Thank you to those parents that were able to come watch presentations today. The students were really excited to see you all there and to have an audience.
Some students remembered their November reading log - a few forgot. There is one more day of November when we return from break, so if you still have it at home, please help your student make sure that it comes in with them after break. Remember reading groups and journals are due the week after break. Journals on Friday, December 4 and book groups are listed below. -Flora and Ulysses due 12/1 -Trins due 12/2 -Marty due 12/4 -Watson due 12/3 -Humphry due 11/30 The new Math Unit will start when we come back. This unit will be structured a bit different in that students will be working only in homerooms. It will be a wrap up of multiplication and an intro to division. Look for more details and timeline as we come back from break. Enjoy the extra family time and have a safe holiday!
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This week in third grade was super eventful. We skyped with a friend from South Africa, were visited by a friend from the Ivory Coast (and even danced with her), finished up our Unit 2 Math and worked hard on researching Africa. Here are some things you should know...
1.Math: There is a math test on Monday for Multiplication. Students who are still missing sheets were sent home with what they were missing stapled together in a packet (look for a packet with an index card attached) and a few others had sheets almost done, but needed a few finishing touches. Please ask your kiddo about their math and see if they were finished - we celebrated each kiddo who finished, so they know if they are done or not. 2. Lit groups are not due until the week after we come back from break - students have a sheet to do and pages to read. Things to focus on: In the discussion director portion - this should be open ended questions about the book, NOT statements. Students are posing a question about the reading/character to their group in this section. In the Illustrator section- this SHOULD NOT be a picture from the book. This is a place for students to show their mental image of something that happened or someone that is in the story - not just copy a picture from the book. Clever Connector section - we are working on deeper connections. This means that a connection should be related back to the story in some way (even stronger if they can mention a specific section or page number), so, "In my story the mom grounded the child on p. 23 because she didn't do her homework and it reminded me of last month when my mom grounded me because I didn't come home from the park when I was supposed to..." -Flora and Ulysses due 12/1 -Trins due 12/2 -Marty due 12/4 -Watson due 12/3 -Humphry due 11/30 3. Journals were given out today. If your child hasn't turned in their Thankful writing piece, please help them make sure that it is here for Monday as we will be working on it some more. Journals for this week will not be due until the Friday that we come back from break (12/4) and are "Something I am proud of" for the structured paragraph and a free write. Please keep encouraging your student to use their best writing and add details. We are working hard in class on using our best descriptions to help the reader picture what we are writing about. 4. Reading: The reading log that went out at the beginning of the month should be coming back to school by 11/24. This was a brownish sheet, looks like a calendar, to keep mins of reading on. You will get another one for December Reading. 5. Projects: Africa projects are in full swing. Projects will be presented on Monday. Please help your student remember to bring their items back - many took them with today to add finishing touches. Some students are doing an poster, some a google presentation, etc. Projects should have their sources documented somewhere. 6. Behavior: Students in third grade have been talked to multiple times this week about making sure that they are lining up when asked, are practicing safe behavior for recess and making sure that they are following lunchroom rules. We took some time to reflect on this, but if you would add it to your discussions at home that would be appreciated. 7.Crayfish: this week, students took time to think about what crayfish prefer in order to construct the best man-made habitat. They then worked in small groups to design what their group would put in their section of the crayfish pool. Currently, our pond is filled with fake plants, yogurt containers, washers, PVC pipes and more! It looks beautiful! Students will then be collecting data regularly about which section the crayfish prefer. The challenge will be trying to find the crayfish in their creative, heavily covered habitats. Dates to remember:
Thats it for now. Please let me know if any questions arise. Have a great weekend! Good evening families!
A reminder that this week is the last week for Math in Unit 2. Playbooks are being updated tonight and will be available again tomorrow. There are many more kiddos who are having success in being close to completion. Thanks so much for your reminders and chats with them about math! Research projects on Africa are underway. If you haven't talked to your child about their project yet, please ask them. Many are very excited about the research. If they are working at home on their work, please remind them to bring in what notes adn things they complete so that they have them the next day at school. Also, we have discussed that they should be writing down their sources as they use them. For websites, this is the name of the website and the URL. For books, its the Title, Author and page numbers (or whole book). Please refer to the links on Friday's email for good sites for the kids to use - we are really looking for helping them choose quality sources and not just google searching and using the first thing that pops up. Last update is dictado for the week. It is below. Teaching point this week is the commas that set up the beginning phrases and as always, the normal spelling. As we research Africa, we need to remember many things. First, we need to look at good sources. Second, it is important to take notes about what we learn. Finally, we will use this information to create a project. Remember the yellow are the no excuse words - words that 3rd graders should know cold to be successful as they go through the year and into 4th. Some of the students have traveling word walls - as your student if they have one. These should come out each time that they write and any yellow word in the dictado should be added to the orange page on the wall. This will be a great resource to have as they are editing journals and working on spelling things. If they are adding the yellow words from dictado each week, they will have access at home to the same words that they have on the wall at school. As always, let me know of any questions that arise. Have a great night.
This week has been exciting for crayfish... with eggs, worms and pond learning, the critters sure keep us busy! Homework is a little different this week. To celebrate the crayfish, we are working on a writing project. It should be coming home tonight - Look for a book with a green cover and white pages. The project is called "Diary of a Crayfish" and should document the travel of the crayfish from the crayfish point of view. Students have been working on this book in class and should be working on it at home this week instead of journal entries. There is a rubric in the back of the book to give students goals to shoot for as well as a word bank to help them with the academic vocabulary to include in the book. We have talked about the crayfish shouldn't be playing ipad, running a marathon, etc... It should be things the crayfish would typically experience. Math so far seems to be going well. We took an informal survey of the kiddos and they seem really excited about the changes that have been made. Keep asking for those playbooks and to see updates on google classroom - there is even some new multiplication songs to help with facts! Literature circles have new books (for most students) and they have a reading assignment due on Monday. Each child has a cloth pouch that should have their reading group book and their lit circle sheet in it. They have a reading assignment listed at the top of the sheet and the sheet is to be completed as well- due Monday. Groups will be meeting to talk about their book so it is imperative that readers have finished their work so that they can participate. This pouch should come back and forth with the student every day so that they can work on their reading/sheet at home or at school. This would be a great thing to work on during the read for 20-30 mins! Speaking of the reading - hopefully you all got a November Calendar that came home yesterday. Its on a brownish colored paper. Some kiddos are not getting their planners signed, so we are trying to make it easier for families. This calendar can be kept at home through the whole month and should be returned before Thanksgiving Break. Hopefully this streamlines your signing - your child should be filling in any mins that they read on the chart and your signature is needed at the bottom. The reading goal is listed at the top. We have started researching a new continent this week. Today we flew to Africa and got our passports stamped. Students will get to go to seminars on topics of their choice supporting their study of Africa and its culture. They will then work towards a research project of their choosing - more info on that later. There is strep going around third grade. Please help your kiddo remember to get plenty of sleep, wash hands and dress for the weather. Food Drive is happening. If you would be willing to send in things, please do. We will be keeping track of items brought in per class. Items for this week's collection items are chink pineapple, macaroni, condiments, shampoo and diapers. Money and other food items are always welcome as well. We will be doing some things with the crayfish next week as well. Students will begin a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) project and be asked to work in groups to design a portion of their habitat in our pool using man-made materials. Examples of these materials include PVC pipes, yogurt containers, plastic plants, 2 liter bottles - anything that can withstand water and be washed before use. We will also be looking for some old washers/nuts/bolts to help items sink. |
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November 2017
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