Save the Date

    We are organizing a family event for third graders and their parents on the night of Wednesday, January 16th from 6 pm-7 pm. We will send home more information about this soon, but for now please save this date.

Thank you to Ines Bartula (Ivona's sister) for being our mystery reader last week!

The Holiday Season

With the holiday season upon us, I anticipate the next few weeks are going to fly by. Our final conference day is this Thursday. Thank you to those of you I have already had the pleasure of speaking with. It is a wonderful feeling to know that we are partners in your child's education. As always, if you have any questions or concerns as the school year progresses please call or email.

This week in school...

     In reader's workshop we will continue our work on non-fiction. The class has been working on activating prior knowledge before reading. We have also begun learning how important understanding text structure is to enhancing our comprehension. 

     In writer's workshop we will continue our work on realistic fiction. I am amazed at the creative story blurbs our class has written. The students have had lots of fun with this assignment so far. This week we will begin to develop one special story blurb which will become our second major writing project this year. 

    In math we will be taking a test on Tuesday. This test will include arrays, relating multiplication to addition and writing multiplication stories. Although there is very little for you to "study" in order to prepare for this test, please emphasize to your son/daughter the importance of reading questions carefully, and checking work before completion. This week we will also begin to learn more facts and strategies for solving multiplication problems.

   In social studies we will continue our study of ancient Egypt. We will begin a new unit in science. We will be learning about the night sky. Our study will include the constellations, the moon, and the sunrise and set during different seasons. This unit of study is in preparation for StarLab, a portable planetarium that we will use in January. 

   We are also working on cursive and we have been working on learning new vocabulary words. Have a wonderful week!

Thank you Mr. Doherty for being our mystery reader last week! 

Happy Thanksgiving

As we enter our last week of school in the month of November it amazes me how much we have already accomplished!
     This week we will begin a reading unit on non-fiction. To begin this unit we will learn about the structure of a non-fiction text and how that structure can help us build meaning even before we begin to read. We will also spend time learning about the main idea and how to identify the main idea of a non-fiction text.
     In writing, we will continue our work on realistic fiction. The students have some interesting story ideas and we will begin to draft our first realistic fiction piece. We will revisit how to choose a story topic and how to organize our work before we draft.
     Math this week will be multiplication, multiplication and multiplication! Thanks so much for your help with the array cards. We have already begun using them to fill in a multiplication chart. The students have been amazed at the patterns they see and how many facts they already know.
    In social studies we will continue our study of ancient Egypt. We have had some interesting discussions about the Nile River and why a group of people would want to settle on the banks of the river.

Some pre-Thanksgiving Day fun!

Thank you to Mr. Miller for being our Mystery Reader last week! 

   

Short Week

Even though students only have two and a half days of school this week, we will be very busy. We will be using the array cards (thanks for your help on these) to work on learning multiplication meanings and begin learning our facts. One way you can help is by concentrating on the 0, 1, 2, 5, and 10 facts. Talk with your child about patterns in numbers, practice skip counting, and make groups. For example, five groups of three cranberries is a total of fifteen cranberries; anything to get them thinking about the relationship between repeated addition and multiplication. We will continue our work with realistic fiction writing. We will also continue to learn about ancient Egypt. In addition to all of our academic work we will also meet with our buddies on Monday, have a Mystery Reader on Tuesday and attend a Veteran's Day assembly on Wednesday. I wish you the most wonderful holiday and hope you enjoy this time with your families. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you Mrs. Jada (Natalie's Grandmother) for being our Mystery Reader this week!

A big thank you to Master Sergeant Sena (Daniel J's grandfather) for coming to speak with us on Friday. The students were thrilled to learn about his time in the Navy and Air Force, as well as his most recent journey on the USS Enterprise. This aircraft carrier is the world's first nuclear-powered vessel and was recently retired. We learned so much about the workings of the ship and what it means to serve our country! Thank you! 

Report Cards

    I am knee-deep in report cards, so I will be brief. Hopefully you were able to enjoy the beautiful weather with your family this weekend. Conference reminders went home stapled to steno pads a few weeks ago. If you have any questions about when your conference is please email me. The report card will be uploaded to BC@Home the day before your child's conference day.
   This week is shaping up to be very busy. Please continue to practice facts at home, if your son/daughter is still taking timed tests.

Thank you Mrs. Kowalsky for being our Mystery Reader this week! 

Now what we have all been waiting for...

    The moment has finally arrived! We are starting cursive this week. The students are very excited! We will begin by learning all of the lowercase letters and then the capitals. It will take quite a few weeks before we are ready to write in cursive on daily assignments. 

    In reading this week we will begin a new unit about series books. Our book groups are almost finished with their first book and character trait assignments. Then the groups will move to a series book. We have had some wonderful discussions in the small groups about the characters in our books.

    This week in math we will complete our unit on addition and subtraction with regrouping. The students will begin exploring multiplication concepts this week as well. Please continue to practice addition and subtraction facts at home throughout the week. Congratulations to the six students who have completed all of their timed tests! Please be sure to sign and return the last chapter test by Friday. I will need to keep these for my records. 

    We have completed our unit on Plants Growth and Development. This week we will be switching gears and taking a look at Ancient Egypt. We will begin our work by looking at Egypt on a map and analyzing the benefits to living near a major water source. 

    In writing we will dive into writing realistic fiction. This week we will explore how writers get their ideas. We will write "story blurbs" to help us get our ideas down on paper. 

    I was quite impressed with the quality of the Friday Letters this week. I hope that you have noticed an improvement in your son/daughter's writing. Most students are using paragraphing to organize their ideas at this point. This structure has definitely improved the content of their writing as well. 

   Don't forget Tuesday is a half day this week. Have a wonderful week!

Buddies!

Thank you Mrs. Russom for being our Mystery Reader this week!

Happy Halloween!

Frankenlearners

      We are in the midst of a storm of learning (sorry I just can't help myself). The students are perfecting their paragraphs, dictionary skills, adding with regrouping, character trait identification, personal narrative writing and scientific observations. It amazes me how fast each day goes by and how much we are able to explore together. 

       All jokes aside, with the impending weather please take a moment to review your son/daughter's plan for an early dismissal. My meeting originally scheduled for tomorrow has been canceled, so I will be in the classroom. 

      In math this week we will work on subtraction with regrouping. Overall the class did a wonderful job on addition with regrouping. The most important suggestion I can make for helping at home is to practice those facts. We have been taking the timed addition/subtraction tests for a month now. 

      In reading workshop we will complete our character trait study of Charlotte's Web. The students have grown as readers. We had a lengthy discussion last week about the change we saw in Wilbur throughout the course of the book. I was very impressed with the depth of their understanding. 

      Our personal narratives are very close to completion. We will then begin a new unit on writing realistic fiction. If you are looking for a new book to read at home you may want to try this genre. Andrew Clements writes some great realistic fiction books! 

      We will continue to work on paragraph writing, dictionary skills and complete our Pollination unit in science. 

Pollinating our Plants

Ms. Hyland was our Mystery Reader. It was spooktacular!

Boo!

Working Hard!

     

Stay safe this week and Happy Halloween!

Busy, busy, busy

The days are flying by and we are very busy in third grade!

 Last week we enjoyed a visit from the Elsmere Fire Department.

We met with our First Grade Buddies.

We enjoyed a visit from our Mystery Reader, Mrs. Hotaling.

We also began creating a pumpkin that will be donated to a senior citizen community. Can you guess what it will become?

      This upcoming week will be just as jam-packed! In reading, we will expand our work with character traits. The class will be inferring traits, using the dialog and action of the characters. In addition we will be discussing how making connections to a text can enhance our comprehension. We will revise our personal narratives in writing this week. We will focus on finding the heart of our story and adding key details to make our work more interesting. math this week will be all about adding larger numbers with regrouping. Please continue to practice facts at home! If nature cooperates, we will be pollinating this week in science. The students have done a nice job with their observations. Our work with paragraphing will continue this week. The students have made great progress and they are excited to write this week's Friday Letter using paragraphs! We will also begin a new unit of study on the dictionary. This week we will focus on how the dictionary is organized.

     Have a great week!

What a week!

We had a wonderful week! The students worked hard and we were able to accomplish a lot in just four days. I am very proud of the effort each student showed throughout the week.

Next week...

   In reading, we will continue our work with Charlotte's Web. The students have made some exceptionally advanced observations of our main characters. Not only are they able to identify an accurate character trait, the students are also able to back-up their thinking with proof from the text. This week we will also begin book groups. The students will be working on character traits in their groups. 

   This week we began working with an excellent online resource for reading, called Raz-Kids. It  is a website that offers fiction and non-fiction reading materials with comprehension quizzes to accompany each book. The students can read and take quizzes to earn points, which they can use to build a rocket. Our class has enjoyed their work with this website and I am finding it to be very motivating. I have put a link to the website on the sidebar. My teacher username is lmooneyb. If your child would like to use the reading they do on Raz-Kids for their 20 mins each night that is fine with me. Have them record the title of the books they read on their reading log. 

   In writing, we will continue to work on our personal narratives. The students will begin the week by drafting their first piece. Our focus is to use their storytelling skills to write their narratives, not simply retell their memories. We will also continue our work with paragraphing this week. 

   In math, we will finish our unit on rounding and estimation. The students will take a chapter test on Thursday. One suggestion for conversation at home:  talk about whether numbers/answers are reasonable. We will be talking about this a lot this week. Do our answers make sense? Are they reasonable? Also, keep practicing those math facts. We will begin addition with regrouping on Friday.

   We have begun discussing the election in class. Our focus will be on the two main candidates. So far we have read an article about each convention and identified each presidential candidate and his running mate. Any conversation you have at home regarding the election would greatly enhance our classroom discussion! 

   What incredible young scientists we have in class! The students are busy observing their plants and measuring their growth. Friday we learned about the different types of leaves we will see develop on the plants as they grow. Ask your child which type of leaves their plants have! Next week we will spend a great deal of time discussing photosynthesis and the role bees play in the life cycle of plants.

   Enjoy this beautiful fall weekend with your family!

   

Hello October

    I hope you have enjoyed a restful weekend. This is our sixth week of school and I am looking forward to some exciting and challenging work.
    We will continue our character study using Charlotte's Web. We have had some very interesting conversations surrounding this book. Ask you child what we do to "prove" a character trait. When your child is reading his/her book at home this week ask about their main character.
    In writing, we will continue our personal narrative unit. The students have selected their final writing topic. We will be developing these ideas together using a timeline to organize our stories before we draft. We will also begin a unit about paragraphing. This is an essential skill for all of our work in third grade and beyond. Please be on the lookout for some practice paragraphs coming home soon.
   In math this week we will continue our work with rounding numbers. We will be estimating sums and differences. If you are helping your child at home with their homework, we are using the following rhyme to help us remember the steps for rounding:

Find the place

Go next door

5 or higher "Add 1 more"

4 or less "STAYS THE SAME"

  Science will be very exciting this week. Our seeds have sprouted (ask your child the vocabulary word for this step in the life cycle of a plant) and we will be observing our plants, measuring their growth and thinning our plants. 

   We have completed our study of comparative and superlative adjectives and the quiz went home on Friday. This week we will be working on synonyms and antonyms. 

Last week...

   We welcomed Mrs. Mazula in as our Mystery Reader. 

  We enjoyed a presentation by Mr. Baker from the Regional Food Bank.

   We watched our seeds germinate.