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!!!

Math and Science for the Week of January 23rd-27th

Fractions, Fractions, and more Fractions!!!  We are still working on......you guessed it, Fractions!  We started our really basic two weeks ago and reviewed some 2nd grade concepts of what a fraction is (part of a whole) and we revisited how to write fractions in several different ways.  Last week we focused on comparing fractions.  Which fraction is larger or smaller or equal?  We played Level 1 of our Fraction Taco game last week and really had a blast.  We had a short assessment this past Friday on Fractions of a Whole, Fractions of a Set, and Comparing Fractions.  Look for that in your child's Tuesday Newsday this week.
     This week we will concentrate on making equal fractions.  We we will learn why 1/2 and 2/4 are indeed the very same thing.  We will practice this concept by playing level 2  in our Fraction Taco Game!  We also will be talking about making models with fractions.  You will see this in your child's HW this week.  They will need to read a word problem very carefully and illustrate exactly what it says, so that they can answer the given question in the word problem.  I tell the kids that the most important thing in Fractions is to read the directions very carefully and identify exactly what the problem is asking for.  So many want to skim over the directions and make an educated guess as to what they are supposed to do.  It has proven disastrous when working with Fractions!

Last Thursday we finished devoting class time to our Landform project and moved on Natural Resources on Friday.  The kids really seemed to have a firm grasp on what a Natural Resource is and I was really pleased with some of their insightful comments during discussion.  This week we are going to dive a little further and learn about renewable and non-renewable resources, where these things are found, and how we can conserve on Earth.

Looking forward to it!  Any questions about content, please just shoot me a quick email and ask. :)

LA and SS for the week of 1/23/12

LANGUAGE ARTS

Spelling- Words will come home on Monday of this week.  Spelling homework menu items are due on Thursday.  Test on Friday.


Reading-  Your kids are getting the hang of QAR.  They wrote some pretty tough questions last week about an article on Full-Body Boarding.  
This week, we will continue to think about question answer relationships.
We also practiced this concept and applied our reading strategies on a reading passage.  Look for a passage to come home on Mondays and be due on Fridays.  I'm sending home the class example with homework on Monday so that you can see what kind of work needs to be done when answering questions.  I will also send home a READING CHECKLIST for your student to use as he or she reads the passage and completes the questions.


Writing- We will continue to read and critiquing book reviews. Our hope is to learn enough from what we consume (read) to produce some of our own!


Don't forget to check out the class blog, THIRD GRADE THOUGHTS. They will update this every Wednesday for your reading pleasure.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We will read and discuss the book, I am the Ocean.  Then, students will work to use personification and landform characteristics to create LANDFORM POETRY!

LA and SS for the week of 1/17/12

LANGUAGE ARTS
Spelling
We WILL have spelling words this week. The 10 points of spelling homework will be due on FRIDAY rather than Thursday to help give kids and families enough time to manage homework.

Reading
We are continuing to look at QAR (Question/Answer Relationships). Students will work to identify the types of questions they find and provide reasoning for their thoughts.
Your kids have been READING READING READING all about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They started a menu last week and will finish that learning by this Friday. I'm excited to see their thoughts and inspirations. You can look for this to come home for your viewing pleasure 1/24/12.

Writing
Last week students completed a FREE WRITE. They were able to choose their own topic to write about and then let me read. We are coming a long way as writers, but still have some items that need attention.
As a class, we will start reading and critiquing book reviews. Our hope is to learn enough from what we consume (read) to produce some of our own!
Don't forget to check out the class blog, THIRD GRADE THOUGHTS. They will update this every Wednesday for your reading pleasure.

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will continue to learn about landforms.  This week we will start thinking of various ways to describe landforms or bodies of water and think about where they can be found.  We will then take this information and create LANDFORM POETRY!

Math and Science for the Week of January 17th-20th

This short week in Math we will continue our study of Fractions.  Students will review Fractions of a Set in the beginning of the week.  We will mainly concentrate on Linear Fractions this week by teaching the students how to play "Fraction War."  The kids will be comparing Linear Fractions to decide if 1/3 is less, more, or equal to 1/2. They will be given a visual tool to help them make these decisions.  Towards the end of the week we will teach the kids another fun game called "Fraction Taco,"  by which the students will cut and manipulate and make their own fractions to really reach those kinesthetic learners.  Friday will be an assessment of fractions of a whole, fractions of a set, and comparing fractions.

  Please continue working with your child on the concept of money.  The district did not allot a good chunk of time for us to reinforce money in their road map. I feel its very important to take a step back and review money, being that we only touched the surface for three days at the beginning of this semester.

*******This week for fast facts students that made a 100 on their 0's,1's, and 10's, will be given the flashcards for 2's this week.  They will be tested on their 0's, 1's, 2's, AND 10's this Friday.

Students that did not receive a 100, will continue to study their 0's, 1's, and 10's and will be given the same test this Friday. This week's test will be recorded for a grade.

In Science we are still working on our Landform power point project.  The kids have really enjoyed working on the computer and learning how to research.  I have about 6-8 kids in each class completely finished and enjoying some free time on the computers!  For those students substantially behind, I will be contacting parents to make morning time arrangements to catch up.  Ideally, we want to all be finished by Wednesday and print on Thursday.  We shall see if it happens!  Usually when it comes to teaching, nothing ever works out as planned!

Looking forward to another great week of learning. :-)

Mrs. S   

Check out this awesome way to review LANDFORMS!

Hot off the PRESS!

Calling all Parents, Friends and Family members of third graders in Mrs. Ford & Mrs. Skrivanek’s classes,

Your students are bloggers!  Yes, we know that they can access our class blog.  Yes, most of them have posted their homework on the reading blog.  Now, they are AUTHORS of a new blog called THIRD GRADE THOUGHTS! 

Each week, 2-3 students will work on Wednesdays to keep you in the loop about what excites them during the school day.  I’ve set up a rotating system so that each kid will get to be an author twice before the school year ends.

Being a published author is a pretty cool adventure.  What makes blogging even more fun is when you realize that it connects you to readers everywhere.  It’s important for them to learn now that people are reading what they write and care about what they have to say.  I need your help in making this new adventure the best it can be.  When you have time, please read their blog and leave a comment in the comment section so the kids can get some feedback from their biggest fans. 

To read and leave a comment:

·         Go to http://hce3rdgradethoughts.blogspot.com/

·         Click on the heading of the post you wish to comment on

·         Scroll down until you can see the “Leave a Comment” section

·         You can leave yoru comment in the white box.

·         You will be asked for your name (you can use a nickname). Email is optional.  Family members who leave comments, please only use the first name of your third grader.

·         You will have to enter the “anti-spam” word

·         Click “submit comment”

·         Your comment should appear.  I will get an email of comments for moderation.

As always, thank you for the time you give to help make your kids the best they can be!

Omi Ford

In Math and Science Week of January 9-13th

Well parents we made it through the first three days back.  We all were a little sluggish and tired by Friday!  We are already getting back in the groove and hitting the ground running.

In Math this week we will start the wonderful world of fractions!!  The first half of the week we will work on parts of a whole (imagine a pizza or pie) .  We will be trying to verbalize 2/8 pieces have been eaten, 3/6 pieces are shaded, etc....  The latter part of the week we will be looking at parts of a set.  For example 4/6 squares are shaded so that means 2/6 squares are NOT shaded.  Fractions, for whatever reason, causes grief across every grade level.  My fear is that there is a lot that has been forgotten over the past year concerning fractions, so I am going to really start basic at first as a review, and slowly build a foundation.  We will be studying fractions the next 3-4 weeks.

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 will be given on 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.

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 Friday the 13th, so that the kids can share them with their classmates the following 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:

Land Form Research Websites

It should be a great week of learning :)  

Love, Mrs. S

Language Arts and Social Studies Update

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed your break as much as I did. Yesterday we took some time to catch up and share about our holiday break. From the third grader's perspective, it sounds like you all had a fun and safe time together. We will work the week and next on the following LA/SS topics. LANGUAGE ARTS READING We will begin earning a new way to think about questions we encounter during and after reading. This way of thinking or strategy is known as 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) WRITING We have finished our personal narratives and will begin to consume various types of book reviews. If you are an amazon shopper, you might read book reviews often. We will discuss what types of information help make a review helpful to those who read them. Please share with your child you ideas and options about the books you are reading. Let them know WHY you choose to read that book. Did a friend recommend the book? Is is on the top 10 best sellers list? Did you read a review in a magazine or newspaper that sparked your interest in the book? SPELLING There will not be spelling the week of January 2. Spelling lists will begin again next week, 1/9-1/13. Please remember that the 10 points of spelling homework are due on Thursday each week and tests are administered on Fridays. THANKS for your help with WORD WORK at home. SOCIAL STUDIES We have put economics to rest and are moving on to a new topic for this nine weeks. Social Studies and Science will compliment eachother over the next few weeks as we learn about various landforms and bodies of water. Here are our new vocabulary words for this study… Canyon, Peak, Channel, Peninsula, Coast, Plain, Coastal Plain, Plateau, Desert, River, Gulf, Riverbank, Hill, Valley, Island, Ocean, and Mountain. Understanding these concepts will help us later this 9 weeks as we talk about different types of maps and regions across America where these land forms can be found.

Welcome Back!!! Math and Science this week.....

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.

In math this week we will be counting money. We will use coins and bills to count and identify money. Students are expected to identify coins and their value and count dollar amounts. 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 by 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 science we will be looking at landforms. Landforms are natural formations found on Earth. We will study many examples 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

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!

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

Mrs. S