Last Week in February

    I hope you enjoyed the week off and the warmer temperatures over the last few days. If you have not sent in Valentines yet, please send them in tomorrow. We will try to have our party Monday afternoon. The students will be bringing home their spelling words tomorrow and our most recent math test. This test is the combination of our two division units. I am asking for the students to correct these and have them signed by Friday. We will not have a fact quiz tomorrow. If your son/daughter is still working on mastering the multiplication fact quizzes they will resume this Friday. 

Reader's Workshop
    The students have worked on taking notes using a short biography. This week we will begin reading chapter biographies about a person your son/daughter has been assigned. This is the beginning of a large project we will be completing in school. The student will research, take notes, organize notes, outline and write an essay. We will also host a wax museum in March. There will be more to come on this soon.

Writer's Workshop
    The students are finishing up their informational texts. We are also working on answering short response questions using textual evidence. 

Math
     We are learning more about fractions this week. We will work on fractions and regions, sets, and on the number line. We will also continue to work on perimeter.

Science
     This week we will begin working on a major research project centered around the Solar System. The students will be using a variety of websites and print material to research the planets. When their research is complete the students will be creating a Glog. 

Word Work
    We will learn about root words, prefixes, and suffixes. We will be discussing word origins and the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes. 

Happy Valentine's Day

This week will be very busy as we mix learning with Valentine's Day fun! Please feel free to send in valentines at any time this week. We will have a small class party on Friday afternoon. Tuesday is a half day due to parent conferences. We will meet with our buddies on Wednesday afternoon for a Valentine's Day craft.

Reader's Workshop
    We will head into our second week of biographies. The students are reading a short biography with a partner and using post-its to make note of important facts and events about their person. We will use an organizer to sort our notes and create a timeline. At the end of the week the students will begin reading a full length biography about a person they will be studying for the remainder of this unit.

Writer's Workshop
     We will work on completing the first draft of the informational writing project. We will revise and edit our first few chapters and begin writing a final copy. We are working on using creative and interesting ways to organize our chapters.

Math
    We are beginning our fraction unit this week. We will learn what a fraction is and play with fraction pieces to discover the meaning of numerator, denominator and equivalent fraction. We will also work on dividing regions into equal parts.
    We will also continue to learn about perimeter. We will learn about which tools could help us find a perimeter and how to find the perimeter of common shapes. I was very impressed with the students' work with perimeter last week.

Science
     The students have enjoyed the beginning of our Solar System unit. This week we will continue our fun by reading about the planets' movement and the sun. When we return from the break we will begin a major research project on the Solar System.

A few important notes:

-We will not have a Friday Letter this Friday.
-We will not bring home a spelling list this Friday. The new list will come home on Monday 2/24.

The First Week of February

Reader's Workshop- We have completed our Mystery Unit. The students are just putting the finishing touches on their final projects for their mystery book groups. This week we will begin a unit on Biography. We will work on taking notes this week. Each day we will read a short biography together and decide the most important details of our person's life. We will end the week by creating timelines.

Math-We have completed our work with division and time. This week we will take a test on division and move on to fractions. Our study of fractions will span a few weeks. This is one of the major shifts in the common core standards. We will begin our fraction study with a look at equivalent fractions. 

   We will also be working on a mini-unit on perimeter. The students will be learning how to find perimeter and the different units that can be used to measure perimeter. Please continue to study math facts at home. The more automatic the facts become the easier our math is to complete.

Science-Our next Science unit is the Solar System. This unit is a major research project for third graders. We will begin our work with a basic study of the solar system, asteroids, meteors, meteorites and the sun. While we are learning about the solar system we will also be practicing how to go back into a text and find information.

Writing-We are working on completing our drafts of our Informational Writing. The students each have at least five chapters. We began by organizing our Table of Contents and subtopics within each chapter. Then the students began to draft. By the end of the week we will be editing and revising our work.