Math and Science Week of February 23rd

Parents,

Wow!  What a busy week last week all crammed into four days!  This week we will also have another field trip.  Our WITS program that has been teaching our kids to write will be taking us to the Menil museum.  It will be a neat experience for the kids for sure.

In Math this week we will still be working on fractions.  Monday and Tuesday we will work on making equal fractions, Wednesday and Thursday we will use our knowledge of fractions to compare them.  The students will have pictorial models in order to make a decision of greater than, less than, or equal to.  On Friday, we will have an all encompassing test on fractions.  The pictures below will explain how students make equal fractions and compare fractions in 3rd grade.

      

There will be a Problem of the Week due on Friday as well as a fast facts test grade that will go in the grade book.

In Science we are learning about Natural Resources (renewable and nonrenewable).  This week we will take common things like a cheese sandwich and/or a teddy bear and break down what the objects are made of and whether the materials are renewable or non-renewable.  We also will discuss how this applies to conservation and the Three R's, Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle.  We will discuss ways to conserve and discuss how we can take care of our earth.

Important things to remember about this week:
Tuesday-Book Fair Dinner
Wednesday-Donuts in the morning sponsored by the Dad's Club
Thursday-WITS field trip
Friday-Go Texan Day

Love,
 Ms. S

Math and Science Week of Feb 16th

Parents,

I hope your Valentine's was spent with loved ones and that your three day weekend was fabulous.  Here were are in mid-February and we are truly gearing up for STAAR Math now.  The kids took the practice STAAR math test last Tuesday and that has given me some great data to work with and help your child individually.

In Math this week we are still working on fractions.  There are three golden rules that we learned last week about fractions.
1. Fractions are ALWAYS equal parts.
2. The denominator is ALWAYS the total number of parts.
3. The bigger the denominator, the smaller the piece.

These might seem super simple, but they are very important rules in 3rd grade we have to remember.  This week we will dive into discovering adding fractions with like denominators like the picture below.

The second thing we will discover this week will be equivalent fractions.  1/2=3/6=4/8 and etc...

We will use a fun game called Taco Fraction this week and next to learn how to make equivalent fractions. 

Please continue to study fast facts with your child.  The kids are making wonderful progress this year.  It is fun to see.   The majority of the kids get hung up on the doubles test for a while.  So PLEASE hit the studying hard!  This week will not be recorded in the grade book.

In Science we just ended our unit on Slow and fast land changes.  We are moving on to Natural Resonances, what is renewable and what is non-renewable.  I like this unit because we discuss the importance of recycling and taking care of our earth.

Thing to remember this week:

Monday-President's Day-no school

Wed-Field Trip to the Science Museum 8:45-12:45

Friday-3rd grade planning day, all teachers will be absent

Love,

Ms. S

Math and Science Week of February 9th

Parents,

Progress reports went home today (Friday the 6th) and will need to be signed over the weekend and returned on Monday.  If your child was absent or left early on Friday, they will receive their progress report on Monday.

Happy Valentine's Week!!  In Math on Monday we will review specific skills that we have learned this year such as place value, comparing numbers, ordering numbers, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, graphing, time, elapsed time, temperature, and patterns on a number line.  The kids will work in partners to solve some STAAR like Math questions together.  On Tuesday will be the Math practice STAAR test and on Wednesday will be the practice Reading.  We will treat these days like a test day.  The students may only read or rest when they finish their test.  On Thursday we will begin our unit on Fractions.  Thursday will be unit fractions only (1/2,1/3, 1/4, etc) and on Friday we will identify non-unit fractions of a regional model (2/3, 5/7, 3/8,etc). Picture explanation below of what a regional model is:

There will be no written homework in Math for the week.  Students are asked to study their fast facts for their fast fact test this Friday that will be entered in the grade book.  They are also told to study their flashcards and study guide on slow and fast land changes.  The flashcards and study guide are tan in color and were sent home on Thursday (2/5) via the red HW folder.  There will be a Science test this Friday (2/13).  

In Science we are wrapping up fast land changes.  We have so far looked into earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes.  This week will will discuss landslides and have a day where we play a game to help us get ready for the Science test on Friday the 13th.  

For the Valentine's party this Friday, I have asked the kids to TRY and come up with something other than candy for their friends.  It is not prohibited to pack candy with a Valentine card, but we are encouraging Valentine pencils, stickers, erasers, tattoos, etc...instead.  I have also told the kids to not buy me candy or chocolate even though I have a sweet tooth. One year I got over 20 boxes of chocolate on Valentine's Day between the two classes I teach!  It was a dream and a nightmare all at the same time :)

Things to remember:
Tuesday-STAAR Math 8:30-12:30, lunch @ 12:45, specials @ 1:15
Wednesday- STAAR Reading 8:30-12:30, lunch @ 12:45, specials @ 1:15
Friday-Valentine's Party @ 2:15

Math and Science the Week of February 2nd

Here we are in February already.  Time is soaring on by.  We have a full week of learning planned!

In Math you might have noticed that we sent home homework last week about telling time to the minute.  This week we will take that knowledge a little further and learn how to determine Elapsed time.  The strategy that we will learn and teach the kids can be seen in the YouTube video below.

Towards the latter end of the week we will work with the kids on Patterns in a list and Patterns on a number line.  In each of the types of patterns, students will subtract "neighbors" to find the rule of each patterns.  A pattern can repeatedly increase, repeatedly decrease, or grow exponentially.  Patterns in a list are shown below:

Patterns on a number line are shown below:

There will be a Problem of the Week due this Friday as well as a Fast Facts test.  This week's fast facts test will not be entered into the grade book.  

In Science last week we finished up learning about the slow land changes of weathering and erosion.  We briefly moved on to fast land changes and discussed earthquakes.  We discussed as a class how the earth's crust in which we live on floats on top of liquid mantle.  All students were shown videos of how our earth's crust is like a jigsaw puzzle and made up of tectonic plates.  We talked about how these tectonic plates build up pressure among fault lines and cause earthquakes.  The kids were really intrigued by this.  This week we will go on to volcanoes and discuss the relationship between the tectonic plates and volcanic action.  We will also dive into landslides and learn why they too are also considered fast land changes.  

Important dates to keep in mind this week:

All week is Counselor Appreciation Week!  We Love Mrs. Glass!

Monday 2/2- The 100th day of  school

Tuesday 2/3-A STAARY STAARY NIGHT 5:30-6:30; 3rd grade teachers will discuss the STAAR test in detail with parents in the library.

Wednesday2/5-Spring pictures today, Scholastic order due for February order in Skrivanek's HR.

Friday 2/6- Progress reports go home.

Love,

Ms. S

LA and SS 1/26-1/30

Reading

We send home another STAAR-like homework on Monday night this week.  Students will have until Friday to read the passage, jot down notes and answer questions.  We will check the answers and share strategies in our class discussion on Friday.  

In class we will be inferring with non-fiction text features.  We will review what we know about captions, photographs, titles and subtitles and then work to infer the author's purpose for including them in the article.  

Writing

We wrote our first kernel expository essays last week.  Our topic last week was something we can just not do without.  Your children really got into the work and their kernels are priceless!  Topics ranged from video games to books, hair gel to chocolate and water to puppies.  Our LOVES were all over the map.  This week we will continue to flush out other ideas and write another kernel essay.  After we compile a bank of possibilities your children will pick which topic they wish to take through the writing process.  

One of the biggest moments of success and fun was while I was listening to kids share their kernel essays.  Our WITS author, Mrs. Bolton, has been teaching mini-lessons on figurative language.  She's covered similes, metaphors and personification so far.  One of our students last week used a simile in his conclusion to drive home the reason he just couldn't live without books!  The quick writes they do with Mrs. Bolton each week are fun and imaginative.  It was so fun to watch them apply it to our new genre of writing last week!!

Spelling

Spelling continues this week.  New words will come home on Wednesday, January 28. Spelling homework is due 2/3/15.  Spelling tests will be given on 2/4/15. Many children struggled last week to get back in the rhythm of spelling.  Please check in with your child to make sure he or she is on track to complete spelling homework on time.

Social Studies

During Story of America we will create trading cards to help us solidify our learning about the explorers below:

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)-An Italian explorer working for Spain who sailed to the Americas while trying to reach Asia from Europe.

William Clark and Meriwether Lewis – American explorers who, in 1803, led The Corps of Discovery in exploring the land west of the Mississippi River. They journeyed overland across North America to the Pacific Coast and back.

Daniel Boone (1734-1820)-An American pioneer leader who helped settle the state of Kentucky and created the Wilderness Road, a trail in the Appalachian Mountains that early settlers used to move west.

Juan de Oñate (ca. 1550-1626) A Spanish explorer who founded the first European settlements in the upper Rio Grande Valley, including the city of El Paso. 

A study guide will come home Monday, 1/26.  Our test will be on 2/3/15.

4th graders will take a practice STAAR test on Thursday.  We will have an alternate schedule.  Lunch will be at 12:45 and specials at 1:15 on Thursday of this week.

Math and Science Week of January 26th

Parents,

We have finished our NRT testing and will return to our normal schedule this week.  There will be Math HW Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night.  There will be a Problem of the Week due on Friday as well as a Fast Facts Test this Friday.  This Friday's fast fact grade will be inputted into the grade book.

In Math we will continue working on Perimeter.  This week students will be given the Perimeter in some instances and be asked to solve for one of the sides of the object.  We will give them the double step strategy of adding first, then subtracting from the total.  Students will also use their knowledge of congruence to solve for the missing side as well, as in the picture below.

      

The irregular shaped object on the right has two sides that the students must solve for before they can add all the sides to find Perimeter.  They must study the object carefully and use subtraction to figure out the missing sides.  The triangle on the left gives the you Perimeter and the students must first use addition then subtraction, to solve for the length of the missing side.

In Science we have been studying weathering and erosion and how they cause slow changes to the earth's surface.  This week we will discover the opposite, fast land changes such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and landslides!  

Schedule changes for the week just include Thursday, when the kids will eat lunch at 12:45 instead of 12:30 due to 4th grade practice STAAR testing.  

Love,

Ms. S

  

Math and Science Week of January 19th

Parents,

This week in Math we will be moving on to the Customary Measurement system we use in the United States.  We will begin working in measurement as we use rulers to find the length of objects.  We will focus on inches, feet, yards, and miles.  Students will practice predicting the length of objects around the room, measuring with rulers, and then calculate the difference between the predicted and the actual length.  

We will also work on the concept of Perimeter.  We will talk about the border around our bulletin boards or the fence around the school to introduce the concept of a perimeter.  To find the perimeter, students will measure all sides of an object or shape and then find the sum of these sides.  To challenge your child on perimeter,  give them the total perimeter of an object or shape and encourage them to find all the possible lengths that could equal the given perimeter.  

There will be no HW this week and no Problem of the Week due to testing.  We will have a fast fact test this Friday so continue to study the facts nightly. 

We will be using our Science time this week to continue to learn the typing curriculum in third grade.  After this week, we will place the typewriters in Math stations and the kids will get their typing experience during that time a couple times a week.  NRT testing will be this Wednesday and this Thursday.  Please make sure that your child is present if at all possible so they don't have to be taken out of instructional time to make up the test.   

It's going to a short and sweet four day week!

Love, Ms. S