Week 8: October 9-13

Reminders: 
Open House is tomorrow evening, Tuesday, October 10. Please join us in your child's classrooms from 6:00 to 6:45 and learn what exciting things have been going on in third grade so far this year.

Individual pictures will be taken this Thursday morning, October 12.

Do not forget to sign up for Parent / Teacher Conferences scheduled for October 18-20. Use the links below to secure your spot. We can't wait to celebrate the successes of your child and discuss their goals moving forward.

• Duncan/Ford Signup
• Rozzell/Morphey Signup
• Badrak/Saint Val Signup 

We have students with allergies so please pack nut-free snacks. Snacks should be dry and healthy to promote student learning and not create a mess. 

Examples: 

• Fresh or dried fruit/vegetable sticks or slices
• Cheese cubed or sliced·        
• Applesauce (in the squeezable containers)
• Goldfish/Cheeze-its or Cheese Nips       
• Saltines/Graham crackers/Pretzels

Reading- This week our third grade readers will be exploring and identifying the elements of  fiction by referring to familiar text, and responding to the question, "What do these pieces of realistic fiction have in common?" The elements of setting, characterization, plot, problem, and solution will be emphasized and mapped. The story arc is an organizer that the students will be using to track the plot line of many realistic fiction texts. It will also be referenced as one strategy during our writing of personal narratives. 

Writing- This week our third grade writers will be spending time collecting ideas for personal narratives. October seems the perfect time to brainstorm lists of scary moments and techniques effective writers use to elicit emotion in their readers. An example of this is to "show not tell"; saying you are afraid is much less interesting to readers than showing you are afraid. I could feel my heartbeat in chest, my fists clenched, and I was unable to speak. Each week the teachers will continue to showcase examples of "magical writing" that will focus on effective techniques from other third grader authors. 

****Also, your child will need to bring in an object or artifact that is meaningful to him/her by Friday of this week. He/she will be sharing why it is special and using it to brainstorm other types of stories from his/her life.

Spelling-Students will continue to work with syllables to spell words. We will be manipulating them by combining some of the six syllable types in different ways. For example, pen-cil, if reversed would be read cil-pen. In doing this, students are better able to practice how to sound out and spell words in meaningful ways. In this example, students put into practice that a syllable, such as pen and cil are closed by a consonant, therefore the vowel will make a short sound in most words we read and write.

Social Studies-We have placed the finishing touches on our letters to our third grade neighbors so significantly affected by Hurricane Harvey at Meadow Wood Elementary. They will be delivered at a school function next week to show our care and concern for members of our Spring Branch community. We are continuing to assess what makes someone a strong member of his/her community by researching historical figures who made a difference.

Math- This week we will wrap up our study of addition and its application to everyday situations. Students will show how they are able to use various strategies to explain how addition is used to combine groups of things. FFF will continue to be addition this week. After scoring 100% on three quizzes, many students will move on to subtraction facts in another week. Please study NIGHTLY with your child. Knowing all facts is very important for every content area of math.

Science-  We will wrap up our exciting Matter Lab early this week and take a closer look at classifying the three most common stated of matter...solids, liquids, and gases.  We will focus on properties of each of the states and understand why its molecular structure is key to why it reacts as it does. Our Matter song will pep up the science class and reinforce our focus this week. On Friday, students will reflect on what we have learned this week.

Week 33: April 24th-28th

Reminders/Important Dates:  

• Monday, May 8th:  Math STAAR for 3rd (and 4th graders)
• Tuesday, May 9th:  Reading STAAR for 3rd (and 4th graders)
• Monday, May 22nd:  Publishers Picnic
• Thursday, May 25th:  3rd grade Chariot Races
• Friday, May 26th:  Winds of Time school-wide parade 

Reading:  We are diving into cause and effect this week.  While cause/effect is something we experience in our daily lives, identifying cause/effect within a text is tricky.  We will spend the week practicing strategies to identify cause/effect relationships in both fiction and nonfiction texts.  Our readers will gain a better grasp of the importance of identifying causes and effects throughout an informational article and/or a plot.  Doing so will answer questions like "Why did the character react that way?" or "What caused a character to do ___?"    

We will also spend part of our language arts block working with online tools called Quizlet and Epic. These resources can be found under the "Language Arts Website" link on the right side of this blog and can be accessed both during and after school. Please feel free to ask your child about these resources and use them at home as well.  

We are thankful to have the opportunity to work with reliable technology thanks to our HCE PTA!  Our students have been able to log into our Chromebooks and work with these resources daily. We are beyond grateful for these additions to our classrooms! 

Writing:  We will be wrapping up our letter writing unit this week.  We will begin this week with writing a letter to a community worker.  Students will write a letter to a police officer, fireman, or nurse/doctor in our community.  We will practice addressing envelopes as well during this process.  The publishing process will start mid-week with revising and editing. We will celebrate our letters and share with our classroom community on Friday.  

Spelling:  Students will take a test this Thursday, April 27th.  Next week, April 28th- May 4th, teachers will be looking for students to apply these spelling patterns correctly in their reading and writing work. 

Social Studies:  We will continue to learn about Texas cultural celebrations this week.  We have and will continue to use the online component of our Studies Weekly social studies resource to read articles about various celebrations in Texas.  We will dive a little deeper this week in certain cultural celebrations to learn about what types of foods, activities, and dances are celebrated.  The students are very interested in these celebrations! 

Math: We have now entered our STAAR Camp Unit. STAAR Camp is where we will be reviewing all of the skills covered this year in preparation for the May 8th, Math STAAR test. The main focus of this week's review will be on place value, comparing numbers, word problems, and graphing.  Homework this week will include practice problems in a STAAR-like format.  This homework is a great way to review old concepts at home. 

Thanks to PTA, we have been provided with new Chromebooks in 3rd grade. These new computers have allowed us to provide class time to work on Dreambox. This program allows for individualized lessons that are leveled to your child needs. Think Through Math is another program your child can log on and is a great review of past math concepts.  These can be accessed at home.  Your child has been provided with login information.  In addition, their username and password information was sent home on our red spring information/conference form.  Please encourage your mathematician to try these out at home as well as show you what they've been working on at school.    

Science:  We have moved from measuring temperature with a thermometer to other units of measurement. We ended last week by discussing the difference between mass and weight and determining appropriate units to measure mass and weight. We want your child familiar with both customary and metric units since we use both.  We will begin our week by looking at customary and metric units of capacity and volume. We will then transition to measuring on a ruler looking at 1/4 and 1/2 inch. 

Week of September 21

LAST WEEK- We had a guest reader from the Houston Bar Association to help us celebrate Constitution Day.  She read So, You Want to Be President to our third grade classes.  They were engaged and asked many questions about how she uses laws to do her job every day.

READING

We will finish up our work on connections early this week.  Last week, we reviewed and practiced making text to self and text to text connections.  This week we will finish by discussing text to world connections.  This type of reading connection can be the most challenging for 3rd graders since it requires an extensive background knowledge of world events and history.  I will scaffold our learning by connecting our text to Ruby Bridges, a story we learned about a few weeks ago in Social Studies.

We will then switch our reading focus to learn more about the genre of fantasy. Reviewing characteristics of a fantasy and sharing aloud a few quality examples will help us understand how this genre is different from the realistic fiction and historical fiction we have been reading.

Students need to continue to read for 20 minutes each night and record the title in their planner.  This is part of their study habits and daily routine which are assessed and reported on the progress report each grading cycle.

WRITING

We are learning how to have an academic discussion in writing.  Last week we talked about ways to get a conversation going, inviting others to the discussion and how to ask others for clarification.  This week we will focus on bringing our background knowledge to the discussion, how to mark of piggy-back on someone's comment, and expand someones thought or contribution.  As we work in reading this week, we will consume great examples of fiction stories so that your child will be ready next week to try writing his or her own imaginative stories.

Word Work- We will use Words Their Way this year in third grade.  This week, students will learn a variety of word work activities that they will eventually complete on their own in during our daily work work class time.  For now, students are using a generic list of words to practice.  After two week of practicing routines, your child will be groups according to their Elementary Spelling Inventory results and will receive words that should match their developmental understanding of how words and spelling patterns work.

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week we will learn about HCE's Leadership Council.  Students will have a chance to notice and nominate classmates whom demonstrate the COUGAR CODE.  We will total those nominations and then elect a representative for our homeroom class.  We will use this real world example to guide our study and learning about voting.  This week we will also explore the online portion of our new Social Studies Materials.  Students will learn in class how they can access it online and learn more to earn points with Revere the rat.  They can cash in their points to decorate Revere's habitat!  This is a great resource for extended learning and previewing upcoming at home.

MATH
This week in math, we will continue working with addition. Last week, we finished our unit with place value and started our addition unit. We spent last week practicing our addition without regrouping. This week, we will spend Monday and Tuesday regrouping in the hundreds place. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will move into regrouping in the ones, tens, and hundreds. On Friday, we will have a problem solving day where we are working on word problems. Your child will  learn to decode word problem and pull out key words that help them know what operation (addition or subtraction) that they will use to solve it. For homework this week, your child will come home with an addition worksheet on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Monday, the third grade teachers will be introducing the Problem of the Week. This is a higher level thinking word problem that is sent home every Monday and will be due on Friday. We ask that parents and students team up on this question and spend time solving it together. This is not a grade. For Fast Facts this week, we will be moving into subtraction. I have been very impressed by the addition facts and I can tell that the students are spending time every night studying their facts. 

SCIENCE
During our science time this week we will spend time discussing density and move into matter. In our study of density, we will be experimenting with objects and deciding how density affects whether an object will sink or float. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday we will complete a lab on matter. We will have six stations that help us explore the properties of matter including mass, texture, temperature, magnetism, and buoyancy. 

During our science time over the last three weeks, we have been learning about ways to be a good Digital Citizen. We will complete our last digital citizenship lesson on Thursday. As our final lesson, we will make a pledge to always be responsible while using computers and mobile devices. 

As a reminder, the third graders will have their first field trip on Friday, September 25th. Please have your child wear a GREEN shirt on Friday. We will be back for lunch so your child does NOT need a sack lunch to take with them. 

Have a great week!

Love, 

     Mrs. Duncan and Mrs. Ford

Math\Sci Week of Oct 15th

Parents,

Last week in Math, students continued working on addition and subtraction word problems.  We have been working hard on 3-digit subtraction with a medial zero.  Here are two different scenarios with medial zero:
                           705                                           705
                        - 422                                          -426
                     ---------                                   ---------
In the first problem, the ones place does not need to be regrouped, therefore the zero in the middle of the problem will be a 10 and the 7 will be reduced to a 6.  In the second problem, the ones place does have to be regrouped. Therefore, the zero in the middle will be reduced to a 9 and the 7 will be reduced to a 6.  This is all very confusing to eight and nine-year-olds!!!   This is a really hard concept for 3rd graders and they are having a tough time with it and need LOTS of practice.  Please work with them if you can at home.  It's always good to hear someone else's voice teaching a hard concept. :)

We also worked on subtracting across three zeros such like this:

                                   800                                                   500
                                 -555                                                  -224
                            -----------                                         -----------  

This week in Math we will take what we know about rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, addition, and subtraction and put it all together.  The kids will be required to look at a three digit Math problem, round the numbers, and then solve like this:

Our Fast Fact Friday Quiz will consist of subtraction ONLY and will not be recorded this week in the gradebook.  Get ready for a combo test soon with BOTH addition and subtraction!!!  

In Science, we just concluded our study on Matter and had our first big Science Test last week.  We had fun studying for the test playing Matter Jeopardy and Matter Game-board Bonanza!  We are moving on to reading thermometers in Celsius and Fahrenheit, as well as making mixtures and figuring out the best tools to separate them with.  

Love, 
Mrs. S   

Math/Science Week of October 1st

Dear Parentals,

In Math: 
We will move in to our study of addition and subtraction with and without re-grouping.  Students will add 2-digit and 3-digit numbers in the beginning of the week as a 2nd grade reviewand then we will move on to subtracting two and three digit numbers towards the middle and end of the week.  This is a challenging skill for third graders so any extra practice at home is wonderful.  We will practice the very important skill of recognizing when a problem solving situation requires addition or subtraction.  We will use the table below to help guide our mathematical decision to add or subtract in order to solve a problem successfully.  This week we will be really focusing on Combining, Take Away, and Comparative Subtraction Word Problems.

Combine 2 or more groups of things	Addition
Compare 2 groups of things	Subtraction
Take some things away from a group	Subtraction
Find a missing part of a group	Subtraction

Our Fast Fact Friday Quiz will consist of subtraction problems only and will be graded this Friday the 5th. Please see your student’s Tuesday Newsday folder for the Fast Fact quiz from last Friday the 28th of September.  This can help guide your studies at home each night.  Your child is also keeping up with their Fast Fact grades by graphing their scores on a graph in their  green binder each week.  Ask your child to show it to you!   As we begin working with addition and subtraction of large numbers, correct re-call of math facts will be incredibly important.  Students should be studying facts every night for at least 5 – 8 minutes. 


In Science:

This week we will continue investigating matter by experimenting with the changes of matter.  Students will learn about “physical changes” and “chemical changes”.  We will look closely into changing from a solid to a liquid and vice versa this week. We will conduct a fun experiment called The Great Ice Cube Race on Monday to observe one of these changes and discover what a physical change needs in order to happen.  We will assess the students knowledge of the states of matter through an end of unit exam in the coming weeks (most likely the week of the 15th, be looking for a study guide and flash cards the week of the 8th).