Writing- Writing workshop has been a fun and exciting way to get to know one another the last few days.  We will focus this year on sharing our stories.  Last week we started story sharing and taking turns listening to one another's stories.  This week we will create some resources that we will use this year in Writer's Workshop when we are trying to figure out what story to write! Students will spend a few days this week creating their own heart map.  Our heart maps remind us what people, things, and places we love.  These  will help prompt and promote storytelling and writing.  Ask your student what they placed in their hearts!!

Reading- We've been talking about our reading for days!  Students have been helping each other understanding the difference between real reading and fake reading.  We've started to focus on our thinking while we read.  We've even started to share our thinking and all this thinking about thinking is what we call metacognition. 

Students have been practicing this skill with our read alouds and their independent reading books.  We will continue practicing this skill this week and begin talking about what good readers can do when they get stuck on an idea in a book that doesn't make much sense.

Social Studies- We spent last week creating classroom community. Our study will more to focus on our greater communities and citizens who have served as great role models.  Students will be introduced to Ruby Bridges, Helen Keller and Jane Addams.  We will look at what they did to help their community in the past and how that impacts our communities today.  Students will also be encouraged to start thinking about character traits that a "good citizen" would display.

Homework-Third graders will have 20 minutes of reading homework each night.  We will start our library schedule this Wednesday.  Students should record the book title in their planner each night to show that the required 20minutes was completed.

August 31st - September 4th

Happy Sunday Parents!!!

We made it through our first week!  Last week we spent some time learning third grade routines and expectations.  The kids have really been doing a great job so far and are enjoying 3^rd grade! 

Last week in math we reviewed some second grade skills with place value and introduced the thousands place.  We have been working on standard form, word form, and expanded form. 

This week we will be discussing in greater depth the value of each place.  The students will be taught strategies on how to compare and order numbers using the greater than and less than sign.  We will be introducing some new Math Station games to the kids to practice these skills as well. Last week, I encouraged your child to begin practicing their math facts. The class blog has some great websites to practice - you can find these under the Math Websites page on the right side of the blog.

We skimmed the surface in Science last week.  The kids made a title page and table of contents for their Science Journal and decorated them with Science Icons.  On Thursday we talked about “What is a Scientist?” We discovered all the different types of Scientists that exist and began working on our first project.  In Science next week we will be going through Lab Safety procedures and learning the names of many Science tools.  Towards the end of the week we will take a gallery walk with a partner and work on categorizing tools by tools that are used for observation, safety, measurement, or recording.

I am looking forward to another great week!

Love,
   Mrs. Duncan

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