next week we are going to make Rain Gauges and need empty 16 oz. plastic water bottles. I have all of the supplies to make them except for the water bottles. Please send one in with your student by Friday so I can cut them over the weekend and have them ready to go for next week.
We are also in need of band-aids. The Welly brand tends to stick the best but any band-aids are appreciated.
In 95% Phonics we have been learning the vowel-r syllable pattern. This includes u-r, i-r, e-r, and a-r. This pattern is tricky since u-r, i-r, and e-r all make the same vowel sound. We will continue to work on learning this syllable pattern throughout the week, but I recommend reviewing this pattern with your student. Some of the words that may show up on our spelling test are: urge, shirt, hard, bird, curd, word, squirt, nerve, blur, or start.
In CKLA we are continuing with our study of the novel, The Wind in the Willows. The culminating project for Unit 1 is an opinion paragraph that we are learning to write together as a class. We will choose a character the exemplifies a specific theme. From the text, we will identify examples that support our opinion.
We are continuing to work on following directions the first time given in class, as well as limiting the amount of talking that is happening during learning time. If you could, please, talk to your student about appropriate behavior during learning time, we would all benefit from it. There's lots of blurting out, and giggling, as well as some back talk from some students. Those who are doing their best to follow directions and stay focused, I do notice and am very grateful for. It makes my job a lot easier. Unfortunately, there are handful of students who are making it very difficult to teach.
Next week is Parent-Teacher Conferences. I am doing conferences on WEDNESDAY ONLY. Sign up below using the links to either meet in-person or virtually. I look forward to meeting with you!
Fall PTC 2026 WEDNESDAY September 23 (IN-PERSON CONFERENCES)
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040A49ACA82EA2F85-65576710-fall
Fall PTC 2026 WEDNESDAY September 23 (VIRTUAL CONFERENCES)
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040A49ACA82EA2F85-65576725-fall
September 7, 2026
Dates to remember:
Monday, September 21 - Professional Development NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, September 23 - Parent-Teacher Conferences EARLY OUT
Thursday, September 24 - Parent-Teacher Conferences EARLY OUT
Friday, September 25 - NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, October 7 - 3rd Grade Zoo field trip (more info to come)
This past week we started our Weather Unit in homeroom. We are recording the different weather indicators in our weather journals and have been learning about precipitation, humidity, and other elements of weather. As we gather data we will compare it and look at any trends that show up in our findings.
In 95% Phonics we have been reviewing a few different syllable patterns such as hard and soft g and c sounds, long vowel silent e, open, and closed syllable types. The rules for these are:
Closed = 1 vowel followed by one or more consonants. Short vowel sound.
Open = 1 vowel followed by no consonants. Long vowel sound.
Long vowel silent-e = 1 vowel, 1 consonant, and an e at the end. Long vowel sound.
Soft c and g = c or g followed by the vowel e, i, or y. Example: circus, giraffe
Hard c and g = all other times. Example: candy, goat
We also had our second spelling test. The students did much better on our second spelling test compared to their first. Getting accustomed to the routine of the new school year I think really helped with this, as well as reminders to pay attention to the lessons and what we are learning. The focus of the daily lessons are what the students are tested on through spelling tests on Fridays. I'm really proud of how well everyone did.
In CKLA we are continuing our reading of The Wind in the Willows. We have been discussing the themes of friendship/loyalty, irresponsibility, responsibility, and hospitality while discussing which of the characters display these themes. The students have been focusing on using examples from the text to support their opinions about each character. We've also been learning about literary tools the author uses to tell their story. The tools we've been focusing on are dialogue, narration, and perception.
We also started reading an adaptation of Aladdin and learning about how to use context clues to answer questions directly related to the text.
I'm so proud with how the class has been showing some self control with talking and blurting out in class. There was a bit of a rough start to the year, but this last week about mid-week, the class really became more focused and engaged with the lessons and assignments.
In 3rd grade we begin using a computer program called "typing club" that teaches students how to type on a keyboard. Students are required to complete 30 minutes of typing club a week. I will include time during our week for students to complete their typing club minutes in class. They are welcome to work on it at home, but it is not required. As long as students are using their time wisely and efficiently, they will be able to fulfill their 30 minute requirement.
I hope you've all had a great Labor Day weekend and look forward to seeing everyone in class tomorrow!
August 24, 2026
Dates to remember:
Friday, August 28 - Free dress down day and early out at 12:45pm.
Monday, Sept 7 - Labor Day NO SCHOOL
We survived the first week of school! Overall, I think we had a pretty good week with getting into new routines and schedules. We did have to have several talks about speaking out of turn. Today was an especially hard day. The class owed a minute of recess from Spanish and from Literacy. We also had Ms. Sidnie come as a guest presenter this afternoon. It took the class several minutes and multiple attempts to get them to quiet down and then stay quiet while she presented to the class. I had to walk around and individually tell multiple students to repeatedly stop talking or making random noises. Our class can't function with so much talking. Along with the fact that we simply won't be able to get through as much material if I'm needing to stop teaching as often as I am to get the class to refocus and pay attention.
Not everyone is struggling to zip there lips, and I'm grateful to those students who are showing respect to me, their fellow students, and to themselves by keeping their voices off at the appropriate times. Please, take a moment to speak to your student about appropriate times to talk at school and how to respond to me or any teacher/adult who comes to our classroom.
I sent home reading logs this week. They are due back on Monday, August 31st. Students are required to read 20 minutes a day, write a sentence about what they read and have a parent sign at the bottom.
We started our 95% Phonics curriculum this week. I'm impressed with how quickly we were able to make it through the lesson. It was faster than I anticipated and I'm proud of the class for their focus. We are doing a review about closed syllables, consonant blends in the initial or finish position and the rules for find words with a closed syllable and consonant blends.
In CKLA we started Unit 1 on Classic Tales. We are reading The Wind in the Willows as a whole class and comparing and contrasting the different characteristics and traits of each character. We also are learning about "Personification" which is when an animal or object behave like humans normally would. An example of this is when animals wear clothing and do human behaviors like sit down to dinner at a kitchen table and use forks and knives to eat with.
In Homeroom, after Ms. Sidnie presented we read the book A Spot of Respect and talked about what it means to be respectful. Each student drew their own respectful spot and wrote a sentence with the starter "I will show respect by . . ."
We will have our first spelling test this Friday. Generally I don't give word lists to study because it's to also test if the students are understanding our language rules. If I do notice a student is consistently scoring low, I will send home a list of words to study.
Have a great week!
August 17, 2026
We had a great first day back at school! I loved seeing a full class and thank you to those who have brought in more donations. Your generosity is always appreciated.
The first couple of days of school are always long as we go over rules, procedures and expectations. My class handled today like a champ! We'll continue to go over and practice our rules and procedures tomorrow. I've had about half the class return signed disclosers and tech agreements. If you know, your student hasn't turned theirs in yet, please get them signed and returned asap. If anyone hasn't turned one in by tomorrow, I'll send home copies in their take home folder.
We're off to a great start!
Hello and welcome!
My name is Ms. Ammons. If you're getting this, I'm your 3rd grader's literacy and homeroom teacher. Thank you to those who came to Back to School Night. It was great to start putting names to faces. If you were unable to make it, have no fear. I have all of the information you need right here.
We are going to have a great 3rd grade year. Below you will find a link to my disclosure, Back to School Night presentation, and Ms. Randi's disclosure. I will send home a tech agreement with your student if I haven't already received one. It is very important that you get it back to me by Wednesday, August 19. Your student will not be allowed to use any school device until I have received a technology agreement signed by both a parent and the child.
Please reach out with any questions, concerns, praise. I'm here for it all! See you on Monday!
Back to School Night Presentation
If you need a copy of my disclosure, here is the link.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KVOLsMp2SueXJXzBqhSwYM0BoEmlO6gh6ztwhBSS-zg/edit?tab=t.0Ms. Randi's P.E. Disclosure