Goodbye September

    It always amazes me how fast September goes by. As I look back over the first month of school I am proud of how much the class has accomplished. We are in our daily routine and working hard. As we enter the second month of school, we will continue to work on active listening, following directions and being respectful of each other. Any assistance you can offer in emphasizing these skills at home would be greatly appreciated.

The week ahead...

     Our next unit of study in math is addition and subtraction. We will study their meaning and properties. Then we will begin working on adding and subtracting with regrouping. Our addition timed tests will begin this Friday. A letter went home last week explaining how this will work. I have added a number of links to the blog that will help your child practice their facts. You will see our first chapter test come home on Tuesday of this week. Please sign this so I know you have seen it and return it to school. Thanks!

   Our study of personal narrative continues in writing. We have been collecting different types of memories and we will explore a variety of techniques that will enhance our writing. The students have done a wonderful job with the assignments I have given them so far. 

   We will be working on a character study unit in reading this week. I will be reading Charlotte's Web to the class and we will be analyzing the character's actions, thoughts and intentions together. The student will also be reading their independent books, noting their reader's voice and writing reading responses. 

   Pollination is our new science unit. We will be observing plants as they go through their life cycle. This hands-on unit provides students with an opportunity to plant their own seed, observe and record the growth of their plant and even pollinate using real bees! 

    We will continue to learn about comparative and superlative adjectives. We discussed the most basic form of these adjectives last week. Our work will continue with a look at some more complicated forms of these special adjectives. Ask you child what a suffix is! 

A few thank yous,

   Last week the class spent an afternoon in the school garden, where we had an opportunity to learn about the different types of vegetables and herbs grown right in our own courtyard. The students were also able to plant garlic and harvest some tomatoes and beans. A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Jada and Mrs. Duvall for their help with this event.

   Also, we enjoyed our second Mystery Reader of the year. Mr. Jada came in on Friday and read, Blackbeard and the Birthday Suit, by Matthew McElligott. The students enjoyed the book and they were very interested in Mr. Jada's love of rollercoasters.

Thank you, Mr. Jada!

Introducing...

Our First Mystery Reader

     The students were very excited on Friday to meet our first Mystery Reader of the year. A big thank you to Mrs. Mallory-Kani for entertaining the class by reading The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, by Jon Sciezska. The class loved the book and enjoyed trying to guess our Mystery Reader's identity throughout the day.

Reading Calendar, Spelling and Current Events

     Our first reading calendar of the year is due tomorrow. Your son/daughter will need to have this calendar filled in with the title, author and minutes they read each night. Your child can skip two nights each week. On these days they should simply write "skip".  If you would please initial each night your son/daughter has read it would be helpful for me, thanks!

    Tomorrow your son/daughter will bring home their first spelling list of the year and their first homework assignment in spelling. We will begin this assignment together in class on Monday. They will need to complete this for homework on Monday night. 

    Our current event calendar for October was sent home last week. On this you will see which day your child has their current event presentation in class. We have spent a lot of time discussing this assignment in class, and we completed a current event together. If you have any questions about this assignment please contact me.

This Week in Third Grade

    We will continue our work with nouns by looking at the rules for turning singular nouns plural. The students will have a quiz on this on Thursday. 

   In reading, we will be writing about our "Reader's Voice" and exploring character traits in our independent chapter books. We will also be discussing our thoughts about our books with a partner.

   As writer's we will begin our "Personal Narrative" unit of study. This week will be spent gathering memories of special moments in each student's life. 

   We will conclude our unit on Place Value in Math this week. The students will take a chapter test on Place Value at the end of the week. I found a great website that will help your child review the concepts that have been taught in math the last few weeks. Here is the link:  http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3  (I will also put this on the sidebar under the title Math Review.)

  Enjoy your week and feel free to contact me with any questions!

Thank you Mrs. Mallory-Kani!

   

Week of September 17-21

   Hopefully you enjoyed a relaxing weekend! We will be very busy this week. This week in Math we will continue our work with Place Value, as well as explore number lines. In Social Studies, we are going to review how to use a compass, and we will look at some different types of maps. Writing this week will focus on how writers get ideas. We will also continue our discussion on the thinking we have while we read our books. We have been calling this our "Reader's Voice". While your son/daughter is reading at home you may want to ask them about their "Reader's Voice". This is the voice in our head that notices when we read something funny, interesting, sad, confusing or when we make a connection or prediction about the text.
   Please don't forget to send in the Friday Letter notebook tomorrow. Also be sure to look below to find the remaining open dates for Mystery Reader. I hope you have a wonderful week.

Thank You!

  Thank you all for coming to Open House! As I mentioned on Thursday night, if you have any questions regarding the information presented or passed out please feel free to contact me. I have a few dates remaining for Mystery Reader. If you or a family member is interested in coming please send me an email. The dates are: November 16, May 10, and May 17th. I would be happy to open up other days if I receive more volunteers.
   Thank you again for your support! 

Friday Letter and a Look Ahead

Hello All!
  I hope you are enjoying a relaxing weekend at home. Yesterday your child came home with a notebook labeled "Friday Letter". Inside you will find instructions regarding this notebook and your son/daughter's first letter to you. This notebook will serve many purposes. One of the most important purposes is to help facilitate home conversations about what your child has done at school over the course of the week. I am requesting that you write a letter back to your child. This letter should go on the bottom, or the back of your child's letter. At the end of the year, your child will have a notebook full of letters about their third grade experience. Thank you in advance for your effort on these letters each week!
  Next week we will be painting our globes and we will be looking at various types of maps. This will also include a look at some geography terms. In math, we will be reviewing place value and expanding our work to include much larger numbers. Please start reviewing addition and subtraction facts. We will begin timed tests very soon.
    Open House is on Thursday at 6:00 pm. I look forward to seeing you!

First Day of School!

We had a very successful first day of school. I enjoyed hearing about all the fantastic adventures your families had over the Summer. If you haven't had a chance to send in a Summer Fun photo please send one in as soon as possible. We will be doing a writing activity with our photographs. Tonight your son/daughter should have asked you to sign his/her steno pad. I have also sent home a letter explaining the steno pad (it is on blue paper). Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding the steno pad. I will also be talking about this at Open House next Thursday night at 6 p.m.