MATH: In math this week, your child will begin studying multiplication. At the beginning of our unit, we will be learning to create multiplication sentence and drawing pictures of these sentences to get a visual of multiplying. Throughout the week, we will be learning to create equal groups, repeated addition, skip counting on a number line, and arrays. All of these methods will help our gain a foundation of multiplying.
Equal Groups
Skip Counting on a Number Line
"4 jumps of 2"
Repeated Addition
Arrays
For math homework this week, we are trying something new. The third grade teachers are all moving towards using Mangahigh for your child's nightly homework. On Monday, your child will get a list of assignments for the week. I have assigned these on the Mangahigh website. These assignments will all be due by Thursday. This will keep us on our same routine as before. Please let me know if you are having any issues with Mangahigh and we can discuss making other arrangements for your child. The three assignments for this week are: Subtract up to 1,000, Addition and Subtraction, and Add and Subtract Problems. Your child will also have a Problem of the Week coming home on Monday.
SCIENCE: *The Energy Test will be on Tuesday, December 1st*
During our science time, we will be learning about Light and Sound Energy. We will be discussing the sources and uses of each. During our discussion of light energy, we will discuss reflection and refraction. As we discuss sound energy, we will discuss what pitch, volume, and echo are. Your child will be receiving a energy study guide and vocabulary cards later this week in preparation for their Energy Test.
Reading- In Reading we are still working in the genre of Realistic
Fiction. Students are really starting to
take ownership of noticing and naming the superstructure of a narrative story
(setting the stage, initiating event, rising action, climax, falling action and
resolution).
As we continue to consume this
genre, we are noticing craft elements.
This week we will wrap up our work on dialogue and inner thinking. Yesterday, we shared our own inner thinking
and reflected on how this helps us know more about one another. Students then dove into their independent
reading to see how the inner thinking of our book characters can help us know
more about who they are, what they think and how they feel! As we move through the week, we will start to look for and discuss the imporatance of backstory in narrative.
Writing- We are spiraling back to review and practice conversations. You can help us at home! We are trying to talk without raising our
hands about our favorite part of a book.
Students are great at coaching each other about how to make the
discussion go better. We are just
working on taking our own words of wisdom and applying in the situation! J Students will work this week to identify
voices an author uses to tell a story.
We will take a close look at how to use a narrator and dialogue in our
own writing.
Word Work-Students will receive new spelling words for their word work this
week. Your support at home helps them
internalize the spelling and patterns of words they encounter in their reading
and writing. Thank you for talking about
how words work at home! We will have our
spelling test on Tuesday, November 17.
Social Studies-Students did an AMAZING job last week writing their first expository
essay about geography and landforms. It
was BIG work! This week, we will focus
on the celebration of Veteran’s day with our performance on Wednesday at 8:30
in the café. We will then move onto
discussing the importance of maps and globes through a fun imaginative scenario. What if you were lost at sea with no
technology?! Here is some academic
language that you can discuss and study at home to support your learner through
this unit: grid, map, globe, longitude, latitude, compass rose, cardinal
directions, hemisphere, Columbus, key, symbols, legend, equator, city,
continents, states, oceans, and geographer.
Thank you to all of our parent volunteers who came to Field Day and cheered on Duncan's Donuts and Ford's Fugitives. We had a blast!!
Congratulations to Warren Dooley and Parker Lewis from Mrs. Duncan's Homeroom and Blake Dardis and Austin Alpe from Mrs. Ford's Homeroom who won the Class Spelling Bee. We are so excited for these guys as they move onto the School Spelling Bee in December!!!
Reminder for the Week: on Wednesday, your child will be participating in the Veterans Day Program. The program begins at 8:30 in the cafeteria. The doors to the cafeteria will open at 8:00. You don't want to miss this awesome performance! MATH: Last week in math, we finished our unit on subtraction. We will continue reviewing subtraction in our daily warm ups. This week we will be talking about Bar Models. Your child is familiar with Bar Models from second grade. We have also been discussing bar models in our daily warm ups. Below are some images of what bar models are and what they represent. We use bar models to decode word problems. Most of our third graders will be moving onto multiplication this week. Their first fast facts quiz for multiplication will be on Friday. Please study multiplying by 0's,1's, and 10's. If your child is not moving onto multiplication, please continue to study addition and subtraction facts. Once your child masters addition and subtraction, they will move onto multiplication. A problem of the week will go home on Monday and your child will have a worksheet sent home on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Addition Bar Models
Subtraction Bar Models
SCIENCE: During our science time this week we will begin studying Thermal Energy and Light Energy. We will be discussing the uses of each and the sources.
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.
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!
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.
NEWS-- This week is Generation Texas Week. We will spend the week focusing on discussions about why and where we might want to continue our education after high school. From Mrs. Glass--
This week, in class,
students will be researching different colleges and learning what each school
has to offer and what makes the school special.
They will hear their teachers explain why they chose their college and we
will have activities all week relating to post-secondary education and careers. It’s never too early to think about the future!
Please
spend some time this week with your child talking about the importance of
college and their career goals. Take
some time to tell them about your experiences!
Thanks and
Gig’ em!
Allyson
Glass
READING AND WRITING
We will continue to combine our work in Reading and Writing Workshop this week. While students read independently this week, I will pull small groups of students to work on a variety of reading strategies and skills.
Last week, we shared some folktales together and discussed how many cultures have used these stories as a way to teach or explain things to people (folk). This week, we will dive into the genre of myths. Myths are stories that seek to explain, like folktales, but they focus on explaining the beginning of the world or human behavior. As students work with folktales this week, they will continue to track their thinking using symbols and sticky notes. These tracks in our text allow us to notice how an author is engaging his or her audience. We will eventually apply these findings to our own craft of writing.
WORD WORK/SPELLING
This Wednesday will be our kick-off of our Spelling, vocabulary and word work program, Words Their Way. Your child will be introduced to a new spelling sort on Wednesday, in class. Home-study is optional this year. We will send each child home with a HOME-STUDY MENU and a copy of his or her words for the next 10 days. Students will spend 10-15 minutes each day practicing their new pattern (sort) in class to prepare for their first spelling test on Wednesday, October 14. Due to copyright law, I am unable to post spelling words/lists to the blog or email them to you. If you would like to help your child practice at home, please let him other know to bring home a copy of their words for at home practice. I will do my best to encourage such choices in as we prepare our homework each day.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We will begin to wrap up our study on Community, Citizenship and Government. We will continue to talk in class about how the United States government is set up. There is a RED review sheet coming home this week to help students prepare for our first Social Studies test. Our first Social Studies test on Community and Government will be on Tuesday, October 13.
MATH Last week in math we wrapped up our unit on addition. We finished our week off with a review of expanded form and notation and comparing three or more digit numbers. This week, we will begin our study of rounding. On Monday, we will discuss what rounding is and how it can be used in our daily lives. On Tuesday, we will round two digit numbers to the nearest 10. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will round three digit number to the nearest 10 and 100. To end our week, we will have a problem solving day of using addition with estimation. The homework for the week will include: review worksheets on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night, Problem of the Week due on Friday, and study math facts. This week, the math facts won't be taken as a grade.
SCIENCE Last week in science, we completed reflections over our properties of matter lab. We began studying how to classify matter. This week, we will continue learning about the states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. We will complete multiple demonstrations that will help our understanding. On Wednesday you can expect a Matter Study Guide to be come home. During our class time, we will work on vocabulary cards that can be used as another tool to study for the science test. The science test will be given on Friday, October 16th. Please study a few minutes every night. Below are links to a few States of Matter games that we have played in class: Solids, Liquids, and Gases
