For the week of January 28
- Reading:We will continue our study of biographies and the skill of summarizing. We will finish reading Helen Keller, Crusader for the Blind and Deaf by Stewart and Polly Anne Graff.
- Math:Students will learn about the customary and metric units of measurement. Please continue to practice your multiplication.
- Social Studies: For the next several weeks third graders will be involved in a research project for a presentation in our "Living Museum", featuring a biographical sketch of a historical figure. Students will perform their speeches on the evening of March 7 at 6:00 p.m. This event will last about 30 minutes.
December 6, 2012
Thank you so much for signing up to bring goodies to our Holiday Party, which is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 20, 1:15-2:30 pm, in the classroom. I hope to see a lot of you here for the fun!
December 17, we will have a 3rd grade parent guest speaker, Mrs. Fainshtein, who will give a presentation to us about her Hanukkah traditions. If you have a unique cultural tradition that you would like to share also, please feel free to contact me.
E-slot:During the month of December students will be finishing their IIM project. Reading: For the next two weeks students will be learning about the different forms and characteristics of poetry. We have already studied many different kinds of poems, including a narrative poem. We really enjoyed reading "Casey at the Bat". This week we will be writing a haiku. Math:We've started MULTIPLICATION! This week your child needs to be practicing the 0's, 1's, 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's. PLEASE spend time each and every night studying, practicing, memorizing multiplication facts with your child. It is very important that they spend a LOT of time committing these to memory and the only way for that to happen is to make it a priority and practice, practice, practice! The next few weeks we will continue learning our multiplication facts. Thank you for all of your help practicing these at home. We are making good progress with memorization!Spelling: We will not have a new spelling list until we return in January.Social Studies: We have been studying local, state, and national government. We wiil soon announce the name of our city and hold an election for mayor.
Week of October 1
--Thanks for signing up for parent conferences. Please arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled time to meet with me. Then you will have plenty of time to review your child's work beforehand.
Math: We will begin working on 2 and 3 digit subtraction with and without regrouping. Please make sure your child is practicing math facts daily, whether with flash cards, computer games, etc. Continue to have your child practice counting money at home for extra practice.
Reading/Language Arts: We finished reading The Truth About Bats. We learned about cause/effect, story elements, main idea, and context clues for word meaning. We will be working on story structure and comprehension strategies this week. Throughout the year students should be reading from a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres. Mrs. Grindle reinforced the concept of genres in a library lesson as she introduced the Bluebonnet Books for this year.
Science: We had a lot of fun in science investigating the physical properties of matter including touch, sight, smell, sound, and magnetism. We will continue our study of matter, focusing on the three states of matter.
Spelling
Students will begin word study this week. For the first couple of weeks all students will have the same sort as we learn the routines of the Words Their Way spelling program.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/80/?theme=print
The sort is used all week (at school and at home). Be sure your child is learning the word patterns not just memorizing the words. Look for the spelling homework section we added to homework folders. On Friday we will have a dictation test in which students correctly spell the words in sentences that I dictate to them. In that way they also prove they have been learning punctuation, capitalization, and grammar skills that have been taught.
For the week of September 17:
- Please sign up for conferences. Directions were sent in previous e-mail.
- The Round Rock Dragon football players were awesome!
- Picture Day is Monday, September 17 @ 11:15.
- White t-shirts are due Monday, September 17.
- Reading:Students will continue readingThe Truth About Bats by Eva Moore. They will be learning about the concepts: cause/effect and fiction/non-fiction.
- Math: Students will continue working with place value (up to 6 digits) and then begin money. It is important that they are able to recognize both sides of the coin. They will also review 2-digit addition.
- Writing:This week's focus will be adjectives. Students will also be writing a personal experience story.
- Handwriting: We have started learning the lowercase cursive letters! Any practice at home would be beneficial. So far we have learned: a, c, d, g, h, p,and t.
- Social Studies: It is Celebrate Freedom Week. Students will compare the US Constitution to rules and laws in their own life.
September 10, 2012
We had such a great turn out Tuesday night at Parent Information Night! Thanks to all of you who made the effort to make it. I know a lot of information was conveyed; If you have any questions, please call me. :)
This week we also began setting up our Reading Workshop. We learned about choosing books that were "just right" for us and spent time building stamina. We had library orientation and checked out books. We also began readingThe Truth About Bats, working on reading skills and comprehension.
In cursive, we've learned the letters c, a, d, g and h.
Math has focused on numeration. We’ve moved from reading numbers in the ones block (or period) all the way up to the thousands place. Additionally, we have been identifying the value of each digit in the number. For example: 9,876 - The value of the digit 9 is 9,000. This is a fairly difficult skill for many children and I recommend practicing at home. Also, this week we learned about standard form, written form, and expanded form for any number up to 4-digits. (For example: 123; one hundred twenty-three; 100+20+3). Again, this gets especially tricky in the thousands block, so practice is encouraged. We’ve been comparing and ordering these numbers, too.
In Science, we set up our Science Notebooks and reviewed science safety and some common tools of scientific investigations.
The following link has all the information you will need for Elementary School Night at Dragon Stadium, which is Friday, September 14, 2012. It will be a fun night and I hope everyone can make it!Elementary-School-Night-Promotion-2012-1.pdf