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

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.