Week 6: September 25-29

September 25th - 29th
Reminders: Due to growing bodies and changing hormones, please encourage your child to develop the daily habit of applying deodorant.  

Please remember we have students with allergies; pack nut-free snacks.  Snacks should be dry and healthy to promote student learning and not create a mess. 

 Examples: 

• Fresh or dried fruit/vegetable sticks or slices
• Cheese cubed or sliced·        
• Applesauce (in the squeezable containers)
• Goldfish, Cheeze-it or Cheese Nips·        
• Saltines/Graham crackers

Reading: Fix-Up Strategies take center stage this week.  We use fix-up strategies when meaning breaks down during reading.  As adults, these are techniques we do without a second thought.  For third graders, it require much thought, self-awareness and lots of practice!  Note the bookmark we will use in class to help us as we apply this learning.

Writing: Good writers keep a notebook to generate ideas.  This week we will continue to work on ways to get ideas from our brains to our journals.  Storytelling at home is a wonderful way to help students make the connection between school work and the real world.  Specifically this week, we will think about memories that come from our homes.  Is there a room where you remember a funny or poignant story from your life?  Is there a home you have been in that has important meaning to you?  Where have you made memories? Share stories with your child.

Spelling: After reviewing inventories, we have noticed some overall spelling needs.  We will begin our spelling practice with a few whole group lessons to fix-up some grade level misconceptions and then will move into a more targeted and personalized approach to spelling.

Social Studies: Last week, we discussed leadership council and the opportunity it brings to third graders.  Leadership Council representatives will be announced Friday, September 29. In the meantime, we will focus on learning more about our community.  Where do we live? How can we help in our communities?  We will wrap up the week completing a service project that we will share with our third grade friends at Meadow Wood Elementary.

Math: During math this week, we will practice comparing and ordering numbers. Your child will learn several strategies for comparing numbers and justifying how they got to their answer. On Wednesday, we will work to order numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least, our prior knowledge about comparing numbers will help us move through this topic. On Thursday and Friday, we will learn how to put numbers on a number line. We will work to locate a point on the number line when given a beginning and endpoint. Your child will have their first graded fast facts quiz on Friday. A blue paper filled with addition problems was sent home so that you have an idea of what to practice. We encourage you studying with flash cards or apps at home. Paper homework will go home on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night.

Science: This week we will be studying the scientific method. We will go through the different parts and understanding what scientist do when conducting an experiment. We've worked on making observation and next we will work on making predictions and hypothesis when answering scientific questions.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will go through all the steps in the Scientific method as we conduct our first experiment.