Goodbye September

    It always amazes me how fast September goes by. As I look back over the first month of school I am proud of how much the class has accomplished. We are in our daily routine and working hard. As we enter the second month of school, we will continue to work on active listening, following directions and being respectful of each other. Any assistance you can offer in emphasizing these skills at home would be greatly appreciated.

The week ahead...

     Our next unit of study in math is addition and subtraction. We will study their meaning and properties. Then we will begin working on adding and subtracting with regrouping. Our addition timed tests will begin this Friday. A letter went home last week explaining how this will work. I have added a number of links to the blog that will help your child practice their facts. You will see our first chapter test come home on Tuesday of this week. Please sign this so I know you have seen it and return it to school. Thanks!

   Our study of personal narrative continues in writing. We have been collecting different types of memories and we will explore a variety of techniques that will enhance our writing. The students have done a wonderful job with the assignments I have given them so far. 

   We will be working on a character study unit in reading this week. I will be reading Charlotte's Web to the class and we will be analyzing the character's actions, thoughts and intentions together. The student will also be reading their independent books, noting their reader's voice and writing reading responses. 

   Pollination is our new science unit. We will be observing plants as they go through their life cycle. This hands-on unit provides students with an opportunity to plant their own seed, observe and record the growth of their plant and even pollinate using real bees! 

    We will continue to learn about comparative and superlative adjectives. We discussed the most basic form of these adjectives last week. Our work will continue with a look at some more complicated forms of these special adjectives. Ask you child what a suffix is! 

A few thank yous,

   Last week the class spent an afternoon in the school garden, where we had an opportunity to learn about the different types of vegetables and herbs grown right in our own courtyard. The students were also able to plant garlic and harvest some tomatoes and beans. A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Jada and Mrs. Duvall for their help with this event.

   Also, we enjoyed our second Mystery Reader of the year. Mr. Jada came in on Friday and read, Blackbeard and the Birthday Suit, by Matthew McElligott. The students enjoyed the book and they were very interested in Mr. Jada's love of rollercoasters.

Thank you, Mr. Jada!

Introducing...

Our First Mystery Reader

     The students were very excited on Friday to meet our first Mystery Reader of the year. A big thank you to Mrs. Mallory-Kani for entertaining the class by reading The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, by Jon Sciezska. The class loved the book and enjoyed trying to guess our Mystery Reader's identity throughout the day.

Reading Calendar, Spelling and Current Events

     Our first reading calendar of the year is due tomorrow. Your son/daughter will need to have this calendar filled in with the title, author and minutes they read each night. Your child can skip two nights each week. On these days they should simply write "skip".  If you would please initial each night your son/daughter has read it would be helpful for me, thanks!

    Tomorrow your son/daughter will bring home their first spelling list of the year and their first homework assignment in spelling. We will begin this assignment together in class on Monday. They will need to complete this for homework on Monday night. 

    Our current event calendar for October was sent home last week. On this you will see which day your child has their current event presentation in class. We have spent a lot of time discussing this assignment in class, and we completed a current event together. If you have any questions about this assignment please contact me.

This Week in Third Grade

    We will continue our work with nouns by looking at the rules for turning singular nouns plural. The students will have a quiz on this on Thursday. 

   In reading, we will be writing about our "Reader's Voice" and exploring character traits in our independent chapter books. We will also be discussing our thoughts about our books with a partner.

   As writer's we will begin our "Personal Narrative" unit of study. This week will be spent gathering memories of special moments in each student's life. 

   We will conclude our unit on Place Value in Math this week. The students will take a chapter test on Place Value at the end of the week. I found a great website that will help your child review the concepts that have been taught in math the last few weeks. Here is the link:  http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3  (I will also put this on the sidebar under the title Math Review.)

  Enjoy your week and feel free to contact me with any questions!

Thank you Mrs. Mallory-Kani!