Happy Halloween

As we close out the month of October I am pleased and impressed with the depth of our learning so far this school year. This week will round out our parent conferences. Thank you all for taking the time out of your schedule to come in and meet with me. As always, feel free to call or email me as the year progresses.

Reading
    The students will be analyzing a chapter of Charlotte's Web independently and we will be discussing the changes we have seen in Wilbur. We will also be meeting in our small reading groups this week. Our focus will be on character traits and textual evidence.

Writing
    The students will choose a small moment that they are interested in taking through the writing process. We will work on creating an interesting lead and staying in our storyteller voice.

Math
   We have begun working on multiplication. Our focus this week will be on the rules for multiplication and the underlying concepts. We will be working on repeated addition, making arrays, the properties of multiplication and writing multiplication stories. Look for a review packet of these concepts to come home mid-week. This packet is meant for you to support your child's learning at home.

Social Studies
    The students have been working on a landform dictionary in class. We are using the computers to define a variety of landform terms. This week we will complete this work and begin a closer look at the geography of the United States. Our focus will be on the major landforms of the US and how the landforms impact population.

Have a wonderful week and Happy Halloween!

Fire Department, Globes, and Pollination...Oh My!

It is amazing how much we were able to accomplish last week in school. The following photos are just the amazing things we did on Friday! 

We enjoyed a visit from the Elsmere Fire Department.

We had lots of fun making globes.

We pollinated our Wisconsin Fast Plants using real bees!

This week will be just as busy! 

Reading

   We will continue our work with Charlotte's Web. The students are making some wonderful observations and most importantly they are providing textual evidence to support their thinking. We will also begin our guided reading book groups this week. 

Writing

   The students have been working on writing personal narratives using a storytelling voice. We will learn how to punctuate dialog this week. We will also try to edit our work as we write. I hope that you are enjoying our Friday Letters!

Math

   We will finish our addition and subtraction unit this week. The students will take a chapter test on Thursday. On Friday we will begin working on MULTIPLICATION!!!!

Social Studies

   We will paint our globes on Tuesday. Then we will work on creating a landform dictionary. We will be using the computers to research various landforms.

Science

   We are on the final few lessons for our Pollination unit. We will learn about the parts of a flower and we will make our final observations. We will also harvest our seed pods. 

Word Work

    This week we will learn about three more rules for changing a singular noun to a plural noun. 

Week of October 14th

    I hope you were able to enjoy time with your family this weekend. We spent the weekend in Rochester with my parents. Don't forget our first parent conference day is this Thursday. We will be dismissing the students at 11:45.

This week in...

Reading Workshop...

we will continue our character study. We are learning how we can formulate opinions about the characters we read, however, we must back our opinions with textual evidence. We have been reading from Charlotte's Web by E.B. White as a class. As we've been reading, we've been realizing how much depth each character has and we have been surprised to find that Wilbur really isn't as likeable as we originally thought.

Writing Workshop...

we will learn how to edit our writing as we're writing and how this is an important skill when we write in all disciplines. We will also choose a seed idea. This seed idea will be a small moment that we will work on and take it through the writing process.

Math...

we will look at subtracting greater numbers with regrouping and subtracting across zeroes. We will also learn a new problem solving strategy: drawing a picture. Even though we are finished with our fact quizzes, it is important to continue to practice facts. W

Science...

we will look at the parts of a flower and closely observe how our flowers on our plants change as it continues through its life cycle. This week we may even be able to learn about pollination and get the chance to pollinate our flowers!

Social Studies...

we hope to discuss continental drift and begin looking at the different landforms that cover our globe.

Dictionary Skills...

we have been learning how to navigate through a dictionary using guide words. We will begin looking words up to learn their part of speech.

I look forward to our upcoming conferences over the next three weeks. We have a lot to cover in our 20 minutes together! Thank you for your continued support.

Fabulous Fall!

    We are officially working at a third grade pace! We have been very busy and having a lot of fun. This week is packed full of learning and exciting adventures. We will have two special guest speakers and a Mystery Reader. Also, Monday is picture day!!

Science
     Our pollination is in full swing. We have been making observations and learning about the life cycle of a plant. On Friday we learned about photosynthesis and the difference between seed leaves and true leaves. This week we will observe flowers and learn about why bees are so important.

Reading
     We will begin our character study this week. During this unit we will explore character development and traits. We will learn how to use textual evidence to support our thinking. We will be reading Charlotte's Web together throughout this unit. This unit is full of new vocabulary!

Writing
     We will continue our narrative unit by exploring small moments. Our focus this week will be on storytelling. We will analyze different written pieces and decide which are storytelling and which are reporting. Then we will attempt to write a small moment using storytelling.

Math
     Our last fact quiz is this Friday! We will work on adding greater numbers and adding more three or more numbers. We will also work on problem solving by drawing a picture.

Social Studies
    We will begin a fun project on Friday. Please have students wear clothes that are suitable to get a bit messy (washable, but messy).

Word Work
    We are learning how to use the dictionary. This week we will review how to put words in alphabetical order and use guide words to help locate information in the dictionary.

   I  am looking forward to sitting down with you and sharing all of the wonderful work your child has been doing in third grade. Parent conferences begin next week! See you soon!