Mrs. Mooney's Third Grade: Have no fear, your blog entry is here!

Thank you for your patience with me as I finished report cards and parent conferences. I hope you are enjoying this week with your children. We are more than halfway through the school year. You will find the second half of the year will be more content based. While we will continue to build skills we will be using our talents to conduct research projects, read more challenging texts, and use technology to present our work.

Reader's Workshop
We will begin a biography unit next week. We will begin by reading short biographies, extracting important information, and writing short summaries. Throughout the week I will introduce various people to the class. By the end of the week, the students will have the opportunity to choose which person he/she would like to learn more about. We will be reading "Who Was" books about this person, take notes on important events/accomplishments, organize our work, and write fist person narratives. This project will be primarily done in class. You may see the book come home to read at night. The culmination of this project will be a Wax Museum. This is an event that you and your family are invited to attend. I will send home the date and time by the end of next week.

Writer's Workshop
The students will spend this week revising their most recent informational writing piece. We will add text features, edit spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. The students' final draft should be complete by the middle of next week. I will keep these in school and you will have an opportunity to see them when you come in for the Wax Museum.

Math
We are learning about fractions. Next week we will begin comparing fractions with the same denominator and then with the same numerator. We will also use a number line to find equivalent fractions.
Any opportunity you have to use fractions in every day life would be very helpful. It is important to stress that a fractions shows an equal part of a whole.

Science
We have begun to learn about the Solar System. Ask your child if he/she knows the planets in order! Next week, we will begin a major research project. During this project the students will research several aspects of each planet using both print and internet resources. The students will also develop their own research questions and use these to expand their knowledge of the Solar System. This project will culminate in either a Solar System poster or a digital poster. Your child will choose the way they would like to represent their research. This project will be completed in 3-4 weeks. The final product will be on display for you to see during the Wax Museum.

Cursive
We will finish learning our cursive letters this week. We will spend a couple weeks practicing our cursive, and then the students will be permitted to write any of their work in cursive. Many upper level teachers require students to write entirely in cursive. Any practice at home would be very helpful.

Thank you to our Mystery Reader, Mrs. Cohen.