Language Arts and SS Update for 12/14-12/18

Monday 12/14

Students brought home a YELLOW interview.  We are hoping this sparks some conversation about the cultures and traditions close to the heart of your family.  We will take a few moments each day to have students share their information.  We will be noticing differences and similarities between cultures.  We hope this will serve as a special way for students to share part of their personal history with our class.

Tuesday 12/15

Social Studies quiz, please make sure you used the green sheet to review map skills. This will be a short and very straight forward quiz.  Helping your child think through the notes on the review and practice cardinal and intermediate directions at home will be the best way to make sure he or she is ready for the quiz on Tuesday, December 15.

Wednesday 12/16

We will head to the Menil Museum for our WITS field trip.  At the Menil, students will continue to write pieces inspired by art.

Thursday 12/17

Students will complete their project for the 2^nd 9 weeks.  They will work throughout the week to create and design their own island.  It’s important for students to be able to meaningfully apply the parts of a map.  We always get some really creative ideas… watch out Atlantis!!

Friday 12/18

We will spend our morning in our homeroom classes focusing on a district created lesson to discuss bullying and the importance of our actions and words.  

Then, we invite you to join your child for the HCE Sing-A-Long.  Third graders will participate from 9:30-10:00a.m. in the café.  

 Lunch will be at a different time, 10:45-11:15 and our holiday party will be from 11:15-11:45 in our classrooms.  

Please remember to send a note if your child will make a change in transportation for this day.

Update for Week of 12/14 - 12/18

Week of 12/14 - 12/18

It is hard to believe that our Holiday Break is almost here! Here are a couple of reminders about our upcoming week:

1) Wednesday is our field trip to the Menil Collection. Please have your child wear their white HCE spirit shirt. We will be back in time for lunch at school so no sack lunch is needed.

2) Friday is a Half Day! On this day, our schedule will be:
8:10 Announcements
9:30 Sing-A-Long
10:10 Recess
10:45 Lunch
11:15 Holiday Party 
12:00 Dismissal 

Math: In math this week, we will continue learning about Division. We started working on division last week. On Friday we worked on the Octopus Method. We will continue practicing with this method during the week as well as learning the Cookie Method. Below are examples of these two methods. For homework this week, your child will have three Mangahigh assignments. Please note: the Fast Facts Quiz will be on Thursday - 12/17. We will not have a problem of the week assigned this week. 

OCTOPUS Division METHOD EXAMPLE:
There were 56 lbs of food for the rhinos. The zoo wanted to share that food among 8 rhinos.  How many pounds would each rhino get, if they all got an equal amount?

COOKIES METHOD EXAMPLE:
There were 56 lbs of food for the rhinos at the zoo. The zoo keeper gave each rhino seven pounds of food.  How many rhinos were there at the zoo?

We learned a new station game for multiplication on Friday called Circles and Stars! 

Science: During our science time last week, we discussed force, motion, position, and work. We discussed friction with a toy car lab and on Friday, we did a gravity demonstration. We will continue discussing gravity this week and begin learning about magnetism.

Update for the week of 12/7

Week of December 7th - 11th 

LANGUAGE ARTS

READING- Students will apply what they know about the structure of a narrative to reproduce unfamiliar stories this week.  This exercise helps students apply what they know about narrative structure to make sense out of pieces of a story.  It's kind of like putting together a puzzle with out looking at the picture.  You know where the edges, corners and center pieces go and this helps you create the entire picture. 

This week and next I will be pulling students to administer their middle of the year reading assessment.  Please make sure that students are getting a good nights rest and a good breakfast so they will have everything working in their favor to do well.  

WRITING-Your kids have done an EXCELLENT job with descriptive writing!  This week we will focus on a project for our work that we will save and share with you at publisher's picnic.  Students will take one emotion.  They will illustrate the emotion and then create a descriptive writing piece about that emotion without using the word and only using language that helps you understand the emotion.  After our work last week, I can't wait to see what descriptive and creative ideas they will use in their writing.

WORD WORK-New spelling words came home 12/2.  We will assess on 12/9.  Students will then have from 12/10-12/16 to apply their spelling words to their writing and work for an application grade.  We work for 10-15 minutes each day to practice our word sorts.  A white copy of your child's words should have also come home for you to spend time working on at your convenience.

SOCIAL STUDIES- Literacy dominated last week and we have some catch up to do in Social Studies.  This week we will finish our discussion on parts of a map and globe and focus on the compass rose.  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. 

MATH- In math this week, we will review all of the strategies of multiplication that we have learned so far. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be creating multiplication word problems. On Thursday and Friday, we will begin working on division. We will be learning two methods for division. Your child will have Mangahigh homework on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. The assignments can be found on the Weekly Planner page. The problem of the week will be due on Friday and the Fast Facts Quiz will be on Friday as well. 

Octopus Method - You know the total and you know the number of groups

Cookie Method - You know the total and you know how many in each group

SCIENCE - This week we will be discussing force, friction, and motion. As we are learning, we will be discussing these words and definitions:

Motion-is a change in position  

Position-where an object is located.

Work-happens when a force moves an object over a distance. 

Force-is a push or pull that causes an object to move, stop, or change direction