Hello again,
Believe it or not, it is almost report card time again as we have completed
two thirds of our year! We are sending report cards home soon. Should you have
any questions about them, please feel free to contact me via note, email or
phone message (although the first two methods are the ones that are easier for
me to respond to.)
As our new math program continues, students are working to learn the skills
needed in third grade. If your child is still working on addition or
subtraction "mad minutes," they should be practicing nightly to move forward.
Please assist your child with flash cards, adding/subtracting games or some
of the math websites that use addition/subtraction skills in timed games. The
ability to see an addition or subtraction fact and automatically know the
answer is crucial to all upcoming math your child will do.
Please continue to have your child be responsible for reading directions on
homework and explaining what they think the directions are telling them to do.
This skill must be utilized nightly to form the habit of good problem solving.
Also, it is not necessary that students produce all correct answers on
homework. I appreciate those of you who write notes to let me know how your
child did with the homework--understood it easily, had trouble with it, etc. A
perfect homework paper is great, but more important is the information that
errors can give me. What areas are harder for your child? Where in the process
of solving a problem did he/she go off track? Seeing the student's errors
tells me what areas I may need to reinforce; not just for your child, but
maybe for others as well. Please continue to work with them but do not
hesitate to let me hear your feedback of how the homework "went."
Before long, students will begin working on their end of year projects
and we will send details about this as the time draws nearer. This project
will be completed entirely in school and will reflect your child's ability to
research information, credit resources, compose,edit, and revise research
paragraphs and illustrate facts creatively.
Please continue to encourage your child to read. Many times, once our child
is able to read independently, we stop reading with them. Your reading with
your child shows the child that reading is important to you, too. You model
fluency and expression when you read to them, and this helps them to
incorporate it into their own reading. "I read a page, you read a page" is a
strategy that encourages children to think of reading as a pleasurable time
and not a chore. Thank you for all you do at home to support your child's
learning.
