Week 34: May 1st -May 5th

Reminders/Announcements:

• Monday, May 8th:  Math STAAR for 3rd (and 4th graders
• Tuesday, May 9th:  Reading STAAR for 3rd (and 4th graders)

Your child will be taking their first STAAR test next Monday and Tuesday, May 8th and 9th.  Here a few reminders and helpful hints to support your child at home:
- We will have an altered schedule on testing days due to beginning the test at 8:00am.  We will take our lunch after the completion of the test at 12:40pm and have specials and recess after.      
- Reassure your child that they have learned all the skills they need for the test.  Encourage and praise them for their success this school year.  Continue to build their confidence this week leading to Monday and Tuesday.  
- Please make sure your child gets plenty of sleep! 
- Eat a healthy breakfast.

• May 19 - 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
• Thursday, May 25th:  3rd grade Chariot Races
• Friday, May 26th:  Winds of Time school-wide parade 

Reading:
We will start our week reviewing vocabulary skills and context clues strategies.  We will practice how to identify the meaning of unknown words using context clues.  Your reader  will identify synonyms and antonyms of common words in their vocabulary using context clues as well.  

Later in the week, we will work on test taking confidence!  We will complete one final STAAR selection to review test taking strategies as well as celebrate all of the wonderful preparation they've done to be ready for next Tuesday (Reading STAAR test).  We will also learn and practice brain breaks that they can use during testing that do not distract their peers.

Writing:
We are going to revisit some of our favorite entries in our Writer's Notebook this week!  Your writer will reread their past work in their notebooks in order to revise and edit.  We will  specifically work on revising and editing for capitalization.  We will see where we can add capitalization for emphasis (e.g. WOAH!! or I TOLD her I wasn't feeling well.), proper nouns (e.g. Hunters Creek Elementary), and titles and headings (e.g. book titles, SFML titles).  We have added some capitalization online practice to our Language Arts websites.  We want to make sure we send our writers to fourth grade consistently capitalizing! 

Spelling:  We will be looking for how your child applies their spelling patterns this week.  We will take an application grade May 1st- May 4th. 

Social Studies:  Your child will finish their Texas festival project this week.  We can't wait to celebrate our final products this Friday.   

Math: We are entering our second and final week of STAAR Camp. Each class will be reviewing different concepts, as we do our last prep before the test. One concept that each class will cover is perimeter and area. It is important for your child to be able calculate both. They will also need to use the background knowledge of quadrilaterals when finding perimeter. Especially the rule about rectangles and squares when finding perimeter of a figure. 

Fractions will be another topic we will review this week, more specifically equivalent fraction using a pictorial model. The last two days of this week, we will have a circuit that will have different problem covering a variety of topics. This circuit will help prepare your child to how transition to different math concepts between questions. 

Homework this week will have review STAAR-like questions that will give you a chance to discuss past concepts at home. As always keep practicing those math facts. 

Science: This week in Science we are diverting our attention to the math concept of Personal Financial Literacy. We will discuss topics that include human capital, scarcity, credit and interest, and saving. Students will review some of what they learned in their Social Studies unit on Economics. Word problems will show them the connection between economics and math. A series of Kahoots will test their knowledge of various money issues. (And they love Kahoots!)

Week 33: April 24th-28th

Reminders/Important Dates:  

• Monday, May 8th:  Math STAAR for 3rd (and 4th graders)
• Tuesday, May 9th:  Reading STAAR for 3rd (and 4th graders)
• Monday, May 22nd:  Publishers Picnic
• Thursday, May 25th:  3rd grade Chariot Races
• Friday, May 26th:  Winds of Time school-wide parade 

Reading:  We are diving into cause and effect this week.  While cause/effect is something we experience in our daily lives, identifying cause/effect within a text is tricky.  We will spend the week practicing strategies to identify cause/effect relationships in both fiction and nonfiction texts.  Our readers will gain a better grasp of the importance of identifying causes and effects throughout an informational article and/or a plot.  Doing so will answer questions like "Why did the character react that way?" or "What caused a character to do ___?"    

We will also spend part of our language arts block working with online tools called Quizlet and Epic. These resources can be found under the "Language Arts Website" link on the right side of this blog and can be accessed both during and after school. Please feel free to ask your child about these resources and use them at home as well.  

We are thankful to have the opportunity to work with reliable technology thanks to our HCE PTA!  Our students have been able to log into our Chromebooks and work with these resources daily. We are beyond grateful for these additions to our classrooms! 

Writing:  We will be wrapping up our letter writing unit this week.  We will begin this week with writing a letter to a community worker.  Students will write a letter to a police officer, fireman, or nurse/doctor in our community.  We will practice addressing envelopes as well during this process.  The publishing process will start mid-week with revising and editing. We will celebrate our letters and share with our classroom community on Friday.  

Spelling:  Students will take a test this Thursday, April 27th.  Next week, April 28th- May 4th, teachers will be looking for students to apply these spelling patterns correctly in their reading and writing work. 

Social Studies:  We will continue to learn about Texas cultural celebrations this week.  We have and will continue to use the online component of our Studies Weekly social studies resource to read articles about various celebrations in Texas.  We will dive a little deeper this week in certain cultural celebrations to learn about what types of foods, activities, and dances are celebrated.  The students are very interested in these celebrations! 

Math: We have now entered our STAAR Camp Unit. STAAR Camp is where we will be reviewing all of the skills covered this year in preparation for the May 8th, Math STAAR test. The main focus of this week's review will be on place value, comparing numbers, word problems, and graphing.  Homework this week will include practice problems in a STAAR-like format.  This homework is a great way to review old concepts at home. 

Thanks to PTA, we have been provided with new Chromebooks in 3rd grade. These new computers have allowed us to provide class time to work on Dreambox. This program allows for individualized lessons that are leveled to your child needs. Think Through Math is another program your child can log on and is a great review of past math concepts.  These can be accessed at home.  Your child has been provided with login information.  In addition, their username and password information was sent home on our red spring information/conference form.  Please encourage your mathematician to try these out at home as well as show you what they've been working on at school.    

Science:  We have moved from measuring temperature with a thermometer to other units of measurement. We ended last week by discussing the difference between mass and weight and determining appropriate units to measure mass and weight. We want your child familiar with both customary and metric units since we use both.  We will begin our week by looking at customary and metric units of capacity and volume. We will then transition to measuring on a ruler looking at 1/4 and 1/2 inch. 

4/25 - 4/29

Week of 4/25 - 4/29

Reminders for this week:
- Progress Reports go home on Tuesday
- Kona Ice Party on Friday during school

Math: On Monday, we will work on finding patterns on a number line. For the next two weeks we will be in our STAAR Camp! The Math STAAR is on Monday, May 9th. During these weeks, we will review all of the skills that we have learned this school year. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be working on 2D, 3D, symmetry and congruent figures. On Thursday, we will spend the day working on multiplication and division. On Friday, we will review time, temperature, money, area, and perimeter. We will have a POTW this week and a fast facts quiz on Friday. The homework this week will be a mixed review of money, subtraction, addition, and patterns.

Science: The solar system test will be on Tuesday. On Monday, we will review for the test. The rest of the week, we will practice finding temperature and understanding capacity.