Week of November 30th - December 4th

Welcome back from Thanksgiving Break!

We hope that you enjoyed your time off and got some rest! We have a couple of reminders for this week:

1) On Wednesday, your child will be participating in the Fun Run with Woodview Elementary. Your child should wear tennis shoes and their white HCE Cougar Pride T-Shirt. The third graders from Woodview will be coming over to run with our third graders from 9:10 - 10:00. We are helping Woodview raise money to build a Spark Park. Please send $5 - $10 as a donation.

2) Thursday will be a 1:30 Dismissal Day. This day is set aside as a staff development day. Please send a handwritten note with any change of transportation for this day. Thursday is also the day for Toys for Tots Donations. A fire truck and Santa will be here to collect any toy donations.

MATH:In math this week, we will continuing working on multiplication. This week, we will learn strategies from multiplying by 6,7,8, and 9. Your child has three Mangahigh assignments for homework. The specific assignments can be found on the Weekly Planner page as well as in your child's planner. The problem of the week is coming home today and it will be due on Friday. Your child has a Fast Facts Quiz on Friday that will be a grade. Please check their Multiplication Checklist in their green binder if you are unsure of which multiplication quiz they will be taking.

SCIENCE: During our science time today, your child will be creating a flow chart as a review for their science test. The Energy Test will be tomorrow. Please continue to study the study guide and vocabulary cards. The flowchart will be coming home as an additional resource for studying.

LANGUAGE ARTS

READING- Good readers use clues in a text to help them make meaning of the words the author uses.  This week we will work together with the text, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, to notice the many ways an author uses context clues to help readers make sense of the story.  We will create an anchor chart similar to the one shown here to help us remember what to look for as we are working to learn new vocabulary as we read.

WRITING- Our craft element focus for this week is called SHOW, DON'T TELL.  The writer's we love best use their words to paint a picture and show us what is happening in a story.  Simply reading -- "Mary was sad."  isn't as interesting as reading-- "Mary walked into the room with her head hung and tears still running down her face."  We will start the week off playing emotion charades.  We will jot down the movements and facial expressions our friends use to show and not tell us about emotion.  Then, we will work on moving this element into our own writing.  Finally, we will review some familiar texts to see how the authors we love and know most use this element in their stories.

WORD WORK-New spelling words will come home by 12/2.  We will assess on 12/9.  We work for 10-15 minutes each day to practice our word sorts.  A white copy of your child's words should come home for you to spend time working on at your convenience.

SOCIAL STUDIES- We will work this week to finish our comparison of maps and globes.  We will introduce the vocabulary word compass and talk about how you can use a compass and map together to help you locate and travel places.  The compass allows us time to review cardinal directions (north, south, east and west) and introduce intermediate directions (northwest, southwest, northeast and southeast).  This is a great time to play some Simon Says at home using cardinal and intermediate directions.

Always remember that you have access to our online resource www.studiesweekly.com to help your child review what we have learned in class.  

Update for 11/16-11/20

Language Arts

Reading- In Reading we are still working in the genre of Realistic Fiction working with narrative stories.  This week, students will work to reproduce stories given the events of the story using their knowledge of narrative superstructure.  

As we continue to consume and work in this genre, we are noticing craft elements.  This week we will begin to learn about and watch for backstory.  Backstory allows the reader to know a piece of the characters past that may help us understand the characters feelings, actions and motivations.  Super heroes have RICH backstory.  We will look into a few of our favorite super heroes pasts to help us understand this craft element.

Writing- We are spiraling back to review and practice conversations.  You can help us at home!  We are trying to talk without raising our hands about what happened in the story this week.  We read The Old Woman Who Named Things last week and will work in that book this week to understand the plot and theme of the book.  

 Word Work-Thank you for talking about how words work at home!  We will have our spelling test on Tuesday, November 17.  

Remember, that we work each day in class and November 18-November 24 I will be looking for students to apply their spelling words correctly in their reading and writing.

Social Studies- We will have our landforms and geography quiz on Friday.  A review sheet went home on Friday, 11/13.  Please use the discussion questions, notes from our social studies journal, graded papers and our online resource www.studiesweekly.com to help your child review what we have learned in class.  

We are moving onto maps and globes! What if you were lost at sea with no technology?!  We will learn the important impact of these tools on helping us navigate our  way home.

Here is some academic language that you can discuss and study at home to support your learner through this unit: grid, map, globe, longitude, latitude, compass rose, cardinal directions, hemisphere, Columbus, key, symbols, legend, equator, city, continents, states, oceans, and geographer.

November 16th - 20th

11/16/15 - 11/20/15

MATH: In math this week, your child will begin studying multiplication. At the beginning of our unit, we will be learning to create multiplication sentence and drawing pictures of these sentences to get a visual of multiplying. Throughout the week, we will be learning to create equal groups, repeated addition, skip counting on a number line, and arrays. All of these methods will help our gain a foundation of multiplying.

Equal Groups

Skip Counting on a Number Line

"4 jumps of 2"

Repeated Addition

Arrays

For math homework this week, we are trying something new. The third grade teachers are all moving towards using Mangahigh for your child's nightly homework. On Monday, your child will get a list of assignments for the week. I have assigned these on the Mangahigh website. These assignments will all be due by Thursday. This will keep us on our same routine as before. Please let me know if you are having any issues with Mangahigh and we can discuss making other arrangements for your child. The three assignments for this week are: Subtract up to 1,000, Addition and Subtraction, and Add and Subtract Problems. Your child will also have a Problem of the Week coming home on Monday. 

SCIENCE: *The Energy Test will be on Tuesday, December 1st*
During our science time, we will be learning about Light and Sound Energy. We will be discussing the sources and uses of each. During our discussion of light energy, we will discuss reflection and refraction. As we discuss sound energy, we will discuss what pitch, volume, and echo are. Your child will be receiving a energy study guide and vocabulary cards later this week in preparation for their Energy Test.

From Mrs. Ford

Language Arts

Reading- In Reading we are still working in the genre of Realistic Fiction.  Students are really starting to take ownership of noticing and naming the superstructure of a narrative story (setting the stage, initiating event, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution). 

As we continue to consume this genre, we are noticing craft elements.  This week we will wrap up our work on dialogue and inner thinking.  Yesterday, we shared our own inner thinking and reflected on how this helps us know more about one another.  Students then dove into their independent reading to see how the inner thinking of our book characters can help us know more about who they are, what they think and how they feel!  As we move through the week, we will start to look for and discuss the imporatance of backstory in narrative.

Writing- We are spiraling back to review and practice conversations.  You can help us at home!  We are trying to talk without raising our hands about our favorite part of a book.  Students are great at coaching each other about how to make the discussion go better.  We are just working on taking our own words of wisdom and applying in the situation! J  Students will work this week to identify voices an author uses to tell a story.  We will take a close look at how to use a narrator and dialogue in our own writing. 

 Word Work-Students will receive new spelling words for their word work this week.  Your support at home helps them internalize the spelling and patterns of words they encounter in their reading and writing.  Thank you for talking about how words work at home!  We will have our spelling test on Tuesday, November 17.

Social Studies-Students did an AMAZING job last week writing their first expository essay about geography and landforms.  It was BIG work!  This week, we will focus on the celebration of Veteran’s day with our performance on Wednesday at 8:30 in the café.  We will then move onto discussing the importance of maps and globes through a fun imaginative scenario.  What if you were lost at sea with no technology?!  Here is some academic language that you can discuss and study at home to support your learner through this unit: grid, map, globe, longitude, latitude, compass rose, cardinal directions, hemisphere, Columbus, key, symbols, legend, equator, city, continents, states, oceans, and geographer.

Week of November 9th - 13th

Hello Parents!!

Thank you to all of our parent volunteers who came to Field Day and cheered on Duncan's Donuts and Ford's Fugitives. We had a blast!!

Congratulations to Warren Dooley and Parker Lewis from Mrs. Duncan's Homeroom and Blake Dardis and Austin Alpe from Mrs. Ford's Homeroom who won the Class Spelling Bee. We are so excited for these guys as they move onto the School Spelling Bee in December!!!

Reminder for the Week: on Wednesday, your child will be participating in the Veterans Day Program. The program begins at 8:30 in the cafeteria. The doors to the cafeteria will open at 8:00. You don't want to miss this awesome performance!

MATH: Last week in math, we finished our unit on subtraction. We will continue reviewing subtraction in our daily warm ups. This week we will be talking about Bar Models. Your child is familiar with Bar Models from second grade. We have also been discussing bar models in our daily warm ups. Below are some images of what bar models are and what they represent. We use bar models to decode word problems. Most of our third graders will be moving onto multiplication this week. Their first fast facts quiz for multiplication will be on Friday. Please study multiplying by 0's,1's, and 10's. If your child is not moving onto multiplication, please continue to study addition and subtraction facts. Once your child masters addition and subtraction, they will move onto multiplication. A problem of the week will go home on Monday and your child will have a worksheet sent home on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Addition Bar Models

Subtraction Bar Models

SCIENCE: During our science time this week we will begin studying Thermal Energy and Light Energy. We will be discussing the uses of each and the sources.

Week of November 2nd - 6th

11/2/15 - 11/6/15

Happy November Parents! October flew by! Thank you to all of the parents who have come to parent teacher conferences so far! We have enjoyed meeting and visiting with each of you.

As a reminder, this Friday is Field Day. the theme for Mrs. Duncan's homeroom is Duncan's Donuts and we will be dressed in white. Mrs. Ford's homeroom will be Ford's Fugitives and we will be wearing camo.  This will be a fun filled day! Before we participate in the Field Day activities, all of third grade will complete their Classroom Spelling Bee with their homeroom teacher.

MATH-During math this week, we will wrap up our unit on subtraction with regrouping. Last week, we studied the three types of subtraction- take away, missing part, and comparison subtraction. This week we will complete a circuit in class with subtraction word problems. We are continuing to work on decoding word problems and pulling out information that is needed to solve the problems. Your child will not have a problem of the week due for this week. You can expect homework on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. Due to the activities on Field Day, your child will take their Addition and Subtraction Fast Facts quiz on Thursday.

SCIENCE- In our science time this week, we will continue to study energy. On Friday, we began our study of energy. This week, we are discussing mechanical energy, we will learn about kinetic and potential energy. Kinetic Energy is the energy in motion while potential energy is the stored energy.