Tuesday, November 29th

Hi Parents,

I am sorry for not writing yesterday. I had a meeting with the 3rd grade teachers to discuss a big unit on economics we are starting with your students next week. I will send home a hard copy of the letter below on Thursday but if you want a head start here it is:
December 1, 2011

Dear Parents,

We have started our Mini-Society Unit, a program in which your child is involved in a unique educational experience dealing with economics and decision-making. While interacting with other students, the kids are learning economics by experiencing concepts in their own classrooms. They set up and name their own economic system and work with their own monetary standard.
During the time over which their “economy” is operating, your child will learn the economic concepts of scarcity, goods verse services, profit and loss and price determinations. We need your help in the following areas to make this experience exciting and education for your child:

1. Discuss with your child whether they would like to produce a good or a service for Mini-Society. Some examples of services students could provide: designing a game that students pay to play during the selling session, nail painting, hair styling, cleaning services, gift wrapping, etc. Some examples of goods students could provide: paper airplanes, origami, bake goods, ornaments, sketches, popsicle houses, holiday decorations, etc. We want students to be creative and we will be teaching them about an original idea as well as to think about what they would want to buy.

2. Your child will be using money he or she earns (by doing chores for you) to purchase supplies to make a product to sell, OR to develop a service they can offer to others. Meanwhile, students also will be earning class money in 3rd grade, in exchange for specific requirements they must meet in school. Products and services will be exchanged for this currency during our selling sessions.

3. Your child must pay you for any materials or time you provide for the society project. He or she can pay you by doing a task or job for you. To give you an idea of the compensation due to you, you could use the following guideline:
½ hour of time doing chores = $1 U.S. dollar or use of supplies from home

Your child should spend no more that $10 dollars on materials to make their product/service. Scholarships are available. Please let us know if you cannot purchase supplies and we will purchase them for you.

4. If your child is borrowing any special equipment or tools from you, they should be charged “rent” in the form of chores or jobs for you in exchange for use of the equipment.

5. Materials must be brought to school on Friday, December 16th.

We will manufacture the products on Friday, December 16th and sell to all the third grades on Monday, December 20th and Tuesday, December 21st. Thank you for your cooperation and help in making this a successful experience for your child.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Philips, Mrs. Porter, and Mrs. Cech

Here is the spelling list for this week:
Long /a/ is spelled ai, ay,
a-consonant-e and a at the end of a syllable
1. baby
2. able
3. paper
4. table
5. train
6. sail
7. bait
8. driveway
9. spray
10. tray
11. game
12. trade
13. safe
14. cage
15. plane


Compound Words
16. blackbird
17. cannot
18. haystack
19. starfish
20. popcorn


Bonus (science words)

tornado
hurricane
volcano
tsunami