Week 17: January 3rd-5th

Week 17:  January 3rd-5th 

Happy 2018! 

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday break.  

We look forward to welcoming back your children tomorrow!  

Reminders: 

1/9  STAARY STAARY NIGHT  Third grade will host a STAAR information session Tuesday evening, January 9, to familiarize parents with our May state testing and answer any questions. We will meet in the library form 6:00pm to 7:00pm.

1/10  2nd NINE WEEKS RECOGNITION CEREMONY will be held in the cafeteria from 9:00-9:40am. 

1/10  3rd GRADE AUTHOR VISIT   Mac Barnett, author of The Terrible Two series, will visit our school on Wednesday, 1/10 and spend time with our 3rd graders.  You can purchase a copy of any of his books using the following link through Blue Willow Bookshop.  


Reading:  We have a quick, but action-packed week in reading as we begin our nonfiction genre study. For the next few weeks your readers will immerse themselves in a variety of nonfiction texts to learn about the purpose and structure of the genre. We will launch our unit by reading high-interest informational articles about the Guinness Book of World Records and penguin rescues this week. Reading MAP testing begins this week and will continue into next.

Writing:  Students will review how to story tell by sharing some of their favorite memories from our two week break.  As the week progresses we will shift our focus to our poetry unit of study.  Your writer will begin looking at poetry through the eyes of the writer.  Students will read and study anchor poems that showcase rich vocabulary as well as portray vivid mental images that spark our senses.

Word Work:  We will continue to facilitate independence and confidence as students perfect their spelling skills within their independent writing. 

Social Studies:  Students will locate a variety of maps from nonfiction articles we read.  We will study these maps to note their features and specifically define key, compass rose, and scale. 

Math: This week we are focusing on taking the winter MAP test. We will also explore the MAP website as we will use it for additional practice. Then, it is on to measuring and calculating the perimeter of polygons. Perimeter is the distance around the outer edge and the sum of all the sides. Along with this basic knowledge, students will be given the perimeter of an object and the lengths of all but one side. Students must subtract to find the value of the missing side.

Students will only have homework on Wednesday but should study their math facts daily.

Science: We will observe how position and motion can be changed by pushing and pulling objects to show work being done. Some examples include swings, balls, pulleys, and wagons. We will also observe forces such as gravity and friction acting on objects. Gravity is the force that pulls all objects together. Friction is the force between two moving objects that tries to keep the objects from moving freely. We will discuss examples of each.

Week 16: December 5-9

Upcoming dates to put on your calendars:

12/7 - Toys for Tots- Please send a new and unwrapped gift to donate.  Children will get a chance to drop their toy with local firefighters and Santa Claus.  

12/9 - Fun Run at Woodview.  Permissions slips are required for students to ride the bus for this event.  All donations will help support the SPARK PARK at our sister school, Woodview Elementary.

12/16 - Noon Dismissal- Please make arrangements for this different dismissal time.  Teachers will need hand written notes if you are making  a change in your child's transportation schedule.

1/6 - Third Grade Recognition Ceremony for the Second Nine Weeks, 9:00-9:30a.m. in the HCE Cafe

1/10 - STAARY STAARY NIGHT - Informational Parent Meeting covering information on the STAAR test. We will meet in the library from 6:00 - 7:00p.m.

Reading: Readers will continue to read poetry this week.  We will focus our attention on what information in the poem pulls at the reader's sense of hearing, smelling, seeing, feeling, and tasting.  Descriptive details that pull at our senses help the reader visualize while reading.  Later in the week, we will use these sensory details to also help us infer more about the character and situations we read about in poems.

Writing: This is PUBLICATION WEEK.  Writer's will focus on fine tuning their stories to help the reader.  Developmentally, this is a hard skill for third graders.  It's hard to admit that our first attempts are perfect.  Encourage your child at home, by sharing times that you changed your thinking after your first impression or effort.

Spelling: Spelling tests are this Wednesday, December 7.  An application grade of words in daily work will take place between 12/8-12/14.  We will also give the spelling inventory again between 12/8-12/16.  The information gathered will help us readjust spelling groups based on learner's needs.  

Social Studies: Jane Addams will be added to our bank of Good Citizens.  Her work in Chicago made a difference for so many men, women and children as she founded and worked at the Hull House.  We will discuss the many reasons she was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.  Students will also learn about various ways that people are honored and remembered.  Pointing our monuments, plaques, road markers, and awards that are created in memory and honor of those who make a difference will help our students understand ways we remember and recognize good citizens.

Math:In math this week, we will continue practicing our strategies for multiplication. We will decode word problems to pick out the important parts. We will identify what number in a multiplication sentence tells us the groups and which number shows how many in each group. We will use word problems to reiterate these skills.

For example: There are 4 groups with 3 strawberries in each group

 On Thursday, we will practice creating our own multiplication word problems to help us understand multiplication even more. On Friday, we will get to solve the multiplication word problems we created the day before. We will have our normal math homework on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Our fast facts quiz will be on Friday. We will not have a problem of the week this week. 

Science: On Monday and Tuesday during science time, we will participate in an energy lab. We will apply the information we know about mechanical, thermal, light, and sound energy. On Wednesday, the third graders will take the Science PSA (Priority Standard Assessment). This assessment is created by the district and gives us information on how your child is progressing through the concepts that we have taught so far in science. On Thursday, we will take the Energy Test. We will review in class before the test is given.