Feb. 24 - 28
Report Cards: It is hard to believe that two-thirds of the year is over already. Report cards are complete and will be sent home next week--most likely on Wednesday. It is important to remember that all standards are year-end goals. If your student is currently at a 1 or 2 in an area, we will continue to work on that skill in order to demonstrate mastery by the end of the year.
Multiplication: We cannot stress to you enough the importance of memorizing multiplication facts. Having a solid understanding and quick recall of these facts will be essential for your child when we begin division. Additionally, students need this fact recall when they begin long division and other important 4th-grade math skills. We recommend purchasing multiplication fact cards at the dollar store and practicing a few minutes in the evenings. Once your child has instant recall it will stick. However, if they aren't completely memorized, the facts will not stick from week to week.
Author Visits: We are so fortunate that we will have 2 author visits this month! Order forms went home on Friday if you would like your child to order a book. They are signed personally by the author.
March is Reading Month: This month begins our focus on celebrating reading! This year we are encouraging students to read many different genres in order to become diverse readers. A calendar will go home on Monday. Students can check off activities that are completed. Happy Reading!!!
Historical Presentation: This week our students will participate in a historical presentation to learn about what life was like in the early 1900s to 1950s. The presenter (Mrs. Wood's mother-in-law) was a former teacher in Lansing and allows students to interact with many antique items. Your child will love it! The presentations are as follows:
Knuth: Thursday, March 5th, 9:00 - 10:00
Yoder: Thursday, March 5th, 10:30 - 11:30
Covert: Friday, March 6th, 10:30 - 11:30
Upcoming Events:
Here's What We've Been Up To in 3rd Grade:
Reading: This week we revisited inferencing and making predictions. A large part of our focus for reading was also our Social Studies flipbooks. This was a wonderful opportunity for students to learn to look for information in a text and evaluate what was most important to the topic. Additionally, students have been learning about the different structures that authors use to write informational texts.
Word Study: Our test on long "-le" vowel patterns will be Friday. We will then begin to work with unaccented final syllable "-le,-el,-il,-al". Examples of words include fossil, pencil, pupil, kennel, cancel, camel, journal, signal. Next week we will learn study words ending with -er, -ar, and -or.
Math: We have now completed our unit study on fractions. Students need to be able to identify fractions (1/4, 1/2, 1/3, etc.), partition circles and rectangles into halves, fourths, eighths, thirds, and sixths, identify fractions on a number line and partition number lines, and be able to identify and demonstrate equivalency in fractions (1/2 is the same as 2/4 or 1/3 is the same as 2/6). Remediation will begin for students that did not receive a 3 in these standards. *Be aware of a common 3rd-grade error. Third graders sometimes confuse the fraction by included the shaded number on top and the non-shaded number on the bottom instead of using the numerator to show the shaded number and using the denominator to show the total parts. They may write 1/3 (1 shaded, 3 not shaded) for 1/4.
Science: Invisible Forces: discussing balanced and unbalanced forces, friction, and magnetic pull. Our focus for this week will be on bridges.
Social Studies: Our flipbooks are complete and your child will test this week on the topics. Your teacher will let you know the exact day. Please be aware that students will need to write a good paragraph about 3 of the topics. No notes, flipbooks, or the textbook can be used during the test.
Writing: Informational books are almost complete! Ask your child to show you his/her book on Wixie.
