January 22, 2018

Adventures in Third Grade

January 22 , 2018

News for the Week… . Report Cards come home January 26 No School-February 19-President’s Day Please save a cereal size box at home for your child to use for their Wax Museum display at our Wax Museum. Cereal boxes should be brought to school on February 16. Please check with your child to see if they need any of their school supplies replenished at school such as pencils or crayons. Just as a reminder please make sure that students come to school with hat, gloves, boots and warm coats due to the cold temperatures this winter. When the temperature permits students will be going outside for recess.

ELA We are going to be exploring the genre of realistic fiction. While we explore a variety of realistic fiction texts we will also be using them to practice the skill of Point of View. We have been revisiting the classroom routines after the holiday break so we can have a fresh start during the new year. We have also been participating in lessons that help us understand how to focus and be mindful in our classroom activities and listening. These are strategies the class will be able to use in a variety of environments. We are going to begin our study of biographies. During this unit we will learn how to take notes, use those notes to write well developed paragraphs as well as preparing a speech. The students will also be using their biography to take on the person they have studied and portray them in a Wax Museum. An additional information sheet regarding this project will come home.

Math We finished our multiplication and division number patterns chapter. Our next chapter will focus on Properties and Equations. Students should continue practicing their multiplication facts at home in order to increase their math fact fluency. We are using the computer program XTra math for practice at school. During our Math time students participate in daily lessons and then work in centers to reinforce new skills, practice previously introduced skills, and practice fact fluency. We have begun our multiplication timed tests at school and a letter was sent home about our Ice Cream Sundae incentive.

Science Our next Science unit will be about Matter. On Friday we did a SOLE  (Self Organized Learning Environment). Students were placed into groups and  introduced to the big question: What makes the states of matter different? In their groups students investigated several online research sites in order to find information to answer the big question. After researching and taking notes regarding the big question each group created a way to present their information. This week students will present their information to the class as a group. We will then do more investigations about the states of matter and the characteristics of each state.

January 8, 2018

News for the Week… Current Events are due January 11, 2018. No School-January 15-MLK Day End of the quarter-January 18 No School-January 19 Unit Assessment-Social Studies-January 16 Math Chapter Assessment-January 12 Just as a reminder please make sure that students come to school with hat, gloves, boots and warm coats due to the cold temperatures this winter. When the temperature permits students will be going outside for recess.

ELA We are going to be exploring the genre of folktales. We will work together on several folktales and then students will work in groups on different folktales. We will look at the characteristics of folktales. When reading folktales we will determine the setting, characters, problem/solution and the lesson. We are also revisiting the classroom routines after the holiday break so we can have a fresh start during the new year. We have also been participating in lessons that help us understand how to focus and be mindful in our classroom activities and listening. These are strategies the class will be able to use in a variety of environments. We will be working on a ‘how to” writing. This skill will address how to sequence events in order to create a final product.

Math We are continuing to work on  multiplication and division number patterns. We have been working on doubling a known fact as a multiplication strategy. We will continue to work through the multiplication facts of: X6, X7, X8 and X9. We will have our assessment for this current chapter on Friday, January 12. Students should also be practicing their multiplication facts at home in order to increase their math fact fluency. We are using the computer program XTra math for practice at school. During our Math time students participate in daily lessons and then work in centers to reinforce new skills, practice previously introduced skills, and practice fact fluency. We have begun our multiplication timed tests at school and a letter was sent home about our Ice Cream Sundae incentive.

Social Studies We have moved on to our Social Studies unit about Civics. We have learned about Citizen Responsibilities which includes: respecting the rights of others, being informed about local issues, paying taxes, voting and obeying the law. Students are using a Google slideshow template to further explore these topics. We just finished learning about characteristics of a good citizen. Our next lesson will be to work on a small group activity about solving problems for the common good. Our next topics include: Rules & Laws, Enforcing Laws, and Local Government. Due to the cold days our unit assessment has been pushed back. The students will complete a study guide that they should use to study for the Unit Assessment which will be on January 16.