may 13 - 17 weekly update
Hello, all!
I am so glad we're back! I hope everyone had a wonderful track out and weekend!
Announcements/Reminders:
- This week is Teacher Appreciation week! I appreciate the flowers I received this morning! Thank you so much!
- Thursday is Field Day! We will be out at the field from 12:30 - 2:30! Please send a change of clothes with your kids!
- We have at least one guest expert visit for our plant project this week! We are beginning our research this week!
- Our EOG dates are June 17 (reading) and 18 (math)
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - FIELD DAY
Friday - Science
Homework:
- Measurement practice will come home for math
- A reading passage with questions will come home on Monday and will be due on Friday!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing our study of water this week! Prior to track out, we focused on the basics of water (water cycle, how much water is on Earth, how much water we can use, how people/plants/animals use water) and water problems (pollution, overpopulation, and overconsumption). Now, we'll be reviewing those problems and looking at possible solutions! Students will use their opinion writing skills from third quarter to write about a few possible solutions to specific water issues in the world. In addition, we'll be working on some research skills in our reading groups (with both water and plant texts). We will also be spending time reviewing some grammar skills from the year - writing different types of sentences, using linking words, sentence structures, quotation marks, and a few others!
Math - This week we will be learning about measurement! We'll be doing a couple lessons each with length, capacity, and weight! We'll work on our ruler skills - using our fraction knowledge - and our ability to reason with measurement (would we measure a house in inches or feet, etc).
Science - We are deep into project work now! We'll be beginning our plant research! I sent a couple emails prior to track out that are specifically about the project!
Have a wonderful week!
Let me know if you need anything!
I am so glad we're back! I hope everyone had a wonderful track out and weekend!
Announcements/Reminders:
- This week is Teacher Appreciation week! I appreciate the flowers I received this morning! Thank you so much!
- Thursday is Field Day! We will be out at the field from 12:30 - 2:30! Please send a change of clothes with your kids!
- We have at least one guest expert visit for our plant project this week! We are beginning our research this week!
- Our EOG dates are June 17 (reading) and 18 (math)
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - FIELD DAY
Friday - Science
Homework:
- Measurement practice will come home for math
- A reading passage with questions will come home on Monday and will be due on Friday!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing our study of water this week! Prior to track out, we focused on the basics of water (water cycle, how much water is on Earth, how much water we can use, how people/plants/animals use water) and water problems (pollution, overpopulation, and overconsumption). Now, we'll be reviewing those problems and looking at possible solutions! Students will use their opinion writing skills from third quarter to write about a few possible solutions to specific water issues in the world. In addition, we'll be working on some research skills in our reading groups (with both water and plant texts). We will also be spending time reviewing some grammar skills from the year - writing different types of sentences, using linking words, sentence structures, quotation marks, and a few others!
Math - This week we will be learning about measurement! We'll be doing a couple lessons each with length, capacity, and weight! We'll work on our ruler skills - using our fraction knowledge - and our ability to reason with measurement (would we measure a house in inches or feet, etc).
Science - We are deep into project work now! We'll be beginning our plant research! I sent a couple emails prior to track out that are specifically about the project!
Have a wonderful week!
Let me know if you need anything!
april 8 - 12 weekly update
Hello, all!
I hope you enjoyed the beautiful weekend!
Report cards and graded work came home with your child on Friday! Let me know if you have any questions about them!
This week is going to be super exciting - but nothing out of the norm is going on, so I don't believe we have any announcements or reminders...
Specials:
Monday - Science
Tuesday - Art
Wednesday - Music
Thursday - PE
Friday - Tech
Homework:
Reading - An article with questions/activities attached will come home on Monday and is due on Friday!
Math sheets will come home Monday - Thursday. Three days will be focused on fractions, one day will be a review homework of a skill from earlier in the year!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing our study of water this week! We have been reading about how the natural world uses/needs water and about how much water exists on our planet/where it exists. Learning that the same water currently on Earth was on Earth billions of years ago is always a favorite moment of the year. The conversations that follow are hilarious and insightful! 😊 Within this unit we are focused on main idea/supporting details, gaining information from illustrations (and other text features), understanding the point of view of the author/comparing their point of view to our own, and figuring out the meaning of unknown words. More skills will be added in throughout the quarter, but we're focused on these right now! We are working on these skills more in our reading groups where we are working on background knowledge for our plants project by reading texts about soil, seeds, plant needs, parts of a plant, plant life cycle, etc. This is our final week of working on building a knowledge base! Next week will begin phase 1 of our project work! We are all super excited already!
Math - Fractions, fractions, fractions! We are still working on our equivalent fractions / whole number fractions right now and probably will be for a majority of this week. I am not certain if we will move into comparing fractions, that all depends on where the kids are with equivalency and the other concepts we've already started! Regardless, fractions are fun, and the kids are doing a fantastic job with them!
Science - As I stated under the literacy section, this is our second and final week of building prior knowledge for our upcoming plants project. This base knowledge insures that all students have a place to pull knowledge from as they move into their specific chosen project work! We have already started growing plants in the classroom, we've done some hands on soil studies, we've read books, and observed different types of seeds (and we'll be breaking some open this week to see the internal parts of the seed). This week we will focus on plant life cycles and the parts of a plant! We'll also be transferring some plants I've been growing at home for a while into our garden bed where we'll be able to study different kinds of plants (flowers, fruits, vegetables, etc) and the insects that interact with them (bees (safely), ants, worms, beetles, maybe even non-insect animals like birds). Safely transferring plants is a skill we'll be working on, as well as learning how to water plants. They'll also be making a sign for our garden bed (since its in the kindergarten playground) about what not to do around the bed! It's going to be a great week!!
I hope you have a wonderful week!
Let me know if you need anything!
I hope you enjoyed the beautiful weekend!
Report cards and graded work came home with your child on Friday! Let me know if you have any questions about them!
This week is going to be super exciting - but nothing out of the norm is going on, so I don't believe we have any announcements or reminders...
Specials:
Monday - Science
Tuesday - Art
Wednesday - Music
Thursday - PE
Friday - Tech
Homework:
Reading - An article with questions/activities attached will come home on Monday and is due on Friday!
Math sheets will come home Monday - Thursday. Three days will be focused on fractions, one day will be a review homework of a skill from earlier in the year!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing our study of water this week! We have been reading about how the natural world uses/needs water and about how much water exists on our planet/where it exists. Learning that the same water currently on Earth was on Earth billions of years ago is always a favorite moment of the year. The conversations that follow are hilarious and insightful! 😊 Within this unit we are focused on main idea/supporting details, gaining information from illustrations (and other text features), understanding the point of view of the author/comparing their point of view to our own, and figuring out the meaning of unknown words. More skills will be added in throughout the quarter, but we're focused on these right now! We are working on these skills more in our reading groups where we are working on background knowledge for our plants project by reading texts about soil, seeds, plant needs, parts of a plant, plant life cycle, etc. This is our final week of working on building a knowledge base! Next week will begin phase 1 of our project work! We are all super excited already!
Math - Fractions, fractions, fractions! We are still working on our equivalent fractions / whole number fractions right now and probably will be for a majority of this week. I am not certain if we will move into comparing fractions, that all depends on where the kids are with equivalency and the other concepts we've already started! Regardless, fractions are fun, and the kids are doing a fantastic job with them!
Science - As I stated under the literacy section, this is our second and final week of building prior knowledge for our upcoming plants project. This base knowledge insures that all students have a place to pull knowledge from as they move into their specific chosen project work! We have already started growing plants in the classroom, we've done some hands on soil studies, we've read books, and observed different types of seeds (and we'll be breaking some open this week to see the internal parts of the seed). This week we will focus on plant life cycles and the parts of a plant! We'll also be transferring some plants I've been growing at home for a while into our garden bed where we'll be able to study different kinds of plants (flowers, fruits, vegetables, etc) and the insects that interact with them (bees (safely), ants, worms, beetles, maybe even non-insect animals like birds). Safely transferring plants is a skill we'll be working on, as well as learning how to water plants. They'll also be making a sign for our garden bed (since its in the kindergarten playground) about what not to do around the bed! It's going to be a great week!!
I hope you have a wonderful week!
Let me know if you need anything!
april 1 - 5 weekly update
Happy Monday!
Being away from the class for 4 whole days seemed like an eternity! I was so excited to be back today! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with the beautiful weather!
Today is one of my favorite days of the year! We started our 4th quarter units (we're studying water supply/problems in the world in literacy, and we are studying plants in science - we will be doing another project approach unit with plants)! We had a great day!!!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Report cards / Graded work will come home on Friday!
- Math homework this week will be some review. They worked on quadrilaterals / area and perimeter / multiplication/division review last week when I was absent (Thursday/Friday). We have our third quarter NC Check In on Thursday, so we're going to continue our review this week! We will check the homework together each day to help us continue to prepare!
Homework:
- Read the Water Cycle article and complete the 2 attached activities - due Friday (runners strategies are attached to this email and are on their Google Classroom)
- Math sheets (review Monday - Wednesday, fraction work on Thursday)
Specials:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Music
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Tech
Friday - Media
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We have started our 4th quarter unit about water! Within this unit we will learn about how/why water is needed/used by people/plants/animals, water supplies/sources around the world, ways that people around the world struggle to have enough clean water, and how we can help our water! This unit is fantastic because we do a lot of nonfiction work/review with concepts we've learned throughout the year - especially main idea/supporting details, text features, and text structures. In addition, we'll work on how to support causes - which is something we started working with last week! Definitely ask your child about which cause they chose to research and support last week / how they supported it! They did a FANTASTIC job with that activity! In our reading groups, we'll be working with those nonfiction skills! We will study water, climate change, and environmental issues!
**We will be working with a mixture of fiction/nonfiction to practice our RUNNERS strategies twice a week!**
Math - We are continuing fractions! This week we will focus on equivalent fraction work. We are going to use our visual models that we've worked with to help us gain an understanding of why some fractions are equivalent. We will also continue to work with fractions that are greater than 1.
Science - We are doing about a week and a half of building prior knowledge about plants! We will be planting, looking at types of soil, and learning about parts of a seed / parts of a plant. We will end our pre-teaching by talking about what plants need! We have a garden bed outside that we will be planting different types of plants in, and we'll be using it as we continue our work!
Have a wonderful week! 😊
Emails about project work will be coming out throughout the week - please keep an eye out!
Let me know if you need anything!
Being away from the class for 4 whole days seemed like an eternity! I was so excited to be back today! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with the beautiful weather!
Today is one of my favorite days of the year! We started our 4th quarter units (we're studying water supply/problems in the world in literacy, and we are studying plants in science - we will be doing another project approach unit with plants)! We had a great day!!!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Report cards / Graded work will come home on Friday!
- Math homework this week will be some review. They worked on quadrilaterals / area and perimeter / multiplication/division review last week when I was absent (Thursday/Friday). We have our third quarter NC Check In on Thursday, so we're going to continue our review this week! We will check the homework together each day to help us continue to prepare!
Homework:
- Read the Water Cycle article and complete the 2 attached activities - due Friday (runners strategies are attached to this email and are on their Google Classroom)
- Math sheets (review Monday - Wednesday, fraction work on Thursday)
Specials:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Music
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Tech
Friday - Media
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We have started our 4th quarter unit about water! Within this unit we will learn about how/why water is needed/used by people/plants/animals, water supplies/sources around the world, ways that people around the world struggle to have enough clean water, and how we can help our water! This unit is fantastic because we do a lot of nonfiction work/review with concepts we've learned throughout the year - especially main idea/supporting details, text features, and text structures. In addition, we'll work on how to support causes - which is something we started working with last week! Definitely ask your child about which cause they chose to research and support last week / how they supported it! They did a FANTASTIC job with that activity! In our reading groups, we'll be working with those nonfiction skills! We will study water, climate change, and environmental issues!
**We will be working with a mixture of fiction/nonfiction to practice our RUNNERS strategies twice a week!**
Math - We are continuing fractions! This week we will focus on equivalent fraction work. We are going to use our visual models that we've worked with to help us gain an understanding of why some fractions are equivalent. We will also continue to work with fractions that are greater than 1.
Science - We are doing about a week and a half of building prior knowledge about plants! We will be planting, looking at types of soil, and learning about parts of a seed / parts of a plant. We will end our pre-teaching by talking about what plants need! We have a garden bed outside that we will be planting different types of plants in, and we'll be using it as we continue our work!
Have a wonderful week! 😊
Emails about project work will be coming out throughout the week - please keep an eye out!
Let me know if you need anything!
march 25 - 29 weekly update
Hello, all!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend! It was beautiful outside, finally! I'm excited for a great week at school!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Picture day is the 28th! If you have not yet returned picture money / class picture money, please do so! Let me know if you need another form, we have a couple extra!
- I will not be at school on Thursday or Friday (I'm so sad I'm missing picture day!!) If your child needs to go home a different way than usual those 2 days, please send in a physical note for the sub. I will be at a 2 day training in Durham!
- This is the last week of 3rd quarter!!! What?!? I know... this year is FLYING by. I keep trying to get it to slow down, as I am absolutely loving my time with your kiddos. Luckily 4th quarter is my absolute favorite in terms of curriculum.
- Report cards will come home next Friday (April 5)
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - Science
Homework:
Math sheets
Reading homework - A paper will come home with your student on Monday outlining their homework for the week. Each reading group will have homework specific to their book this week, so that we can ensure all books are finished by Friday (our goal)!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are finishing up Peter Pan this week! We have written our rough drafts of our revised scene, and we will spend time this week editing with peers and with me before typing our final drafts. We will then share our revised scenes with each other! In our reading groups, we're finishing up our second novels and novel discussions. Last week we used our morning work time + one literacy rotation to learn about inspirational women (Sonia Sotomayor, Jane Goodall, Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, etc). Students learned what being inspirational means, things those women did/do that are inspirational, and then talked about their opinions of the accomplishments they learned. This week we're spending that same frame of time focused on what it means to support a cause. We're learning about what causes are, how people support causes, what activism means, and then students are choosing one cause to spend more time studying one cause. Students have chosen a wide variety of causes - Save the Orcas, Sharks, Pandas, Komodo Dragons, Tasmanian Devils, Protecting Natural Habitats, Women's Rights, Freeing Circus Animals, Stopping Climate Change, and Protecting the Rainforests. Students will learn about some of the problems that exist within these causes, how to support them, and will then make a poster advocating for their cause. Not only is this a good use of our time in learning about being good citizens of the world, it also is a great lead in to our 4th quarter literacy topic that we will start next week!
Math - On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we will focus on fractions larger than one. We will work with whole number fractions, improper fractions, and even mixed numbers (a bit). Thursday and Friday I will set up review days for them with the substitute. They will review quadrilaterals/geometry, area/perimeter, and what we've done so far with fractions. We will be taking our 3rd quarter NC Check In next Thursday, so those days will help us review for that test!
Social studies - We finished our mini-unit on economics last week, and we are now starting mini-unit on history. Our history standards are focused on understanding how local/regional communities have changed over time. Since we're just coming off of Peter Pan, and we just spent time in economics talking about the regions of NC, I've set us up to meet our standards this year by discussing Piracy in North Carolina! We will be learning about the famous pirates who frequented NC (Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read) and how they impacted North Carolina. We'll be looking at the way their relationships with local governments impacted the creations of laws, and how that kind of corruption continued. We'll also look at how piracy impacted some coastal communities - don't worry, I've edited it all so it's all 3rd grade appropriate! 😊
As usual, please let me know if you need anything!
Have a fantastic week!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend! It was beautiful outside, finally! I'm excited for a great week at school!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Picture day is the 28th! If you have not yet returned picture money / class picture money, please do so! Let me know if you need another form, we have a couple extra!
- I will not be at school on Thursday or Friday (I'm so sad I'm missing picture day!!) If your child needs to go home a different way than usual those 2 days, please send in a physical note for the sub. I will be at a 2 day training in Durham!
- This is the last week of 3rd quarter!!! What?!? I know... this year is FLYING by. I keep trying to get it to slow down, as I am absolutely loving my time with your kiddos. Luckily 4th quarter is my absolute favorite in terms of curriculum.
- Report cards will come home next Friday (April 5)
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - Science
Homework:
Math sheets
Reading homework - A paper will come home with your student on Monday outlining their homework for the week. Each reading group will have homework specific to their book this week, so that we can ensure all books are finished by Friday (our goal)!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are finishing up Peter Pan this week! We have written our rough drafts of our revised scene, and we will spend time this week editing with peers and with me before typing our final drafts. We will then share our revised scenes with each other! In our reading groups, we're finishing up our second novels and novel discussions. Last week we used our morning work time + one literacy rotation to learn about inspirational women (Sonia Sotomayor, Jane Goodall, Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, etc). Students learned what being inspirational means, things those women did/do that are inspirational, and then talked about their opinions of the accomplishments they learned. This week we're spending that same frame of time focused on what it means to support a cause. We're learning about what causes are, how people support causes, what activism means, and then students are choosing one cause to spend more time studying one cause. Students have chosen a wide variety of causes - Save the Orcas, Sharks, Pandas, Komodo Dragons, Tasmanian Devils, Protecting Natural Habitats, Women's Rights, Freeing Circus Animals, Stopping Climate Change, and Protecting the Rainforests. Students will learn about some of the problems that exist within these causes, how to support them, and will then make a poster advocating for their cause. Not only is this a good use of our time in learning about being good citizens of the world, it also is a great lead in to our 4th quarter literacy topic that we will start next week!
Math - On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we will focus on fractions larger than one. We will work with whole number fractions, improper fractions, and even mixed numbers (a bit). Thursday and Friday I will set up review days for them with the substitute. They will review quadrilaterals/geometry, area/perimeter, and what we've done so far with fractions. We will be taking our 3rd quarter NC Check In next Thursday, so those days will help us review for that test!
Social studies - We finished our mini-unit on economics last week, and we are now starting mini-unit on history. Our history standards are focused on understanding how local/regional communities have changed over time. Since we're just coming off of Peter Pan, and we just spent time in economics talking about the regions of NC, I've set us up to meet our standards this year by discussing Piracy in North Carolina! We will be learning about the famous pirates who frequented NC (Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read) and how they impacted North Carolina. We'll be looking at the way their relationships with local governments impacted the creations of laws, and how that kind of corruption continued. We'll also look at how piracy impacted some coastal communities - don't worry, I've edited it all so it's all 3rd grade appropriate! 😊
As usual, please let me know if you need anything!
Have a fantastic week!
march 18 - 22 weekly update
Happy Monday!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Spring picture / Class picture forms went home on Friday. Please return these prior to picture day (March 28) if you want to order those pictures! Yearbook forms went home a couple weeks ago (those are due early April).
- We have a field trip this Tuesday to the NC Botanical Gardens! Check our class Twitter for pictures of the experience! I will email you TODAY if you ordered school lunch. If you do not get an email from me today specifically about your child, you need to send in lunch with them tomorrow!
Homework:
Book Madness
- I have attached a document explaining the Book Madness homework for this week! Please let me know if you have any questions!
Math sheets (fractions)
Specials:
Monday - PE
Tuesday - Tech
Wednesday - Media
Thursday - Science
Friday - Art
Weekly Update:
Literacy - While many students are still working on typing their final drafts of their Peter Pan recommendation essays (which you can see on their google classroom accounts), we are moving on to narrative writing! Over the next two weeks, students will be choosing a scene from Peter Pan that they did not like very much, and they will be rewriting the scene! We read a model today (Monday) of a scene rewrite, and students chose which scene from the book they want to redo. We will work through the writing process - planning, rough draft, self-revising, peer-editing, teacher/student writing conference, and final draft between now and next Friday! In addition, we will be working to finish our novels by next Friday. Students have been working with comprehension, main idea, details, and vocabulary in their reading groups. FINALLY, we have begun working with some test-prep specific reading strategies (that are also otherwise helpful). We are learning how to effectively use a highlighter to help us in reading and comprehending a text.
Math - We are working on identifying fractions and creating visual models to represent fractions currently in math. We will be working with fractions with denominators of 2, 4, 8, 3, and 6 throughout our whole unit, so we are working with identifying/representing those now. We are working with area models, fraction strips, circle models, and number lines. You will see all of these different models in their homework, and I have attached a picture of what those different models look like! Our THROWBACK skill this week will be subtraction. We will work on that a couple days for morning work and discuss it as a class.
Social studies - We will be finishing up our short economics unit this week. Last week we learned about producers, consumers, goods, services, supply, and demand. We read a couple great books about lemonade stands that really showed students how supply and demand work together to shape the economy. They also learned some basic of business: loans, putting money back into the business, profits, and competition. This week we will focus on natural resources and how different types of communities have different economic needs. To finish off the unit, they will choose a type of community (farming, fishing, major city, residential city, etc) and come up with a business that would do well in that city. **I also hope a friend of mine who is a local entrepreneur will be able to stop by one day to discuss starting a business.**
As always, let me know if you need anything!
Have a great week!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Spring picture / Class picture forms went home on Friday. Please return these prior to picture day (March 28) if you want to order those pictures! Yearbook forms went home a couple weeks ago (those are due early April).
- We have a field trip this Tuesday to the NC Botanical Gardens! Check our class Twitter for pictures of the experience! I will email you TODAY if you ordered school lunch. If you do not get an email from me today specifically about your child, you need to send in lunch with them tomorrow!
Homework:
Book Madness
- I have attached a document explaining the Book Madness homework for this week! Please let me know if you have any questions!
Math sheets (fractions)
Specials:
Monday - PE
Tuesday - Tech
Wednesday - Media
Thursday - Science
Friday - Art
Weekly Update:
Literacy - While many students are still working on typing their final drafts of their Peter Pan recommendation essays (which you can see on their google classroom accounts), we are moving on to narrative writing! Over the next two weeks, students will be choosing a scene from Peter Pan that they did not like very much, and they will be rewriting the scene! We read a model today (Monday) of a scene rewrite, and students chose which scene from the book they want to redo. We will work through the writing process - planning, rough draft, self-revising, peer-editing, teacher/student writing conference, and final draft between now and next Friday! In addition, we will be working to finish our novels by next Friday. Students have been working with comprehension, main idea, details, and vocabulary in their reading groups. FINALLY, we have begun working with some test-prep specific reading strategies (that are also otherwise helpful). We are learning how to effectively use a highlighter to help us in reading and comprehending a text.
Math - We are working on identifying fractions and creating visual models to represent fractions currently in math. We will be working with fractions with denominators of 2, 4, 8, 3, and 6 throughout our whole unit, so we are working with identifying/representing those now. We are working with area models, fraction strips, circle models, and number lines. You will see all of these different models in their homework, and I have attached a picture of what those different models look like! Our THROWBACK skill this week will be subtraction. We will work on that a couple days for morning work and discuss it as a class.
Social studies - We will be finishing up our short economics unit this week. Last week we learned about producers, consumers, goods, services, supply, and demand. We read a couple great books about lemonade stands that really showed students how supply and demand work together to shape the economy. They also learned some basic of business: loans, putting money back into the business, profits, and competition. This week we will focus on natural resources and how different types of communities have different economic needs. To finish off the unit, they will choose a type of community (farming, fishing, major city, residential city, etc) and come up with a business that would do well in that city. **I also hope a friend of mine who is a local entrepreneur will be able to stop by one day to discuss starting a business.**
As always, let me know if you need anything!
Have a great week!
march 11 - 15 weekly update
Happy Monday!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Reminders/Announcements:
- All google classroom assignments are graded! Please have your children show you that graded work.
- Graded work and progress reports came home last Friday, please let me know if you have any questions!
- As of today (Monday), Mr. Schutte is officially our principal! I know he is going to do an incredible job!
- We are going to start using Seesaw over the next couple weeks! It is a website/app that will allow us to communicate more with you and upload pictures of things we work on at school. There is so much that we do that we can't send home in graded work folders, and we want you all to be able to see all this work! We will keep you updated on when it will be accessible!
Homework:
- Two journal entries due on Friday!
- Math sheets nightly (except Tuesday night - no math homework)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - ALL reading groups have moved on to their second novels! We are going to be able to JUST finish them by the end of the quarter. These second novels will give us the opportunity to review the fiction reading/comprehension concepts we've worked on through this quarter! We are going to be finishing our Peter Pan recommendation papers this week! I have been really enjoying our opinion writing unit, as I've gotten to learn more about everyone in our class! We will be moving to narrative writing next.
Math - We will be finishing our area/perimeter unit on Tuesday, and we'll be moving into fractions. Our fractions unit is in 3 major parts - identifying/portraying fractions visually, finding equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions. We will focus just on the identifying/portraying part this week!
Social studies - It's time to learn about money! We will be focusing on supply/demand, producers/consumers, how to be responsible with money, and entrepreneurs!
I hope everyone has a great week!
Let me know if you need anything!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Reminders/Announcements:
- All google classroom assignments are graded! Please have your children show you that graded work.
- Graded work and progress reports came home last Friday, please let me know if you have any questions!
- As of today (Monday), Mr. Schutte is officially our principal! I know he is going to do an incredible job!
- We are going to start using Seesaw over the next couple weeks! It is a website/app that will allow us to communicate more with you and upload pictures of things we work on at school. There is so much that we do that we can't send home in graded work folders, and we want you all to be able to see all this work! We will keep you updated on when it will be accessible!
Homework:
- Two journal entries due on Friday!
- Math sheets nightly (except Tuesday night - no math homework)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - ALL reading groups have moved on to their second novels! We are going to be able to JUST finish them by the end of the quarter. These second novels will give us the opportunity to review the fiction reading/comprehension concepts we've worked on through this quarter! We are going to be finishing our Peter Pan recommendation papers this week! I have been really enjoying our opinion writing unit, as I've gotten to learn more about everyone in our class! We will be moving to narrative writing next.
Math - We will be finishing our area/perimeter unit on Tuesday, and we'll be moving into fractions. Our fractions unit is in 3 major parts - identifying/portraying fractions visually, finding equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions. We will focus just on the identifying/portraying part this week!
Social studies - It's time to learn about money! We will be focusing on supply/demand, producers/consumers, how to be responsible with money, and entrepreneurs!
I hope everyone has a great week!
Let me know if you need anything!
march 4 - 8 weekly update
Happy Tuesday!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
So sorry for the late update! These past couple weeks have been INSANE, and keeping up with the outside-the-classroom stuff has taken a back burner! Inside the classroom, though, we have been doing some impressive stuff! Your kids have been working SO hard, and I could not be more proud of them! They may have told you that we were observed by 5 WCPSS employees (an assistant high school principal, the Director of Equity, and a few others). The people who observed us were beyond impressed by the inquiry work the kids were doing in science! They specifically complimented their work ethic, the way they spoke to each other, and the confidence with which they spoke to the visiting adults!
Announcements/Reminders:
- This Friday (March 8) is an early release day! School will be over at 1:15!
- Progress reports and a lot of graded work will be coming home this week! Likely on Thursday! Please take a look at those things!
- Please make sure you are sending your field trip permission forms back and paying online for the trip! Here is the online payment link again - we are between lead secretaries right now so there isn't always a way for me to turn in money you send in.
https://osp.osmsinc.com/WakeNC/BVModules/CategoryTemplates/Detailed%20List%20with%20Properties/Category.aspx?categoryid=AG163
- I plan on opening time slots for conferences toward the end of March/beginning of April. I will be sending out a sign up for those soon!
Homework:
- Continue using the journal responses to do 2 responses per week - due Friday (Last week's journal prompts were SO improved from previous weeks! I can't wait to see what they're reading this week!)
- Math sheets - each night (M - Th)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We have moved fully into opinion writing! We have been doing small practice prompts about our opinions to focus on our skills : stating our opinion, giving specific reasons, and restating our opinions. We are focusing on writing for our specific audiences. We will be writing a book recommendation (or warning) about Peter Pan over the next week or so. In our reading groups, we are doing final discussions about our novels, and we will be starting new novels!
Math - We should be wrapping up area and perimeter next week, so we'll be focused on mastering all of our concepts! We've worked with basic area of rectangles, perimeter of all polygons, using distributive property to find area, and solving area/perimeter word problems. In addition, we've starting reviewing multiplication facts every other day for only a few minutes. If your student is still struggling with multiplication facts from 0 - 10 this is something they need to be working on! Multiplication is the most important core skill in third grade, and it will continue to be incredibly important through the rest of their math learning!
Science - We are finishing up some inquiry work with space this week! Next week we are moving into social studies - geography, specifically! I've greatly enjoyed our space unit (and I am LOVING learning from them during their inquiry work), but I'm excited for our geography unit!
**Awesome tidbit from the week so far - Today during inquiry work a student wanted to look into which nebulae are the most common. We were looking into types of nebulae and found out that the Pillars of Creation, part of the Eagle Nebula, has actually been destroyed by an exploding supernova. Due to how far away it is, though, we will still be able to see the Pillars of Creation (through insane telescope, of course) on Earth for another thousand years!! THAT led us to thinking about how long it would take to get there. We found out that even getting to our closest black hole would take 27,000 LIGHT YEARS! So, that student has promised me he will figure out how to get there in a shorter time frame and he'll let me be one of the ones to go. He was already planning how he'll try to move at 27x the speed of light. 😊 **
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
So sorry for the late update! These past couple weeks have been INSANE, and keeping up with the outside-the-classroom stuff has taken a back burner! Inside the classroom, though, we have been doing some impressive stuff! Your kids have been working SO hard, and I could not be more proud of them! They may have told you that we were observed by 5 WCPSS employees (an assistant high school principal, the Director of Equity, and a few others). The people who observed us were beyond impressed by the inquiry work the kids were doing in science! They specifically complimented their work ethic, the way they spoke to each other, and the confidence with which they spoke to the visiting adults!
Announcements/Reminders:
- This Friday (March 8) is an early release day! School will be over at 1:15!
- Progress reports and a lot of graded work will be coming home this week! Likely on Thursday! Please take a look at those things!
- Please make sure you are sending your field trip permission forms back and paying online for the trip! Here is the online payment link again - we are between lead secretaries right now so there isn't always a way for me to turn in money you send in.
https://osp.osmsinc.com/WakeNC/BVModules/CategoryTemplates/Detailed%20List%20with%20Properties/Category.aspx?categoryid=AG163
- I plan on opening time slots for conferences toward the end of March/beginning of April. I will be sending out a sign up for those soon!
Homework:
- Continue using the journal responses to do 2 responses per week - due Friday (Last week's journal prompts were SO improved from previous weeks! I can't wait to see what they're reading this week!)
- Math sheets - each night (M - Th)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We have moved fully into opinion writing! We have been doing small practice prompts about our opinions to focus on our skills : stating our opinion, giving specific reasons, and restating our opinions. We are focusing on writing for our specific audiences. We will be writing a book recommendation (or warning) about Peter Pan over the next week or so. In our reading groups, we are doing final discussions about our novels, and we will be starting new novels!
Math - We should be wrapping up area and perimeter next week, so we'll be focused on mastering all of our concepts! We've worked with basic area of rectangles, perimeter of all polygons, using distributive property to find area, and solving area/perimeter word problems. In addition, we've starting reviewing multiplication facts every other day for only a few minutes. If your student is still struggling with multiplication facts from 0 - 10 this is something they need to be working on! Multiplication is the most important core skill in third grade, and it will continue to be incredibly important through the rest of their math learning!
Science - We are finishing up some inquiry work with space this week! Next week we are moving into social studies - geography, specifically! I've greatly enjoyed our space unit (and I am LOVING learning from them during their inquiry work), but I'm excited for our geography unit!
**Awesome tidbit from the week so far - Today during inquiry work a student wanted to look into which nebulae are the most common. We were looking into types of nebulae and found out that the Pillars of Creation, part of the Eagle Nebula, has actually been destroyed by an exploding supernova. Due to how far away it is, though, we will still be able to see the Pillars of Creation (through insane telescope, of course) on Earth for another thousand years!! THAT led us to thinking about how long it would take to get there. We found out that even getting to our closest black hole would take 27,000 LIGHT YEARS! So, that student has promised me he will figure out how to get there in a shorter time frame and he'll let me be one of the ones to go. He was already planning how he'll try to move at 27x the speed of light. 😊 **
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation
february 25 - march 1 weekly update
Happy Monday, all!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend! We are in for a great week!
This is a pretty normal week, but it should be awesome!
Specials:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Music
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Tech
Friday - Media
Homework:
- Students should do TWO journal entries this week. I sent home the sheet with questions last Monday. Students should be answering ONE question per journal entry and really focusing on answering that question in complete sentences with details from the text to support their answer. Please check to make sure that your child is doing their homework. Journals are due to me on Friday morning!
- Short math assignments come home nightly!
- Practice multiplication facts (0s through 10s)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are finishing up Peter Pan this week, and we have added in reading another story by JM Barrie. This story, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, gives us information about Peter Pan's life before the time of the novel. We have been comparing the two story plots, settings, character traits, etc. In addition, we are beginning to work with opinion writing this week. We will be doing small opinion paragraphs to prepare us for the upcoming opinion essay we will begin soon! Our novels are in several different places. Most groups are getting close to finishing their novel, and we are continuing our comprehension discussions and written assignments.
Math - We are continuing our area and perimeter unit this week. Students are working on finding the area and perimeter of rectangles. We have looked at different methods of solving (both conceptual methods and more abstract methods). We will be moving into being able to play with that knowledge - finding missing sides when we know the area/perimeter, using the distributive property to find area of larger rectangles, etc. We will also be looking back at our multiplication facts this week. Please make sure that these are being worked on at home.
Science - This week we will be finishing up our science unit on space, and we will take the assessment. We will be doing some inquiry based work this week in our science block, allowing students to answer a remaining question they have about the space standards we've been studying.
As usual, please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a wonderful week!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend! We are in for a great week!
This is a pretty normal week, but it should be awesome!
Specials:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Music
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Tech
Friday - Media
Homework:
- Students should do TWO journal entries this week. I sent home the sheet with questions last Monday. Students should be answering ONE question per journal entry and really focusing on answering that question in complete sentences with details from the text to support their answer. Please check to make sure that your child is doing their homework. Journals are due to me on Friday morning!
- Short math assignments come home nightly!
- Practice multiplication facts (0s through 10s)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are finishing up Peter Pan this week, and we have added in reading another story by JM Barrie. This story, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, gives us information about Peter Pan's life before the time of the novel. We have been comparing the two story plots, settings, character traits, etc. In addition, we are beginning to work with opinion writing this week. We will be doing small opinion paragraphs to prepare us for the upcoming opinion essay we will begin soon! Our novels are in several different places. Most groups are getting close to finishing their novel, and we are continuing our comprehension discussions and written assignments.
Math - We are continuing our area and perimeter unit this week. Students are working on finding the area and perimeter of rectangles. We have looked at different methods of solving (both conceptual methods and more abstract methods). We will be moving into being able to play with that knowledge - finding missing sides when we know the area/perimeter, using the distributive property to find area of larger rectangles, etc. We will also be looking back at our multiplication facts this week. Please make sure that these are being worked on at home.
Science - This week we will be finishing up our science unit on space, and we will take the assessment. We will be doing some inquiry based work this week in our science block, allowing students to answer a remaining question they have about the space standards we've been studying.
As usual, please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a wonderful week!
february 18 - 22 weekly update
Hello, families!
I hope you all had an incredible track out! I have missed all of your kiddos so much, and I am excited to see them!
Announcements/Reminders:
- We track in on Monday - we are still upstairs (right next door to where we were last track in)
- Moon journals are due upon track in!
- Please send back everything that was in track out bags/backpacks
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - Science
Homework:
Reading - We will continue reading our literary classics and answering comprehension questions. A more detailed instruction will come home on Monday!
Math - We will be working on area and perimeter this week, so homework will reflect that!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We will be continuing to read Peter Pan and discuss concepts as a whole class. Our focuses are character traits/actions, sequence of events, main idea and details, and more. In addition, we are still working with our reading group books from before track out. We will continue to work with comprehension and discussion. In writing, we will be beginning to write opinion paragraphs (this will eventually lead to an opinion essay).
Math - We have completed our geometry unit and are moving on to area and perimeter. We will be finding the area of rectangles and squares and the perimeter of polygons. We will be doing this through conceptual ideas of math including tiling squares, as well as more equation based math (using multiplication or addition). We will do some review (likely Thursday night homework - "Throwback Thursdays"), as well.
Science - We will spend maybe one to two more weeks on our space unit before taking the test and then moving on to social studies! We will spend a few days reviewing before allowing ourselves to do another short inquiry activity (based on the standards).
Let me know if you have any questions!
I hope you all had an incredible track out! I have missed all of your kiddos so much, and I am excited to see them!
Announcements/Reminders:
- We track in on Monday - we are still upstairs (right next door to where we were last track in)
- Moon journals are due upon track in!
- Please send back everything that was in track out bags/backpacks
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - Science
Homework:
Reading - We will continue reading our literary classics and answering comprehension questions. A more detailed instruction will come home on Monday!
Math - We will be working on area and perimeter this week, so homework will reflect that!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We will be continuing to read Peter Pan and discuss concepts as a whole class. Our focuses are character traits/actions, sequence of events, main idea and details, and more. In addition, we are still working with our reading group books from before track out. We will continue to work with comprehension and discussion. In writing, we will be beginning to write opinion paragraphs (this will eventually lead to an opinion essay).
Math - We have completed our geometry unit and are moving on to area and perimeter. We will be finding the area of rectangles and squares and the perimeter of polygons. We will be doing this through conceptual ideas of math including tiling squares, as well as more equation based math (using multiplication or addition). We will do some review (likely Thursday night homework - "Throwback Thursdays"), as well.
Science - We will spend maybe one to two more weeks on our space unit before taking the test and then moving on to social studies! We will spend a few days reviewing before allowing ourselves to do another short inquiry activity (based on the standards).
Let me know if you have any questions!
january 22 - 25 weekly update
Hello, all!
I hope your long weekend was relaxing, and you're ready for this last week before track out!
Reminders/Announcements:
- BOOK DRIVE - please send in any new or gently used books (birth - 12 years old levels) to donate in our book drive. The student council is supporting the Wake Up and Read book drive to help make sure all WCPSS elementary school students have books at home. Students can drop them off in the main office!
- This is our track out week! After Friday, students will be out of school until Monday, February 18.
- Track out bags will come home on Thursday to make sure that we aren't trying to carry too much stuff on Friday!
Specials:
Tuesday - Science
Wednesday - Art
Thursday - Music
Friday - PE
Homework:
Continue reading your literary classic and choose 2 questions to answer in your journal this week. Please choose middle of the book questions this week!
Math pages (no math HW on Wednesday due to taking our geometry test)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing reading both Peter Pan and our reading group novels this week! We are answering comprehension questions in group, reading together, working with point of view and character traits, and discussing sequence of events in our stories. Students are also working on comprehension independently!
Math - We will be finishing up geometry this week and then doing a couple days of review as we end our track in. We will jump in with area and perimeter when we track back in in February! Our geometry test will take place on Wednesday. We took our NC Check In test on Tuesday (today). It mostly focused on multiplication and division!
Science - We have been doing some research on planets over the past couple days. This week we will finish that and spend a day looking at how our shadows change from morning - to midday - to mid-afternoon!
Enjoy your week!
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
I hope your long weekend was relaxing, and you're ready for this last week before track out!
Reminders/Announcements:
- BOOK DRIVE - please send in any new or gently used books (birth - 12 years old levels) to donate in our book drive. The student council is supporting the Wake Up and Read book drive to help make sure all WCPSS elementary school students have books at home. Students can drop them off in the main office!
- This is our track out week! After Friday, students will be out of school until Monday, February 18.
- Track out bags will come home on Thursday to make sure that we aren't trying to carry too much stuff on Friday!
Specials:
Tuesday - Science
Wednesday - Art
Thursday - Music
Friday - PE
Homework:
Continue reading your literary classic and choose 2 questions to answer in your journal this week. Please choose middle of the book questions this week!
Math pages (no math HW on Wednesday due to taking our geometry test)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing reading both Peter Pan and our reading group novels this week! We are answering comprehension questions in group, reading together, working with point of view and character traits, and discussing sequence of events in our stories. Students are also working on comprehension independently!
Math - We will be finishing up geometry this week and then doing a couple days of review as we end our track in. We will jump in with area and perimeter when we track back in in February! Our geometry test will take place on Wednesday. We took our NC Check In test on Tuesday (today). It mostly focused on multiplication and division!
Science - We have been doing some research on planets over the past couple days. This week we will finish that and spend a day looking at how our shadows change from morning - to midday - to mid-afternoon!
Enjoy your week!
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
January 14 - 18 Weekly Update
Hello, all!
I hope you had a great weekend!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Report cards and MCLASS updates came home on Friday! Please return the envelope, but keep the papers!
- This Friday is FULL DAY of school! It used to be an early release day, but was extended to make up for a snow day!
- Next Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so there is no school. There are a number of different events that will take place in the Triangle this weekend to remember and commemorate Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement (and there are many opportunities to do acts of service for others)! This News and Observer page lists several of them:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article194505994.html
Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Marches, MLK Day events in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill | News & Observer
www.newsobserver.com
Young participants carry signs prior to the 37th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Memorial March in 2017. The 2018 march is Jan. 15, departing at 11 a.m. from the State Capitol.
- Next Friday (Jan 25) is our track out day, and it is a full day!
- We will take another NC Check In next week! (Math test on the computer to see how they are doing so far - questions are pulled from the EOG bank).
Homework:Reading - students should be reading their literary classic novel for 20 minutes each night. They will do 3 reading responses per week about their novel (over the next 3 weeks). A paper with questions they can choose from for their responses is coming home today along with their reading response journals. They will show me their responses on Fridays!
Math - geometry practice sheets
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - No specials, but we do have an assembly
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing our literary classic analysis during our literacy time! We are reading Peter Pan as a whole class and are finally at the point in the book where Peter, Wendy, John, and Michael get to Neverland! We are working together to analyze the book and we are talking about character traits, order of events, point of view, context clues, and more! In our reading groups we have finally begun all 3 books. One group is reading Gregor the Overlander, one is reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and one is reading Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. Students are working in small group with each other and me AND independently to analyze these books. Their novel questions can be found on Google Classroom and will go up periodically. Students have a couple days to work on each assignment. We are also working on prefixes and suffixes in grammar.
Math - We are continuing our study of quadrilaterals this week! Students are working on understanding attributes, drawing shapes based on knowledge of attributes, knowing types of lines, and differentiating between the shapes. We will be working in differentiated math groups and on online quizzes this week, and we'll be starting a longer term activity where students will be designing a city using quadrilaterals!
Science - We are continuing our inquiry-based unit on space this week! So far we've learned about what makes up the solar system, how things move in space (moon orbiting Earth, planets orbiting the sun, the solar system orbiting the center of the galaxy), and patterns in space (movement of the constellations across the sky, moon phases). We will be teaching another class about these things on Wednesday of this week before looking more into stars, space rocks, and a few other things!
As always, check out our Twitter for pictures of things we're doing in class!
Please let me know if you have any questions!
I hope you had a great weekend!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Report cards and MCLASS updates came home on Friday! Please return the envelope, but keep the papers!
- This Friday is FULL DAY of school! It used to be an early release day, but was extended to make up for a snow day!
- Next Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so there is no school. There are a number of different events that will take place in the Triangle this weekend to remember and commemorate Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement (and there are many opportunities to do acts of service for others)! This News and Observer page lists several of them:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article194505994.html
Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Marches, MLK Day events in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill | News & Observer
www.newsobserver.com
Young participants carry signs prior to the 37th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Memorial March in 2017. The 2018 march is Jan. 15, departing at 11 a.m. from the State Capitol.
- Next Friday (Jan 25) is our track out day, and it is a full day!
- We will take another NC Check In next week! (Math test on the computer to see how they are doing so far - questions are pulled from the EOG bank).
Homework:Reading - students should be reading their literary classic novel for 20 minutes each night. They will do 3 reading responses per week about their novel (over the next 3 weeks). A paper with questions they can choose from for their responses is coming home today along with their reading response journals. They will show me their responses on Fridays!
Math - geometry practice sheets
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - No specials, but we do have an assembly
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing our literary classic analysis during our literacy time! We are reading Peter Pan as a whole class and are finally at the point in the book where Peter, Wendy, John, and Michael get to Neverland! We are working together to analyze the book and we are talking about character traits, order of events, point of view, context clues, and more! In our reading groups we have finally begun all 3 books. One group is reading Gregor the Overlander, one is reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and one is reading Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. Students are working in small group with each other and me AND independently to analyze these books. Their novel questions can be found on Google Classroom and will go up periodically. Students have a couple days to work on each assignment. We are also working on prefixes and suffixes in grammar.
Math - We are continuing our study of quadrilaterals this week! Students are working on understanding attributes, drawing shapes based on knowledge of attributes, knowing types of lines, and differentiating between the shapes. We will be working in differentiated math groups and on online quizzes this week, and we'll be starting a longer term activity where students will be designing a city using quadrilaterals!
Science - We are continuing our inquiry-based unit on space this week! So far we've learned about what makes up the solar system, how things move in space (moon orbiting Earth, planets orbiting the sun, the solar system orbiting the center of the galaxy), and patterns in space (movement of the constellations across the sky, moon phases). We will be teaching another class about these things on Wednesday of this week before looking more into stars, space rocks, and a few other things!
As always, check out our Twitter for pictures of things we're doing in class!
Please let me know if you have any questions!
january 2 - 11 weekly update
Happy Wednesday!!
I hope you all had a wonderful winter break! I was so excited to be back at work today! We are going to have a great January!
If you haven't yet, please respond to the Project Survey I have created:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeS867CHuJiM63Q-CxCzXRIjuZ-8jQqTef9qqlD8bMzgr9fNw/viewform?usp=sf_link
**A previous email listed the standards for the unit**
Reminders/Announcements:
- Report cards and MCLASS reports will be coming home next Friday, January 11
- Some bits of project work will be coming home this week!
- I will not be at school on Friday due to a training for all 3rd grade teachers. If your child will need to go home differently than usual, please send in a physical note for the substitute!
- We track out Friday, January 25 - I wanted to include the date here already because I was under some impression that track out was the 18th! I'm glad I realized now... 😊
Homework:
January 2 - 4
Math sheets - multiplication/division/multi-step problems
Article about New Year traditions
January 7 - 11
Math sheets - geometry
Beginning literary classics homework (a paper will come home next week) - students will be choosing a literary classic (a novel) to read at home over the next couple weeks. Homework will come in the form of a list of questions they can choose from each week to answer about their book.
Specials:
Wednesday - Science
Thursday - Art
Friday - Music
Monday - PE
Tuesday - Tech
Wednesday - Media
Thursday - Science
Friday - Art
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We will spend the 2nd - 4th finishing up last quarter's literacy paper that we're writing! We did a lot of research and writing prior to winter break, but just didn't quite finish everything! We will be spending time this week finishing those papers and remembering the nonfiction work we were doing in December. Next week we will be moving into our new unit. We will spend third quarter focused on fiction - specifically literary classics! As a whole group we will be reading a version of Peter Pan. We will also be reading literary classics chosen by me in our small reading groups. Students will be able to choose a literary classic at home (or to take home) to read for homework, as well! We will work on all of our fiction standards for the quarter through these books! I have loved our nonfiction units this past quarter, but I'm excited to get back into novel studies!
Math - We are finishing up our multiplication/division specific unit this week! We will take our final test on Friday! Next week we will begin our unit of geometry. This unit focuses on the attributes of quadrilaterals and being able to identify and compare quadrilaterals. This unit is fantastic for a couple reasons - first, there aren't many numbers in this unit (only 90 degree angles) - it's a very different feel to our math block! Second, it's a perfect lead in to our area/perimeter unit where we will combine our geometry knowledge with our multiplication/division knowledge!
Science - This quarter is one of my favorites, as we will be studying space! Our main focus is on the relationships between the Earth, moon, and sun, but we'll be doing a lot more with it! It's really hard to go from a project unit back to a standard, teacher guided unit - so we just won't! We won't be doing project work with this unit, but we will do it as an inquiry based unit! We will be answering our questions (with the guidance of the key concepts and standards) together as a class or in small groups! We will be filling out our inquiry papers as a whole group as we learn! Keep an eye on our Twitter to see our work! I'll probably also send some pictures home!
I hope you all had a wonderful winter break! I was so excited to be back at work today! We are going to have a great January!
If you haven't yet, please respond to the Project Survey I have created:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeS867CHuJiM63Q-CxCzXRIjuZ-8jQqTef9qqlD8bMzgr9fNw/viewform?usp=sf_link
**A previous email listed the standards for the unit**
Reminders/Announcements:
- Report cards and MCLASS reports will be coming home next Friday, January 11
- Some bits of project work will be coming home this week!
- I will not be at school on Friday due to a training for all 3rd grade teachers. If your child will need to go home differently than usual, please send in a physical note for the substitute!
- We track out Friday, January 25 - I wanted to include the date here already because I was under some impression that track out was the 18th! I'm glad I realized now... 😊
Homework:
January 2 - 4
Math sheets - multiplication/division/multi-step problems
Article about New Year traditions
January 7 - 11
Math sheets - geometry
Beginning literary classics homework (a paper will come home next week) - students will be choosing a literary classic (a novel) to read at home over the next couple weeks. Homework will come in the form of a list of questions they can choose from each week to answer about their book.
Specials:
Wednesday - Science
Thursday - Art
Friday - Music
Monday - PE
Tuesday - Tech
Wednesday - Media
Thursday - Science
Friday - Art
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We will spend the 2nd - 4th finishing up last quarter's literacy paper that we're writing! We did a lot of research and writing prior to winter break, but just didn't quite finish everything! We will be spending time this week finishing those papers and remembering the nonfiction work we were doing in December. Next week we will be moving into our new unit. We will spend third quarter focused on fiction - specifically literary classics! As a whole group we will be reading a version of Peter Pan. We will also be reading literary classics chosen by me in our small reading groups. Students will be able to choose a literary classic at home (or to take home) to read for homework, as well! We will work on all of our fiction standards for the quarter through these books! I have loved our nonfiction units this past quarter, but I'm excited to get back into novel studies!
Math - We are finishing up our multiplication/division specific unit this week! We will take our final test on Friday! Next week we will begin our unit of geometry. This unit focuses on the attributes of quadrilaterals and being able to identify and compare quadrilaterals. This unit is fantastic for a couple reasons - first, there aren't many numbers in this unit (only 90 degree angles) - it's a very different feel to our math block! Second, it's a perfect lead in to our area/perimeter unit where we will combine our geometry knowledge with our multiplication/division knowledge!
Science - This quarter is one of my favorites, as we will be studying space! Our main focus is on the relationships between the Earth, moon, and sun, but we'll be doing a lot more with it! It's really hard to go from a project unit back to a standard, teacher guided unit - so we just won't! We won't be doing project work with this unit, but we will do it as an inquiry based unit! We will be answering our questions (with the guidance of the key concepts and standards) together as a class or in small groups! We will be filling out our inquiry papers as a whole group as we learn! Keep an eye on our Twitter to see our work! I'll probably also send some pictures home!
dECEMBER 17 - 21 WEEKLY UPDATE
Hello, all!
Happy Monday!!
This is a CRAZY week, so I'm sorry if I'm a bit frazzled!! 😊 However, please read this email in full - at least the reminders/announcements portion!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Friday is an early release day. Aftercare will still have normal hours. Please let me know if your child needs to go home a different way than usual.
- After Friday we will return to school on January 2! I hope you all enjoy your winter break!
- THIS FRIDAY at 9:30am is our forces in transportation culmination! Your children have been working SO HARD and we can't wait for you to see all that they've learned! A survey will go out to you after the project for feedback! To honor their prep time, the door to the room will not open for guests until 9:30. You can wait in the hall for a little bit beforehand. I am putting work up in the hallway for your viewing pleasure!
- If for some reason your child will not be at school on Friday, please let me know ASAP. Their project group needs to know this ahead of time if at all possible!
**The student council is putting on a clothing drive! Please send in any clothing your family (children and adults) doesn't need anymore! All clothing does need to be clean and the rescue missions do not accept used undergarments or socks! You can send items in through January 18!**
**In case you haven't heard - Ms. Caswell is leaving us to open Parkside Elementary! Friday is also her last day. I know we will all be kept updated about an interim principal and her replacement, but I'll keep you guys updated, too!**
Specials:
...we have them. I really need to start writing these emails at school where I have the schedule printed out! So sorry! I'll remind the kids if we have PE!
Homework:
- Reading activities due Friday
- Math sheets about multiplication/division and two step problems will be happening nightly! Sometimes completed papers will come home and I simply want you to go over the problems and have your children talk about them!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are finally finishing up our animal projects (gray wolves, great white sharks, American alligators) we've been working on with text features and text structures! We have learned SO MUCH about text features, main idea and details, sequence, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, etc! We have had so much fun learning about these animals in these different ways! We're now putting it all together to show all that we've learned! In addition, we're finishing up our 5 paragraph essay about the adaptations of a reptile/amphibian of their choosing!
Math - Two step problems with multiplication, addition, and subtraction!
Project - We are taking the VAST amounts of knowledge in our brains and putting it into cohesive presentations with information presentations, creation, and more! We can't wait to show you on Friday!
Have a great week!
Happy Monday!!
This is a CRAZY week, so I'm sorry if I'm a bit frazzled!! 😊 However, please read this email in full - at least the reminders/announcements portion!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Friday is an early release day. Aftercare will still have normal hours. Please let me know if your child needs to go home a different way than usual.
- After Friday we will return to school on January 2! I hope you all enjoy your winter break!
- THIS FRIDAY at 9:30am is our forces in transportation culmination! Your children have been working SO HARD and we can't wait for you to see all that they've learned! A survey will go out to you after the project for feedback! To honor their prep time, the door to the room will not open for guests until 9:30. You can wait in the hall for a little bit beforehand. I am putting work up in the hallway for your viewing pleasure!
- If for some reason your child will not be at school on Friday, please let me know ASAP. Their project group needs to know this ahead of time if at all possible!
**The student council is putting on a clothing drive! Please send in any clothing your family (children and adults) doesn't need anymore! All clothing does need to be clean and the rescue missions do not accept used undergarments or socks! You can send items in through January 18!**
**In case you haven't heard - Ms. Caswell is leaving us to open Parkside Elementary! Friday is also her last day. I know we will all be kept updated about an interim principal and her replacement, but I'll keep you guys updated, too!**
Specials:
...we have them. I really need to start writing these emails at school where I have the schedule printed out! So sorry! I'll remind the kids if we have PE!
Homework:
- Reading activities due Friday
- Math sheets about multiplication/division and two step problems will be happening nightly! Sometimes completed papers will come home and I simply want you to go over the problems and have your children talk about them!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are finally finishing up our animal projects (gray wolves, great white sharks, American alligators) we've been working on with text features and text structures! We have learned SO MUCH about text features, main idea and details, sequence, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, etc! We have had so much fun learning about these animals in these different ways! We're now putting it all together to show all that we've learned! In addition, we're finishing up our 5 paragraph essay about the adaptations of a reptile/amphibian of their choosing!
Math - Two step problems with multiplication, addition, and subtraction!
Project - We are taking the VAST amounts of knowledge in our brains and putting it into cohesive presentations with information presentations, creation, and more! We can't wait to show you on Friday!
Have a great week!
DECEMBER 10 - 14 WEEKLY UPDATE
Happy Tuesday!
I hope you've all enjoyed the snow days! I've loved reading about all the fun you've been having and seeing pictures on our google slides!
1 - We are going to have our Forces in Transportation culmination on Dec 21 in the morning. I will send the specific time later!
2 - We need a few more project things! If you can send anything on this sign up in, we would super appreciate it!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EA9AC2EAAFB6-project1
3 - We have Saturday school this week! PLEASE send your child in unless you absolutely can't! We'll be doing project all day!
Wednesday's delayed start day will still include lunch!
Homework will be short this week! Look for it coming home on Wednesday!
Literacy:
This week will focus on 2 things! We will be working through our group animal study with cause/effect and compare/contrast work! Students will work together to analyze a nonfiction text about their group's animal and pull out the information of the text structures! We will also be doing research on the amphibian/reptile of their choosing. This research will help us learn about their adaptations so we can write a paper about them!
Math:
We will be focused on word problems this week! We are moving into our two step word problems with addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We will work on seeing the pieces of the word problems before jumping into solving them!
Project:
We are putting both feet forward with project this week! We will be working hard on our creations and our research as we move closer to culmination!
Enjoy the rest of your week!
I hope you've all enjoyed the snow days! I've loved reading about all the fun you've been having and seeing pictures on our google slides!
1 - We are going to have our Forces in Transportation culmination on Dec 21 in the morning. I will send the specific time later!
2 - We need a few more project things! If you can send anything on this sign up in, we would super appreciate it!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EA9AC2EAAFB6-project1
3 - We have Saturday school this week! PLEASE send your child in unless you absolutely can't! We'll be doing project all day!
Wednesday's delayed start day will still include lunch!
Homework will be short this week! Look for it coming home on Wednesday!
Literacy:
This week will focus on 2 things! We will be working through our group animal study with cause/effect and compare/contrast work! Students will work together to analyze a nonfiction text about their group's animal and pull out the information of the text structures! We will also be doing research on the amphibian/reptile of their choosing. This research will help us learn about their adaptations so we can write a paper about them!
Math:
We will be focused on word problems this week! We are moving into our two step word problems with addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We will work on seeing the pieces of the word problems before jumping into solving them!
Project:
We are putting both feet forward with project this week! We will be working hard on our creations and our research as we move closer to culmination!
Enjoy the rest of your week!
DECEMBER 3 - 7 WEEKLY UPDATE
Happy Monday!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Reminders/Announcements:
- We have a field trip this Friday to Morehead Planetarium (please see separate field trip email)
- Progress reports came home on Friday, and we have graded work to send home, we just keep forgetting to grab it! So sorry!
- If you have not yet met with me for a conference, there are a few more slots on the sign up. Also, you can just email me to set up a time!
Homework:
- Article and questions
- Math sheets
Specials:
Monday - Media
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Friday **I'll update you tomorrow when I'm at school to see the schedule**
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We have concluded our study of text features and will now be using that knowledge to move into text structures! We will be studying the following nonfiction text structures: description, sequence, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution. We will now be using the animal books we used for text features and other resources to continue studying their group animal! In whole group literacy, we're still studying amphibian and reptile adaptations. We're using that research to write informational paragraphs with good details!
I have attached some pictures of the text features the kids made to go with books they read in their reading groups! They worked so hard!!
Math - We are slowing down just a little bit here... we're taking a couple days this week to review everything we've done with multiplication and division before moving into our final sprint of the unit - multi-step word problems. We'll be looking back into inverse equations, using properties, using strategies, putting variables in equations, and solving one step word problems. We'll be working in our groups to meet any needs we have before taking a quiz and moving forward! You will see this review in the homework!
Project - We are continuing research, talking with experts, and discussing our knowledge. I have been meeting with all of the groups to see what they've learned so far and help guide them toward deeper understanding! Some groups are interested in beginning to create this week, so we would like to ask you for any random materials you have! I will send a separate email for that, too!
Thank you for reading!
Have a great week, and let me know if you need anything!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Reminders/Announcements:
- We have a field trip this Friday to Morehead Planetarium (please see separate field trip email)
- Progress reports came home on Friday, and we have graded work to send home, we just keep forgetting to grab it! So sorry!
- If you have not yet met with me for a conference, there are a few more slots on the sign up. Also, you can just email me to set up a time!
Homework:
- Article and questions
- Math sheets
Specials:
Monday - Media
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Friday **I'll update you tomorrow when I'm at school to see the schedule**
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We have concluded our study of text features and will now be using that knowledge to move into text structures! We will be studying the following nonfiction text structures: description, sequence, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution. We will now be using the animal books we used for text features and other resources to continue studying their group animal! In whole group literacy, we're still studying amphibian and reptile adaptations. We're using that research to write informational paragraphs with good details!
I have attached some pictures of the text features the kids made to go with books they read in their reading groups! They worked so hard!!
Math - We are slowing down just a little bit here... we're taking a couple days this week to review everything we've done with multiplication and division before moving into our final sprint of the unit - multi-step word problems. We'll be looking back into inverse equations, using properties, using strategies, putting variables in equations, and solving one step word problems. We'll be working in our groups to meet any needs we have before taking a quiz and moving forward! You will see this review in the homework!
Project - We are continuing research, talking with experts, and discussing our knowledge. I have been meeting with all of the groups to see what they've learned so far and help guide them toward deeper understanding! Some groups are interested in beginning to create this week, so we would like to ask you for any random materials you have! I will send a separate email for that, too!
Thank you for reading!
Have a great week, and let me know if you need anything!
NOVEMBER 26 - 30 WEEKLY UPDATE
Hello, all!
I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend! If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a wonderful holiday, as well!
Now we'll jump back into school for 4 quick weeks before winter break!
Reminders/Announcements:
- There is a general PTA meeting on Tuesday at 6pm. They will discuss the vision, budget, fundraiser, and answer questions. I will also be there with some of my students from last year to discuss project work! 😊
- Progress reports will be coming out at the end of this week!
Specials:
**I'll send this out tomorrow!**
Homework:
Math sheets
Reading a chosen article about animal adaptations and answering questions (due Friday)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are continuing everything we've been working on! We will be researching a specific type of frog this week and writing about its behavioral and physical adaptations! In addition, we will be finishing our group work focused on creating and inserting text features into nonfiction texts. After we're done with that, we'll be using those texts (and others) to do a long term group activity on text structures! Each group is working with animal texts (sharks, wolves, and alligators/crocodiles).
Math - We will be continuing our focus on multiplication and division this week! We will be working with properties of multiplication (distributive, commutative, identity, zero, and associative) and moving into multi-step word problems. Students should still be practicing their multiplication facts. Also, keep an eye on your email for examples of how to do the math on homework assignments. You can use them, and so can your kiddos!
Project - We are continuing our research this week! Students are working either independently or with others to learn about the forces behind their transportation type. We also have a couple guest experts who will be talking with students!
Let me know if you need anything!
Have a great week!
I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend! If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a wonderful holiday, as well!
Now we'll jump back into school for 4 quick weeks before winter break!
Reminders/Announcements:
- There is a general PTA meeting on Tuesday at 6pm. They will discuss the vision, budget, fundraiser, and answer questions. I will also be there with some of my students from last year to discuss project work! 😊
- Progress reports will be coming out at the end of this week!
Specials:
**I'll send this out tomorrow!**
Homework:
Math sheets
Reading a chosen article about animal adaptations and answering questions (due Friday)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are continuing everything we've been working on! We will be researching a specific type of frog this week and writing about its behavioral and physical adaptations! In addition, we will be finishing our group work focused on creating and inserting text features into nonfiction texts. After we're done with that, we'll be using those texts (and others) to do a long term group activity on text structures! Each group is working with animal texts (sharks, wolves, and alligators/crocodiles).
Math - We will be continuing our focus on multiplication and division this week! We will be working with properties of multiplication (distributive, commutative, identity, zero, and associative) and moving into multi-step word problems. Students should still be practicing their multiplication facts. Also, keep an eye on your email for examples of how to do the math on homework assignments. You can use them, and so can your kiddos!
Project - We are continuing our research this week! Students are working either independently or with others to learn about the forces behind their transportation type. We also have a couple guest experts who will be talking with students!
Let me know if you need anything!
Have a great week!
NOVEMBER 19 - 20 WEEKLY UPDATE
Happy Monday!!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready for the upcoming LONG weekend!
Announcements/Reminders:
- Tuesday is an early release day! School is over at 1:15. Aftercare runs normally, but if your child needs to go home a different way please let me know!
- We do not have school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
- If you have not yet signed up for a conference, please let me know so we can find a time to meet!
- We took our NC Check Ins this morning!
Homework:
Monday
- Math sheet
- Read a nonfiction book for 20 minutes and write about how text features helped you better understand the text (students were told to take a nonfiction book from the classroom home with them if they needed to).
Specials:
Monday - Media
Weekly Update:
This is a super short week... but we will continue to work with text features, our amphibians/reptiles unit, multiplication strategies (distributive property), and our project work!
Let me know if you need anything!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready for the upcoming LONG weekend!
Announcements/Reminders:
- Tuesday is an early release day! School is over at 1:15. Aftercare runs normally, but if your child needs to go home a different way please let me know!
- We do not have school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.
- If you have not yet signed up for a conference, please let me know so we can find a time to meet!
- We took our NC Check Ins this morning!
Homework:
Monday
- Math sheet
- Read a nonfiction book for 20 minutes and write about how text features helped you better understand the text (students were told to take a nonfiction book from the classroom home with them if they needed to).
Specials:
Monday - Media
Weekly Update:
This is a super short week... but we will continue to work with text features, our amphibians/reptiles unit, multiplication strategies (distributive property), and our project work!
Let me know if you need anything!
NOVEMBER 13 - 16 WEEKLY UPDATE
Hello, and welcome back!!
I am thrilled to be writing this and getting ready for our day at school tomorrow! I hope you all have had a fun, but relaxing, three weeks off! Get ready for the craziness of this track in!
**If you signed up for a conference on Wednesday as 'Green Level Presidency' please email me! Sorry, I wasn't sure who it was and I need to ask you about how your child will go home on Wednesday!**
Reminders/Annoucements:
- It is Book Fair week! We will be PREVIEWING books on Tuesday and going back to purchase on Thursday. Students will come home with a wish list on Tuesday if they want to purchase books! If you would like your child to buy books during school on Thursday, please send them with the money they will need!
- If you have not yet signed up for a conference, please click the link below and sign up!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EA9AC2EAAFB6-fall3
- We will be jumping back into project work this week, as well! Our forces in transportation project will take us through the last week of school in December! We'll keep you updated!
- This week we will be taking the NC Check Ins. These are unofficial check in math tests provided by the state. Students will take them on the computer after having the opportunity to get familiar with the system. These activities are usually only 20 - 30 questions long.
- I'm sure you're all wondering about the CogAt scores and impending IOWA tests. More information will be coming home to you soon, as the students who need to will take their IOWA tests the week after Thanksgiving break.
Specials:
**I can't find the specials schedule right now - I'll send that along tomorrow!**
Homework:
Will be updated on the website Tuesday AND a paper will come home outlining the work for the week on Tuesday!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing the unit on amphibians and reptiles that we began before track out, but we're now moving solidly into nonfiction! We will be spending the next few weeks studying the adaptations of frogs in different environments around the world. To support this study, we'll be studying nonfiction text features (table of contents, maps, charts, glossary, index, etc) and text structures (cause/effect, compare/contrast, description, sequence, etc). We will do this through reading nonfiction books in reading groups, doing an extended study of an endangered species in our groups using different types of nonfiction texts, and reading through frog information together. Students will also be reading about animals in different environments for their homework! We will be both reading and writing about adaptations during this time!
Math - We will start our track in with a quick review of our main units thus far (addition/subtraction, graphing, and multiplication/division). We will move from there to deepening our study of multiplication/division. Students should continue to work on their multiplication facts at home!
Project - Students will be diving into their research this week! They will have time to reacquaint themselves with our project work so far, and then make their final decision about what they want to study. They will then have the next several weeks to research their transportation using books, online resources, and experts. You can keep up with our project work on our class Twitter!
Again, I'm so excited to be back at it!
Have a wonderful week!
I am thrilled to be writing this and getting ready for our day at school tomorrow! I hope you all have had a fun, but relaxing, three weeks off! Get ready for the craziness of this track in!
**If you signed up for a conference on Wednesday as 'Green Level Presidency' please email me! Sorry, I wasn't sure who it was and I need to ask you about how your child will go home on Wednesday!**
Reminders/Annoucements:
- It is Book Fair week! We will be PREVIEWING books on Tuesday and going back to purchase on Thursday. Students will come home with a wish list on Tuesday if they want to purchase books! If you would like your child to buy books during school on Thursday, please send them with the money they will need!
- If you have not yet signed up for a conference, please click the link below and sign up!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EA9AC2EAAFB6-fall3
- We will be jumping back into project work this week, as well! Our forces in transportation project will take us through the last week of school in December! We'll keep you updated!
- This week we will be taking the NC Check Ins. These are unofficial check in math tests provided by the state. Students will take them on the computer after having the opportunity to get familiar with the system. These activities are usually only 20 - 30 questions long.
- I'm sure you're all wondering about the CogAt scores and impending IOWA tests. More information will be coming home to you soon, as the students who need to will take their IOWA tests the week after Thanksgiving break.
Specials:
**I can't find the specials schedule right now - I'll send that along tomorrow!**
Homework:
Will be updated on the website Tuesday AND a paper will come home outlining the work for the week on Tuesday!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing the unit on amphibians and reptiles that we began before track out, but we're now moving solidly into nonfiction! We will be spending the next few weeks studying the adaptations of frogs in different environments around the world. To support this study, we'll be studying nonfiction text features (table of contents, maps, charts, glossary, index, etc) and text structures (cause/effect, compare/contrast, description, sequence, etc). We will do this through reading nonfiction books in reading groups, doing an extended study of an endangered species in our groups using different types of nonfiction texts, and reading through frog information together. Students will also be reading about animals in different environments for their homework! We will be both reading and writing about adaptations during this time!
Math - We will start our track in with a quick review of our main units thus far (addition/subtraction, graphing, and multiplication/division). We will move from there to deepening our study of multiplication/division. Students should continue to work on their multiplication facts at home!
Project - Students will be diving into their research this week! They will have time to reacquaint themselves with our project work so far, and then make their final decision about what they want to study. They will then have the next several weeks to research their transportation using books, online resources, and experts. You can keep up with our project work on our class Twitter!
Again, I'm so excited to be back at it!
Have a wonderful week!
october 15 - 19 WEEKLY UPDATE
Hello, and happy Monday!!
This has been a crazy track in with all of the bad weather, but we're trying to still get everything done that we need to!!
Reminders/Announcements:
- THIS FRIDAY (October 19) is our track out day. Students will be tracked out starting on Monday, October 22 and will return to school on Tuesday, November 13.
- Friday, Oct 19, is a FULL DAY of school. It is not an early release day anymore.
- Students will be bringing home a bag full of their school supplies. Please leave the supplies in the bag and send it back in when we return.
- Information about the coupon book fundraiser is coming home today! It's late, and I do apologize!
- Literacy Night is tomorrow, Oct 16! The food trucks will be here at 5:15, and you will be allowed to go to your sessions at 6pm! The PTA will be there, as well, to discuss the fundraiser! If you RSVP'd you will get a folder of information about your child at Literacy Night! I am NOT one of the teachers presenting at Literacy Night (I will be presenting Math Night in February), but other third grade teachers will lead you through! Tracks 1 and 2 teachers are in charge of literacy night, tracks 3 and 4 will do math night.
Specials:
Monday - Tech
Tuesday - Media
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Music
Friday - No specials today, but it is a full day!
Homework:
Homework instructions are coming home with the reading activities for the week! A math sheet will accompany the literacy homework each night.
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are finishing up (or trying to) our pourquoi unit! Students have chosen a reptile or amphibian to study from a book of poems. They are starting the week by completing some research on the animal to have a basis of fact for their story. Throughout the week we will write our first drafts, edit them, and then type our final drafts! They will continue to study their chosen animal after track out when we switch into nonfiction reading and writing. In our literacy groups this week we are analyzing poetry and folk literature.
Math - This week we are switching back to multiplication and division! We will spend the week remembering our multiplication and division strategies, discussing the vocabulary of these concepts (factors, divisors, quotient, product, etc). Within this review week, we will be working with word problems and regular equations.
**MULTIPLICATION FACTS** - I do not teach the memorization of facts through flash cards or repetition here at school, but those are good ways to help your kids memorize them at home. Here at school we focus on the conceptual aspects of the math, but that doesn't always help them actually memorize their facts. These facts are so important for them to know. As math continues this year and in years to come, the ability to immediately know a multiplication fact without having to do a strategy will be exceptionally important! So, basically, please practice these facts with your child!! 😊
Project - This week we are working to come to a good pausing point in our project work. We will spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday focused on studying and representing our force and motion words. Thursday and Friday will be spent learning HOW to take notes and getting our stuff together to wait for us over track out. When we return from track out we will jump right into research and spend the remainder of the quarter focused on the project. Culmination will be sometime in mid-December!
Have a great week! I'm sure you'll hear from me again... 😊
This has been a crazy track in with all of the bad weather, but we're trying to still get everything done that we need to!!
Reminders/Announcements:
- THIS FRIDAY (October 19) is our track out day. Students will be tracked out starting on Monday, October 22 and will return to school on Tuesday, November 13.
- Friday, Oct 19, is a FULL DAY of school. It is not an early release day anymore.
- Students will be bringing home a bag full of their school supplies. Please leave the supplies in the bag and send it back in when we return.
- Information about the coupon book fundraiser is coming home today! It's late, and I do apologize!
- Literacy Night is tomorrow, Oct 16! The food trucks will be here at 5:15, and you will be allowed to go to your sessions at 6pm! The PTA will be there, as well, to discuss the fundraiser! If you RSVP'd you will get a folder of information about your child at Literacy Night! I am NOT one of the teachers presenting at Literacy Night (I will be presenting Math Night in February), but other third grade teachers will lead you through! Tracks 1 and 2 teachers are in charge of literacy night, tracks 3 and 4 will do math night.
Specials:
Monday - Tech
Tuesday - Media
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Music
Friday - No specials today, but it is a full day!
Homework:
Homework instructions are coming home with the reading activities for the week! A math sheet will accompany the literacy homework each night.
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are finishing up (or trying to) our pourquoi unit! Students have chosen a reptile or amphibian to study from a book of poems. They are starting the week by completing some research on the animal to have a basis of fact for their story. Throughout the week we will write our first drafts, edit them, and then type our final drafts! They will continue to study their chosen animal after track out when we switch into nonfiction reading and writing. In our literacy groups this week we are analyzing poetry and folk literature.
Math - This week we are switching back to multiplication and division! We will spend the week remembering our multiplication and division strategies, discussing the vocabulary of these concepts (factors, divisors, quotient, product, etc). Within this review week, we will be working with word problems and regular equations.
**MULTIPLICATION FACTS** - I do not teach the memorization of facts through flash cards or repetition here at school, but those are good ways to help your kids memorize them at home. Here at school we focus on the conceptual aspects of the math, but that doesn't always help them actually memorize their facts. These facts are so important for them to know. As math continues this year and in years to come, the ability to immediately know a multiplication fact without having to do a strategy will be exceptionally important! So, basically, please practice these facts with your child!! 😊
Project - This week we are working to come to a good pausing point in our project work. We will spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday focused on studying and representing our force and motion words. Thursday and Friday will be spent learning HOW to take notes and getting our stuff together to wait for us over track out. When we return from track out we will jump right into research and spend the remainder of the quarter focused on the project. Culmination will be sometime in mid-December!
Have a great week! I'm sure you'll hear from me again... 😊
october 8 - 12 weekly update
Happy Monday, everyone!!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Report cards are coming home today! Let me know if you have any questions!
- I will be absent from school on Thursday of this week. If your child needs to go home a different way that day, please send in a hand written note for the substitute.
- I will be sending out a sign up for conferences over the next 2 weeks and after track out! If none of the dates/times work for you, let me know and we'll figure something out!
- Literacy Night is next Tuesday, October 16!
Specials:
Monday - Media
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Music
Thursday - Art
Friday - Science
Homework:
- Folktales article and activities
- Math sheets
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are writing pourquoi stories this week! Pourquoi stories are a type of folk literature that answers a why question (ie. "Why Frogs Have Long Tongues" or "Why the Sea is Salty"). We will be writing a couple of these (and reading a ton of them) over the next couple weeks! These pourquoi stories provide us with a way to study folk literature, to write narrative stories, to work on our sentences, AND to work on our research skills (because pourquoi stories have to be based in fact)! This is an awesome way for us to read and write fiction while preparing to connect it to our nonfiction study after track out! We'll be studying amphibians and reptiles!
Math - We're going to try to finish up our addition/subtraction unit this week. We've finally gotten to a point where we're using ALL of our strategies (or the skills we gained from them) to solve multi-step problems! Your kiddos have worked SO HARD on this unit and I am just so proud of them! If we do get this unit finished this week, we're going to move back into multiplication and division!
Project - We are moving into Phase 2 this week! We MIGHT have another guest expert (but should have 2 more total before track out - motorcycles and a flight instructor)! Last week we had a boat and corvettes come in and learned from some experts! Check out our Twitter page to see some pictures!!!! We are already learning so much and I am so excited about it! When we return from track out I will ask for some volunteers to come in during our research time!
Have a great week!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Report cards are coming home today! Let me know if you have any questions!
- I will be absent from school on Thursday of this week. If your child needs to go home a different way that day, please send in a hand written note for the substitute.
- I will be sending out a sign up for conferences over the next 2 weeks and after track out! If none of the dates/times work for you, let me know and we'll figure something out!
- Literacy Night is next Tuesday, October 16!
Specials:
Monday - Media
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Music
Thursday - Art
Friday - Science
Homework:
- Folktales article and activities
- Math sheets
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are writing pourquoi stories this week! Pourquoi stories are a type of folk literature that answers a why question (ie. "Why Frogs Have Long Tongues" or "Why the Sea is Salty"). We will be writing a couple of these (and reading a ton of them) over the next couple weeks! These pourquoi stories provide us with a way to study folk literature, to write narrative stories, to work on our sentences, AND to work on our research skills (because pourquoi stories have to be based in fact)! This is an awesome way for us to read and write fiction while preparing to connect it to our nonfiction study after track out! We'll be studying amphibians and reptiles!
Math - We're going to try to finish up our addition/subtraction unit this week. We've finally gotten to a point where we're using ALL of our strategies (or the skills we gained from them) to solve multi-step problems! Your kiddos have worked SO HARD on this unit and I am just so proud of them! If we do get this unit finished this week, we're going to move back into multiplication and division!
Project - We are moving into Phase 2 this week! We MIGHT have another guest expert (but should have 2 more total before track out - motorcycles and a flight instructor)! Last week we had a boat and corvettes come in and learned from some experts! Check out our Twitter page to see some pictures!!!! We are already learning so much and I am so excited about it! When we return from track out I will ask for some volunteers to come in during our research time!
Have a great week!
october 1 - 5 weekly update
Happy Monday, all!!
I hope you had a great weekend! Can you believe it's already second quarter??
Announcements/Reminders:
- Report cards are scheduled to come home this Friday. The county system is having problems, so I will let you know if the date changes!
- We are OFFICIALLY in project work! A project focused email will come home in addition to this email! I LOVE having parent volunteers for project work, so I will send emails about that later!
- Graded work came home in green folders on Friday - please make sure to take a look at those!
- We have a field trip this Thursday, October 4, to Duke Homestead! If you are an APPROVED WCPSS volunteer and would like to chaperone this field trip, please let me know! We can only take 2 volunteers so I will go with first come, first serve!
- We have 2 guest experts this week for project work, as well! They will be in on Tuesday and Wednesday! Ask your kiddos about them (more info in next email)!
- Literacy Night is on October 16 at school! If you RSVP to the event, you will have a folder of information about your child provided! 😊 Our team has created a great night including a presentation and a time to walk around and see what your child will be working with and learning about throughout the year!
Specials:
Monday - PE
Tuesday - Music
Wednesday - Art (we will likely miss this due to a guest expert visit, but Ms. Long will come to the visit to help us with observational drawings)
Thursday - Science
Friday - Technology
Homework:
**Math sheets daily** (examples for Monday's homework attached to this email)
Monday - Forces in Transportation story (examples attached to this email) - Please talk with your child and help them to write about a time when they experienced FORCES (gravity, push, pull, friction, speed) in transportation. The attached documents have our project break down and my example stories!
Tuesday - Thursday - (I am actually still deciding between an article and at-home discussions... I'll let you know tomorrow! 😊)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - A new quarter begins this week, so a new reading module also begins! We will be spending this quarter focused on studying frogs, other amphibians, and reptiles! We will be starting with folk literature and poetry (both reading and writing them) about our amphibians/reptiles. Being able to write a good story about their animal will involve researching the animal, though. We will do this until track out! When we return from track out we will switch to nonfiction and research these animals more before moving into informational writing! We finished our novels in our literacy groups, so we will now be reading folk literature! After track out we'll be reading nonfiction texts and working with text structures (cause/effect, problem/solution, sequence, main idea/details, compare/contrast).
Math - We are still working with addition and subtraction this week! We will be finishing up our estimation unit and moving into understanding multi-step problems (with addition/subtraction only). We will be working a lot in whole group this week as we have so many extra things (guest experts and a field trip) that will take time away from our instruction!
Science - We are really into project work now! This week we are going to be working with our prior experience, what we know about forces and transportation, and meeting our first guest experts! Our pre-project work has included front-loading the concepts of force and motion and looking into how to do observational drawings! You can see all of this on our Twitter page! @MeganMadlon
Have a great week!
I hope you had a great weekend! Can you believe it's already second quarter??
Announcements/Reminders:
- Report cards are scheduled to come home this Friday. The county system is having problems, so I will let you know if the date changes!
- We are OFFICIALLY in project work! A project focused email will come home in addition to this email! I LOVE having parent volunteers for project work, so I will send emails about that later!
- Graded work came home in green folders on Friday - please make sure to take a look at those!
- We have a field trip this Thursday, October 4, to Duke Homestead! If you are an APPROVED WCPSS volunteer and would like to chaperone this field trip, please let me know! We can only take 2 volunteers so I will go with first come, first serve!
- We have 2 guest experts this week for project work, as well! They will be in on Tuesday and Wednesday! Ask your kiddos about them (more info in next email)!
- Literacy Night is on October 16 at school! If you RSVP to the event, you will have a folder of information about your child provided! 😊 Our team has created a great night including a presentation and a time to walk around and see what your child will be working with and learning about throughout the year!
Specials:
Monday - PE
Tuesday - Music
Wednesday - Art (we will likely miss this due to a guest expert visit, but Ms. Long will come to the visit to help us with observational drawings)
Thursday - Science
Friday - Technology
Homework:
**Math sheets daily** (examples for Monday's homework attached to this email)
Monday - Forces in Transportation story (examples attached to this email) - Please talk with your child and help them to write about a time when they experienced FORCES (gravity, push, pull, friction, speed) in transportation. The attached documents have our project break down and my example stories!
Tuesday - Thursday - (I am actually still deciding between an article and at-home discussions... I'll let you know tomorrow! 😊)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - A new quarter begins this week, so a new reading module also begins! We will be spending this quarter focused on studying frogs, other amphibians, and reptiles! We will be starting with folk literature and poetry (both reading and writing them) about our amphibians/reptiles. Being able to write a good story about their animal will involve researching the animal, though. We will do this until track out! When we return from track out we will switch to nonfiction and research these animals more before moving into informational writing! We finished our novels in our literacy groups, so we will now be reading folk literature! After track out we'll be reading nonfiction texts and working with text structures (cause/effect, problem/solution, sequence, main idea/details, compare/contrast).
Math - We are still working with addition and subtraction this week! We will be finishing up our estimation unit and moving into understanding multi-step problems (with addition/subtraction only). We will be working a lot in whole group this week as we have so many extra things (guest experts and a field trip) that will take time away from our instruction!
Science - We are really into project work now! This week we are going to be working with our prior experience, what we know about forces and transportation, and meeting our first guest experts! Our pre-project work has included front-loading the concepts of force and motion and looking into how to do observational drawings! You can see all of this on our Twitter page! @MeganMadlon
Have a great week!
|
september 24 - 28 weekly update
Happy Monday, all!!
Thank you so much for supporting the wonderful Saturday school turn out this past weekend! We were able to work on our research skills (which will be important for our upcoming project) while working on some year long skills like asking and answering questions about nonfiction texts! We also were able to watch a review video for our Human Body unit AND do a little math review work! Saturday school might be a short day, but we can pack a lot into those 3.5 hours!!
Reminders/Announcements:
- BOG letters are coming home Tuesday in homework folders - I believe they are a breakdown of your child's score. Let me know if you have any questions!
- Graded work will be coming home this Friday, AND there are several graded assignments on your child's Google Classroom account!
- We are going to start using a math game called Prodigy this week! Several kids in our class are familiar with it, but we will do an in class introduction and send home papers to show you how to see your child's work on the game.
- This Friday (Sept 28) is a FULL day of school!!
- This Friday is the END of first quarter, but report cards will not come home until next Friday (Oct 5).
Specials:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Science
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - No specials (yep, even though it's a full day!)
Homework:
Reading article - instructions and space to work are on the final page of the article
Math sheets - we are still working with addition and subtraction, but will be doing so with estimation
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This is kind of a packed week. We're finishing our novels, comprehension questions that go with them, and we'll be writing a FOUR PARAGRAPH paper about reading challenges we face and how we can work to overcome those challenges! Some of this may trickle into next week... especially since we don't send report cards until next Friday. 😊
Math - This week we'll be working with using estimation as a strategy for solving addition and subtraction problems (and word problems). Toward the end of the week, we will move into more challenging problems (two step problems). We'll work on these concepts in several different ways this week INCLUDING whole group, Prodigy, group work, and differentiated groups!
Science - This week we are focused on our solids, liquids, and gases unit. This unit is a short review of standards and concepts that they've learned in other grades. We'll be focused on what solids, liquids, and gases are, examples of each, how substances change from one state to another, and the way that the particles in a substance move based on its state. In addition, we'll be talking about the basics of heat transfer (ie. if you put a spoon in a hot bowl of soup, the spoon will also get warm). WE WILL ALSO BE STARTING THE PRETEACHING LESSONS FOR OUR PROJECT WORK AT THE END OF THIS WEEK!! 😊 Project work begins next week!
PS: After report cards go home, I will open up slots for conferences! I would love to meet with ALL of you several times over the year, and this is such a great time to start!
As always, let me know if you need anything!
Thanks! Have a great week!
Thank you so much for supporting the wonderful Saturday school turn out this past weekend! We were able to work on our research skills (which will be important for our upcoming project) while working on some year long skills like asking and answering questions about nonfiction texts! We also were able to watch a review video for our Human Body unit AND do a little math review work! Saturday school might be a short day, but we can pack a lot into those 3.5 hours!!
Reminders/Announcements:
- BOG letters are coming home Tuesday in homework folders - I believe they are a breakdown of your child's score. Let me know if you have any questions!
- Graded work will be coming home this Friday, AND there are several graded assignments on your child's Google Classroom account!
- We are going to start using a math game called Prodigy this week! Several kids in our class are familiar with it, but we will do an in class introduction and send home papers to show you how to see your child's work on the game.
- This Friday (Sept 28) is a FULL day of school!!
- This Friday is the END of first quarter, but report cards will not come home until next Friday (Oct 5).
Specials:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Science
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - No specials (yep, even though it's a full day!)
Homework:
Reading article - instructions and space to work are on the final page of the article
Math sheets - we are still working with addition and subtraction, but will be doing so with estimation
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This is kind of a packed week. We're finishing our novels, comprehension questions that go with them, and we'll be writing a FOUR PARAGRAPH paper about reading challenges we face and how we can work to overcome those challenges! Some of this may trickle into next week... especially since we don't send report cards until next Friday. 😊
Math - This week we'll be working with using estimation as a strategy for solving addition and subtraction problems (and word problems). Toward the end of the week, we will move into more challenging problems (two step problems). We'll work on these concepts in several different ways this week INCLUDING whole group, Prodigy, group work, and differentiated groups!
Science - This week we are focused on our solids, liquids, and gases unit. This unit is a short review of standards and concepts that they've learned in other grades. We'll be focused on what solids, liquids, and gases are, examples of each, how substances change from one state to another, and the way that the particles in a substance move based on its state. In addition, we'll be talking about the basics of heat transfer (ie. if you put a spoon in a hot bowl of soup, the spoon will also get warm). WE WILL ALSO BE STARTING THE PRETEACHING LESSONS FOR OUR PROJECT WORK AT THE END OF THIS WEEK!! 😊 Project work begins next week!
PS: After report cards go home, I will open up slots for conferences! I would love to meet with ALL of you several times over the year, and this is such a great time to start!
As always, let me know if you need anything!
Thanks! Have a great week!
september 18 - 22 weekly update
Happy Tuesday!!
I hope you all fared well in the weather this past weekend! I know I'm thrilled to finally be back in school!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Picture day is now THIS FRIDAY, Sept 21! Please return the picture forms soon if you haven't already!
- We have Saturday school this week! School will be from normal arrival (8:45 - 9:15) until 12:45! There is no before or aftercare, but buses will run normally!
- Please send in BoxTops and PTA fundraiser money this week!!!
- Field trip forms should be returned ASAP (they were sent home a couple weeks ago)
- We will do our last Cogat testing tomorrow (Wednesday)
- Our early release days scheduled for Sept 28 and Oct 19 are now FULL school days!
Specials:
Tuesday - Tech
Wednesday - Media
Thursday - PE
Friday - Music
Homework:
This week we're reading an article about Booker T. Washington for homework. We have read a book in class about his desire to learn to read as a child and the challenges he faced in learning. The article for homework discusses his childhood in less detail, but gives information about the rest of his life. We'll be discussing the long term impacts of education this week! With this article we will still be working on multiple choice questions, main idea and details, and writing sentences!
We will have math sheets this week focused on our addition/subtraction strategies!
**Day to day instructions can be found on the back of the reading packet!**
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are continuing discussing learning challenges in our whole class time. We are looking at people who faced learning challenges because of the time period in which they were born. We began with a book about Booker T. Washington (and homework about him, as well). We will also begin a writing piece about our personal learning challenges. In reading groups we are continuing our novel studies and working with comprehension in discussions and independent questions.
Math - We are still working with addition and subtraction strategies! We will finish up our study of number lines, place value drawings, and expanded form this week and take our first assessment. We will continue to use these strategies going forward, but will also be adding in estimation. In addition, we're going to discuss inverse equations this week (example: 3 + 4 = 7, inverse = 7 - 4 = 3).
Science - We are finishing our human body unit this week! We're finishing some inquiries on bones, muscles, and skin, and will take an assessment on Friday! After this we will move into studying states of matter for a couple weeks!
As always, let me know if you need anything!
Have a great week!
I hope you all fared well in the weather this past weekend! I know I'm thrilled to finally be back in school!
Reminders/Announcements:
- Picture day is now THIS FRIDAY, Sept 21! Please return the picture forms soon if you haven't already!
- We have Saturday school this week! School will be from normal arrival (8:45 - 9:15) until 12:45! There is no before or aftercare, but buses will run normally!
- Please send in BoxTops and PTA fundraiser money this week!!!
- Field trip forms should be returned ASAP (they were sent home a couple weeks ago)
- We will do our last Cogat testing tomorrow (Wednesday)
- Our early release days scheduled for Sept 28 and Oct 19 are now FULL school days!
Specials:
Tuesday - Tech
Wednesday - Media
Thursday - PE
Friday - Music
Homework:
This week we're reading an article about Booker T. Washington for homework. We have read a book in class about his desire to learn to read as a child and the challenges he faced in learning. The article for homework discusses his childhood in less detail, but gives information about the rest of his life. We'll be discussing the long term impacts of education this week! With this article we will still be working on multiple choice questions, main idea and details, and writing sentences!
We will have math sheets this week focused on our addition/subtraction strategies!
**Day to day instructions can be found on the back of the reading packet!**
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are continuing discussing learning challenges in our whole class time. We are looking at people who faced learning challenges because of the time period in which they were born. We began with a book about Booker T. Washington (and homework about him, as well). We will also begin a writing piece about our personal learning challenges. In reading groups we are continuing our novel studies and working with comprehension in discussions and independent questions.
Math - We are still working with addition and subtraction strategies! We will finish up our study of number lines, place value drawings, and expanded form this week and take our first assessment. We will continue to use these strategies going forward, but will also be adding in estimation. In addition, we're going to discuss inverse equations this week (example: 3 + 4 = 7, inverse = 7 - 4 = 3).
Science - We are finishing our human body unit this week! We're finishing some inquiries on bones, muscles, and skin, and will take an assessment on Friday! After this we will move into studying states of matter for a couple weeks!
As always, let me know if you need anything!
Have a great week!
september 10 - 14 weekly update
Hello and happy Monday!!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Reminders/Announcements:
- We are currently collecting BoxTops!!
- We are currently holding our NO FUSS FUNDRAISER!! A sheet is coming home about it today!! We will also be coming up with class incentives!! 😊
- I sent home picture forms today. Picture day is currently planned for this Thursday, September 13. I'm sure that if there is inclement weather it will be rescheduled!
- This week's weather has the potential to get crazy! I will email you with any WCPSS updates throughout the week! You should also get updates from WCPSS!
- There are assignments that your child has completed on Google Classroom that have grades! (Some google classroom assignments are ungraded, though). You can have your child log in to their account at home to see those grades!
Specials:
Monday - Tech
Tuesday - Media
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Music
Friday - Art
Homework:
Math sheets (addition and subtraction with expanded form and number lines this week)
Read an article and answer the questions for the week - some multiple choice, some main idea/supporting details, and writing sentences.
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing a lot this week! We are finally deep into our novel studies and we are LOVING our books! Students have been working on reading and comprehension in our small groups, and are continuing to work on answering questions through comprehension work. We have moved past writing our expert paragraphs and will be heading into MULTI-PARAGRAPH work this week! We will be figuring out what challenges WE have faced in learning and looking into how we have/can overcome those! In addition, we are continuing to work on our year-long standards of main idea, vocabulary, asking/answering questions, etc!
Math - We are continuing with addition and subtraction strategies, but this week we'll move from place value drawings to expanded form and number lines! We should move swiftly through those this week! Addition seems to be quite simple for us, but subtraction is giving us more trouble, so we'll take our time on that! Homework will reflect those two skills this week!
Science - We have moved into the muscle section of our human body unit and are looking into how the muscular and skeletal systems work together! This week is more focused on inquiry work, so look out for pictures!
Have a wonderful week!
As always, let me know if you have any questions!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Reminders/Announcements:
- We are currently collecting BoxTops!!
- We are currently holding our NO FUSS FUNDRAISER!! A sheet is coming home about it today!! We will also be coming up with class incentives!! 😊
- I sent home picture forms today. Picture day is currently planned for this Thursday, September 13. I'm sure that if there is inclement weather it will be rescheduled!
- This week's weather has the potential to get crazy! I will email you with any WCPSS updates throughout the week! You should also get updates from WCPSS!
- There are assignments that your child has completed on Google Classroom that have grades! (Some google classroom assignments are ungraded, though). You can have your child log in to their account at home to see those grades!
Specials:
Monday - Tech
Tuesday - Media
Wednesday - PE
Thursday - Music
Friday - Art
Homework:
Math sheets (addition and subtraction with expanded form and number lines this week)
Read an article and answer the questions for the week - some multiple choice, some main idea/supporting details, and writing sentences.
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are continuing a lot this week! We are finally deep into our novel studies and we are LOVING our books! Students have been working on reading and comprehension in our small groups, and are continuing to work on answering questions through comprehension work. We have moved past writing our expert paragraphs and will be heading into MULTI-PARAGRAPH work this week! We will be figuring out what challenges WE have faced in learning and looking into how we have/can overcome those! In addition, we are continuing to work on our year-long standards of main idea, vocabulary, asking/answering questions, etc!
Math - We are continuing with addition and subtraction strategies, but this week we'll move from place value drawings to expanded form and number lines! We should move swiftly through those this week! Addition seems to be quite simple for us, but subtraction is giving us more trouble, so we'll take our time on that! Homework will reflect those two skills this week!
Science - We have moved into the muscle section of our human body unit and are looking into how the muscular and skeletal systems work together! This week is more focused on inquiry work, so look out for pictures!
Have a wonderful week!
As always, let me know if you have any questions!
september 4 - 7 weekly update
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful 3 day weekend! 😊
Announcements/Reminders:
- A lot of graded work, progress reports, mclass scores, BOG scores, etc came home on Friday!
- Field trip permission and lunch forms also came home on Friday - please send those back ASAP!
- More graded work will be coming home TOMORROW!
- There will be a sub for part of the day on Wednesday - if there are any changes that need to be made to transportation, please send a physical note for me to leave for the sub! Thank you!
Specials:
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Music
Thursday - Art
Friday - Science
Homework:
Literacy homework - read the article and answer the daily questions (sent home Tuesday), students should be reading every night!
Math homework - daily math sheets (T, W, Th only)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are deep into a writing portion of our unit on overcoming learning challenges. Your children are currently writing informational paragraphs about the challenges and solutions of a country they chose to study! We are going through our whole writing process (including editing and drafting) with this paragraph. As we go through this process we're not only working on the content of the writing, we're also working on our sentence structure, indenting, using linking words, correct capitalization and punctuation, etc. Students will then use these skills to write a paragraph on their own for a test at the end of the week. This week we will also be doing the practice activities for next weeks' CogAt testing AND we have begun our first novel studies of the year. All 3 reading groups are reading challenging novels that (at least loosely) fit into the realistic fiction genre!
Math - We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction with strategies (place value drawings, expanded form, etc). We are working on these concepts through math rotations, so students are working independently, on the computer, and in small groups daily.
Science - This week we are moving from only studying bones to also looking into joints and muscles. We're figuring out how our systems work together!
Have a great week!
I hope you all had a wonderful 3 day weekend! 😊
Announcements/Reminders:
- A lot of graded work, progress reports, mclass scores, BOG scores, etc came home on Friday!
- Field trip permission and lunch forms also came home on Friday - please send those back ASAP!
- More graded work will be coming home TOMORROW!
- There will be a sub for part of the day on Wednesday - if there are any changes that need to be made to transportation, please send a physical note for me to leave for the sub! Thank you!
Specials:
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Music
Thursday - Art
Friday - Science
Homework:
Literacy homework - read the article and answer the daily questions (sent home Tuesday), students should be reading every night!
Math homework - daily math sheets (T, W, Th only)
Weekly Update:
Literacy - We are deep into a writing portion of our unit on overcoming learning challenges. Your children are currently writing informational paragraphs about the challenges and solutions of a country they chose to study! We are going through our whole writing process (including editing and drafting) with this paragraph. As we go through this process we're not only working on the content of the writing, we're also working on our sentence structure, indenting, using linking words, correct capitalization and punctuation, etc. Students will then use these skills to write a paragraph on their own for a test at the end of the week. This week we will also be doing the practice activities for next weeks' CogAt testing AND we have begun our first novel studies of the year. All 3 reading groups are reading challenging novels that (at least loosely) fit into the realistic fiction genre!
Math - We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction with strategies (place value drawings, expanded form, etc). We are working on these concepts through math rotations, so students are working independently, on the computer, and in small groups daily.
Science - This week we are moving from only studying bones to also looking into joints and muscles. We're figuring out how our systems work together!
Have a great week!
august 27 - 31 weekly update
Happy Monday, families!!
We are going to have a fantastic week this week!
Reminders/Announcements:
- We do not have school next Monday, September 3.
- Progress reports and graded work will come home this Friday, August 31.
- We will be dissecting owl pellets this Friday, August 31. I have put a link below for you to get a preview. If you would like to come in and volunteer to be a part of this experience, please do. We will plan to do it at 10:30am! Let me know if you'd like to come in and help out!
http://kidwings.com/virtual-pellet/
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - Art
Wednesday - Science
Thursday - Tech
Friday - Media
Homework:
Check the homework tab of our class website AND the paper coming home in folders today!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week during our literacy block we will be focused on a number of things! First, we will be continuing our expert group work focused on learning about learning challenges in specific parts of the world. Groups have chosen to study the archipelago of Finland, the Omkoi region of Thailand, or Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Within this they are working together to read and analyze an article. This analysis includes working with unfamiliar vocabulary, main idea and supporting details, challenges and solutions, geographical features, etc. We will be working with the same concepts during our differentiated small group time each day. I will be meeting with each group for at least 20 minutes, typically 30 minutes per day. In addition to working on these concepts in our groups, we are working with sentence structure, as well. We have been working very hard over the last month to start creating better complete sentences, and now we're beginning to work on how to make those sentences even better (simple vs. compound sentences).
Math - We will be finishing our study of graphing this week (review on Monday, assessment on Tuesday). After that we will be moving into a unit focused on using addition and subtraction to solve multi-step word problems. This unit assumes that students can already fluently add and subtract up to 3 digit numbers WITH regrouping, but we will definitely do some practice with that where it's needed, likely in math groups.
Science - We are continuing our study of bones, muscles, and skin this week! We will be studying the actual build of the skeleton on Monday and Tuesday (while discussing functions), we'll learn a little about joints on Wednesday and Thursday, and on Friday we'll dissect our owl pellets and compare the skeletons of rodents to our skeletons!
As always, let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great week!
We are going to have a fantastic week this week!
Reminders/Announcements:
- We do not have school next Monday, September 3.
- Progress reports and graded work will come home this Friday, August 31.
- We will be dissecting owl pellets this Friday, August 31. I have put a link below for you to get a preview. If you would like to come in and volunteer to be a part of this experience, please do. We will plan to do it at 10:30am! Let me know if you'd like to come in and help out!
http://kidwings.com/virtual-pellet/
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - Art
Wednesday - Science
Thursday - Tech
Friday - Media
Homework:
Check the homework tab of our class website AND the paper coming home in folders today!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week during our literacy block we will be focused on a number of things! First, we will be continuing our expert group work focused on learning about learning challenges in specific parts of the world. Groups have chosen to study the archipelago of Finland, the Omkoi region of Thailand, or Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Within this they are working together to read and analyze an article. This analysis includes working with unfamiliar vocabulary, main idea and supporting details, challenges and solutions, geographical features, etc. We will be working with the same concepts during our differentiated small group time each day. I will be meeting with each group for at least 20 minutes, typically 30 minutes per day. In addition to working on these concepts in our groups, we are working with sentence structure, as well. We have been working very hard over the last month to start creating better complete sentences, and now we're beginning to work on how to make those sentences even better (simple vs. compound sentences).
Math - We will be finishing our study of graphing this week (review on Monday, assessment on Tuesday). After that we will be moving into a unit focused on using addition and subtraction to solve multi-step word problems. This unit assumes that students can already fluently add and subtract up to 3 digit numbers WITH regrouping, but we will definitely do some practice with that where it's needed, likely in math groups.
Science - We are continuing our study of bones, muscles, and skin this week! We will be studying the actual build of the skeleton on Monday and Tuesday (while discussing functions), we'll learn a little about joints on Wednesday and Thursday, and on Friday we'll dissect our owl pellets and compare the skeletons of rodents to our skeletons!
As always, let me know if you have any questions!
Have a great week!
august 20 - 24 weekly update
Hello, all!!
I hope you're enjoying these last few days of track out! It feels like it's been so long since I last saw your kids!
Reminders/Annoucements:
- We are now upstairs!
- This Thursday, August 23, is our Open House night! Please come to school to learn more about third grade! We will have sessions starting at 6:15 and 6:55! I can't wait to see you!
Specials:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Science
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - PE
Homework:
A paper is being sent home in today's homework folder (along with the literacy homework for the week and tonight's math homework)! Also, the printer in my classroom is not working, so I apology for all of the handwritten homework assignments! Hopefully my handwriting is clear!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are continuing our study of how people access books and education around the world. Prior to track out we were reading a mix of realistic fiction and nonfiction. We started with realistic fiction with picture books and moved into reading articles about different situations all over the world that kept people from getting the books or education they want and need. This week we'll be focusing in on nonfiction articles about places in different countries. All of these articles are from the same book and offer similar information. We'll be using these articles to answer questions focused on key concepts - context clues, main idea, comprehension, etc, but we'll also be using the articles to help us learn about causes and effects - WHY are they struggling to get books and HOW are they solving the challenges they're facing? We will work in both whole group and small groups this week. In addition, we're doing a crash course in writing in complete sentences. Many students were struggling with this prior to track out, so we're practicing our sentence writing with sentence frames both by hand and on the computer this week! These activities are aligned with the articles we're reading, as well! I am still working through mclass, as well, so your children will be meeting with me for that this week!
Math - We are beginning a unit on graphing this week! We will be looking into how to read and create both pictographs and bar graphs. Students will be reading and answering questions about graphs, collecting data to create graphs, and working on making graphs on the computer to share with others and get input through technology. We will also be starting Throwback Thursdays. Each Thursday something within our math time (warm up problems, exit tickets, a rotation, or homework) will be a math concept from earlier in the year.
Science - We are beginning our study of the human body this week. This year we focus on bones, muscles, and skin. We will be working with bones first before moving forward! We will be studying the function of these parts of the body and how they grow.
Have a wonderful week!
As always, let me know if you have any questions!
I hope you're enjoying these last few days of track out! It feels like it's been so long since I last saw your kids!
Reminders/Annoucements:
- We are now upstairs!
- This Thursday, August 23, is our Open House night! Please come to school to learn more about third grade! We will have sessions starting at 6:15 and 6:55! I can't wait to see you!
Specials:
Monday - Art
Tuesday - Science
Wednesday - Tech
Thursday - Media
Friday - PE
Homework:
A paper is being sent home in today's homework folder (along with the literacy homework for the week and tonight's math homework)! Also, the printer in my classroom is not working, so I apology for all of the handwritten homework assignments! Hopefully my handwriting is clear!
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are continuing our study of how people access books and education around the world. Prior to track out we were reading a mix of realistic fiction and nonfiction. We started with realistic fiction with picture books and moved into reading articles about different situations all over the world that kept people from getting the books or education they want and need. This week we'll be focusing in on nonfiction articles about places in different countries. All of these articles are from the same book and offer similar information. We'll be using these articles to answer questions focused on key concepts - context clues, main idea, comprehension, etc, but we'll also be using the articles to help us learn about causes and effects - WHY are they struggling to get books and HOW are they solving the challenges they're facing? We will work in both whole group and small groups this week. In addition, we're doing a crash course in writing in complete sentences. Many students were struggling with this prior to track out, so we're practicing our sentence writing with sentence frames both by hand and on the computer this week! These activities are aligned with the articles we're reading, as well! I am still working through mclass, as well, so your children will be meeting with me for that this week!
Math - We are beginning a unit on graphing this week! We will be looking into how to read and create both pictographs and bar graphs. Students will be reading and answering questions about graphs, collecting data to create graphs, and working on making graphs on the computer to share with others and get input through technology. We will also be starting Throwback Thursdays. Each Thursday something within our math time (warm up problems, exit tickets, a rotation, or homework) will be a math concept from earlier in the year.
Science - We are beginning our study of the human body this week. This year we focus on bones, muscles, and skin. We will be working with bones first before moving forward! We will be studying the function of these parts of the body and how they grow.
Have a wonderful week!
As always, let me know if you have any questions!
july 9 - 13 weekly update
Hello, all!!
We had a WONDERFUL first day of school, and I am so thrilled to be teaching your children this year!
This update can also be found on our class website - www.alstonridgemadlon.weebly.com
Reminders/Announcements:
- If your child needs to go home a different way than normal, I need a note to allow them to do so.
- Several sheets of paper came home today - homework outline, project outline, meet the teacher papers for those who missed it, math homework, etc. Please look through your child's homework folder!
Conduct calendar:
We have a conduct calendar that will stay in homework folders. Students will either get a 1, 2, or 3 each day. A 3 means they had a good day! A 2 means they needed a decent number of reminders about behavior (could be talking, not working, etc). A 2 will be accompanied by a note on their calendar. A 1 is fairly rare and, if they have a 1, you will definitely have an email from me. Please let me know if you have any questions about this!
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - Art
Wednesday - Science
Thursday - Tech
Friday - Media
Homework:
(a sheet came home in folders today outlining the week's homework, as well)
Check the homework page of the class website - www.alstonridgemadlon.weebly.com
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are beginning our first quarter literacy unit on overcoming learning challenges! We will begin by reading books about people in the world who face physical (geographical) and financial challenges to their education. This unit involves fiction, nonfiction, geography, writing foundations, informational writing, main idea and details, and much more! Students will be reading books and articles in class about the challenges people face and how they overcome those challenges. In addition, they will be choosing an article to read at home this week (on Tuesday). We will be starting our whole group and small group reading on day 1! During our first reading groups today we read letters from former third graders, did some third grade interviews, and worked on coming up with some goals for the year!
Math - We will be starting immediately with relating addition and subtraction to multiplication and division. We are working with equal groups and looking at strategies that give us a conceptual base for understanding multiplication and division. We are also working on building a solid math community - understanding that failure and confusion are a part of learning, understanding that the process of doing and understanding math is incredibly important to finding and comprehending the answer, and looking at ourselves as mathematicians! We will be discussing how we (and our families) use math every day of our lives! We will begin differentiated math groups on Tuesday of this week!
Social studies - We are beginning our year by studying government. This allows us to focus on the fact that governments are built off of expectations of the leaders and citizens - which allows us to spend time creating our classroom expectations both of me as the teacher and of the students. We will sign off on our expectations showing we understand them and will do our best to live up to them each day. In addition, we will be learning about the branches of government and why our system works the way it does!
Let me know if you have any questions!
We had a WONDERFUL first day of school, and I am so thrilled to be teaching your children this year!
This update can also be found on our class website - www.alstonridgemadlon.weebly.com
Reminders/Announcements:
- If your child needs to go home a different way than normal, I need a note to allow them to do so.
- Several sheets of paper came home today - homework outline, project outline, meet the teacher papers for those who missed it, math homework, etc. Please look through your child's homework folder!
Conduct calendar:
We have a conduct calendar that will stay in homework folders. Students will either get a 1, 2, or 3 each day. A 3 means they had a good day! A 2 means they needed a decent number of reminders about behavior (could be talking, not working, etc). A 2 will be accompanied by a note on their calendar. A 1 is fairly rare and, if they have a 1, you will definitely have an email from me. Please let me know if you have any questions about this!
Specials:
Monday - Music
Tuesday - Art
Wednesday - Science
Thursday - Tech
Friday - Media
Homework:
(a sheet came home in folders today outlining the week's homework, as well)
Check the homework page of the class website - www.alstonridgemadlon.weebly.com
Weekly Update:
Literacy - This week we are beginning our first quarter literacy unit on overcoming learning challenges! We will begin by reading books about people in the world who face physical (geographical) and financial challenges to their education. This unit involves fiction, nonfiction, geography, writing foundations, informational writing, main idea and details, and much more! Students will be reading books and articles in class about the challenges people face and how they overcome those challenges. In addition, they will be choosing an article to read at home this week (on Tuesday). We will be starting our whole group and small group reading on day 1! During our first reading groups today we read letters from former third graders, did some third grade interviews, and worked on coming up with some goals for the year!
Math - We will be starting immediately with relating addition and subtraction to multiplication and division. We are working with equal groups and looking at strategies that give us a conceptual base for understanding multiplication and division. We are also working on building a solid math community - understanding that failure and confusion are a part of learning, understanding that the process of doing and understanding math is incredibly important to finding and comprehending the answer, and looking at ourselves as mathematicians! We will be discussing how we (and our families) use math every day of our lives! We will begin differentiated math groups on Tuesday of this week!
Social studies - We are beginning our year by studying government. This allows us to focus on the fact that governments are built off of expectations of the leaders and citizens - which allows us to spend time creating our classroom expectations both of me as the teacher and of the students. We will sign off on our expectations showing we understand them and will do our best to live up to them each day. In addition, we will be learning about the branches of government and why our system works the way it does!
Let me know if you have any questions!
welcome to the 2018 - 2019 year of third grade!
Hello parents and students!!
Welcome to third grade! This is going to be a year of fun, frustration, inquiry, growth, and compassion. We are going to learn all about our curriculum, we’re going to learn that failure is an important step in the learning process, we’ll learn about how to meet our standards while studying things we find interesting (and how to power through things we don’t find as interesting), and we’ll continue to learn how to be compassionate people and advocates for ourselves! (Phew!) |
I could not be more excited to be your teacher this year, and I hope you’re ready for the wonderful and challenging year of third grade! Please do not let the length of this letter overwhelm you! It’s a great reference for any questions you may have as we begin our year together!
Below is a list of all the ways you can see what your child is doing at school and how to get in touch with me!
Our math curriculum this year is new! Our third-grade team of teachers have already spent time digging into our different standards and units, and we’re well prepared for the new year! However, if you have an older child who already went through third grade, you’ll notice some differences in WHEN they’re learning certain things! There are also a few changes in WHAT they’re learning, so I’ll keep you updated in our weekly update emails!
One of our main focuses this year is on multiplication and division. If your child works hard to memorize their multiplication facts, that will be EXCEEDINGLY helpful to them throughout the rest of math this year! We need multiplication to understand fractions, area and perimeter, working with multi-operation word problems, etc. We will work on strategies for understanding the concepts behind multiplication – but they still need to memorize the facts! 😊
Literacy
Last year our literacy curriculum was brand new! This new curriculum is a set of guidelines about the topics we teach and provides some of the assessments we use. We will be learning about important and relevant things this year including understanding the obstacles people face in having access to books and education, which is our first quarter topic! I will share more about the other topics as the year continues! We will have daily whole class literacy instruction, but most of literacy will be happening in small differentiated reading and writing groups!
Project
You may or may not have had experience with the project approach already here at Alston Ridge, but I can tell you it’s a phenomenal approach to learning. It encompasses allowing children to learn through choice, inquiry, hands-on activities, creation, discourse with experts, field experiences, teaching others and more. There is a page on our class website that goes into more detail. We will not be doing our first project until second quarter this year, and we will do two throughout the year! We will use the skills of project work throughout the year and curriculum, though!
Homework
We do give homework in third grade, but we don’t want it to be too time consuming or stressful for anyone! Homework functions to review in-class information and concepts with parents and others. We will typically be reading something (a book, article, poem, etc) and attached will be a reflective question, specific questions to answer, or a response of some kind. Math homework will not be very long, and it will be focused specifically on what we’re doing in class. Homework should not take more than 50 minutes per night. If it takes less time, that’s okay, but if it’s taking longer than 50 minutes of actual working, please feel free to draw a line on your child’s homework and write that it had passed 50 minutes. This will not hurt their work habits grade in any way and it’s good for me to know it was taking them longer.
Testing
Third grade can be heavy with testing. We do the MCLASS testing that you’ve seen before in other grades, we have a BOG (beginning of grade) literacy test before our first track out, we take both CogAt and IOWA tests (both related to AIG), and we have the EOGs at the end of the year (math and reading). There could be others that pop up along the way, but don’t worry! We always tell our kids that they’re taught all they need to know, and they only need to do their very best! You will receive information about all these tests closer to the dates when they occur.
Lunch and Snack
Our lunch this year is late (12:25) so we will have a snack part way through the morning! If your child has any food allergies I need to know about, please write them on the form that accompanied this letter. You are also welcome to email or talk to me about your child’s allergies or dietary restrictions if you feel the need!
Graded Work
You will generally receive a folder (the green folder) of graded work once a week or once every other week. Please look through this work and talk to your child about it! We grade homework together, but other assignments such as tests or classwork will have feedback on them. In addition, we do some of our work on Google Classroom. I can give grades and feedback to students there, so you can have your child log in to see what they’ve been doing on Google Classroom. We often do work in small groups or with partners on activities, so you may not be receiving every piece of work they do in class. If I have any concerns about their work I will let you know, and if you have any concerns please let me know.
Questions
When you have questions throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to ask them! I will do my best to provide answers to you, and if I can’t I will find someone who will! You might also find answers to questions on our class website, in weekly update emails, or on our Twitter.
Thank you!
Again, I look forward to working with you all this year!
Megan Gress Madlon
Below is a list of all the ways you can see what your child is doing at school and how to get in touch with me!
- Our class website: www.alstonridgemadlon.weebly.com – I am generally good at keeping this updated! You will receive a weekly email from me going over reminders, announcements, homework, our week of specials, and a general overview of the week. I also post this email on the website! There are a lot of pages on the site for you to peruse!
- Our class twitter: @MeganMadlon
- My email: [email protected] – Yes, this is me! I’ve been married for nearly 5 years and I still haven’t changed my email! My bad! I do plan on changing it this year, though, so I’ll update you when it changes! Please don’t hesitate to email me with questions, comments, or concerns. I will email you back as soon as I possibly can!
Our math curriculum this year is new! Our third-grade team of teachers have already spent time digging into our different standards and units, and we’re well prepared for the new year! However, if you have an older child who already went through third grade, you’ll notice some differences in WHEN they’re learning certain things! There are also a few changes in WHAT they’re learning, so I’ll keep you updated in our weekly update emails!
One of our main focuses this year is on multiplication and division. If your child works hard to memorize their multiplication facts, that will be EXCEEDINGLY helpful to them throughout the rest of math this year! We need multiplication to understand fractions, area and perimeter, working with multi-operation word problems, etc. We will work on strategies for understanding the concepts behind multiplication – but they still need to memorize the facts! 😊
Literacy
Last year our literacy curriculum was brand new! This new curriculum is a set of guidelines about the topics we teach and provides some of the assessments we use. We will be learning about important and relevant things this year including understanding the obstacles people face in having access to books and education, which is our first quarter topic! I will share more about the other topics as the year continues! We will have daily whole class literacy instruction, but most of literacy will be happening in small differentiated reading and writing groups!
Project
You may or may not have had experience with the project approach already here at Alston Ridge, but I can tell you it’s a phenomenal approach to learning. It encompasses allowing children to learn through choice, inquiry, hands-on activities, creation, discourse with experts, field experiences, teaching others and more. There is a page on our class website that goes into more detail. We will not be doing our first project until second quarter this year, and we will do two throughout the year! We will use the skills of project work throughout the year and curriculum, though!
Homework
We do give homework in third grade, but we don’t want it to be too time consuming or stressful for anyone! Homework functions to review in-class information and concepts with parents and others. We will typically be reading something (a book, article, poem, etc) and attached will be a reflective question, specific questions to answer, or a response of some kind. Math homework will not be very long, and it will be focused specifically on what we’re doing in class. Homework should not take more than 50 minutes per night. If it takes less time, that’s okay, but if it’s taking longer than 50 minutes of actual working, please feel free to draw a line on your child’s homework and write that it had passed 50 minutes. This will not hurt their work habits grade in any way and it’s good for me to know it was taking them longer.
Testing
Third grade can be heavy with testing. We do the MCLASS testing that you’ve seen before in other grades, we have a BOG (beginning of grade) literacy test before our first track out, we take both CogAt and IOWA tests (both related to AIG), and we have the EOGs at the end of the year (math and reading). There could be others that pop up along the way, but don’t worry! We always tell our kids that they’re taught all they need to know, and they only need to do their very best! You will receive information about all these tests closer to the dates when they occur.
Lunch and Snack
Our lunch this year is late (12:25) so we will have a snack part way through the morning! If your child has any food allergies I need to know about, please write them on the form that accompanied this letter. You are also welcome to email or talk to me about your child’s allergies or dietary restrictions if you feel the need!
Graded Work
You will generally receive a folder (the green folder) of graded work once a week or once every other week. Please look through this work and talk to your child about it! We grade homework together, but other assignments such as tests or classwork will have feedback on them. In addition, we do some of our work on Google Classroom. I can give grades and feedback to students there, so you can have your child log in to see what they’ve been doing on Google Classroom. We often do work in small groups or with partners on activities, so you may not be receiving every piece of work they do in class. If I have any concerns about their work I will let you know, and if you have any concerns please let me know.
Questions
When you have questions throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to ask them! I will do my best to provide answers to you, and if I can’t I will find someone who will! You might also find answers to questions on our class website, in weekly update emails, or on our Twitter.
Thank you!
Again, I look forward to working with you all this year!
Megan Gress Madlon