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. 

Week 11: October 31st - November 4th

Parents,

Thank you for supporting our classes during Field Day. It was a fun filled day and we appreciate your added spirit.

Reminders for this week:

Mrs. Ramos spoke with students on Friday and told them about how children in her court celebrate adoption day.  She encouraged them to bring a stuffed animal from home to donate to children serviced in the courts.  Mrs. Ramos explained to us how this day becomes just as special as a birthday for many children.   This is often also the first toy the child will have ever received.  We appreciate any and all stuffed animal donations.. Donations due 11/4.  We love when the real world and our learning tie together.  This is a BEAUTIFUL real world example of what good citizens do- something we will study in Social Studies over the next few weeks.

- Friday, November 4th is a Noon Dismissal. Please remember to send a note with any change of transportation on that day. We will have an alternate schedule that day.

Reading: Good readers use context clues to help them make meaning of the words in the text.  This week we will work together in a variety of text to notice the many ways an author uses context clues to help readers make sense of the story. The example on the left shows you some of the things reader can use to help make meaning of new terms and vocabulary.  Be sure to talk to your reader about new, multilple meaning and difficult vocabulary words as they read at home each night.

Writing: We continue to analyze stories from our lives to make sure they are a story worth telling.  Stories worth telling follow the narrative structure.  We will read, summarize, analyze and determine theme for a few more stories this week.  Practicing storytelling at home can be a fun and meaningful way to connect learning at school to home.  This also helps when students move to write in workshop-- this way they have stories to pull from!

Spelling:  Continue to practice spelling words from last week at home.  At the beginning of this week, in class, teachers will be observing and assessing how students are able to apply spelling patterns in their work.  New spelling words will come home on November 2 and be assessed on November 9.

Social Studies: We've wrapped up our learning on early explorers and will spend the next few weeks thinking about what GOOD CITIZENS do! Good citizens work to make their communities a great place to be.  We will discuss many ideas over the next few weeks like-- voting, obeying laws, keeping promises, serving on a jury and volunteering.  

Students will have a chance to learn about why it is important for citizens to vote this week.  We hope to give them a small taste of what Election Day is like with our very own HCE favorite book election.  We will hear from people supporting both the candidates (book choices!).  Stay tuned, as November 9 we will learn which book of the month students have enjoyed most!

  

Math: In math this week, we will be finishing up our unit on subtraction. On Monday and Tuesday, we will walk through the steps for a two-step problems. Here is an example of a two-step problem that you can expect your child to see: There were a total of 689 fans who came to the first three basketball games. One hundred forty-two came to the first game and 136 came to the second game. How many fans came to the third game?

On Wednesday and Thursday, we will review all of our subtraction skills. On Friday, we will take our subtraction test. *SUBTRACTION TEST IS MOVED TO 11/7*

We will NOT have homework on Monday! Happy Halloween! On Tuesday, a worksheet will go home that reviews analog clocks. On Wednesday, a worksheet with subtraction practice will go home. Please study for fast facts on Friday. We will NOT have a Problem of the Week this week.

Science: During science this week, we will complete our discussion on Mixtures. Later in the week we will begin our unit on Energy. Energy is the ability to move and do work. We will review four forms of energy: sound, light, heat, and mechanical. We will begin with Mechanical Energy and discover that there are two types of Mechanical Energy: Potential and Kinetic. 

*mechanical energy- the energy of moving objects

*kinetic energy- the energy of motion

*potential energy- the stored energy or possible energy depending on its position

Week of October 17-21

Parent/Teacher Conferences are this week: October 19-21.  Use the links below to secure your spot.  We can't wait to celebrate the successes of your child and discuss their goals moving forward. Please remember that Thursday, October 20th and Friday, October 21st are early dismissal days. Students will be let out at 12:00 pm so please plan accordingly! 

• Rozzell/Scott               
• Badrak/Jackson
• Duncan/Ford

Please consider supporting Ms. Jackson’s flexible seating Donors Choose fund: Jackson

Reading: Readers will continue exploring theme in both familiar and non-familiar texts. Each day, we will focus on a new theme and brainstorm books that model each lesson. Themes/lessons we will focus on next week:

• Believing in yourself
• Being happy with what you have
• Accepting others' differences 
• Always acting kind to others

We will also spend time discussing and writing about the differences between plot and theme. We want our learners to be able to not only identify them, but to support it with text evidence. 

Writing: Writers will be introduced to new Stories From My Life (or SFML for short) this week to focus on our core questions with unfamiliar texts. We will work on concise retelling through Q1 (What is happening in this story?) and identifying theme/lesson through Q2 (What does this story mean?). Finally, we will map the story on the narrative arc to identify all of the important elements. Writers will continue exploring SFML narratives in their own writing.

Example Story Arc   

Spelling: Students will get new sorts/words on Wednesday, October 19th. The assessment on those words will be the following Wednesday, October 26th. Remember to utilize the at-home spelling practice if your child could benefit from additional practice at home.

Social Studies: We will continue our unit on famous explorers! We will finish our pop-up book with important facts about Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Lewis & Clark, and Christopher Columbus. Our students have loved learning the details of how these explorers have contributed to our nation and our world. 

Math: Last week we began our study of subtraction with simple subtraction without any regrouping and regrouping in the hundreds and thousands places. This week we will review and then begin to subtract over zeros where multiple regrouping is necessary. As they progress right to left from the ones place, to the tens, to the hundreds and then to the thousands, students have to continually ask themselves "Can I do that?" in order to assure that the top number take away the bottom number actually works. If not, then regrouping or borrowing has to be done. Many are familiar with the rhyme "More on the floor, go next door" as a way to help determine if regrouping is needed. In applying subtraction to everyday life, students will examine word problems and differentiate among the three types of subtraction. "Take away" subtraction is the one with which kids are most familiar. Given a total number of items, a part is taken away leaving a remaining part. "Compare" subtraction presents students with two numbers where they are to find the difference between them. Words such as "how many more", "how much longer", and "how many fewer" are our key to this kind of subtraction. Often times, the comparative or "er" form of an adjective is used, such as taller, heavier, shorter, and farther. The third kind, "Missing Part" subtraction, gives the student the total number of items and describes a part and then asks what the other part might be. Here are some examples:

Take away:  643 students attend Hunters Creek Elementary. If 97 students transfer to another school, how many students will remain at the school?   643 - 97 = _____

Compare:  HCE has 643 student and MDE only has 477. How many  more students does Hunters Creek have than Memorial Drive?   643 - 477 = _____

Missing Part:  Ms. Rozzell has 41 students in both Math classes. 17 of them are girls. How many boys are in her classes?     41 - 17 = _____ 

Whether your child is on addition, subtraction, or multiplication facts, always study daily for FFW and/or FFF. Addition and subtraction have an extra opportunity for success on Wednesday and will not have to study for a Friday quiz if they make a 90% or above mid week. There is a POW that is due on Friday. Please take this opportunity to work with your child and discuss strategies for finding a solution.

Science:  We wrap up our study of Matter this week with a review of vocabulary and concepts and a unit test on Wednesday. Students have had vocabulary cards and a study guide for almost two weeks and we hope they have reviewed them nightly. After parent conferences, we will take a look at mixtures and then it is on to an extensive study of the different kinds of energy around us.

Week of November 2nd - 6th

11/2/15 - 11/6/15

Happy November Parents! October flew by! Thank you to all of the parents who have come to parent teacher conferences so far! We have enjoyed meeting and visiting with each of you.

As a reminder, this Friday is Field Day. the theme for Mrs. Duncan's homeroom is Duncan's Donuts and we will be dressed in white. Mrs. Ford's homeroom will be Ford's Fugitives and we will be wearing camo.  This will be a fun filled day! Before we participate in the Field Day activities, all of third grade will complete their Classroom Spelling Bee with their homeroom teacher.

MATH-During math this week, we will wrap up our unit on subtraction with regrouping. Last week, we studied the three types of subtraction- take away, missing part, and comparison subtraction. This week we will complete a circuit in class with subtraction word problems. We are continuing to work on decoding word problems and pulling out information that is needed to solve the problems. Your child will not have a problem of the week due for this week. You can expect homework on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. Due to the activities on Field Day, your child will take their Addition and Subtraction Fast Facts quiz on Thursday.

SCIENCE- In our science time this week, we will continue to study energy. On Friday, we began our study of energy. This week, we are discussing mechanical energy, we will learn about kinetic and potential energy. Kinetic Energy is the energy in motion while potential energy is the stored energy.

Week of 10/26-10/30

Week of October 26 - October 30

RED RIBBON WEEK THIS WEEK.  We will participate in theme days and school wide discussion on the importance of making healthy choices.
Monday- Wear red.  We are "RED"y to lead a healthy life.
Tuesday- Wear pink. "New Friends are all around you."
Wednesday- Wear a college shirt. "My future is bright."
Thursday- Wear a crazy hair style. "Wild about being healthy."Friday- Wear a HCE shirt.  We will give each child a mustache.  I "mustache" you not to bully or do drugs.

READING-We will continue our genre study of realistic fiction.  As we read this week we will learn the difference between a first person and third person narrative.
WRITING-We will continue to map narrative stories.  This week we will look into the author's craft of dialogue.  We will learn to identify dialogue in a story and then begin to critique how and why an author uses dialogue to move the story.
WORD WORK-Students received new words last Tuesday.  On October, 27th we will take an assessment on these words and then work over the next week to  accurately apply these new words to our writing.
SOCIAL STUDIES-Our unit of study, geography, continues.  This week we will work to learn about the four regions of Texas and what landforms can be found in each region of the state.  On Wednesday, we will be shaping our own landforms and noting the differences and similarities between the various shapes in the land.  

MATH- This week during our math time, we will continue learning about subtraction. Last week we subtracted numbers with regrouping in the ones, tens, and hundreds. This week, we will be subtracting across zeros. Later in the week, we will be using our subtraction strategies in word problems. We will decode word problems and decide if we will be "taking away," "comparing," or find the "missing part." I was SO impressed by the math facts quiz last Friday. Keep up the GREAT work and study every night for 5 to 10 minutes. This week, we will have another addition and subtraction quiz. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night your child will bring home a subtraction worksheet. The problem of the week will be due on Friday. 

SCIENCE-During science this week, we will complete our discussion on Mixtures. Later in the week we will begin our unit on Energy. Energy is the ability to move and do work. We will review four forms of energy: sound, light, heat, and mechanical. We will begin with Mechanical Energy and discover that there are two types of Mechanical Energy: Potential and Kinetic. 

We have enjoyed conferencing with some parents on Thursday and Friday and we look forward to meeting with more of you this week!

October 19th - 23rd

Week of October 19th - 23rd

We have lots of news for this upcoming week! 

1) Thursday and Friday are Noon Dismissal Days. Please send hand written notes if your child will be going home a different way from these two days. We look forward to meeting with each of you during our conferences. Please remember to arrive on time as we have back to back conference times. 

2) Socktober Week is this week - remind your child to wear CrAzY socks all week! Our Leadership Council is collected items to donate to the Mission of Yahweh. We are needing items such as: socks, underwear, disposable diapers, and deodorant. 

MATH
Last week in math, we wrapped up our study of rounding. We will continue working on rounding in our daily warm up problems. We discussed how rounding can be applied in many real world situations. I challenge you to ask your child to round the price of items or the amount of items you would need on your next visit to the grocery store. Rounding is a useful tool! This week, we will begin our next unit on subtraction. We will start our week with subtracting without regrouping. Throughout the week, we will subtract in the thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones place. You can expect a Problem of the Week to come home on Monday and it will be due on Friday. A review worksheet for place value will come home on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Friday, your child will complete a fast facts quiz with addition and subtraction - this will be for a grade.

SCIENCE
On Friday, we completed our unit on Matter. This week we will begin learning about mixtures. A mixture is when two or more substances are combined. I always imagine trail mix as an example. You are able to mix peanuts, M&M's, almonds, cashews, raisins. These things are mixed together, but can easily be taken apart.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Reading

This week we will wrap up our work on character traits.  Students have been compiling a great list of words to use when describing a character in a story based on what they are thinking or how they are behaving.  We've been mapping, together, how a character changes throughout a story.  This week, students will try this learning on their own during independent reading.

Writing

For many weeks we will discuss narrative structure.  To the right, you will see an example anchor chart used in the classroom to help us move from thinking about the beginning, middle and end of a story and move into thinking about the superstructure of a narrative.  Words and ideas like setting the stage, initiating event, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution will be words that 3rd graders will learn and then be expected to use during discussions on mentor texts.

Word Work

Last week students took their first spelling tests and did very well.  This week, we take an application grade and introduce a new spelling pattern.  You are welcome to continue practicing at home.  We will continue to practice 10-15 minutes each day in class.  Teachers cannot email or post spelling lists due to copyright issues.  Please talk to your student about the importance of keeping up with and bringing home their spelling practice list.  

SOCIAL STUDIES

Landforms

We are starting a new unit in Social Studies, Geography.  Our geography unit is made up of two parts, landforms and map skills. We will start the unit with a look at landforms.  This week and last we review many landforms that are, hopefully, familiar to our students.  

The BIG idea in social studies that we will try to drive home is that our daily life is affected by the land surrounding us.  When we plan vacations, what we pack, what we do, and our travel are all determined by the land and water features surrounding our destination.  

Some of our upcoming vocabulary will be:

Geography-the study of Earth’s features

Landform- natural features, or shapes, of the land including mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, etc.

Climate- the kind of weather a place has over a long period of time

Human Feature- something that people add to the landscape, such as a building

     Adapt- change to fit the environment

We've used this video and songs to help us remember the different types of landforms.

<i

Math\Sci Week of Oct 15th

Parents,

Last week in Math, students continued working on addition and subtraction word problems.  We have been working hard on 3-digit subtraction with a medial zero.  Here are two different scenarios with medial zero:
                           705                                           705
                        - 422                                          -426
                     ---------                                   ---------
In the first problem, the ones place does not need to be regrouped, therefore the zero in the middle of the problem will be a 10 and the 7 will be reduced to a 6.  In the second problem, the ones place does have to be regrouped. Therefore, the zero in the middle will be reduced to a 9 and the 7 will be reduced to a 6.  This is all very confusing to eight and nine-year-olds!!!   This is a really hard concept for 3rd graders and they are having a tough time with it and need LOTS of practice.  Please work with them if you can at home.  It's always good to hear someone else's voice teaching a hard concept. :)

We also worked on subtracting across three zeros such like this:

                                   800                                                   500
                                 -555                                                  -224
                            -----------                                         -----------  

This week in Math we will take what we know about rounding to the nearest ten and hundred, addition, and subtraction and put it all together.  The kids will be required to look at a three digit Math problem, round the numbers, and then solve like this:

Our Fast Fact Friday Quiz will consist of subtraction ONLY and will not be recorded this week in the gradebook.  Get ready for a combo test soon with BOTH addition and subtraction!!!  

In Science, we just concluded our study on Matter and had our first big Science Test last week.  We had fun studying for the test playing Matter Jeopardy and Matter Game-board Bonanza!  We are moving on to reading thermometers in Celsius and Fahrenheit, as well as making mixtures and figuring out the best tools to separate them with.  

Love, 
Mrs. S   

Math/Science Week of October 1st

Dear Parentals,

In Math: 
We will move in to our study of addition and subtraction with and without re-grouping.  Students will add 2-digit and 3-digit numbers in the beginning of the week as a 2nd grade reviewand then we will move on to subtracting two and three digit numbers towards the middle and end of the week.  This is a challenging skill for third graders so any extra practice at home is wonderful.  We will practice the very important skill of recognizing when a problem solving situation requires addition or subtraction.  We will use the table below to help guide our mathematical decision to add or subtract in order to solve a problem successfully.  This week we will be really focusing on Combining, Take Away, and Comparative Subtraction Word Problems.

Combine 2 or more groups of things	Addition
Compare 2 groups of things	Subtraction
Take some things away from a group	Subtraction
Find a missing part of a group	Subtraction

Our Fast Fact Friday Quiz will consist of subtraction problems only and will be graded this Friday the 5th. Please see your student’s Tuesday Newsday folder for the Fast Fact quiz from last Friday the 28th of September.  This can help guide your studies at home each night.  Your child is also keeping up with their Fast Fact grades by graphing their scores on a graph in their  green binder each week.  Ask your child to show it to you!   As we begin working with addition and subtraction of large numbers, correct re-call of math facts will be incredibly important.  Students should be studying facts every night for at least 5 – 8 minutes. 


In Science:

This week we will continue investigating matter by experimenting with the changes of matter.  Students will learn about “physical changes” and “chemical changes”.  We will look closely into changing from a solid to a liquid and vice versa this week. We will conduct a fun experiment called The Great Ice Cube Race on Monday to observe one of these changes and discover what a physical change needs in order to happen.  We will assess the students knowledge of the states of matter through an end of unit exam in the coming weeks (most likely the week of the 15th, be looking for a study guide and flash cards the week of the 8th).