Week 24: February 13-17

Reminders and Upcoming dates to put on your calendar:

Valentine's Day Parties will be held on Tuesday, February 14th from 2:25-2:55 in your child's homeroom. Please send cards/treats with your child to pass out during the party. Please remember: NO TREATS WITH NUT PRODUCTS! Thank you for keeping our students safe. 

WITS Field Trip to The Menil Collection: Thursday, February 16th from 8:45am-12:00pm. Permission slips were sent home on Tuesday, February 7th. Please fill out and return as soon as possible. 

February

14- Valentine's Day Parties- 2:25-2:55 in homeroom class

16- WITS Field Trip to The Menil Collection 8:45am-12:00pm

17- Noon Dismissal

20- Presidents' Day (No School)

23- 3rd Grade Practice Reading STAAR

24- Go Texans Day

27- 3rd Grade Practice Math STAAR

This week in third grade...

Reading: Readers will read articles that lend themselves to identifying cause and effect relationships within the text. We will use graphic organizers to represent our thinking and support our ideas. We will also begin looking at STAAR-like nonfiction selections to become more familiar with their length and structure. 

Writing: Writers will continue our persuasive/argumentation essays unit. This week, we will choose our own topic (from a class list we brainstorm together) and will set up the structure of our essay. We will be focusing on creating a strong claim (thesis) to be supported by reasons (support points). Ask your writer what they are choosing to write about first! 

Examples of Persuasive Essay Structure:

Spelling: Students will receive new words on Thursday, February 16th and their test will be on Thursday, February 23rd. 

White group: Students will receive new words on Wednesday, February 15th and their test will be on Thursday, February 22nd. 

Social Studies: We will continue our economics unit, but this week, we start our Econ and Me videos!  ECON AND ME revolves around four children and their invisible friend, Econ, who apply economic principles to individuals, families, and communities. This week, we will study opportunity cost and how the kids learn to be resourceful with money while building their clubhouse.

Math: More fun with fractions this week. Comparing fractions can be a little difficult. The easiest ones are those with the same denominator. Just look at the numerator and see which one is larger. 

It is a little more tricky when the denominators are different and the numerators are the same. Students must think about the denominators and determine how many pieces the whole has been divided into. The larger the denominator, the more parts and the parts are smaller. Just the opposite of what most children think. A whole divided into 4 equal parts has larger pieces than a whole divided into 8 equal parts. Three of those big parts (3/4) is greater than three of the little parts (3/8). Students will be expected to be able to reason these two kinds of comparisons.

When the numerator and denominators are all different, students will h to use a model to visualize the fractions. We use sets, shapes, bars and number lines to show fractions that we are comparing. Here the number line shows that 2/3 is greater than 3/8.

This week we will also learn how to spot and create equivalent fractions. Equivalent fractions show the same amount but use different numerators and denominators. Models help students visualize fractions that are the same.

Eventually students will learn how to create equivalent fractions by multiplying or dividing the numerator and denominator by the same number. 

Everyone will have written math homework Monday through Wednesday nights. There will also be the usual Fast Fact Friday (FFF) quiz on Friday. Please help your child work toward mastering all multiplication facts. It is a third grade expectation.

We are excited to begin using a new online adaptive learning system, Dreambox. Students will have access to it both at school and at home. They will receive their login information in the next few days. We hope you will encourage your child to take advantage of this great resource. Use this link to access the program: Dreambox. It can also be accessed on the blog page entitled Math Websites.  Thank you PTA!

Science: This week we begin a unit on natural resources. Students will learn that all things are made from the gifts that nature shares with us. We will categorize resources as renewable, non-renewable and synthetic. The following vocabulary will be a focus for our learning.

natural resource - materials in nature that living things use

renewable resources - resources that can be replaced or will never be used up; these are found above ground

non-renewable resources - resources that cannot be replaced; once used, they are gone; these are found underground

synthetic resources - resources that are man-made

Week 20: January 17-20

Upcoming dates to put on your calendar:

1/16 - School Holiday for Students and Staff 

1/17 - School Store Open 7:30am - 7:50am for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, near the library

1/19 - 9:30am PTA General Meeting

This week in third grade...

Reading: Readers will consume and analyze a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts in order to notice and name differences between the genres.  We will look specifically at narrative non-fiction texts and focus on why authors choose to write about topics in this manner. 

Narrative non-fiction: a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. (This will be a genre presented on the STAAR test in May.) 

Essential questions we will consider: 

• Instead of writing biographies, why would an author choose to write about a person or event in a narrative format? 
• What is the purpose of this genre? And how can we identify it? 

Writing: Writers will wrap up our poetry unit this week. We will choose our favorite poems, revise them, edit them, and publish our best work. On Friday, we will have our end-of-unit writer's celebration and share our pieces within our community of writers. We have loved watching our writers experiment with different types and styles of poetry the past few weeks! 

Spelling: 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). New spelling groups started Thursday, January 12, and the test will be Thursday, January 19th. 

Social Studies: We will continue our economics unit and will be focusing on goods and services this week. We will be able to differentiate between the goods and services we use as consumers in our own lives. 

Math: This week is dedicated to a review of multiplication and division. Students will practice recognizing when to use each operation and how to use the many strategies we have learned in the past few weeks. Multiplication problems give you two numbers (factors), the number of groups and the number in each group. The question asks for a total number (product). Strategies explained in earlier blog posts include equal groups, number lines, arrays, skip counting, and repeated addition. Division problems give you the total and how many groups you will make with that large number. The question asks for how many are in each group.(quotient) The octopus strategy is best for this. It could also give you the total and the number in each group and ask for the number of groups you can make.(quotient) The cookie strategy works best for this. Other division strategies include skip counting, repeated subtraction and knowing the related multiplication fact that will give you an immediate answer. These strategies are also explained in previous blog posts. After several days of practice, students will be tested on their multiplication and division skills this Friday.
FFF (Fast Fact Friday) quiz will still be on Friday this week. If your child is not well into knowing their multiplication facts, at least on sixes or sevens, it is time to step up the effort. Please help your child practice flash cards, previous quizzes, and apps to solidify their knowledge of basic facts. Multiplication is a priority, but don't forget to review addition and subtraction every once in a while. There is no POW (Problem of the Week) this short week. This Thursday, we will give the next PSA to see how our students have grasped concepts taught the first half of the year. 

Science: Having just finished a unit on Force and Motion, we move on to Natural Resources. One of Earth's greatest resources is soil. Beginning with the processes of weathering and erosion, soil is a combination of pieces of weathered rock, air, water, and decomposed plants and animals called humus. Worms and insects allow air and water to enter soil and help make it great for growing plants. Decomposition of all living materials is part of the life cycle and food chain. Knowing what will and will not decay will help students understand the importance of recycling and not littering. 

natural resource - anything made by nature and used by man
weathering - the process the breaks down rocks into tiny pieces over time
erosion - the carrying away of weathered rock
agents - causes
decompose - rot, decay
organic - living or once alive
humus - decomposed organic material (plants and animals)

Week of January 30th-January 3rd

This is our last week of studying fractions!  The first thing we will focus on is teaching the students how to write a mixed number and that there is such thing as 4 1/4 or 5 1/2.  This week the students will learn how numbers can be broken up on a number line and how the space between 1 and 2 can actually mean 1 1/4, 1 1/2, 1 3/4, and then 2.  We will relate this to money ($1.25, $1.50, $1.75, and $2.00) and Linear Fractions as a whole.  We will teach the students the "swishes" method so that they can properly identify the spot on the number line and write the mixed number.

Our Multiplication Fast Facts are going well.  This week we will have students on 4 different levels.  The test this coming Friday on the 3rd will be taken for a grade.

The students had a Fraction Assessment this past Friday.  The entire test was word problems and I was pretty proud that the students used and applied the strategies that were taught all week to attack these fraction word problems.  Look for this assessment in your child's Tuesday News day and look over it with your child. Talk with your child about the importance of reading very carefully and how 1 word, like NOT, can change the entire meaning of a word problem.

All of 3rd grade is preparing for our Math Practice STAAR Test on February 8th.  The students will be given 4 hours to complete 47 Math Word Problems on anything from counting money to reading a graph to fractions on a number line.  We don't expect all students to Ace this test.  It will be used for data purposes only to figure out who possibly might need a little extra Math help before the actual STAAR in April.

In Science this week, we will continue our study of Natural Resources and Conservation.  Last Friday the 27th, all students brought home 2 paper books and a flow chart to help them study.  We will have a Science Test over this content this coming Friday, February 3rd.

Its going to be another great week of learning!!!