Math and Science Week of April 6th-10th

Dear Parents,

Important dates this week:
Friday-Family Fair

Hello and welcome to Family Fair week!  This week is wild and exciting for the kids because they can purchase raffle tickets to win prizes announced on Friday.  The kids look forward to this week every year. HCE gives one free raffle ticket to each student.  I will give this ticket to your child on Monday.  If you would like your child to have additional tickets, please send money Monday-Thursday.  Thursday is the last day to purchase tickets as winners are announced Friday morning on the announcements.  Transportation this day is always insane.  The directions are as follows:

1. Please arrive at 2:30 to find a parking spot.  It will be difficult.
2. Make your way to the cafeteria to receive a "ticket" to dismiss your child.  There will be a line.
3. Head to the classroom at 2:50 with your ticket.  No child will be dismissed without a ticket.
4. 3:00 All children will be sent home their "regular way" if no one has picked them up.

The beginning of this week will be dedicated to finishing up our 3D study of shapes.  We classified our 3D shapes into 3 categories: shapes with curved surfaces, prisms, and pyramids.  Sometimes it is difficult for a student to tell the difference between a prism and a pyramid.  Prisms have square faces and pyramids have triangular faces.  I tell the kids to just look for the Apex, or the point, at the top of the pyramid to differentiate.  This week we will focus on the vocabulary edges, faces, and vertices.

Thursday and Friday mark the beginning of what we call in 3rd grade, STAAR CAMP.  From this point forward we will intensely be getting ready and prepared to take our state exam.  The kids will work independently, in pairs, and in groups to solve very difficult multiple-step word problems dealing with all the skills we have learned thus far.  Thursday and Friday will be dedicated to the review of 2D, 3D, congruence, symmetry, patters on a number line, and fractions on a number line.  A quiz on Friday will be given after some intensive review.  This weeks homework on reading a graph and answering questions will reflect what we will review next Monday and Tuesday of next week.

A Fast Facts test will be given but not taken for a grade this Friday the 10th.

In Science we are finishing up our unit about weather.  The kids should have brought home 18 flashcards and a study guide Thursday.  The flashcards are on weather tools, the water cycle, and the four types of clouds that we study in 3rd grade.  This week we will finish up studying the four types of clouds.  An Exam will be take on Thursday the 9th over our weather unit.

We have a lot going on!  Thank you for reading!
Ms. S