Week 27: March 19 - 23

Week 27: March 19 - 23

Reminders:

3/20 - Third Nine Weeks Recognition Ceremony @9:00 in the cafeteria
3/30 - Good Friday (No School)


Reading: This week in reading students will dig into the data from their Practice Reading STAAR and set personal goals.  Reflection and goal setting are key components to our learning.  We will dive deeper into expository reading and learn about a variety of topics including- marine animals, cultural holidays, animal adaptations, how things are made and the solar system.

Writing: Students will finish up lessons on craft elements they could use while revising one of their expository essays.  We will also try out this week was to add details, anecdotes and thoughtful reasoning to support our claims in writing.

Social Studies: The fourth 9 weeks brings us to our study of Economics.  This week students will discuss needs and wants.  You can watch BRAIN POP JR. videos at home to further learning and discussion at home.


Math: This week in math, we will begin our unit on fractions. On Monday, we will introduce fractions and the vocabulary that goes along with this unit. On Tuesday, we will talk about unit fractions where the numerator is always one. On Wednesday, we will go beyond unit fractions and talk about non-unit fractions. On Thursday and Friday, we will use unifix cubes to create fractions and understanding the numerator and denominator.

For homework this week, we will have a worksheet come home on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We will also have a problem of the week come home and it will be due on Friday. Our fast facts quiz will also be on Friday.


Science: Before spring break, your child came home with a Solar System review sheet and vocabulary cards. The solar system test will be on Friday, March 23rd. During our science time this week, we will discuss the relationship between the sun, Earth, and moon. We will notice the limitations of the models of the solar system that we see. On Monday and Tuesday, we will learn the order of the planets. In groups, your child will make a mnemonic device to help them remember the order of the planets. On Wednesday, we will create planet bracelets. These bracelets will have beads that represent each of the planets. On Thursday, we will review for the solar system test playing our Jeopardy game. 

Week 26: March 5 - 9

Week 26: March 5 - 9

Reminders:
9 - Report Cards go home
12-16 Spring Break (No School)
20 - Third Nine Weeks Recognition Ceremony at 9:00 in the cafeteria
23 - Solar System Test
30 - Good Friday (No School)

Reading: Our students worked hard last week and showed amazing effort and skill on the READING practice STAAR test.  Please look for an email from your child's reading teacher by Friday, March 9th to tell you more about your child's reading strengths and areas for growth.  Mostly, know we are PROUD of their reading accomplishments thus far and it is only MARCH!

Narrative NonFiction will continue to be our genre focus for this week. Above you can see some of the titles we have been reading and discussing in class.  Specifically, this week, we will teach students a silly song that can serve as an EXCELLENT strategy for writing summaries or answering STAAR like questions about summary with narrative.  For a sneak peak, or simply to keep the fun going at home, check out this clip.



Writing: Essays will continue to be our genre of focus.  This week we will look at how to write a strong lead.  We will look at many styles and try them out with our first drafts to see which style might be most effective.  Below is a sample anchor chart.  Something like this will be built together in our classroom this week as we write.


Social Studies: Students will finish up their work with map skills.  We hope that maybe a few students have gotten excited and talked to you about how we learned to play BATTLESHIP using our grid map skills.  This week, we will also look the cultural traditions associated with St. Patrick's Day.

Math: During our math block this week, we will continue to look at division strategies and how we can apply these strategies to word problems. Your child will work to create division word problems to help with their understanding of the parts of  division word problems. On Wednesday and Friday, we will learn about area (Area Video). We have taught area models during our multiplication unit and we will make the connection between area and the area models we have already studied. On Thursday, we plan to complete a reflection paper from the practice STAAR that was taken last Monday. This tool helps your child zone in on the concepts they really understand and helps us to identify areas of need. We will send this paper home with your child so that you can use this as a discussion tool at home.

For homework this week, we will have a worksheet come home on Monday - Wednesday. We will not have a problem of the week this week. We will take a fast facts quiz on Friday. If you plan to be out of school on Friday, please let your child's teacher know so that they can take their fast facts quiz before the break.

Science: This week during science, we will continue talking about the relationship between the sun, moon, and Earth and our other planets. On Monday, we will work on the next set of vocabulary cards for the solar system unit. We will send home these cards and review sheet so that your child will be able to study nightly for our test. The date of the test Friday, March 23rd.  During the rest of the week, we will be studying the planets.

Week 30: April 3- 7

Week of April 3rd-7th

Reminders: 

OPTIONAL SPRING CONFERENCES: Thursday and Friday we will have early dismissal for spring parent teacher conference. These conferences are optional. Please note that these conferences our optional and its only the second week of the last nine weeks. But if you would like to meet with your child's teacher to discuss your child's progress, we would be more than happy to meet with you. 

Ms. Badrak

Mrs. Duncan

Mrs. Ford

Ms. Jackson

Ms. Rozzell

Mrs. Scott

Here is our half day schedule for Thursday and Friday. 
    Thursday:                                                               Friday
7:50- 8:00 Focus Poetry                                 7: 50- 8:00 Focus Poetry
8:10- 9:25 Block One                                      8:10 - 9:00 Specials
9:25 Switch                                                     9:00- 9:50 Block one
9:30- 10:45 Block two                                     9:55- 10:45 Block two
10:45- 11:15 Lunch                                        10: 45-11: 15 Lunch
11:15- 11: 45 Recess                                     11:15- 11: 45 Recess
12:00 Dismissal                                              12:00 Dismissal                    

Language Arts teachers will send home a Scholastic book order this week in Tuesday Newsday.  This order will be due next Tuesday, April 11th. 

Reading 
Last week, we ended our week utilizing useful reading strategies.  We will use what we learned about nonfiction summaries last week to compare and analyze the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction summaries this week.  For instance, great nonfiction summaries include the main idea, or most important ideas, from the beginning, middle, and end of a text.  Great fiction summaries, on the other hand, include CPR (C=Characters, P=Problem, R=Resolution).  We will compare various summaries in order to continue practicing reading strategies across these two genres. Towards the end of the week, our readers will write a fiction summary of their own using what they know about CPR.  

Writing
We have worked very hard during Writer's Workshop to craft our essays.  We will use this week as an opportunity to prepare our essays for publishing week.  We will enter into the process of publishing week next week in order to celebrate and share our final products. We are also going to take some time this week to prepare for National Library Week (April 9th-15th)  where we thank our wonderful librarian, Mrs. Moore, for everything she does for our school!  Students will either write a poem, letter, comic, or persuasive essay that pays tribute to Mrs. Moore.  We are going to deliver these to her on Monday!   

Spelling
Students will receive new spelling words on Thursday, April 6th.  They will take a test on these words on Thursday, April 13th.   April 14th- April 21st, teachers will be looking for students to apply those spelling patterns correctly in their reading and writing work.

Social Studies
We will continue our study of arts and culture this week.  We will learn information about arts within a community.  We will reflect and respond to this material using graphic organizers.  

Math 

We finished off last week discussing area of figures. This next week, we will introduce perimeter of a figure. Area and perimeter can often get mixed up, so please take time to discuss both of these vocabulary words. Please take some time this week and get on Dreambox. Please use this link to get the login page. https://play.dreambox.com/login/yf4j/c78d

In this perimeter unit, we will also look at problem solving for missing side length of figures. We will be working on using good strategies when trying to solve these type problems. One of these strategies will be to add up all the side lengths and then subtract from the perimeter.  We studied in our geometry unit about how rectangles have opposite sides that are equal to the other. This knowledge of rectangles will help students find the missing side length when perimeter is unknown.




Science
We will start this week with the solar system assessment. Tuesday - Friday we will explore the fourth planet from the Sun... Mars. We will look at what attributes this planet has and how it differs from other planets in our solar system. After we discuss Mars and review solar system  characteristics, we will have a short quiz on Thursday.  Please keep practicing with your child the order of the planets and have your child share their learning about Mars this week. 

4/18 - 4/22

We hope that you enjoy the LONG weekend! 
REMINDERS:Scholastic book orders may be made online or you may send back the paper order with a check.  Please have April book orders turned in by Friday, April 22. PLEASE NOTE A CHANGE IN ASSESSMENT DATES.


LANGUAGE ARTS
READING- April is poetry month.  We will review poetry vocabulary and types of poems this week.  I'll be pulling small groups based on the two selection practice your child did in class last week.  Look for those to come home in the Tuesday Newsday folder.  This can serve for a great spring board for conversation at home about books and news. We will not send home a reading selection for homework this week due to the short school week.

WRITING- We will finish our criteria chart this week for what makes an INCREDIBLE story from my life.  The last few weeks of school we will spend walking ourselves through the writing process and producing and sharing stories from our lives.  Helping your child reflect on experiences or even say, "Hey, you should write that as one of your stories in school." could serve as great help when writer's are trying to get started during the process.

SPELLING- Words went home last week.  Spelling Test, Thursday 4/21.  Application grade 4/22-4/27.


SOCIAL STUDIES- Economic review sheets went home last Thursday. Our test will be Friday, April 22.  Remember to have your child use his or her log in on studiesweekly.com to review and preview concepts.  Our economics unit covers weeks 19-23. 


Math: In math this week, we will be discussing coins, bills, personal financial literacy, and patterns that can be found on a number line. As we review time and we begin reviewing money, I encourage you to talk with your children at home about these topics. It is important for your children to practice saying the time and reading a clock. Even with our short week, we will have three nights of homework. The homework this week will be a review on graphing, time, and money. Please encourage your child to do their homework and not use a homework pass. As we get into STAAR mode, we are sending work to help review and it is important for your child to continue to practice. We will have a problem of the week this week and a fast facts quiz on Friday. Please study the multiplication facts nightly. Your child needs to complete all of their multiplication facts before they leave third grade. Please check their progress on their multiplication checklist located in their green binder.

Science: In science this week, we will begin discussing the planets in our solar system. We will learn the order off the planets. We will use the mnemonic device - My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos- to help us remember the planets in order. Your child will also have an opportunity to create their own mnemonic device.

***UPDATE - The Solar System test will be on Tuesday, April 26th***

4/11 - 4/15

Update for Week of April 11th - 15th

MATH: In math this week, we will continue learning about 3D shapes. We will work to classify our 3D shapes by prisms, pyramids, and curved surfaces. Another way we will learn about our shapes is by their faces, vertices, and edges. Please continue to review these at home. Flashcards went home on Tuesday. This Tuesday, your child will be quizzed on identifying the 3D shapes. We will continue to practice in class. The rest of the week, we will be discussing time. We will spend Wednesday reviewing time by the hour and minute. On Thursday and Friday, we will learn two different strategies for figuring out elapsed time. Your child will be given a start time and end time and they will learn to find the about of time that has passed. The homework for this week will be a review of 2D and 3D shapes, symmetry, and congruence. You can also expected a homework reviewing graphing. As we get into the STAAR season, we are encouraging your children to not use homework passes, but rather complete the homework as it is an important review. The fast facts quiz will be on Friday and the problem of the week will be due on Friday.

SCIENCE: During our science time we will start learning about the moon. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be discussing the relationship between the sun, moon, and Earth. Towards the end of our week, we will learn about the planets. As we are studying the planets, we will learn the order and the important characteristics of each.

Math and Science for the Week of March 19th-23rd

Parents,

Welcome back from Spring Break!  It was a nice break and it was good to catch up on some rest.  Now we are ready to hit the ground running for the next 11 weeks!

This week in Math we will be focusing on the concept of rounding to the nearest ten and hundred.  Some students catch on really fast, and others are confused about the concept of rounding up or down and need a little extra guidance.  Today we used the "rounding roller coaster" to explain the rounding rules.  A student came up with this helpful rhyme:

"If it's 1 to 4, go to the back door.  If it's 5 or more, run out the front door!"

Here is also a helpful three minute video to explain rounding to the nearest 10.



Later on in the week we will work on Rounding to the nearest 100.  We will use the same "Roller Coaster" concept to help the kids understand rounding.  Here is another helpful video to show your kids on rounding to the nearest 100.



Also in Math this week our Objective review will be focusing on reviewing customary and metric measurement, as well as finding perimeter and area.  We will have another objective quiz this Friday, and we will be reviewing it together the following Monday.  Again these Objective reviews are intended to prepare our 3rd graders for the Math portion of the STAAR Exam coming next month.

In Science this week, we will be learning the relationship between the sun, the moon, and the earth.  The students will be constructing a small 2-D model in class to show this representation.  We will then move into the planets and the correct order of the planets.  I will teach them a fun acronym to help them remember the correct of of the planets from the sun.  It is...."My very excellent mother just served us nachos!"

The kids also had the privilege of meeting Ruby Bridges' mother this afternoon in the library and have a short Q & A with her.  Ruby Bridges was the first African American child to integrate into white schools in New Orleans.  The kids were very interested and asked really amazing questions.

Tomorrow (Tuesday)  we will be watching Motivational Productions.  Motivational Productions is a program that comes every year to discuss bullying and strategies to deal with the ongoing issue in schools.

If you are busy at home helping your child raise money for the K-9 Angels Rescue Foundation, please send money by Friday.

Have a wonderful week ;-)
Mrs. S