Week 21: January 23-27

Upcoming dates to put on your calendar:

January 
25 and 26- Reading PSA2

February

3- Progress Reports Go Home

3- Class and Individual Picture Day

9 - Donuts with Dads 

14- Valentine's Day

17 - Noon Dismissal

20- President's Day (No School)

24- Go Texans Day

This week in third grade...

Reading: Readers will continue to consume and analyze non-fiction texts. This week, we will consume biographies and compare them to narrative non-fiction texts. We will analyze the presentation and text features the author uses in biographies compared to those used in literary non-ficton. We will be reading biographies on important Americans we have studied in social studies!

Writing: Writers will begin a new unit on writing persuasive/argumentation essays. We will explore issues, discuss what it means to take a side, and look at how to support our claims with valid support points. We will read many examples and analyze essays for several days, as this genre is new to our third graders. We can't wait to see the topics they choose as the unit unfolds! 

Spelling: Due to the district Reading PSA2 we will be administering on Thursday (1/26), third grade will not be giving new spelling words this week. In lieu of spelling for the week, we will begin our cursive unit. Students will get new words on Thursday, February 2nd. 

White group will take their first test on Wednesday, January 25th. 

Spelling change reminder: Due to our WITS schedules and differentiated grouping across ELA teachers/classrooms, we will be moving our spelling day to Thursday this semester (with the exception of the white group that will stay on Wednesday).  

Social Studies: We will continue our economics unit and will be focusing on businesses in America. How can one idea spark an idea for a business? Why are some businesses successful and some are not? We will read about Ray Kroc and how he transformed McDonald's. 

Math: We will spend this week learning different strategies for 2 digit times 1 digit multiplication. We will begin with a picture model where students use a place value chart to build a picture of a product. 42 X 3 looks like this.

PICTURE MODEL

Students will learn how to multiply numbers with trailing zeros. Examples of these are 30, 200, 7000.  They are a digit followed by only zeros. When multiplying these, we multiply the non-zero number first and then add on the appropriate number of zeros. For example,   60x3=___. Multiply 6x3, which equals 18. Then add on the one zero to make 180.

Our next strategy is the expanded method. The two digit number is expanded to form an addition problem showing the value of tens and ones. That is then multiplied by the 1 digit to get an addition problem of the products. The final step is to add the two numbers to get a final product. The expanded method looks like this.

EXPANDED METHOD

The same idea behind the expanded method is put into a box for the box method. The process is the same, just a little cleaner and organized. The box method looks like this.

BOX METHOD

The last strategy, and the one most parents recognize, is the algorithm or mechanical process for finding the product. Starting in the ones place, you multiply and write the ones and carry over or regroup into the tens. Then multiply the tens place and add in what you regrouped from the ones. The algorithm looks like this.

ALGORITHM

Towards the end of the week, we will have a quick introduction to our next unit, fractions. Students will learn that a fraction is part of a whole and that each number in a fraction has a special name and definition. The top number, or numerator, tells you the number of equal parts you are focusing on. The bottom number, or denominator, is the total number of parts the whole is divided into. Students will learn that a unit fraction is one with a numerator of 1. For example, 1/2 and 1/3 and 1/8 are all unit fractions.

Everyone will have written math homework Monday through Wednesday nights. Students will receive a Problem of the Week (POW) on Monday. It is due on Friday. Please work with your child to complete this. Your math conversation can be very helpful. There will also be the usual Fact Fast Friday (FFF) quiz on Friday. Please help your child work toward mastering all multiplication facts. It is a third grade expectation.

Science: This week we finish our study of weathering, erosion, soil, and decomposition. Students will understand that soil in different places is different because of the unique rocks, plants and animals that are naturally there. We will begin a study of forces that result in rapid changes to Earth's surface. These include earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. We will discuss the layers of our planet, especially the crust made up of many tectonic plates that float on the liquid mantle. Students will learn how to categorize these forces as constructive (build up Earth) or destructive (tears down Earth), or both and why.