February 29-March 4

Parent Reminders and Information: We have a busy week ahead!

Monday-Thursday of this week students may bring money to purchase tickets for the FAMILY FAIR raffle.  Students will have a chance to place their tickets in containers for a chance to win a prize.  Prizes announced and sent home on Friday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week students will take the Math and Reading Practice STAAR tests.  Students can expect to see many concepts which have been covered this year and preview a few concepts upcoming in our lesson plans.  We will NOT look at students overall test scores on these practice tests, but will reflect on which concepts students know well and which areas still need classroom reinforcement and instruction. There are 40 days of instruction that remain before the real STAAR tests given on May 9 and May 10. The practice tests will give teachers diagnostic information to help guide our upcoming instruction both in large and small groups.

Wednesday HCE will also celebrate READ ACROSS AMERICA day as we celebrate the life and work of Theodore Geisel, Dr. Seuss.  Our fifth grade students will be presenting projects and reading stories from this beloved author.

Thursday notes are due if you are going to change your child’s transportation for FAMILY FAIR.  Complete  THIS FORM  and return it to your child's homeroom teacher by March 3rd.  We will not be able to make changes the day of the Family Fair.  

Friday We will work to have a normal day of instruction. Raffle winners will be announced.  Forms turned in on Thursday, March 3rd will guide our dismissal for this day.  Family fair will be on the HCE field from 3p.m.-6p.m. :)   

Language Arts

Reading- We will finish our work determining importance in non fiction.  Students will use their notes of interesting vs important facts to create focused summaries on their reading.

Writing- Students have been doing a SUPER job finalizing their narratives or stories from my life.  This week, we will practice giving and receiving feedback from others to make sure that our stories reach all readers.

Spelling/Word Work- Due to PSTAAR on Wednesday, our spelling tests this week will be on THURSDAY, March 3.  We will take spelling application grades March 4-11.

Social Studies-   Students will work to create their Social Studies project for this 9 weeks, a flip book on INVENTORS and SCIENTISTS.  This project will be completed in class and shared with you at Publisher's Picnic!   Students always work extra hard when they know their audience and stage is publisher's picnic.  I can't wait to read their reflections on these peoples work; Jonas Salk, Maria Mitchell, Cyrus McCormick, Bill Gates, and Louis Pasteur.

Math- In math this week, we will begin our unit on Fractions. We finished graphing on Friday. On Thursday, we will dive into unit fractions and on Friday we will begin learning about non unit fractions. Due to Practice STAAR, the only homework for math this week will be to study fast facts. My hope is to see every student pass the Fast Facts Quiz they are on. We have many who have made their way through multiplication and they are on to division. Keep up the great work! 

Science- During our science time this week, we will discuss fossil fuels and learn how they help us generate electricity. We will review a diagram of a power plant and discuss the stages of generating electricity. 

If you plan to visit your child at lunch, please note the change in lunch times:
Monday and Friday: 12:00 - 12:30
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: 12:40 - 1:10

We encourage parents and families to save the date and join the third grade team from 6-7p.m. on Wednesday, March 30^th for our STAAR Night in the HCE Library.  During this time, we will discuss:

·         The purpose of the test and its results

·         Level of Expectation on each test using sample questions

·         Strategies being taught in the classroom

·         How to support your child at home

·         General Information about the test itself including:

a.    Schedule: Dates/Times

b.    Format of the test

c.    Timeline for results

We will close the time together with a Q&A session for parents and families. We appreciate your support at home as, together, we continue to build strong mathematicians and readers.

The Week 2/22 - 2/26

Hello Parents! We have a very busy and exciting week!

-Tuesday, February 23rd is the Book Fair and PTA Dinner at 5:30-7:30

-Wednesday, February 24th is Breakfast with Buddies - from 7:15-8:00 your child can browse the Book Fair and enjoy a doughnut provided by Dad's Club. This day is also Duncan/Ford time to go to the Book Fair. Our class will be in the library from 9:15 - 9:45. Please send money if you would like your child to purchase any books.

-Thursday, February 25th is a 1:30 Dismissal Day - Please send a handwritten note if your child will have a change of transportation.



Math- In math this week, we will continue learning about graphs. Last week we worked on pictographs, bar graphs, and tally charts. We will finish up our study with dot plots. On Thursday and Friday, we will begin our unit on fractions. We will start our lesson with unit fractions and on Friday we will talk about non unit fractions. On Monday, you child will bring home a POTW that is due on Friday. The homework this week will be a review on perimeter, area, and graphing. The fast facts quiz will be on Friday.

Science- On Thursday, your child will be taking a quiz on the flowchart that was sent home on Tuesday. The quiz will be the exact same flowchart and your child will need to fill in the information using the word bank. Leading up to the quiz, we will continue talking about natural resources (sun, soil, plants, animals, coal, natural gas, minerals, water) and how to conserve our natural resources.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE VIDEOS

The Three R's

Going Green Song

New Reading Homework

New Reading Homework for the next few months

• ·        ONE article or selection from a story to read for homework for the week.
• ·        Three nights to complete the reading, leave tracks of thinking and answer the questions using evidence. 
• ·        This reading will count ONCE for the nightly reading homework assignment.
• ·        The passage should not take more than 20 minutes for your child to read independently. If you child cannot read this, please let his or her teacher know as soon as possible.
• ·        Answering the questions and looking for evidence to support his or her answers may take more time at first.  They will match the number on the questions to the numbers on the answer document.
• ·        Most weeks, the selection will come home on MONDAYS and be due in class on THURSDAYS. 

We sent an email and attached an example of a selection that we have completed in class together.  Students should also have their personal copy to share.  We also attached a copy of this week’s homework in the email sent to families.  We will not send home an electronic copy each week.  We decided it important this week, since it is our FIRST time with this type of homework.

We work hard to find articles on a variety of topics and interests in hopes to make this an engaging homework piece for your child.  Who knows it might even spark a topic of conversation at the dinner table!

Thanks for your help,
Tara Childers
Omi Ford
Laura Jackson

The Week of 2/16-2/19

Parent Reminders and Information: We will be going to the Museum of Natural science on Friday, February 19.  Students WILL return in to campus in time for lunch.  Please make sure you have sent your child's permission slip back to his or her homeroom teacher.

Language Arts
Reading- Last week we poured our hearts into figuring out how to take notes on an FQR chart using non fiction texts.  Now that we are much better with that skill, we will look at the facts we recorded and learn if they are interesting or important to remember as a reader.

Writing- Students did a great job learning about types of leads and trying them out on the narrative they have chosen to take through the writing process.  We will work more this week on learning about the difference between editing and revising as we work with our narrative stories.

Spelling/Word Work- Test 2/17.  We will take an application grade of spelling patterns and concepts 2/18-2/23.

Social Studies- Test will come home, 2/16 to let you know how your child did on his or her Story of America, Part One assessment.    

We've started the second half of our study and have learned about the life and work of Louis Pasteur.  We will also be learning about Jonas Salk, Bill Gates, Maria Mitchell, Henry Ford, and Cyrus McCormick.  You can reference the SOCIAL STUDIES WEBSITES page on this blog for more information and reading.

Math- In math this week, we will continue working on graphing. Your child will be working on created pictographs, dot plots, bar graphs, and tally charts. We will be transferring the data from tally charts and pictographs and putting the information into a bar graph or dot plot. Your child will have a homework worksheet on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Our fast facts quiz will be on Friday. We will NOT have a problem of the week. 

Science-During our science time, we will continue studying about natural resources. We will learn where our daily resources come from. On Tuesday, your child went home with a Natural Resources flow chart. We will be taking a quiz next week on this information. Your child will be receiving a blank chart and they will be expected to fill in the missing information. 

2/8-2/12

Note to Parents: With the upcoming excitement of the Super Bowl, we have had an increase in students bringing football and baseball cards to school.  Students have been distracted in class and had some trouble on the playground "dealing and trading" cards.  We ask that you please have your child keep his or her cards at home. 

Language Arts
Reading- While continuing to read non-fiction this week, readers will learn a helpful strategy called determining importance.  As we read texts we will stop, think and discuss what important in important to the text rather than simply interesting.  While this sounds simple, it's a more challenging skill for third graders as they have to set aside their personal opinions and think about the information, just the facts! 

Writing- We are continuing to finish up our work on narratives.  We will focus on getting our own personal narratives on paper and practicing many different types of leads to help our readers get hooked into our stories.

Spelling/Word Work- Application grades will be taken 2/4-2/9.  New words will go home 2/10. Test 2/17.

Social Studies- Students should use the review study sheet for our first assessment on Tuesday, 2/9/16.  They can also use our newspaper, journals and online resource (www.studiesweekly.com) to prepare for our test.  

We've started the second half of our study and have learned about the life and work of Louis Pasteur.  We will also be learning about Jonas Salk, Bill Gates, Maria Mitchell, Henry Ford, and Cyrus McCormick.  You can reference the SOCIAL STUDIES WEBSITES page on this blog for more information and reading.

Math- This week in math we will be diving into graphing. We are still studying pictographs, bar graphs, tally charts, and dot plots.  The students will be taking information in tally charts and pictographs and creating bar graphs and dot plots to match the information.  A test question to access this skill might look like this:

The dot plot graph looks like this:

  

A math worksheet will come home on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. The Problem of the Week will come home on Monday and will be due on Friday. Please continue to study every night for the Fast Facts quiz. 

Science - We will be moving on to Natural Resources in Science.  All students will discuss and learn examples of renewable and non renewable resources and where they originate from.  Students should come to discover that most non-renewable resources come from under the earth.  We will merge into conservation and recycling next week.

Update 2/2/-2/12

Language Arts

Reading- We are moving into a new genre of study for a few weeks.  We will be focusing on nonfiction.  This week we will review and introduce new nonfiction text features.  Text features are things found in nonfiction texts that help the reader understand and synthesize new information.

Writing- We are continuing to finish up our work on narratives.  This week we are reproducing a narrative with dialogue and inner thinking.  We are also working on adding these elements to our own narrative stories.

Spelling/Word Work- Our spelling test is 2/3.  Application grades will be taken 2/4-2/9.  New words will go home 2/10.

Social Studies- We continue to learn about people who have impacted the Story of America. For the first half of our unit we have focused on explorers.  Men and women who were brave enough to go discover new lands! We also spent an entire week on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how his story impacted our history.  Students brought home a study sheet for our first assessment on Monday.  Please use the green sheet, newspaper, journals and online resources to help your student prepare for this test on 2/9.  We will begin the second half of our study with a look into the scientist and inventors whose creations impact our daily lives and health!