Week 35: May 8th- May 12th

Reminders/Announcements:

STAAR Testing is this week.  Your child will take the math test on Monday and the reading test on Tuesday.  

By working together, we can make your child’s test experience positive and successful.  Here are some suggestions and reminders to help your child succeed:

-  Make sure your child gets a good night’s rest.

-  Have your child eat a healthy breakfast at home or in the cafeteria at school.

-  Make sure your child arrives at school on time.  We will be starting very soon after the school bell rings.

-  HCE will be providing one, clean snack on Monday and one on Tuesday.  Your child can bring their own snack as well. Let’s avoid bringing snacks that are sticky, liquid-based, and messy (e.g. Cheetos).  We will also be providing a water bottle each day. 

- We highly encourage your child to bring a jacket or sweatshirt.  The AC will be on and it gets rather cold in our class and testing rooms.

- Do not bring a backpack to school.  Your child only needs a jacket and, if you would like, a lunch and/or snack.

- Per TEA, students are not allowed to bring or WEAR devices during testing.  We are asking that your child leave smartwatches, Fitbits, and phones at home on Monday and Tuesday.

- -Continue to build your child’s confidence through the weekend!  Please reiterate that they have learned everything they need to know for the test.  We have practiced strategies to help them be successful test takers.  We are ready and prepared!

Thank you for continued support and help in making Monday and Tuesday test days run smoothly.

Other End of Year Dates: 

• Friday, May 19th: Bike to School Day
• Important -If your child is going to participate in this event after school he or she will need a change of transportation note. 
• Monday, May 22nd:  Publishers Picnic
• Please make plans to join your child in the third grade courtyard from 12:00-12:30.  They will share with you much of their work from this school year.  It's a great time to see the growth they have made this year and celebrate their success.  Because this is a school wide event, you will want to get here early.  
• Tips on things to bring that will make the time more special:  smiles, a blanket or chairs to sit, a lunch with your child's favorite things, and plenty of water as it is to be hot and humid.
• Thursday, May 25th:  3rd grade Chariot Races
• Friday, May 26th:  Winds of Time school-wide parade 

Reading:
Come Wednesday, we will embark on our journey to Rome for HCE's Winds of Time end of year unit.  We will introduce Rome on Wednesday as we compare Ancient Rome to current day Rome.  Students will begin reading about all-things Rome using library and online resources.  We will be developing a class word wall that is comprised of words that are specific to Rome.  Students will jot notes in their notebooks while reading.  This will eventually form an ABCs of Ancient Rome book that each student will make.  

Writing:
We will continue to dive into editing and revising strategies this week.  We are going to focus on ending punctuation of sentences as well as complete vs. fragmented sentences.  Students will practice writing complete sentences by revisiting and editing fragmented sentences in their Writer's Notebooks.  For homework this week, you'll notice we are sending home a capitalization practice.  This will continue to reinforce our grammar practice from last week.

Spelling:
Due to a short week, we will focus on cursive handwriting and grammar practice.

Social Studies:
We are dedicating our social studies block of time towards Winds of Time for the next few weeks to continue our study of Ancient Rome.  This week, we will learn the basics of Ancient Rome.  Be sure to ask your child what a gladiator is and what aqueducts are.  These two things, among many others, were very important in Ancient Rome.

Math: Since this is a short week, we will use are math block to work on keyboarding skills. We will discuss home key positions and work on speed and accuracy. We are encouraging students to start typing always on the home key before typing any word. This can be a difficult change for students who are use to typing with just one finger at a time. 

Science:  In science this week, we will be continuing are discussion on weather and measurement by exploring tools used for studying weather.  We will research these tools and how they assist meteorologist. Your child will also track temperature, wind speed, and humidity in various cities.