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!