Friday we sent home the book for March is Reading Month–The BFG! It was accompanied with a calendar to pace the reading and events that will be taking place at school this month. As a class, we discussed that The BFG book is a level U and is meant to be read with an older sibling or adult. We encourage you to read the suggested pages each night as a family. (It should not however, take the place of your child’s independent reading homework on their reading log.) Thank you, and have fun with it! It is a great story, perfect for trying out different voices!

In math, we are finishing our 2-step problem-solving unit. This is a tough unit as students have to determine which mathematical steps to take to solve the problem, then compute accurately. We will have our test this coming week and will then move to our first unit on fractions. Students are continuing to work towards memorization of multiplication/division facts as we move to different math units.

This coming week we will also finish our informational or All About books. These will be sent home in the next 2 weeks, and we will begin our second unit on opinion writing. This next opinion unit will develop our essay writing skills more, and we will present them through a Live Video-Stream format so that you may watch from your computer, tablet, or phone!

Thank you for meeting with me at conference time! I appreciate sharing your child’s growth and goals that we will continue to work on this school year.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year! I was so impressed by the number of reading logs turned in from our 2 week break. Thank you for encouraging reading over that time!

We worked at getting back into our routine this past week! It has been good for me to be into our routine, and I have missed those smiling faces! Students took both the reading and math district assessments, called the iReady. I am also in the process of administering the one-on-one reading assessment called Fountas and Pinnell. This is the tool we use to help students find their “just right” reading levels when reading independently.

Last week we began a new math unit on rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and nearest 100 with 3 digit numbers. We also explored mental math, and will finish this week with rounding for adding and subtracting larger numbers. I plan to have our math test at the end of the week.

Mad Minute challenge! We also began our Mad Minutes for multiplication. Students have 1-1/2 minutes to complete 25 problems. They may miss up to one problem and still pass. We move systematically from our 0s all the way to 12s. We discussed that we are moving away from counting out the answer to complete memorization. We have an app on our iPad we use in class that mimics the time and set up of our paper Mad Minute. We practice that each day. I talked to the boys and girls about practicing at home as well with good, old fashioned multiplication cards. The dollar stores usually have these. If getting these is an issue, please let me know. I am happy to help.

In reading we are working on nonfiction reading. We have discussed that this type of reading is more challenging than our fiction stories, and we are practicing multiple strategies to help us become stronger readers of this genre.

In writing, we began our new unit on nonfiction as well. Students are drafting their first “All About” book. We are working on asking “Who, what, when, why, where, when” questions to help us add details to our writing.

Remember, this coming Friday, the 18th, we have an 11:50 dismissal due to the high school conference schedule. Thank you! 🙂

Hello Families!

Winter break and the holidays are just around the corner! First I wanted to give you more information about our party on Friday. Brynn’s mom (Brittney Young) sent a link to a sign up if you are wanting to sign up for anything. Thank you to her and all who have already donated. 🙂 Here it is again:

Party Sign Up

Our party is from 10-10:55, then students go out for recess. Our afternoon will be low key and fairly normal. All are invited to attend Friday. We hope to see you there!

Also, students’ Secret Santa cards to a classmate are due tomorrow. If a child doesn’t have it complete, or was unable to, I will help him/her during recess on Wednesday.

Last week students took a math test on area. This is typically a very difficult topic for our 3rd graders, but we do revisit area when we focus on the perimeter topic. This test will go home before break. We have also been working on picture graphs and bar graphs, making different graphs and answering questions about them. We will have a short test on this unit before break as well.

In our reading, we are becoming experts on nonfiction. Our focus has been on finding main ideas and supporting details as we read. I will be sending books home over break, and encourage reading at LEAST every other day, if not daily. We begin January with district assessments, and we don’t want any slide backs in comprehension, fluency, and accuracy due to not reading.

In writing we are giving our speeches tomorrow. Students have learned that their opinion speech must include a hook with a claim, reasons, evidence, and a closing. We have some pretty persuasive speeches!

Lastly, thank you for the number of condolences on my mom’s passing. It was a very difficult time, and I appreciate the support–from both you and the children. It is good to be back to the busy school day with the kids! 🙂

Here are some photos of our pasty making and tasting! Thank you to Mrs. Gomez for being my photographer. Thank you to the parents who came in to lend us a hand as well!

We had such a nice Author’s Celebration! If you were unable to make it, I plan to have others throughout the year at different times of the day. Students enjoyed reading each other’s narrative stories and writing meaningful comments (and eating cookies). Here are some photos of our fun!

With the Jeffers Jive Monster Mash, we had an extra fun week! At the end of this post are some photos of everyone in their costumes!

In reading we are becoming skilled detectives as we read mysteries. It’s fun to see the enthusiasm as students solve the mystery before they finish reading the book! They are earning detective badges, magnifiers, and notebooks as they jot and practice their reading strategies in their reading journals. We kicked off the unit by working in small groups to solve mysteries such as, “The Case of the Missing Blanket”. Below are some photos:

In math, we wrapped up Topic 4, and tests will be sent home Monday. We also began Topic 5, working on multiplication and division puzzles. Challenging, yet fun! Friday I sent home the log-in information for Xtramath. We use it in class, and it can be practiced at home as well on any device. It is great math fact practice!

In our writing, we are finishing the final copies of our small-moment narrative stories. We also began our next unit on opinion writing. We began by writing a “Best ____ Award” to one of the 5 items brought in. We are practicing writing reasons for our opinions.

Friday, we said good-bye to our classmate, Emma. She moved to Cedar Springs, and we wish her the best!

Halloween Photos:

Thank you for partnering with me on your child’s conference! We had 100% turn out! Thank you! From the photo above, you can see we have many new books added to our classroom library. It has created quite the buzz! Thank you to all who donated books from the Scholastic Book Fair at conference time! We are loving them!

We took our Topic 3 math test on multiplication strategies such as the Distributive Property, Commutative Property, and Order Property. Tests should have gone home with your child this week. We also began Topic 4–Division strategies.

In readng, we concluded our first unit. We ended with a celebration of watching the movie Stone Fox and comparing/contrasting it with the book. We enjoyed potato chips (story takes place on a potato farm) and Scooby Snacks–in honor of the dog, Searchlight. We begin our second unit in Reading Workshop next week. I am excited for our Monday kick off! I hope your child will come home and tell you all about it!

During Writing Workshop, we have been learning strategies to write fiction stories and small-moment narrative stories. We are learning strategies such as writing bit-by-bit, writing twin sentences, and bringing our characters to life with thoughts, feelings, and dialogue.

In science, we are continuing to learn about the earth’s natural resources. We plan to wrap up the unit next week. Then, we will begin social studies.

We are learning a lot! Have a great weekend!

This week we finished our 2nd math unit. We focused on strategies to multiply such as, count bys (multiples), number lines, arrays, and bar diagrams. We also learned terms such as the commutative property of multiplication, the zero property, and the identity property. Our focus were on the X0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10 facts. Ask your child the 9s tricks!

In reading, we are learning strategies to strengthen our comprehension. Students are jotting in their journals the “who, what, and noticings” as they read. They are also learning when the text is asking us to visualize and when it is asking us to gather information. We wrapped up the week with predicting and practicing retells. These are all skills you can help reinforce at home with nightly reading.

We wrapped up our writing of personal narrative stories, and will begin learning strategies to write fiction stories beginning next week!

We also started our examination of rocks and the minerals that make up rocks. Ask your child how they can tell if a rock is a rock or really a mineral!

Whew! Our first 5-day week! We had a week filled with academics.

We finished our first topic in math and took our test today! Pieces of the math curriculum are available online, so we also spent time this week getting used to accessing and navigating the online pieces to our math curriculum. Next week we will begin topic 2 and focus on more multiplication strategies.

In reading, we are selecting “just right” or “good fit” books and reading them like “gold”. You also may have noticed in the planner that we are beginning to use reading logs. In 3rd grade, students will take home their reading workshop book to continue reading for at least 20 minutes per night. Feel free to model with your child the way to fill in the reading log, but the intent is that your child will take over the filling out of the log. (The recording piece of time started and time ended is optional.) I do send reading homework on the weekend as well, 20 minutes one time during the weekend.

During our writing, we are learning that real-life authors think of stories, practice storytelling, sketch their stories, then write their stories bit by bit. This week we all wrote our first true, mini-story. We will continue to incorporate strategies to elaborate and revise.

Our new vocabulary words this week are: assemble and grumble!

I am enjoying our class and getting used to our class routines! As always, if you have questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me! Have a great weekend!

Hello Families,

We are beginning to get into our school routines. This week we worked on reading stamina during our reading workshop. We also continued with stories that support having a “Growth Mindset” as we begin a new school year.

In writing we created a “heart map”, which is filled with people, places, and things that are important to us. This will serve as a helpful tool when we begin looking for ideas to write about. We also began in our cursive books!

In math, we are learning strategies to multiply. We posted an example in Seesaw. Students are learning about repeated addition, skip counting, number lines, equal groups, and drawing arrays as tools to show multiplication. Our math vocabulary this week was impressive: factors, products, commutative property, and order property. Next week we will look at tools to show division, as well as take our first math test!

Ask your child if they can tell you about some of our new 3rd grade vocabulary words we practiced: pledge, defend, research, fragile, and specific We also are learning what antonyms and synonyms mean.

Thank you to all who have returned school paperwork! We appreciate it! Students have been asking when we are taking the iPads home. Currently my plan is to keep chargers at school, and send the iPads home Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, it will not be for awhile as we need to spend time discussing and practicing iPad safety–dos and don’ts. Thank you too for the donations of extra classroom supplies! We are set! 🙂

Next week is already HOMECOMING WEEK and Picture Day. We have pictures on TUESDAY, September 11th.

Our schedule for Homecoming is:

Wednesday: Island Theme Day (no swimming/bathing suits please)

Thursday: Pajama Day

Friday: Laker Gear Day

Below are some photos of students interviewing a friend this week. We have such a wonderful and kind group!