Welcome Back! I am so excited to see all the bright, smiling faces and hear about the amazing (or relaxing!) adventures that happened while we were apart. We are jumping right back in to learning this week. Also, if you are interested in volunteering the volunteer sign up link on our webpage has been updated for the Spring semester!
In Math we are going to review and continue diving into division. Students will explore division using arrays, number lines and repeated subtraction. During Reading we will be focusing on biographies and autobiographies. Students will continue to focus on topic, main idea and theme throughout this unit. As we reflect on the break in Writing students will be drafting a letter about their favorite celebrations. Students will focus on the parts of a letter and the proper way to format a letter. Social Studies is going to be a lot of fun in the coming weeks. We will be reflecting on communities - the reason for their creation and how they are impacted by the environment they are in. This week in Science we will begin our study of soil by focusing on weathering and erosion. PLEASE HAVE YOUR CHILD BRING A BAG OF DIRT FROM HOME BY THURSDAY. We will be looking at the different types of dirt and focusing on the "ingredients" we can see. I am so excited to see everyone again and look forward to another fantastic semester!
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This will be an exciting final full week of the semester. There is a lot we will continue learning and I look forward to engaging the students in lots of fun activities.
In Math we will complete our fractions unit at the beginning of the week. For the remainder of the week and next week we will be diving in to multiplication and introducing division. During Reader's Workshop students will be working on identifying the topic, main idea as well as summarizing short passages. Students will learn to differentiate between the main idea and supporting details. In Writer's Workshop students will be finalize their expository thankful writing and we will be working our pieces. During Social Studies students will conclude their research about the United Kingdom and we will put together our class slideshow, which will be available to view at the International Festival! In Science students will continue studying rapid Earth changes and their impact on the landscape. Students will read and watch videos about a variety of events and the impact that they have. This Thursday is International Festival. Our Social Studies project will be available there, as well as lots of other amazing displays of cultures around the world! I hope to see you there! Welcome back! I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving break! At the end of the week we will be having our Poetry Cafe from 8:15 - 8:45 am. There will be an evacuation drill prior, so please keep that in mind when you are arriving. If you arrive prior to the drill, you are welcome to come outside with us; however, please help encourage your child to remain silent and stay in line as this is the expectation for this drill.
This week in math we will begin learning about fractions. Students will work on identifying fractions of a whole. As the week progresses we will also work on fractions as part of a group. Students are expected to identify the numerator (pieces/part) and the denominator (number on the bottom, whole) - I have told students to remember that the Denominator goes Down like a WHOLE in the ground (I know, very punny). During Reading we are now working on expository text and features of non-fiction text. We are identifying key traits that will tell us if a story is narrative vs informative. In Writer's Workshop students are working on developing their own expository writing. We are using graphic organizers to help arrange our writing prior to writing our drafts. Social Studies is very exciting over the next two weeks. We will begin researching a country that the students select. We will be creating a presentation that will be available for view at International Festival. As part of our study of cultures, I am asking that each student create an ornament or figure that represents their favorite holiday celebration they have with their family. Information about this will be in your child's Tuesday folder. Please help him/her remember to bring this by WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4 so that we are able to share our celebrations with our friends. In Science students will be studying changes in the Earth's surface. We will focus on both slow and rapid changes. Students will identify and discuss how a variety of land forms are sculpted, as well as identify whether these changes took place over a long period of time (wind, or water erosion) or more quickly (earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions). This will be an exciting week in 3rd grade. On Tuesday we will be going on a Field Trip to the Round Rock Performing Arts Center to see the Westwood Theater Program perform The Coloring Book. If your child has a Caraway shirt, please have him/her wear it on Tuesday. As we will be eating when we return to school, if possible please make sure you pack your child's lunch this day. If necessary they may purchase a sack lunch from the cafeteria as it will be closed when we arrive back at school.
In Math we will complete our unit on multiplication. Tuesday and Wednesday we will have our unit assessment and district assessment respectively. We will culminate the week by beginning our unit on fractions. During Reader's Workshop we will continue working with poetry. Students will focus on various aspects of poetry - such as hyperbole and personification, as well as comparing a variety of poems. Students will also work on comprehending the poetry they are reading. In Writer's Workshop students will expand on the knowledge they have gained about poetry while going through their own poems and revising and editing, as well as publishing. During Social Studies students will finalize their research on their assigned heroes. Students will then be given the opportunity to present what they have learned to their peers. In Science we will be wrapping up our unit on force. Students will spend the week reviewing what we have learned about force (a push or pull) - specifically gravity and magnetism. Students will end the week with our unit assessment. On Tuesday Evening we will be having our 3rd grade performance at 6:30 pm. Please have your child wear something patriotic - red, white and/or blue. I hope to see everyone there! This week we will have our Adventure Dash kick off on Tuesday morning. Wednesday we will have our Bluebonnet book Author visit on Wednesday.
In Math this week we will continue to focus on multiplication. We will continue focusing on the 0s, 1s, 2s, 4s, 5s, 8s, 10s times tables. Students will also work on pattern tables and identifying the multiplication patterns. During Readers Workshop students will continue focusing on poetry specifically figurative language such as onomatopoeia, 5 senses language as well as similes and metaphors. In Writer's Workshop students will take what they have learned about poetry during reading and practice writing their own drafts of poems. The students will select their favorite poems to publish for our Poetry Cafe later this month. Social Studies will continue to be engaging with students focusing on creating their Hero Presentation with partners. Students will practice paraphrasing the research from multiple sources, both text and online. During Science students will create and engage in exploring force, gravity and friction. Students will have the opportunity to create their own tracks to accomplish a variety of tasks as the week progresses. Please make sure your child continues practicing his/her spelling words and completes 40 or more points during practice. Our spelling test will be Friday. This Wednesday will be PJ day! If your child brings slippers please have them also bring tennis shoes as this is also PE day.
In Math we are continuing to work on multiplication. We are focusing on using our CUBES strategy when working with word problems. C- circle the key numbers and units, U - underline the question, B - box the math action words, E - evaluate and eliminate unneeded information, S - show your work and check your answer. During Reader's Workshop we are beginning a new unit on Poetry. We will focus on key features in a variety of poems. In Writer's Workshop we will be using the information we have learned as readers to write our own poems. There will be a Spotlight Poetry Reading parents will be invited to - information to follow! During Social Studies students will be using their knowledge about paraphrasing to research and create a presentation based on an assigned hero. Students will be working in pairs and using a minimum of 3 resources. In Science we are beginning a new unit on force, motion, magnetism and gravity. Students will have the opportunity to observe and experiment with these forces as well as document their learning as scientists. This week we have changed the format of spelling words. This new format will be in place for the remainder of the year. Students will use the Spelling Menu (on the back of their tracking sheet) and complete enough tasks to earn 40 points each week. Spelling words are written in your child's planner. Please let me know if you have any questions! If you would like to purchase something from Scholastic please do it by this Wednesday, October 24 at 3pm. I will place the order after school. Our online code is NDJB4.
This week we will not have vocabulary so we are able to focus on publishing our personal narratives. In Math we will begin our unit on multiplication. We will begin by focusing on repeat addition. We will learn about a variety of ways to represent multiplication. Please have your children practice skip counting at home. During Reader's Workshop we will review and continue practice with text evidence. Students will color each question a different color and find evidence in articles and color the answers they find in the text prior to answering each question. In Writer's Workshop students will work on revision, editing and publishing the personal narratives we have been creating over the past several weeks. Students will then share their stories with their peers. In Social Studies we will focus on heroes. Students will create a definition of a hero and we will then begin a research project using a variety of sources - text and online to learn more about our assigned hero. We will also learn about rewording and rearranging the information we find from our sources. During Science students will create their own comic strip story depicting what we have learned about each of our four types of energy: light, sound, mechanical, and thermal. We will also review everything we have learned about Forms of Energy and culminate the week with our unit assessment. Please make sure your child is completing their weekly Reading and Math minutes - remember it is better to practice a little bit each day than a long time one day a week. This week we will be very busy in 3rd grade. We will be wrapping up several key units across all areas of study.
In math we will be completing our unit on data analysis. Students have learned about frequency tables, bar graphs and pictographs. This week we will be focusing on dot plots. We will then spend two days reviewing everything we have learned this unit and have an end of unit assessment on Friday. During reader's workshop we will be focusing on compare/contrast. Students will have the opportunity to compare and contrast real world experiences as well as comparing/contrasting stories to our real life. Students will be using venn diagrams as well as t-charts to organize their comparisons. In writer's workshop students will work on revising and editing their personal narratives. Students will also be given the opportunity to peer edit as well as use tools, such as the thesaurus, to help expand their word choice. Our government unit of study in social studies is now at an end. Students should have brought home their social studies journal over the weekend to help with their completion of their review. On Monday I will also be sending an email with the power points we used so students can wrap up any final questions they have not yet completed. The review is due on Tuesday, and our test will be on Wednesday. In science students will complete their unit of study on Energy. We have focused on light, sound, thermal and mechanical energy in this unit. We will have a unit assessment on our Energy unit at the beginning of next week. I am aware that our campus IXL account is now expired. We have been informed that it will not be renewed. I am going through a variety of websites and apps to see if I can find something comparable - Mrs. Bailey has recommended Khan Academy (free) - until the campus is able to find an alternative. Please make sure your child continues to practice math at home. Our next unit is multiplication, so now would be a great time to introduce/review their multiplication facts! I hope everyone has enjoyed their long weekend. As this is a short week we will not have vocabulary this week.
In Math we will continue working on our data analysis unit. Students will be working with pictographs as well as reviewing frequency tables and bar graphs. We will also have the opportunity to create our own graphs using google sheets. During Reader's Workshop students will be focusing on using text evidence to support their observations. Students will go back in text passages and identify the portions of the text that they use to help inform their answers to questions. Writer's Workshop will continue to be a busy time of the day. Students will continue working on elaborating and adding detail as well as creating meaningful conclusions to their personal narratives as well as incorporating transition words as necessary. In Social Studies students will be wrapping up our Government unit. On Friday students will bring home a review of the unit and next week we will have our end of unit assessment. Our primary focus in Science will continue to be energy. Students will focus on sound, light, mechanical and thermal energy over the course of this unit. This week we will continue focusing on sound and light energy. Thank you so much everyone who came to Parent Teacher conferences. I really enjoyed visiting about each of your children, and look forward to meeting with the remaining families soon! Please make sure you sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences. I tried to offer a few different dates. If you are not available at any of the listed times please let me know and we will make alternative arrangements. Please use the following link to sign up!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409094BAEAD2FA0FD0-20182019 This week we are beginning an exciting new unit (and one of my personal favorites) in Math Over the course of the Data Analysis Unit, students will be using frequency tables, bar graphs, pictographs and dot plotting to represent data. This week we will pay careful attention to the parts of a graph as well as all the different information we can obtain. During Reader's Workshop students will be focusing on Cause and Effect. Students will identify the cause - reason, as well as effect - response, in a variety of texts as well as real life. In Writer's Workshop we will be taking a closer look at how to draw our personal narratives to a close. Students will practice concluding their writing by looking forward, looking back or making a statement from the heart. Social Studies has captured the attention of a lot of the students. We are very passionate about government in our class and have lots of opinions. This week we will be taking a closer look at state and local government as well as the different things each level of government helps to finance. The week will begin with a unit review and assessment in Science. We will then move on to our next unit: Forms of Energy. Sound and Light energy will be our primary focus over the course of this week. Please remember to help your child practice their vocabulary words - they should be able to spell them as well as define and use them in a sentence. Also, please make sure you remember to sign your child's homework folder - they should be practicing reading 20 minutes EVERY night and practicing math 10 minutes EVERY night - that is a great opportunity to work on math fluency with both addition and subtraction facts. |