First Full Week of School

     This week will certainly be very busy and full of new experiences for your third grader. We will continue to practice our daily routine and begin our first units in all the subject areas. On Monday your child will come home with his/her assignment notepad for the year. I would greatly appreciate if you could sign this each night so that I know you have seen the homework assignment. 

    Your child will also be bringing home a reading calendar for the week. I require the students to read 20 minutes per night for 5 out of 7 nights a week. The student may choose which nights he/she reads. This calendar also requires your initials, but it should be filled out by the student. The calendar does not need to be returned to school until next Monday. 

Reader's Workshop:

     We will be exploring our classroom library and discussing what it means to have reading stamina. The students began choosing independent reading books last week, but we will discuss how to choose a book that is on each student's reading level. 

Writer's Workshop:

     Our first unit in writing is a personal narrative study. We will explore some entries from former third grade students and make writing goals. Then we will dive into where writers get their ideas for personal narratives. The students will also begin collecting their own personal narratives.

     This Friday we will also write our first Friday Letter. We will be writing to a family member each Friday detailing our week and sharing our learning with you. I ask that someone write back to the student in the notebook each week. I will include a letter with many ideas to help you create your response.

Math:

     We will begin working on place value. We will learn different ways to express a number and we will order numbers on a number line. 

Language Arts:

   This week we will focus on the parts of speech, particularly nouns (common and proper) and verbs. I am currently testing the class on the third grade spelling priority words. We will not begin a regular spelling list/quiz until after Open House.

Social Studies:

    We will explore the seven continents, learn about the compass, and study different types of maps. 

    Thank you for sending in your family photos. If you have not had a chance to send one in, please feel free to do so at anytime. We will keep the photos on our wall all year. Finally, thank you very much for your responses to my back to school questionnaire (found with the supply list). If you haven't sent in a response I would still love to hear from you. It is valuable information that helps me get to better know your child these first few days of school.