Math and Science Week of April 30th-May 3rd

Parents,

Well we made it past STAAR week and I must say it wasn't easy!  The kids worked really hard and were exhausted.  The STAAR party on Friday was just what we needed to give our brains a break.  The three day weekend was also welcomed!

Believe it or not, this week in Math we will be gearing up for 4th grade!  The kids will learn multiple strategies on multiplying 2 digit numbers by a 1 digit number.  On Tuesday, we will be drawing out the multiplication problems on a tens and ones T-chart.  Your child will have this for HW on Tuesday night.  On Wednesday, I will teach them how to multiply a two digit number with another number that has many zeros.  They will find this trick simple and fun!  On Thursday, we will use our past knowledge of expanded notation to solve the problems using something called The Expanded Notation Method.  By Friday, the students will learn the last method called the box method.  We are teaching them many different ways for two main reasons.  The first is that they understand the true meaning of 57 x 3 and the second is that we want to give them several strategies so that they find one they are most comfortable with.  By Monday, the kids will be quizzed on all four methods and then we will move on to learning the correct algorithm that they will use in fourth grade.   It should be a fun and challenging week in Math.

For fast facts, we will be making this week interesting!  The kids will go back to their colored timed multiplication tests.  This week will NOT be for a grade.  I will give each child a verbal reminder on Monday what they specifically need to study.

In Science, we are trekking along and having a good time learning about Ecosystems and Food Chains/Webs.  This week we will review our learning about Food Chains, producers, consumers, decomposers, predators, prey, and all the things an Ecosystem entails with some fun games.  Flash cards to study went home on Friday the 26th, and the assessment will be on Friday.  The students will be required to draw and label a Food Chain on their Test.  It should be a fun week. I am glad to be back to learning and having a good time with these kiddos.

Love,
Mrs. S

STAAR WEEK is HERE!!!!

Dear Parents,

STAAR week has arrived and there will be many changes that will take place this week that we would like you to be aware of.  First off, there will be no assigned HW for the entire week.  Of course we would like to encourage you to continue to read nightly with your child and stay on top of Math Facts so that next week's scores do not suffer!

Monday, April 22
This will be our pep rally day!  It's so important that your child be present today at school so we can have one more opportunity to give clear and concise directions for the state test.  Your child will not be switching classes for the next two days (Tues and Wed).

Tuesday, April 23

The Math STAAR test will be given Tuesday morning.  Students will need to arrive at school on time,  (7:50am) having had a nutritious breakfast.  The school will provide snacks and a water bottle for each student during the test.  The reasoning behind the school providing the snack is that we need to keep the testing area clean and free of Cheetos cheese!  If your child wears glasses it is IMPERATIVE that he or she brings them to school that morning.  Students will be given four hours to complete the test.  We have modified our schedules to meet this state requirement.  Lunch will be at 12:45.  Specials will be at 1:15.  For homework  this evening, students will also need to have a good night’s rest.  

Wednesday, April 24

The Reading STAAR test will be given Wednesday morning.  Students will need to arrive at school on time,  (7:50am) having had a nutritious breakfast.  The school will provide snacks and a water bottle for each student during the test.  If your child wears glasses it is IMPERATIVE that he or she brings them to school that morning.  Students will be given four hours to complete the test.  We have modified our schedules to meet this state requirement.  Lunch will be at 12:45.  Specials will be at 1:15.  For homework  this evening, students will also need to have a good night’s rest.   They will have worked very hard over the last two days, and deserve a night to relax!

Thursday, April 25
This day will be a normal school day!  Any students that were absent on either Tuesday or Wednesday will be making up the test today.

Friday, April 26

Friday is our annual BIKE or CARPOOL to school day.  We are asking kids to help do their part to reduce pollution.  If possible, please help your student bike to school.  If this is not possible, carpooling and riding the bus to school is another way to help reduce emissions and take care of our environment. 

Thank you for all your hard work, cooperation, and support this year!

Omi Ford and Angela Skrivanek

Math and Science Week of April 15th-19th

Parents,

This week will be nothing short of a cramming session for finals!  All week long in Math we will study old concepts in whole group, partners, and alone.  In the early part of this week, we will be going over Objective 1, which covers all number sense.  The kids will be working on ordering numbers, comparing numbers, fractions, money, and place value.  On Tuesday, we will take a quiz independently over these objectives.  Towards the latter part of the week, we will be working on 3-D attributes, temperature, reading graphs and charts, area, and perimeter.  The kids have been enjoying so far working hard in pairs to be the group that receives a 100 on their review packets.  It's become quite the competition in the classroom and I am proud that the kids are taking their learning seriously.

Fast Facts will again be Addition and Subtraction.

In Science we have been studying Living and Non-Living things.  In order for something to be classified as "living," it must be alive or it must have been alive at some point.  There are three characteristics that we are using to qualify something as living:

1. It MUST reproduce
2. It must acquire or make food
3.It MUST grow/move

This discussion on living and non-living things has led us into studying habitats and ecosystems and how species in the same population have to compete for resources.

This week we will dive into the study of ecosystems a little more and how different species depend on one another and how an entire Ecosystem can be thrown off if just one of those populations in the Ecosystem becomes less/more.  Towards the end of the week, we will study food chains in a specific ecosystem and make illustrations that display the chain of events that happen in a Food Chain.  

Progress Reports will go home this Friday!

Love,
Mrs. S  

Math and Science Week of April 8-12th

Parents,

The next two weeks we will be getting ready for the STAAR test in a variety of ways.  We are working on making it as fun and as challenging as possible.

1. On Monday we have planned a "Round Robin" activity to prepare the kids for Objective 5 which entails probability, reading Picto graphs with different keys, and analyzing bar graphs.  The kids will work in groups to help one another solve.  Last week I motivated the kids by turning this into a competition of sorts.  If their group missed none, they all got a free HW pass!

2. On Tuesday we will take Objective 5 Quiz on Probability, reading Picto Graphs with different keys, and analyzing bar graphs and answering questions from those graphs.

3. On Wednesday, we are going to take a step back to November and early December when we studied Multiplication.  We will review and practice using all strategies taught in Multiplication to help solve the problems.  These strategies include Circles and Stars, Clothesline Method, Arrays, Making Paired Tables, etc....  The kids will work with a partner to complete some multiplication word problems.

4. On Thursday, we will review Division strategies learned a couple months ago such as the Octopus and Cookies Method.  The students will again work with a partner to determine how to solve some Division word problems.

5. On Friday we have something fun called a circuit planned.  The students will again work with one partner around the room to help each other solve Multiplication and Division word problems.  The fun thing about a circuit is if you do it correctly, you end up at the place where you started!  The kids get a kick out of it.

We are taking a break from Multiplication Fast Facts this week and going back to mixed Addition and Subtraction for about 2-3 weeks.  We have noticed some very simple mistakes in this area have been going on and want to try to help the kids get back into knowing these facts on demand, instead of counting them on their fingers!

In Science we have moved on to our study of Living and Non Living things which evolves eventually into Ecosystems.  We will be learning about how organisms get their food and how in an Ecosystem, there is a balance of sorts in which all things depend on one another.  We will discuss the vocabulary population, community and ecosystem and discover the differences between the three.

It should be an awesome week of new learning and discovery ;-).
Mrs. S

April 8-12

Language Arts
Reading
Students will continue to prep for the upcoming STAAR exam.  We will review various reading strategies (context clues, summary, predictions, author's purpose, etc.) and genres (fiction, non-fiction and poetry).  We will complete a STAAR reading practice this week during class.  

Students should be reading 20 minutes each night and completing the class blog.  

The reading homework passage will come home on Monday and should be completed and returned on Friday.

Writing
Students will complete a poetry menu.  They have working hard and written some AWESOME poems over the last week. 

Spelling
Word sorts will come home on Monday.  Homework will be due on Thursday.  We will test on Friday.  

Social Studies
We will finish TALL TALES on Monday and begin learning about scientists and inventors who changed the story of America.  We will review the life of Henry Ford and his assembly line that made automobiles more accessible and affordable.  Then, we will discuss the life of Louis Daguerre who invented the daguerreotype--  one of the first ways people were able to quickly get a picture.  We will finish up the week learning about Cyrus McCormick who invented the reaper and forever changed the way American farmers do business!

April 1- April 5

Language Arts
Reading
We will focus on poetry.  We will review rhyme and rhythm and discussed the three different types of poetry third graders need to know....
1. narrative2. lyrical3. free verseWe will continue to think about poetry and also review a few other concepts that need fine tuning like... cause and effect, summary and non-fiction features.


Writing
We will take our knowledge from reading and write some poetry over the next few weeks.  

Spelling
It will be nice to have a week off of spelling!   The next two weeks (Apri 8-12 and April 15-19) will be normal spelling weeks.  Word sorts will come home on Monday.  Homework will be due on Thursday.  We will test on Friday.  There will be NO SPELLING HOMEWORK the week of the STAAR test (April 22-26).

Social Studies
We finished learning about some important explorations in American History.  We will spend the next week discussing how some important people in history have had their stories stretched and changed to become TALL TALES.  Students will work through a menu to explore and create as they learn about this genre and these famous people.