Math & Science Week of January 13th

Dear Parents,

Our first week back last week went off without a hitch!  The kids were ready to get back into a routine and so was I!!!

In math this week we will be counting money.  In the beginning of the week, the students will be expected to identify coins and their value and make change up to a dollar in a variety of ways.  This should be a review of second grade.  Students also need to use the correct symbols to label amounts. Counting coins is a concept that was introduced in 1st grade, reviewed in 2nd grade, and hopefully mastered in 3rd grade! It can be a difficult concept for students to master so please practice counting at home. Just take out a coin purse, grab a handful of coins and have the kids count!  The best way to master the concept is to practice, practice, practice!  In the later part of the week, we will be counting coins as well as dollars and putting the amounts together.  Students will again be expected to add up the amounts correctly, and place the decimal and dollar symbol in the correct place.

This week's Fast Facts test will be for a grade.  Students are expected to know facts up to 12 but we've broken up the facts so they'll only be learning a little each week. Students will move up to the next level of facts if they score a 90 or better on the Friday fact quiz. If they score below a 90, they'll stay on their current fact level. If your child stays at a level for more than about 3 weeks, I'll probably move them up a level because all students are expected to learn multiplication facts through 12 by the end of the year. Facts are cumulative so they're expected to retain the facts they've learned as they move through the levels. This week we'll have a practice week to give kids a feel for the quiz and will begin with 0, 1 and 10 facts next week. So next week will be Week 1.

Here's the order in which they'll be tested. The new facts for the week are bold and italicized.

Week 1: x 0, 1, 10
Week 2: x 0, 1, 2, 10
Week 3: x 0, 1, 2, 5, 10
Week 4: x 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, Squares (doubles)
Week 5: x 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, Squares
Week 6: x 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, Squares
Week 7: x 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, Squares
Week 8: x 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, Squares
Week 9: x 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, Squares
Week 10: x 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Squares
Week 11: x 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Squares
Week 12: x 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Squares

In Science last week we briefly touched on our earths renewable and non-renewable resources.  We discovered that most, if not all, non-renewable resources are found under the earth.  We talked about ways to protect our natural resources, like turning off the water when you are brushing your teeth, or using a cloth rag instead of a paper towel every time because this creates more trash.  Lastly, we talked about the meaning of the arrows in the recycling sign and discussed the three R's....REDUCE, REUSE, AND RECYCLE!  We will have a short quiz at the end of the week on renewable vs. non-renewable resources..

Here is a song for your enjoyment titled, REDUCE, REUSE, RECYLE!!!

Love,

Ms. S

Welcome Back!

It was a wonderful, rest-filled break for my family.  I hope your family enjoyed the break in routine and created many memories!  

We will be back in our school routine starting TUESDAY, JANUARY 7th.  Please make sure that your student starts to get back in his or her school-time nightly routine over the next few days to help our transition.  

Below is what we have coming up in our classroom over the next week.  Second semester of third grade is a big STEP.  We go from strolling to power-walking through our thinking while we read.  

LANGUAGE ARTS
Spelling
We WILL NOT have any spelling this week.  It is a short week and we have a special visitor coming into our classroom to work with us in writing.

Reading
Students will review how to infer in our fiction reading at the beginning of the week.  Inferring is something we do ALL the time.  

In third grade, we use a helpful equation to infer.  BK+TC=I.  This means that our background knowledge, plus text clues help us make an inference about characters, settings and events in the stories we read.  Some sentence stems we use to help us organize our thinking are:

I see (or I read) ________________________.  I know ____________________.  So, I can infer_______________________.

We infer all sorts of things when we read and in our daily life like: setting, weather, time of day, time of year, character feelings, purpose, and mood to just name a few.

As the week progresses, we will begin to infer using non-fiction texts.

Writing
Mrs. Jenny Holter will be working in our classroom and with your students over the next few weeks.  She is helping us work through a new genre of writing, expository.  She will be in our classroom twice this week to teach a whole group lesson and then help us with small group instruction(literacy stations).  Jenny is an experienced SBISD teacher and lover of great writing.  I have enjoyed getting to know her and working with her.  I know your student will enjoy learning from her and working with her also.

SOCIAL STUDIES
STORY OF AMERICA
We will begin a new unit of study in Social Studies.  (This is by far my personal favorite!)  Over the next 9 weeks, students will learn about pieces of American history through the lives of famous American's who made or continue to make a lasting contribution to our country.  To help students understand the wide range of time our nation's history covers, we will start the unit this week learning about time lines.  

Vocabulary that you can discuss at home: time line, year, decade, century, past, present, future, and chronological order

Math/Science Week of January 6th

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year!!!  I hope all of your holiday break was filled with family, fun, and laughter.  It is good to be back :)  This crazy short week will be a great transition to get back into the school groove.

This week in Math we will be diving into graphing.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will mainly be practicing the proper way to read and label Picto, Bar, and Tally Graphs accurately.  Then we will be taking the information given in the graph and use it to answer questions.  On Thursday and Friday, the students will be conducting a survey of their own, and be required to create their own picto and bar graph that corresponds correctly to their data collected in the survey.

 We will start with multiplication this week! Please practice the x 0, x1, and x10.  All students will have to make a 90 or above before they can move on to the next level on their multiplication test.  So practice, practice, practice.  Good ol' flashcards are NOT overrated!

We will be moving on to Natural Resources in Science.  All students will discuss and learn examples of renewable and non renewable resources and where they originate from.  Students should come to discover that most non-renewable resources come from under the earth.  We will merge into conservation and recycling next week.

It should be a fun first week back!

Love,
Ms. S

Holiday Animoto Projects

Our third graders studied and then created ANIMOTO projects on Winter Holidays.  You can click the links below to take a look at their AWESOME work!

Diwali- Skrivanek

Diwali- Ford

St. Basil's Day

Ramadan

Advent

Yalda

Christmas- Skrivanek (coming soon...)

Christmas- Ford 1

Christmas- Ford 2

Kwanzaa- Ford 

Kwanzaa- Skrivanek 1

Kwanzaa- Skrivanek 2

New Year's Eve- Skrivanek

New Year's Eve- Ford

Hanukkah

Epiphany- Skrivanek

Epiphany- Ford

Chinese New Year - Skrivanek

Chinese New Year- Ford

Mrs. Ford's Classroom Update 12/9-12/13

LANGUAGE ARTS
Spelling
We WILL have spelling homework this week.  Please look for new words to come home on Monday.  Students should return their spelling menu homework on Thursday.  Our test will be on Friday. 

Reading
Students will start to learn to infer in reading.  Inferring is something we do ALL the time.  You notice that your friend isn’t as talkative and you ask what’s wrong, you see a picture of people bundled up and you know that the weather is cold, these sorts of thoughts are what we call an inference.

In third grade, we use a helpful equation to infer.  BK+TC=I.  This means that our background knowledge, plus text clues help us make an inference about characters, settings and events in the stories we read.  This week we will focus on making an inference with photographs and poetry.   

Writing
Students will start working in small groups to research a cultural holiday.  They will work with their groups to take notes, and organize a presentation to teach the class about their learning the week before Winter Break.  Please let me and your student know if you will be leaving early that week (12/16-12/20).  We want to make sure that he or she gets the chance to contribute to the group project.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Map Skills
Students are hard at work designing their own city using a grid map.  This week we will practice using a map scale.  Your child will bring home a review sheet on Tuesday to help him or her prepare for the next Social Studies test on Map Skills.  They are welcome to use this review, vocabulary cards and the Social Studies Journal to prepare.  Please make sure that the Social Studies Journal comes back to school every day.  We will continue to add notes about our learning.

Math and Science Week of December 9th

Dear Parents,

Last week in third grade we introduced division.  The kids learned the "Octopus Method" in order to solve simple division problems.  You should have seen your child use this strategy to solve their HW last week.   These problems consist of a larger number to divide and the students are given the number of groups to divide by.  They are looking for  the number IN each group.

This week we are still focusing on division, but learning a new strategy called the "Cookies Method."  These types of problems are worded differently.  Instead of giving the number of groups to divide by, these types of word problems give the number IN each group.  The students then have to figure out the number of groups. 

Later in the week we will tackle Multiplication and Division Fact Families to see the relationship between the two.  For instance, if 4 X 6 = 24, then 6 x 4 = 24, then 24 / 4 = 6, and 24 / 6 = 4.  The key to writing these correctly is to remind the kids that when they are writing the multiplication equations, the smaller numbers go first.  When they are writing the division equation, the larger number is always written first.  Fact families is usually a concept that students catch on to rather quickly.

This will be our last fast facts of the nine weeks this week.  It will not be recorded into the grade book.  Start getting ready for multiplication fast facts next semester!!  We start with 0's, 1's, and 2's in January.

In Science we have been diving into our unit on Weathering and Erosion.  The kids learned the week before last that there are slow land changes to our Earth due to weathering and agents of weathering such as wind, running water, people, animals, sand, etc... Last week we studied a few Natural Disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and land slides that cause fast changes to the Earth's surface.   This week we will continue studying other Natural Disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes!  The kids are getting to see some excellent footage of these changes happening to the earth and are really quite interested in this unit.   A study guide will be coming home late in the week, meaning that an assessment is scheduled the week of December 16th before we get out for the holidays.

Love, 
Ms. Skrivanek

Update from Mrs. Ford

It's December!

This is a busy week, so I hope everyone had a very restful holiday.  Our family counted you and your family in our blessings over the Thanksgiving break!  We are so fortunate to be part of such an amazing school.

LANGUAGE ARTS
Spelling
The HCE Spelling Week is on Thursday, December 5.  Information went home in the Tuesday Newsday folders about 3 weeks ago to allow student the opportunity to practice and sign up for early morning workshops.  Students are required to participate in the classroom bee.  I will, as always, stress that this is a learning opportunity.  Not all of us are SUPPER spellers (do you see what I did there)-- but everyone will be allowed the opportunity to see what a spelling bee looks and feels like.
Since we will be focusing on the spelling bee, there will NOT be any individualized spelling lists this week.

Reading
We have been working on reading and producing plays.  Students have learned new vocabulary like: narrator, actor, characters, setting, stage directions and dialogue.  
We will continue to discuss drama or plays but will be focusing on poetry as well.  Please NOTE that your child will be bringing home a poetry worksheet to complete every night this week.  I encourage you to talk to your child about each of the poems.  We will add more vocabulary to our ever expanding repertoire.  
Be ready to discuss the following terms:

• rhythm -  the beat or cadence of poetry Example:  But soft! What light through your window breaks?
• stanza-part of a poem that is made up of lines that are put together in a particular pattern
• imagery- words used to create a picture in the reader's mind
• narrative poem- a poem that tells a story.  some narrative poems are myths.  narrative poems may rhyme, but do not have to.
• line- a row of words in a poem
• rhyme -   two or more words which match in the same last sound  Example: cat/bat  or  flew/grew
• repetition – using a key word several times through a poem  
• free verse – a flowing poem that does NOT have a particular pattern
• alliteration- words in a poem that are placed near each other and start with the same sound

Your child will need to complete the poem practice and 

read for 20 minutes each night this week. 

We will NOT have spelling homework, 

so the time dedicated to homework should balance out.

Writing
We are working hard to finish up our narratives.  
Students have also explored using figurative language to write landform poetry.  
After we consume more poetry, students will be given opportunity to write a variety of poems.
Students will also start working in small groups to research a cultural holiday.  They will work with their groups to take notes, and organize a presentation to teach the class about their learning the week before Winter Break.  Please let me and your student know if you will be leaving early that week.  We want to make sure that he or she gets the chance to contribute to the group project.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Map Skills
Last week we used our knowledge about landforms to jump into our work in map skills.  We looked over a variety of landform maps.  This week we will review map skill vocabulary on Monday.  On Tuesday and Wednesday we will learn how to read and use a grid map.  On Friday, students will start on their grid map project.  They will get to design a city of their very own and put some of our new found map skills to use!