Week 37: May 29th- June 1st

Week 37:  May 29th- June 1st

Happy Last Week of School!

It's hard to believe we are starting our last week of school together.  Thank you for all your love and support you've shown your child as well as us this year. We are truly grateful for you all!  We wish you a happy, safe, and fun-filled summer!  

Please see below for the last few events we have together as a grade level: 

Monday, May 29: SCHOOL HOLIDAY

Thursday, May 31:  Talent Show in Cafeteria from 9:20-10:20pm and 4th Nine Weeks award ceremony in Discovery Center from 1:45-2:15pm. 

Friday, June 1:  Last Day of School!!  End of year celebration and pizza in our classrooms. This is an early dismissal day.  

Week 36: May 21st-25th

Week 36:  May 21st-25th

We have a BIG week coming up!  Please see below to read the happenings of third grade this week...

Please join us for the following this week...

• Monday, May 22nd:  Publishers Picnic at 11:00-11:30am in our courtyard
• Please make plans to join your child in the third grade courtyard from 11:00-11:30am.  They will share with you much of their work from this school year.  It's a great time to see the growth they have made this year and celebrate their success.  Because this is a school wide event, you will want to get here early.  
• Tips on things to bring that will make the time more special:  smiles, a blanket or chairs to sit, a lunch with your child's favorite things, and plenty of water as it is to be hot and humid.
• We're asking that your child remains at school after Publisher's Picnic as we are finishing up end of year MAP testing and data collection. 
• Thursday, May 25th:  Join us for the 3rd grade Chariot Races from 8:30-9:00am  on our field.  You won't want to miss this short, but fun experience!    

• Friday, May 26th:  Join us the next day at the Winds of Time school-wide parade and celebration 8:45-10:00am.  Students will be parading around our hallways and participating in a final Winds of Time celebration on our hardtop. 

Week 35: May 14th-May 18th

Week 35:  May 14th-May 18th

STAAR Testing is this week.  Your child will take the math STAAR test on Monday and the reading STAAR test on Tuesday.  

By working together, we can make your child’s test experience positive and successful.  Here are some suggestions and reminders to help your child succeed:

-  Make sure your child gets a good night’s rest.

-  Have your child eat a healthy breakfast at home or in the cafeteria at school.

-  Make sure your child arrives at school on time.  We will be starting very soon after the school bell rings.

-  HCE will be providing one, clean snack on Monday and one on Tuesday.  Your child can bring their own snack as well. Let’s avoid bringing snacks that are sticky, liquid-based, and messy (e.g. Cheetos).  We will also be providing a water bottle each day. 

- We highly encourage your child to bring a jacket or sweatshirt.  The AC will be on and it gets rather cold in our class and testing rooms.

- Per TEA, students are not allowed to bring or WEAR devices during testing.  We are asking that your child leave smartwatches, Fitbits, and phones at home on Monday and Tuesday.

- Continue to build your child’s confidence through the weekend!  Please reiterate that they have learned everything they need to know for the test.  We have practiced strategies to help them be successful test takers.  We are ready and prepared!

Thank you for continued support and help in making Monday and Tuesday test days run smoothly.

Other upcoming HCE events...

• Monday, May 22nd:  Publishers Picnic from 11:00-11:30am in our Courtyard
• Please make plans to join your child in the third grade courtyard from 11:00-11:30am.  They will share with you much of their work from this school year.  Since this is a school wide event, you will want to get here early.  
• Tips on things to bring that will make the time more special:  smiles, a blanket or chairs to sit, a lunch, and plenty of water as it is to be hot and humid.
• We're asking that your child remains at school after Publisher's Picnic as we are finishing up end of year MAP testing and data collection. 

• Thursday, May 25th:  Join us on the field for the 3rd grade Chariot Races from 8:30-9:00am.  You won't want to miss it! 
• We're still in need of wagons for our chariot races.  Please lend us your wagon and ask your neighbors to help us out, too! The following SignUp Genius will help us keep track of what is coming. Thanks for your help!  Chariot Wagon SignUp

• Friday, May 26th:  Join us for the Winds of Time school-wide parade from 8:45-10:00am in the hallways and hard top area. 

Language Arts:  We will be working on our Unit project for Ancient Rome after STAAR this week.  After spending a few weeks researching and note taking, your child will be writing an Ancient Rome nonfiction book to show all that they've learned during unit time.  

Math:  We're studying Roman numerals for the remainder of the week. 

Social Studies/Science:  We will spend our short week preparing for our upcoming chariot races.  Your child will be choose a team name inspired by ancient Rome and create a shield for the big race. 

Week 34: May 7-11

Week 34:  May 7-11
Reminders:
5/9 - Bike to School Day
5/10 - Gallery Night @ 5:00
5/14 - Math STAAR
5/15 - Reading STAAR
5/21 - Publishers' Picnic @ 11:00 - 11:30
5/24 - Chariot Races @ 8:30
5/25 - Winds of Time Parade @ 8:45 
5/28 - Memorial Day (No School)
5/31 - 3rd-5th Talent Show 

Winds of Time is just around the corner. In third grade we study Ancient Rome and take part in our own version of the chariot races that entertained Romans all over the empire. We need wagons to transform into chariots. Please lend us your wagon and ask your neighbors to help us out, too! The following SignUp Genius will help us keep track of what is coming. Thanks for your help!  Chariot Wagon SignUp


Please note that Publishers' Picnic has been changed to Monday, May 21 from 11:00-11:30. We hope to see you there to share what your child has accomplished this year. Bring a picnic lunch and a blanket and meet us in our grade level courtyard. 

For the rest of the year, third grade will be piloting a new schedule that will add a few interesting segments to our day. Students will participate in Morning Meetings that build community, valuing the thoughts, feelings and accomplishments of all students and helping students feel included in our community. We aim to develop students as empathetic collaborators who work successfully in teams. During Office Hours, students will further develop executive functioning skills such as organization, planning, study skills, self-regulation and flexible thinking. In Unit Time, we will begin our study of Ancient Rome as an interdisciplinary unit of discovery with students' questions guiding their learning and collaborative problem solving.

Reading:  We will teach our lessons in small groups to reinforce previously learned concepts.  Being a week away from the STAAR test, we will celebrate our year-long growth and learning as a community of readers. 

Writing:  We will continue to take a creative approach within our writing workshop this week.  We will be wrapping up our pieces from last week as well as working on something special.  Moms/Aunts/Grandmothers:  Be on the lookout for a special surprise from your child this coming weekend.  

Social Studies and Science:  Now that research and note taking expectations are established within our Unit Time (explained above), your child will continue to research topics of interests related to Ancient Rome such as architecture, entertainment, landforms, history, and aspects of every day life.  A few of our guiding questions for our unit of study include: How does Ancient Rome have an influence on our current day communities and world?  Why did the Roman Empire collapse?  What factors led to the disintegration of the Roman Empire? 

Math: We will continue to be devoted to a targeted review of all skills covered this year. We have spiraled reviews all year and for these weeks before STAAR we will challenge our students to focus and work more carefully than ever before... remembering to use strategies we have taught, know when you need to figure out a multiplication fact you are not sure about and NOT GUESS!  We will not have a warm up this week as we will be discussing the importance of slowing down, reading the problems carefully, and showing their thinking in their work. Please continue to encourage your mathematician to show their thinking in their homework as well. We will also have our usual FFF quiz. We are so proud of their hard work & dedication!

Week 33: April 30 - May 4

Reminders:
5/9 - Bike to School Day
5/10 - Gallery Night @ 5:00
5/14 - Math STAAR
5/15 - Reading STAAR
5/21 - Publishers' Picnic @ 11:00 - 11:30
5/24 - Chariot Races @ 8:30
5/25 - Winds of Time Parade
5/28 - Memorial Day (No School)

Winds of Time is just around the corner. In third grade we study Ancient Rome and take part in our own version of the chariot races that entertained Romans all over the empire. We need wagons to transform into chariots. Please lend us your wagon and ask your neighbors to help us out, too! The following SignUp Genius will help us keep track of what is coming. Thanks for your help!  Chariot Wagon SignUp

Please note that Publishers' Picnic has been changed to Monday, May 21. We hope to see you there to share what your child has accomplished this year. Bring a picnic lunch and a blanket and enjoy!

For the rest of the year, third grade will be piloting a new schedule that will add a few interesting segments to our day. Students will participate in Morning Meetings that build community, valuing the thoughts, feelings and accomplishments of all students and helping students feel included in our community. We aim to develop students as empathetic collaborators who work successfully in teams. During Office Hours, students will further develop executive functioning skills such as organization, planning, study skills, self-regulation and flexible thinking. In Unit Time, we will begin our study of Ancient Rome as an interdisciplinary unit of discovery with students' questions guiding their learning and collaborative problem solving.

Math:  This week in Math is devoted to a targeted review of all skills covered this year. We have spiraled reviews all year and for these weeks before STAAR we will challenge our students to focus and work more carefully than ever before... remembering to use strategies we have taught, know when you need to figure out a multiplication fact you are not sure about and NOT GUESS!  Our daily warm-ups will target relationships between numbers in a chart, two step word problems, expanded notation and comparing 4 and 5 digit numbers. Friday's warm-up will be a grade in our grade book. We will also have our usual FFF quiz.

Science:  This week in Science we will continue adding to our Weather Logs and will transition to our focus on Personal Financial Literacy. We will discuss human capital and how a person can make themselves more valuable as an employee. We will cover scarcity and supply and demand. Students will review the value of saving and budgeting and the convenience and responsibility of credit cards, debit cards and cash. We will view interest in the context of both borrowing and saving.

Reading: Our students have completed listening and interacting with our grade level read aloud, Wish Tree by Katherine Applegate. It was an amazing experience, to say the least! The story is based on the point of view of Red, a red oak tree who doubles as the town's wishing tree each May 1st. This Tuesday, May Day, will give our third graders an opportunity to wish on our very own HCE wish tree. 
Our lessons this week will be taught in small groups that address the individual needs of our readers based on recent assessments. 

Writing: It is hard to believe, but the HCE annual Publishers' Picnic, which takes place on May 21st, is just around the corner, and our third grade writers are excited! This week's explorations are taking on a creative tone. Students will be completing a piece inspired by the book Not a Box, exploring descriptive language by creating nature-inspired poetry, and using a poem about monsters and aliens to compose a piece of writing that focuses on character development. It will be a great opportunity for students to peer conference, revise, and refine their work.

Social Studies: When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere. -Saint Ambrose
Social studies skills will be incorporated into student exploration of Ancient Roman culture. Ask your third grader which questions they have become interested in researching in more depth during class time. 

Week 32: April 23-27

Reminders:
5/9 - Bike to School Day
5/10 - Gallery Night @ 5:00
5/14 - Math STAAR
5/15 - Reading STAAR
5/21 - Publishers' Picnic
5/24 - Chariot Races @ 8:30
5/25 - Winds of Time Parade
5/28 - Memorial Day (No School)

A big thank you to our wonderful parents who chaperoned our trips to the River Oaks Country Club and Main Street Theater. We couldn't do it without your partnership!

Winds of Time is just around the corner. In third grade we study Ancient Rome and take part in our own version of the chariot races that entertained Romans all over the empire. We need wagons to transform into chariots. Please lend us your wagon and ask your neighbors to help us out, too! The following SignUp Genius will help us keep track of what is coming. Thanks for your help!  Chariot Wagon SignUp

Reading: This week our readers will continue interacting with our third grade read aloud, Wishtree by master storyteller Katherine Applegate. It is a book that consistently leaves our children wanting more! 

An Amazon Top 20 Children's Books of 2017

The New York Times-bestselling story of kindness, friendship, and hope. 

Trees can't tell jokes, but they can certainly tell stories. . . .
Red is an oak tree who is many rings old. Red is the neighborhood "wishtree"―people write their wishes on pieces of cloth and tie them to Red's branches. Along with a crow named Bongo and other animals who seek refuge in Red's hollows, this wishtree watches over the neighborhood.
You might say Red has seen it all.  -Amazon 

Students will be working on refining test-taking strategies using this week's feature poem, "I Saw My Teacher on a Saturday." Our third graders are becoming proficient in discussing the structure of poetry, including: stanzas, free verse and narrative structures, rhyme scheme, tone, mood, purpose, etc. 

Guided groups will be the focus this week, working with students at their individual levels to evaluate non-fiction text features. On Wednesday they will take an assessment on three genres of text and we will continue to elevate their reading skills based on the data we collect.

Writing: Our read aloud, Wishtree will be the inspiration for a poetry assignment in writing this week. The students will create a draft, then revise and final draft a piece the follows the rings of a tree through their own lives. Students will final draft on watercolor paper; what a wonderful piece to share at this year's Publishers' Picnic!

Social Studies: This week our money-saavy Cougars will continue to work through the video series Econ and Me, during their study of economics.  This has been a wonderful opportunity for our students to work on effective note taking skills and to apply the concepts learned to their personal financial literacy. 

Math: This week in Math we are exploring pared tables and input-output tables. Both concepts require students to discover the mathematical relationship between numbers from one column of a table to another. 

In this table, students  must see the relationship between the number of pages and the number of pictures. The pattern can be determined vertically by adding 4 to each line (if the numbers are sequential) or horizontally by multiplying the pages by 4 to find the number of pictures. Any operation can be used in the table. Students must ask themselves "What has been done to the first number to get the other?"

Tables can be written horizontally, too.  But the process is the same. What is done to the bottom number to get the top number? In this case, you divide by 4. 

Here is a resource that can further explain the concept of function machines.

Function Machines

At the end of the week, we begin learning about Personal Financial Literacy. This exposes our students to the basics of economics. We will discuss credit cards and planned and unplanned spending. It is always interesting to hear how children think the financial world works. Hopefully our exploration will clarify many misconceptions they have.

Students will have written homework Monday through Wednesday nights and their usual FFF quiz at the end of the week. Please make a greater effort with your child to further their multiplication facts. We are down to the wire to being fluent and proficient at all math facts!

Science: The first half of the week we are reviewing customary weight measurement and metric and customary volume. Students will jar their memories about how we measure weight and liquids here in the United States. On Wednesday they will participate in a volume lab where they will use graduated cylinders, beakers and measuring cups to better acquaint themselves with liters and milliliters. At the end of the week we practice measuring inches to the nearest half and quarter inch. Now that we have learned fractions, this should be a fairly simple exercise.

Week 31: April 16-20

Reminders:

4/18 - Field Trip to Main Street Theater
4/20 - Progress Reports go Home
5/9 - Bike to School Day
5/10 - Gallery Night @ 5:00
5/14 - Math STAAR
5/15 - Reading STAAR
5/21 - Publishers' Picnic
5/24 - Chariot Races @ 8:30
5/25 - Winds of Time Parade
5/28 - Memorial Day (No School)

Math: This week we are finishing up our study of fractions and all ways to decompose, compare and model those numbers that are greater than zero and less than 1. Key points include:

• Reasoning  through comparing fractions with like numerators or like denominators is pivotal!  
• Equivalent fractions cover the same amount of area on similar whole models.
• Models can be divided into more or less equal pieces to show equal fractions.
• Equivalent fractions are located at the same place on number lines that are divided into different numbers of equal pieces. 
• Be careful when number lines are not lined up exactly.

Students will work in pairs and individually to practice fraction skills. We will use our knowledge to play Fraction Brick Wall and our favorite, Fraction Taco. 

Monday through Thursday, everyone will work on a warm-up that is a spiral review of skills covered all year. On Friday, a similar warm-up will be graded and entered into the grade book. There is a POW (Problem of the Week) due and a fact quiz (FFF) this Friday.

Science: We changed up Science a little last week and began our exploration of the water cycle and its role in making our weather. How is it that the three ingredients of weather: air, water, and the sun's heat energy, make it all happen? Students will be responsible for knowing the what and why on all parts of the cycle. Target vocabulary includes evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff and accumulation. Students have a quiz on Thursday covering the 9 weather tools we have researched in class.