Math and Science for the Week of October 31st-November 4th

Dear Parents,


This week the kids will look forward to field day on Friday at 8:10 to 9:00!!!  


In Math LAST week, we studied time to the minute and learning how to read a scale on a thermometer in Celsius and Fahrenheit.  I found that our kids had a tough time with time (pun intended!).  When the clock got into what we called "the danger zone," the majority of students would actually misread the hour of the clock.  So instead of writing 1:55, they would write 2:55, because the hour hand appeared as though it was on the 2.  Please work with our kids anytime you can and make them read an analogue clock for practice.


In Math THIS week, we will begin working in measurement as we use rulers to find the length of objects using the customary measurement system.  We will focus on inches, feet, yards, and miles.  Students will practice predicting the length of objects around the room, measuring with rulers, and then calculate the difference between the predicted and the actual length.   We will also work on the concept of Perimeter.  We will talk about the border around our bulletin boards or the fence around the school to introduce the concept of a perimeter.  To find the perimeter, students will measure all sides of an object or shape and then find the sum of these sides.  To challenge your child on perimeter,  give them the total perimeter of an object or shape and encourage them to find all the possible lengths that could equal the given perimeter.  
Our Fast Fact Friday Quiz will be practice.  Students should be studying facts every night for at least 5 – 8 minutes.   


In Science this week, We will continue our study of Energy, Force, and Motion.  Students have been working hard to gain an understanding of potential and kinetic energy.  We have discussed mechanical energy, gravity, and the concept of push/pull.  Now we will explore light energy, sound energy, and heat energy all this week.  Ask your child to use their own words to teach you about all these different kinds of energy around us.
 

Update for 10/31-11/4 LA and SS

Language Arts:  - We are still reading non-fiction.  This week we will focus on the facts located in non-fiction texts.  Students will learn to distinguish fact from opinion.  They will also work this week to determine if facts read are important or interesting.  This is a hard concept for third graders.  When most third graders read a fact, if they are interested in the topic, they judge the fact to be important.

We have started talking about features that make personal narratives interesting.  Ask your student to tell you the backstory of a character in their book or in their lives.  We discussed this idea and read examples from great writers.  In the week to come, we will focus on the craft of inner monologue and how this adds to the richness of a personal narrative.

 Social Studies: Our unit on economics continues.  This week we are leaning about the vocabulary bank, deposit, savings, interest, investment and budget.  Some kids do not realize you can make a deposit into a checking or savings account at a bank.  Many think you can only do this through an ATM.  If you happen to have the time to take your children inside a bank, I think this would be a great connection to our learning in economics.  Also,  talk to you student about reasons your families saves or budgets.  This will help make learning practical and useful.

In Math and Science Week of October 24th-28th

Dear Parents,


What a fun week this will be with Red Ribbon Week here!  We also have a Clutch program scheduled on Thursday and a dictionary give away in the library on Friday. :)  


In Math this week, we will be approaching some new subject matter.  In 1st grade, your student was required to master time to the hour and half hour, in 2nd grade it was time to the quarter and five minute increments, in 3rd grade it's the whole shebang!  They will be mastering telling time on an analog clock to the minute in 3rd grade.  Then we will shift over to reading thermometers in the Fahrenheit and Celsius scale.  The most important thing we try to focus on when reading a thermometer is what kind of scale the thermometer has.  Does it count by 2's, 5's, 10's, etc..???  We will continue to review 3 digit subtraction over medial and two zeros. 
The fast facts this week will be BOTH addition and subtraction in 1 minute.  This week's test will be inputted into the grade book so STUDY, STUDY, STUDY!!!


In Science this week, we will begin our new unit of study.  Students will begin studying the concept of Energy.  We will review four forms of energy: sound, light, heat, and mechanical.  


I will be out traveling on Monday. I hope the kids enjoy Mrs. Carrie Allen, a former HCE retired teacher as their substitute. :)


Love,
Mrs. S
 

LA and SS for the week of 10/24

Parents and Friends,

Below you will find a brief summary of what's to come in LA and SS during the week of 10/24-10/28.  I have also included some activities that would support our learning in SS this 9 weeks.  Thank you for supporting learning at home!

Omi Ford 

Reading

We will continue working with non-fiction features.  Students will learn how to use a FQR (Facts, Questions and Responses) chart this week as a note taking tool and helpful tool to solidify comprehension.

We will finish our guided reading groups and discover "who-dun-it" in the mysteries we've been reading the last month.  

Students will be bringing home a BAT poem later in the week.  We introduced the poem on 10/19.  We have used the poem to practice reading with expression, think about context clues and learn all about alliteration.

Writing

Students have been learning about the structure of a narrative.  They have learned about the parts of a narrative arc and even reconstructed a narrative noticing and discussing narrative arc features.  We will spend the next week looking at different ways authors start their stories (we call these leads).

We've discussed verbs and will learn about nouns and adjectives in the weeks to follow.

Spelling

Students will have spelling words this week.  Please make sure that they bring home their spelling spirals and complete 10 points of spelling homework by Thursday.  Tests will be given on 10/28.

Social Studies

We are starting a new unit of study, economics.  For the first half of the 9 weeks we will learn about personal economics.  Students will learn to differentiate between wants and needs.  We will also learn to use the vocabulary words producers and consumers to talk about people who contribute to our economic system.  

Over the last few years, I've noticed that some third graders are lacking in background knowledge when it comes to economics.  It would benefit our classroom discussions and learning if you could talk to your child about how your family chooses to spend money.  Talk to them about the NEEDS that you pay for (shelter, clothing, utilities, food, ect.) and then talk about how you decide when to spend money on WANTS (toys, trips, electronics, candy, etc).  

In November we will start talking about how to create a budget.  If you can allow your child an opportunity to create a budget or spending plan, this real world application will benefit them greatly.  Maybe the next time you go out to dinner you can tell your student how much you would like to spend for dinner and have him or her help you make menu selections that fit within this budget? Maybe give your student a proposed amount of money to spend on a birthday gift for a friend?  Have him or her think about choices needed to either choose a more expensive gift and less expensive gift wrap or maybe a less expensive gift and more expensive card.    Anytime you can talk to your child about how you are choosing to spend your money and how you cam to that decision the more CONCRETE this very abstract concept will become.

Math and Science for the Week of October 17th

Parents,


This week will be fast and furious with our two half days on Thursday and Friday.   In Math this week, students will continue 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 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. :)
This week we will be working on subtracting across three zeros such as this:
                                   800                                                   500
                                 -555                                                  -224
                            -----------                                         -----------  
Our Fast Fact Friday Quiz will consist of subtraction AND addition problems this week and will be a practice only !!  This is our first week to mix addition and subtraction.  Please study both this week.  Students should be studying facts every night for at least 5 – 8 minutes.  


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 again.  


I look forward to conferencing with all of you at the end of this week and discussing your child's progress in 3rd grade.


Love, 
Mrs. S   

Language Arts and Social Studies Update for the Week of 10/17-10/21

Reading:
We will start working with non-fiction texts.  There are many features associated with non-fiction texts.  Students will learn about a table of contents, glossary, index, fonts, cut-aways, photographs, and illustrations.  We will learn how these features help us read and know more about a topic.  We will use non-fiction selections focused on BATS for the next few weeks.  


Writing:
Students will read examples of third grade narratives.  They will notice the PARTS a writer must include to make a narrative make sense to the reader.  They will be labeling these parts on a narrative arc.


Spelling:  There will be no spelling words this week due to half day schedules on Thursday, October 20 and Friday, October 21.


Social Studies:
We sent home a review sheet to help your student prepare for his or her Citizenship and Government Test on Tuesday, October 18.  We have spent time reviewing in class and have been working on these concepts for the last 8 weeks. The test will consist of multiple choice, short answer, fin in the blank and matching questions.  Thank you for helping solidify our learning at home!

Language Arts and Social Studies for the week of October 11

Parents,
Below you will find a synopsis of what we will be learning in Mrs. Ford and Miss Wheeler's class in the week to come.
Language Arts
Students have started guided reading groups. We will spend the next few weeks working through mysteries. I have enjoyed reading, questioning and commenting with your child! As a class, we will read Stellaluna. We will use this piece of fiction to help us think about what things we can expect from pieces of fiction. We will also use it as a launching pad for a review on verbs and how this part of speech impacts our writing.
Social Studies
Last week your student learned about the three branches of government. I hope they will continue to explore this learning using the websites linked on our helpful websites tab. We will discuss how each citizen in the United States has rights and responsibilities. One of those rights, is the right to vote. We will explore this idea and talk about what an election might look like.
Thanks for supporting and extending learning at home!

Mrs. Ford and Miss Wheeler

In Math and Science Week of October 10-14...

Dear Parents,

If you want to stay up to date on your what your child will be doing next week in Math and Science, please read below:

In Math:
We will continue fine tuning our 3-digit addition and subtraction skills.  Students will be introduced to 3 digit subtraction with a medial zero, as well as 3 digit subtraction with two zeros.   Students will continue working on addition and subtraction word problems and trying to decipher if they are combining, take away subtraction, comparative subtraction, or missing part subtraction.  



Our Fast Fact Friday Quiz will consist of subtraction problems only and will be taken for a grade.  Students should be studying facts every night for at least 5 – 8 minutes.   Please see the blog page labeled Helpful Websites to find fun and interactive websites that help your children learn their Math Facts.


In Science:
What a busy week we will have in Science next week!  A study guide and study flashcards were sent home last Thursday to get your child prepared for the Matter Test coming up this Friday.  Please take a couple minutes to help your child review all concepts encompassing Matter.  The district has scheduled a Science Benchmark this week as well.  On Wednesday, your child will be taking a Science Benchmark.  It is not inputted into the grade book and is used for data purposes only.  No WORRIES!!!!


This should be a fun and short week!
Love, Mrs. S

In Math and Science This Week....

Dear Parents,
If you are interested in what your son/daughter will be learning this week, please take a few minutes to read this.


In Math: 
We will move in to our study of subtraction with re-grouping.  Students will subtract 2-digit and 3-digit numbers.  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 will will be really Focusing on Comparative Subtraction Word Problems and Missing Part 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 a practice.  Please see your student’s Tuesday Newsday folder for the Fast Fact quiz from Friday.  This can help guide your studies at home each night.  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, and changing from a liquid into a gas and vice versa. We will conduct a fun experiment called The Great Ice Cube Race 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 next week.