Janaury 29, 2010
I can’t believe it’s the end of January and I am only just now writing my new year update! It’s great to be back, and I have to say that the students returned from break rejuvenated and focused to learn.
So much is going on I wanted to make sure to check in. First, we’ve been having a lot of sicknesses zipping through the class. Please remind your child to wash his/her hands often (or use hand sanitizer) and to follow other sanitary habits (using tissues instead of fingers, sneezing into arm or hand, covering coughs, etc.). Thank you so much for your help in getting us healthy again!
In reading, students have enjoyed exploring various genres - fairy tales, fables, myths, and folktales. We’ve also been working diligently on reading TEKS (skills) such as cause & effect, sequencing, summarizing, multiple meaning words, and more. As for our writing, we spent the month reviewing conventions such as capitalization, sentence structure (subject and predicate/verb), and exactly what is a complete sentence. We have also focused on parts of speech: noun, verb, and adjective. Obviously, the more familiar students are with all of these, the more readily they’ll be able to participate in the writing process.
We continued to study perimeter and area in math at the beginning of this month. Later we spent a lot of time telling time – to the hour, half hour, quarter hour, five minute, and minute. We also looked at estimating time (reasonableness) and elapsed time.Our current focus is fractions as parts of a whole, parts of a group, on a number line, and equivalent fractions. Of course, we are still working on those multiplication times tables. Many students have completed their banana splits! Congrats to those kiddos and keep it up to all the others working so hard. Remember, Friday, February 12 (1:30-2:30) is the Valentine’s Party and the culmination of the multiplication fact banana splits.
January has been all hands-on science. Through three fun activities the first week, students revisited concepts of matter, physical properties, and force and motion. Since then we’ve studied the earth’s forces and both slow and rapid changes to the earth. We’ve also investigated various earth materials and how they can be classified as renewable, nonrenewable, and inexhaustible resources. The children loved creating their own rock collections at home and then sharing them with their classmates! The activity they considered the most fun, though, was “cookie mining”. Give them a chocolate chip cookie and they can demonstrate what they’ve learned about the land and its resources…
Finally, please remember that our class will be experiencing the ANSC “Minerals, Rocks, & Fossils” field trip at Pease Park on Tuesday, February 2. Students should dress appropriately to the weather and bring their lunch.
As always, thank you for all your support, input, and help. Together 2010 is already off to a great start!
December 8, 2009
Can you believe it snowed? What an exciting day! You should read some of the personal narratives about Friday’s snowfall. I’ve started a “Student Input” page on this website for occasional reflections.
The last month or so has been very busy in Reat’s Treats. We were excited that so many of you made it to Pioneer Day, both as volunteers and for the picnic. Students had a blast celebrating the pioneer lifestyle. Candle making, butter churning, and sewing quilts were among the favorite activities. Check out a few pictures on the “Class Photos” page. Lately we’ve studied the sun and the solar system. Students learned characteristics of the sun, identified the parts of the solar system, and researched a planet. They even blogged about what they know.
In math students are roaring through their multiplication tables. A couple will be finished making their multiplication banana split by the winter holidays. Most are progressing very well – currently on 7’s or 8’s facts. Be sure to have your child practice over the holiday; please practice extra if he or she is still on 4’s or 6’s. We’ve been focusing on other concepts in math too. We tied division to multiplication as inverse operations and as fact families. Problem solving has been huge in the past month. Children should always use and show their strategies -- such as make a table, draw a picture, make a model, write an equation, guess & check, work backwards -- in problem solving. Finally we’ve reviewed measuring length and distance in both the customary system and the metric system.
In language arts students have worked on the concepts of making predictions, characters traits, setting, compound words, adjectives, and dictionary skills. We’ve been doing a lot of writing, from personal narratives to poetry. Speaking of writing, cursive handwriting continues to challenge many of Reat’s Treats. The holidays would be a perfect time to practice those lower case letters (so we can return and tackle capitals). I found a website that has some printable practice pages if you need them.
http://www.kidzone.ws/cursive/index.htm
Our winter holiday party is December 18 at 1:15. Everyone is welcome! I wish you and your family all the joy of the season.
October 26, 2009
Dear Parents,
Yikes! So much is going on these days! This week is Red Ribbon Week. Here are the themes for the week:
· Monday-crazy socks
· Tuesday-hat
· Wednesday-wild hair day
· Thursday-decorate shoes day
· Friday-wear red
Just remember, though, that Friday we are going to Pioneer Farm for our field trip so the students should wear their tie-dye class shirts.
Students have been doing great with our Reading Workshop. They are working on choosing just right books (on their reading levels), choosing from a variety of genres, and reading and completing the books. They are also practicing books for fluency that they will read to kindergarten buddies. Many students are reading AR books and have taken off with the AR points! Two have already completed the regular third grade goal of 75 points and are well on the way to their own personal goals.
In math we focused on rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. Then we utilized this new skill in story problems. Students learned that certain clue words (such as about, estimate, and round) indicate that they should ROUND FIRST! They round the numbers before solving a problem. You can help your child with this skill by posing real life story problems. I find that a grocery shopping trip provides many opportunities to estimate. Next we zipped through geometric and number patterns, number lines, temperature (reading a scale on a thermometer), and money (counting bill and coin combinations). Ask your child to read an outside thermometer these days as the weather is changing. For money practice, have your child teach you to play “In My Tight Fist”.
As always, social studies touches on current happenings through Scholastic News. We also work on reading skills with this fabulous classroom magazine. Additionally in socials studies we studied “economics” with the free enterprise system. Students got a taste of this very difficult topic as we explored such ideas as the ways people earn, spend, and save money, making budgets, supply and demand, and how a business works. Physical systems is the overarching concept of our current science study. We began with force – a push or pull - and motion and changes in motion. We also noticed how simple machines make work easier. We will have an assessment over Physical Systems on Wednesday.
Finally, we started reading a lovely book by Patricia MacLachlan called Sarah, Plain & Tall. This is a book we will be using for the next couple of weeks for reading skills. But it is also a good background book for our pioneer studies, which is why I am reading it aloud before we go to Pioneer Farm. I’ve asked the children to read it at home with a parent so you can assist when needed, and also so that you can enjoy the wonderful story with your child.
Upcoming events:
Oct. 30-Pioneer Farm Field Trip
Nov. 5-Picture Retakes
Nov. 11-Early Release at 12:45
Nov.17 & 18-Book Fair
Nov.23-Pioneer Day
Dec.10-Holiday Lunch(3rd grade)
Dec.17-Old Geezer Rock Sale
Dec.18-Winter Holiday Party