LA and SS 1/22-1/25

READING
We will continue working with QAR (Question Answer Relationship) as we read and answer questions.  Students wrote some pretty tough questions last week to go with the article we read on Mei Lee's special gift.  
We will begin this week, applying this strategy and others on reading passages.  After we perfect using our reading skills in class, I will start to send home passages for homework.  

WRITING
The kids did a super job composing friendly letters to their third grade pen pals.  In the week to come, they will receive a letter from their pen pal.  We will then start working on composing a thank you letter response.  

SPELLING
Spelling homework will be shortened to 6 points this week.  

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will continue to learn about land forms.  This week we will start thinking of various ways to describe land forms or bodies of water.  The book I AM THE OCEAN will serve as our guide and inspiration as we begin to create LAND FORM POETRY!

Math and Science for the Week of January 22nd

Parents,

Another four day week is upon us.  They always seem crazier to me than a normal five day week!  This week in Math we will be starting the wonderful world of FRACTIONS!!!   Fractions seem to cause trouble across all grade levels, so we are going to be starting out very simple to review all those 2nd grade objectives over Fractions that the kids should know, but might be a little rusty on.  This week we will just be focusing on regional models, which are pretty much basic shapes like circles and rectangles being cut into slices.  We will be trying to verbalize 2/8 pieces have been eaten, 3/6 pieces are shaded, or 1/8 pieces are Not shaded, etc....  You will be seeing Fraction Homework coming home very soon.  We will be focusing on Fractions for almost four whole weeks!

Your student survived their very first multiplication fast fact test this past Friday.  If they made a 100, they will receive a new set of flashcards for X2 this Tuesday.  Their new test this Friday will consist of X0, X1, X2, and X10.  If they did not receive a 100 on last weeks test, your students will continue to study the initial set of flashcards sent home and retake the X0, X1, and X10 test again.  This Friday's Fast Fact Test will be recorded in the grade book 

Last week, your child completed their first technology project in Science on an assigned Land form.  We will be moving on to Natural Resources.  All students will discuss and learn examples of renewable and non renewable resources and where they originate from.  Students should come to discover that most non-renewable resources come from under the earth.  We will merge into conservation and recycling next week.

There will be a Pizza Party in each 3rd grade classroom during lunch next Friday.  If you did not sign your child up for this fun event at the auction in October, it's not too late!  I believe you can still go on the PTA website and sign your child up!

Love,
Mrs. S

Math/Science Week of January 14th-18th

Dear Parents,

Our first week back last week went off without a hitch!  The kids were ready to get back into a routine and so was I!!!

In math this week we will be counting money.  In the beginning of the week, the students will be expected to identify coins and their value and make change up to a dollar in a variety of ways.  This should be a review of second grade.  Students also need to use the correct symbols to label amounts. Counting coins is a concept that was introduced in 1st grade, reviewed in 2nd grade, and hopefully mastered in 3rd grade! It can be a difficult concept for students to master so please practice counting at home. Just take out a coin purse, grab a handful of coins and have the kids count!  The best way to master the concept is to practice, practice, practice!  In the later part of the week, we will be counting coins as well as dollars and putting the amounts together.  Students will again be expected to add up the amounts correctly, and place the decimal and dollar symbol in the correct place.

This coming Friday will be our first multiplication Fast Fact test.  The students will be expected to complete 30 problems in 1.5 minutes.  Flash cards to study were given last Monday to study at home with you.  Students can also practice online with some websites on our Helpful Websites tab in the blog.  Please study x0, x1, and x10.  Students will only be tested on these this Friday.  This first test will not be graded.  All students will need to make a 100 in order to move up to the "next level."

In Science the kids will be working on a Land form project in Power Point.  Each student was assigned a Land form this past Friday, and will begin their research starting this coming Monday in class.  The kids will be given 30-45 minutes in class a day to complete this project.  They will be given a research paper with all the requirements to guide them through their research.  This project will hopefully be completed by this coming Monday the 21st, so that the kids can share them with their classmates all week.

Here are the requirements of the project:

1. Land form's formal definition
2. How the Land form is formed
3. How the Land form changes over time
4. 2 real world examples of their Land form with location and 2 interesting facts per example

All students will be using Mrs. Moore's website on Land forms to conduct their research.  Here is the link:

Landform Research Websites

It should be a great and busy week!  You can always email with questions ;-)

Love,
Mrs. S

Mrs. Ford is BACK!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to school, and back to third grade with Mrs. Ford!
I missed all of you while I was gone.
Here's a little look at who I was spending my break with...

Language Arts

Reading- We will spend the rest of this week and next week reviewing inferences and beginning to analyze questions using QAR (Question Answer Relationship).  QAR is useful as a tool for conceptualizing and developing comprehension questions. "QAR creates a way of thinking about the types of questions that are most appropriate for different points in guiding students through a text. Questions asked before reading are usually On My Own QARs. They are designed to access relevant prior knowledge. In creating questions asked during reading it is important to balance text based and inference questions. Search and Locate QARs should dominate and should build to the Author and Me QARs. Finally, after reading questions are primarily Author and Me and On My Own QARs. Please remember that too many Right There QARs may indicate and overemphasis on literal, detail questions. QAR is useful as a student tool in providing a basis for three comprehension strategies: locating information, determining text structures and how they convey information, and determining when an inference would be required. It initially helps children understand that information from both texts and their knowledge base and experiences are important to consider when answering questions. It helps students search for key words and phrases to locate the appropriate information for answering questions. Finally, QARs help students recognize whether or not information is present in the text and, if not, that it is necessary to read “between or beyond the lines” to answer the question." (the reading lady)
Reading homework is back on track.  Please have students check the reading blog to record homework.

Writing- Students have finished writing a personal narrative.  We will be working the next two weeks on letter writing.  Students will receive a third grade pen pal.  We will learn how to correctly format and write a friendly letter to that person.  Then, after each child receives a letter, we will learn how to write a thank you letter in return.  We are hoping that this real world application will inspire a new generation of letter writing! :)

Spelling- Students will once again bring home spelling words on Mondays.  They will work to complete 8 points off the spelling menu by Thursday and we will test on Fridays.

Social Studies

Geography We will start our unit on land forms   In third grade we work to learn land form vocabulary.  Then, we will find when on our EARTH different land forms or bodies of water may be found.  Finally, we want students to think about how life might be based on what type of land form or body of water we live near.  

Math/Science Week of January 7th

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year!!!  I hope all of your holiday break was filled with family, fun, and laughter.  It is good to be back :)  This crazy short week will be a great transition to get back into the school groove.

This week in Math we will be diving into graphing.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will mainly be practicing the proper way to read and label Picto, Bar, and Tally Graphs accurately.  Then we will be taking the information given in the graph and use it to answer questions.  On Thursday and Friday, the students will be conducting a survey of their own, and be required to create their own picto and bar graph that corresponds correctly to their data collected in the survey.

There will be no Fast Facts test this week, but that doesn't mean you can't start practicing.  We will start with multiplication this month.  Please practice the x 0, x1, and x10.  All students will have to make a 100 before they can move on to the next level on their multiplication test.  So practice, practice, practice.  Good ol' flashcards are NOT overrated!

In science we will be looking at landforms. Landforms are natural formations found on Earth. We will study many examples over the next couple of weeks including mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, basins, prairies, oceans and many more! Here is a link with some other examples:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/landforms/glossary.shtml

Also, here is a super cool video to help your child understand and remember the different land forms:




Once again, welcome back.  I look forward to the 2ND half of the school year :)

Mrs. S

Math/Science Week Dec 17-21st

Parents,

Well here we are, down to the last 4 1/2 days!  I know it is going to just fly by, but before we leave for Winter Break we must get a few more things in.

Being that it will be such a crazy week, we will not be diving into any new content this week.  Now that the kids fully understand the relationship between multiplication and division through our study of fact families last week, we will start to dive into a mixture of both multiplication and division word problems.  The students will have to thoroughly read word problems, decode them, decide whether it is multiplication or division, and use the strategies taught in class to solve for them.  I have tried to help the kids decode these problems by telling them this:
**If you are given a total and ask to break that total apart, you know it is division.
**If you are asked to find the total, then you know its multiplication.  

In Science this week, we will close our study of slow and fast land changes and forces that shape the land on Thursday.  We have now studied hurricanes, tornadoes, landslides, earthquakes, and volcanoes in great depth. Our weathering and erosion unit test will be this Tuesday, December 18th.  The study guide and flashcards SHOULD have come home last Tuesday the 11th in your child's red HW folder!  I will send the PDF file for these things as well just in case it evaporated!  After the test, the students will be put into groups on Wednesday and Thursday to create posters on the natural disasters that we studied.  It's a great fun way to close out the unit and the week ;-)

On Friday will be the Sing-a-Long in the morning at 9:30.  Parents are welcome to come and stand on the sides to observe.  From there, we will be heading outside to recess so that our parent volunteers can set up in the room for the Holiday Party. Our Holiday Party will begin at 11:15.  Kids will first be eating their lunch in the room as well as a holiday cookie and watching a holiday movie.   They will then have a craft to design and we will be releasing the kids at noon.

I hope every single one of you have a wonderful break and holiday with your beautiful children.  I'm blessed again this year with such a nice homeroom class and wonderful, supportive parents.  Thank you for all your help and support thus far this year  :-)

Love Always,
Mrs. S

Math/Science Week of December 10th-14th

Parents,


For the last two weeks we have been learning about division.  It has been going really well.  The kids are super excited to be learning division and are motivated to understand it.  I think it makes them feels like big kids :)  We have taught them two strategies to solve division problems, the Octopus Method and the Cookies Method.

This week we will tackle Multiplication and Division Fact Families to see the relationship between the two.  For instance, if 4 X 6 = 24, then 6 x 4 = 24, then 24 / 4 = 6, and 24 / 6 = 4.  The key to writing these correctly is to remind the kids that when they are writing the multiplication equations, the smaller numbers go first.  When they are writing the division equation, the larger number is always written first.  Fact families is usually a concept that students catch on to rather quickly.

This will be our last fast facts of the nine weeks this week.  It will not be recorded into the grade book.  Start getting ready for multiplication fast facts next semester!!  We start with 0's, 1's, and 2's in January.

In Science we have been diving into our unit on Weathering and Erosion.  The kids learned the week before last that there are slow land changes to our Earth due to weathering and agents of weathering such as wind, running water, people, animals, sand, etc... Last week we studied a few Natural Disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and land slides that cause fast changes to the Earth's surface.   This week we will continue studying other Natural Disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes!  The kids are getting to see some excellent footage of these changes happening to the earth and are really quite interested in this unit.

This week we will be collecting 100% juice boxes or cans for the local food bank.  Also, Toys for Tots will be collected on Wednesday from 8:30-10:00.

We have almost reached the finish line of half the year.  Can you believe it?

Love,
Mrs. S