Room 42 Third Grade News

Week of May 3rd

2010-05-04T18:59:00.001-07:00

There is so much going on this month. Here are some important dates to remember.
Thursday, May 13th is our walking tour to Evans City! We only have one volunteer for a chaperone, so even if you have gone another field trip, you are welcome to come again.
JA Day is Tuesday, May 18th. Math NWEA test is Wednesday, May 26th. Field Day is Thursday, May 27th. If you would like to help with that, please let me know.
May Book Project is due Friday, May 28th. Students are creating a new book cover for the book that they read this month. They will also complete a paper rating the character, plot, and ending of the book.

Reading: We are reading Two Days in May. It is a story about deer coming into the city and explains how people help move them to safety. We took the NWEA Reading test today. We will continue to work on verbs and also with adjectives.

Math - We are finishing with fractions and will be working on measurement. We will be converting feet to inches and yards to feet and inches. When we finish this chapter we will be working on division. Make sure you are still working on multiplication facts with your child. You can also work on addition and subtraction facts, so students can work on doing this quickly!

Health: We are learning about the Circulatory system. Your child should be bringing home a study guide that should be studied each night. The test will be on Friday!

I just wanted to thank the parents that came on the field trip to Sports Works. We had a great time and it would not have gone as smoothly without you! THANKS!

I also wanted to thank the parents who helped to make such a wonderful lunch for the teachers Tuesday. We were overwhelmed and appreciated it greatly. THANK YOU!

Week of April 26th

2010-04-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

We have our field trip on Thursday! It should be a lot of fun. Thank you for all of the parents who have volunteered to go with us. I wish it was possible to take everyone but we can't. Please make sure to pack a lunch - something that can be thrown away after we eat!
Don't forget to wear your EC Cares shirt Tuesday! We will be having our meetings and some groups will be video taped during those meetings. We would like everyone to wear their shirts.

Reading: This week we are reading Seal Surfer. We will be having the vocabulary test on Friday along with the comprehension test, due to the fact we have our field trip Thursday. We will focus on the strategy of determining important details to find the main idea of a passage. We are working on capital letters in cursive. Students will be writing in cursive for their spelling lists.

Math: We will continue to be working on adding and subtracting fractions. We will also be working on measurements.

Social Studies: We will be taking our test on PA - sections 4-6 about mammals in PA, five regions and landforms in PA, and renewable and nonrenewable resources found in PA. We are beginning a research project on an assigned mammal of PA. During library, students will choose a biography and research a famous American.

Health: We are beginning a unit on our circulatory system. Student will be able to name and label parts of the heart and be able to explain the function of the heart in our body.

Week of April 19th

2010-04-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy couple of weeks with Easter, Literacy week, and PSSA tests. I am very proud of how hard the students worked on their tests!
We are back to a "normal" week this week.
Reading / LA: We are reading Nights of the Pufflings this week. We will be focusing on identifying important details by identifying main idea and supporting details. We will also focus on fact and opinion.
Math: We will be finishing our chapter dealing with fractions. We will be working with naming fractions, identifying equivalent fractions, comparing fractions, and estimating fractions. We will also continue to work on measurement with inches and centimeters.
Science: We have finished our unit on magnetism and electricity. We enjoyed a wonderful lesson taught by Mr. Brock dealing with electricity. We truly appreciated learning so much!
Social Studies - We are working on PA landforms and animals. There will be a test on sections 4-6 in our Pennsylvania book. A study guide should be coming home each night. Please make sure you return to school each day until we complete the packet. There is also a crossword puzzle that we completed on section 4 that is a wonderful resource to study.

Week of March 8th

2010-03-07T10:06:00.001-08:00

Hopefully we will continue to have our normal schedules. It seems like we have missed so much school with 2 hour delays and cancellations. Hopefully we will be able to get back into our routine.
Last week we started reading a novel called Charlotte's Web. We have been focusing on different reading strategies and the thinking behind those strategies. It is amazing to see and hear how students are thinking and understanding information. Some of the strategies we are using are: summarizing, visualizing, questioning, using inferences, monitoring our understanding, identifying important details vs. interesting details, and synthesizing our thinking. I read two paragraphs from the book and had the students choose one of the strategies to use and explain their thinking...WOW! I was amazed at how much students were writing and discussing with each other. It was great seeing all students so involved and interested in their own thinking process. This week we will continue working on Charlotte's Web. We will review nouns and continue work on verbs. We will be introducing adjectives.
We are finishing up on our personal narrative stories this week in writer's workshop.

Math - We have finished our unit on telling time and graphs. The test will be Monday. We will then be starting a unit on Geometry and Fractions while doing multiplication.

Science - We have just finished our unit on Magnetism and will be starting the section on electricity. Don't forget to check out the sites that were posted earlier this week. This is always an exciting unit to do. Students will be learning about and creating parallel and series circuits.

FIELD TRIP: We will be going to see the play, Aladdin, on Tuesday. We will be eating lunch around 10:15, so you do not have to pack a special lunch. You may want to pack a snack for after the field trip due to the early lunch. We will be leaving the school around 11:00 and will be back around 2:00. The chaperones have been chosen and have been notified. Thank you for volunteering, I wish I could take every parent that wanted to go, but we were only able to choose 2.

Week of February 15th

2010-02-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

This week we are going to be doing most of the things planned from last week, due to four days being cancelled last week. WOW! Who would have thought we would have that much time off of school. We started panicking about our lack of days to practice for the play. The kids are working hard and we are still looking forward to perform the show for you Friday. We will also be having a dress rehearsal on Thursday. Both shows will be at 1:30.

Make sure ALL costumes and props are at school! We need to make sure everything is here for the play.
Book orders will be due Tuesday, unless of course, there is another cancellation. If that is the case, it will be due Wednesday.
Please try to be at school every day, so we can really prepare for the play!!!

HELP!

2010-02-09T05:49:00.000-08:00

Is anyone going to be going to Michael's in the next couple of days. They have t-shirts there that are $2.50. We need to get two brown shirts. Any size will be fine. I think they were pretty picked over when we were there, so we will make adult large work if need be. Please email me if you are going and willing to get the shirts.
Thank you!

Week of February 8th

2010-02-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is safe and warm with all of this snow. Hopefully we will be back to school soon. We are going to have a busy week getting ready for our play! We are so excited to perform for family and friends. I truly appreciate all of the help that so many parents have given!
Please have costumes and props at school by Thursday! We will be setting up the stage next Tuesday, February 16th at 3:30. If you are available to help, please meet us at the stage and we will put you to work!!
Also, we are hoping to have refreshments after the play next Friday for the kids and parents. If you are willing to bring in or donate items for this, please let us know. We were thinking of fruit, vegetable or a cheese and cracker tray. We also will need juice, cups, napkins, and plates.
Thank you in advance for all that you have done to help. We hope that you will enjoy the play next week!

This week we working on more comprehension strategies, such as visualizing, summarizing, identifying important details, and questioning. We will also continue working on monitoring our understanding. We are going to finish up our unit on Raising Dragons. There will be no new vocabulary or spelling words this week.
We will also be completing a PSSA practice test and work on quality short answer responses.

Science - We will continue our unit on Magnetism and Electricity. Don't forget the sites that were posted a few weeks ago that are great for students to learn more about Magnets and electricity.

Math - We will be finishing up telling time and elapsed time and start working with different types of graphs. We will even be creating a graph in computer class!

Book Orders are due Thursday, February 10th. You can send in the orders or order on line. If you need directions to order on line, please let me know and I will send it home with your child.

Week of February 2nd

2010-02-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

This week we are working on the reading strategy to identify important details in nonfiction texts. We are also reading Raising Dragons. This is a fun story about a child who finds an egg and raises dragons. We will be finishing up all or the lowercase cursive letters. Students will soon be required to take spelling tests in cursive. When this happens the spelling list will be sent home printed and written in cursive. On tests, students will be able to print the word and write it in cursive underneath if they are not comfortable with the accuracy of their letters.
Science - We are beginning a unit on magnetism and electricity. We will be creating a science notebook and students will be exploring materials to set up experiments. Students will learn how record their data in their science notebooks. The first part of the unit we will be focusing on magnetism. We will be using inquiry as a basis of our science unit.
Math - We started unit four. It focuses on telling time to the nearest minute, renaming times, and elapsed time. We will begin working with graphs: bar graphs, pictographs, and line plot. Students will be able to work in groups to create a survey and then interview the class to use the data to create four different graphs.
Play - Students should have all props here this week. Our play is coming along and we are excited to be able to perform it for students and parents. I am very proud of how hard each student is working on their lines and songs that they will sing.

Week of January 18th

2010-01-16T19:15:00.000-08:00

The end of the nice weeks is Friday. There is a bonus activity that was available to all students in Social Studies. This was assigned over a week ago, but it is optional. Students can create a song or poem about the PA flag, or research one of our state symbols and give and oral report on that in class. This can be a symbol we have learned in class or a new symbol...like the state cookie or state toy! Have fun with this.

Science - We are starting a unit on Magnetism and Electricity. This will be hands-on science where students will be studying and performing experiments using both magnets and electricity. Students will be able to light a light bulb and run a small motor by creating parallel and series circuits. We will be using our science notebooks to record our results. Check out the websites that go with this unit that I posted earlier.

Math - We will be finishing Chapter 3 this week. We will continue to review subtracting with regrouping and subtracting from zeros. A practice test will be sent home this week. Don't forget you can access the math book on-line or students may take home their math book any day. There are wonderful practice problems at the end of each chapter to help review for the test.

Reading - This week we will be reading The Mysterious Giant of Barletta. Spelling words were sent home last Friday due to the shortened week this week. Spelling assignments are due Thursday.

DON'T FORGET... Book orders are due Wednesday.
There is no school Monday.
Planning meeting for the play will be Thursday at 3:30 in large cafeteria.
Send in Vacation to Mars paper, saying if you will be at the meeting and if you are interested in helping or donating items! We truly appreciate any help we can get!

Magnetism and Electricity

2010-01-16T19:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a list of websited that are great resources for magnets and electicity!
Power Up – Interactive site with great info on electricityhttp://www.edfenergy.com/powerup/keystage2/index.html
The Electricity Book – Brightly colored, interactive
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/science/electricity_book1/index.htmElectric Circuit – Harcourt Science Close Up Video
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/science_up_close/203/deploy/interface.html
Louie the Lightning Bug
http://www.southerncompany.com/learningpower/images/h204kids.swf
Foss Magnetism and Electricity
http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/MagnetismandElectricity/index.html%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E
The Blobz Guide to Electricity
http://www.andythelwell.com/blobz/%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E
Experiment using electricity
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/electricity.shtml
Circuits and Conductors – Can you make an on-line circuit?http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/circuits_conductors.shtmlChanging circuits – Can you make the circuits work?http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/changing_circuits.shtml
Magnets and Springs - Interactive activity
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/activities/magnets_springs.shtml
Facts about Magnetism with printable worksheets
http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/magnets.html
Magnetic Force – Interactive Learning
http://www.engineeringinteract.org/resources/parkworldplot/flash/concepts/magneticforces.htm
Magnets-Try your skill
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/magnets_springs.shtml I hope that you enjoy learning more about magnets and electricity!

Week of January 11

2010-01-11T11:11:00.001-08:00

Welcome Back...we are back in the swing of things after our Christmas break. I hope everyone had a wonderful break and were able to spend time with family and friends.

Reading /LA/ Spelling: Last week we read Dogzilla. This is always a favorite for the kids. We will continue to do activities dealing with this story. We will take the comprehension test on Wednesday. We will be focusing on fantasy vs. realism. Students will be creating their very own movie poster on Dogzilla. There will be NO spelling or vocabulary list this week.

Writer's workshop - We will continue to work on our personal narrative story. This week we will focus on the endings of our stories. We will study author's work that have quality endings to the story and then try to use those examples as models. Hopefully by now each student has brought home the rough drafts of the story that they chose to work on in class. Please help them recall as many details as possible in the story that they are writing.

Math - We will be finishing Chapter 3 in math. We are starting to add and subtract by using money.

Social Studies / Science - We just finished unit 1 in Pennsylvania, dealing with our state symbols, our state map and bordering states, and our state flag. This week we will be starting our magnetism and electricity unit.

Vacation to Mars - This is the play that we are going to be doing this year. Performances will be February 18th and 19th. Each student got their part and should be practicing their parts and memorizing their lines. If you would like a copy of the CD to practice at home, if you send in a blank CD we are able to copy one for you. We will be having a meeting with parents about costumes, props, and scenery. We will also be looking for parents who are willing to help with choreography. More information be coming soon.

Week of December 7th

2009-12-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to a full week of school. Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, spending time with family!

Last week I had the opportunity to go to a wonderful training called Lead to Learn. It is always difficult not being in the classroom, but I am very excited to implement some of these strategies in my teaching!

Reading: This week we are going to focus on the comprehension strategy or monitoring and adjusting while reading!
We will be reading The Talking Cloth. We will continue to work on nouns. We will continue with the writer's workshop on personal narratives!

DECEMBER Book Project: Students need to read 15 times this month, since it is a shorter month. The project will be due the week of Christmas, before break. We will be doing presentations Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Christmas break starts. Students will "act" like the character from the book that they chose to read for the month of December. Students should be creative and dress like the character and create a prop that will help with the presentation. Be creative and have fun!

Math - We are starting Chapter 3 in Math. This chapter focuses on adding and subtracting.

Social Studies - We are working on a Treasure Map project that will focus on all map skills that we have learned so far this year, including landforms!

We will also be starting our Pennsylvania unit!

Week of November 2

2009-11-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

Reading / LA - This week we have been working on our writer's workshop. The students are writing personal narratives. The focus is on getting kids to enjoy writing again, and it is so wonderful seeing students talk with such enthusiasm about the stories that they are writing. Students are even asking me if they can take their journals home to write each night. Right now we are trying to keep them in school but there hopefully will come a time when they can go home for kids to work on there as well. Next week we will be working on Nouns and Cause and Effect.

Science / Social Studies - We are also finishing up our Plant and Bee unit. Thank you so much for sending in the seeds to share with the class. It is great to see the different types of seeds that are found in our food and even in our backyards. Next week we will be doing a short unit on the sun - moon - Earth system. We will be focusing on day, night, seasons, and year. We will learn about rotation and revolution of the Earth. We will also be starting another Social Studies unit dealing with landforms and map skills. We are going to start a new project in school where we will be creating a treasure map by incorporating all of the different landforms and map skills that we have learned so far this year. This will be completed in school.

Math - We will continue working on Chapter 2 in math. Students have been learning strategies to do mental math. We are focusing on addition and completing algebra number sentences. We will also continue to work on having students explain their thought process on how they answered story problems.

We are doing something new this chapter....students are being assessed before each lesson with 5 questions based on the next lesson being taught. If students miss 0 or 1 answer, then they get the challenge homework. If students miss more than 1, they get the regular homework. You may have been seeing different types of homework this past week. There are students who still want to try to challenge homework even if they miss more than 1 question. They may do the challenge paper any time but MUST complete the regular homework first. If students choose to do the extra work, whether it is challenge homework or menu math in class, they can earn Breindel Bucks! There is also going to be other activities that students may choose to do but is not required.

If students are in need of extra practice on certain concepts, don't forget that you can access the book on line and there are also some great activities that you can do through success net.

Compass is available for students to access from home. You can get to the Compass site by accessing it off of the Seneca Valley web site. I put assignments on the site that is based on what the students are learning in class. This is a great resource for Math and Language Arts. Students do have a schedule where they work on this program at school, but it would be great to see more students doing this from home. Most kids really enjoy this program, so it is a great and fun way to practice the concepts being taught.

DON'T FORGET...Tuesday is an early dismissal day for students and Wednesday is parent teacher conferences. No school for students on Wednesday.

We are on our last box of tissues, if anyone is willing to donate more Kleenex, we would truly appreciate it.

The Rotary purchased dictionaries for all of our third grade students. Students will keep it at school until the end of the year and they they will be able to bring it home. We are very thankful for their generosity.

November Book Project (Brochure and reading log) will be due Tuesday, December 1st because of our Thanksgiving break. Make sure students are reading at least 20 times during the month. Students will also be taking an Accelerated Reader Quiz on the book that they choose for their project. If students complete other books they may also take an AR test on the computers.

Thank you to all of the wonderful moms that came in to help with our Halloween party. It was a great success and the students had a wonderful time. I truly appreciate all of your hard work! Thank you again for everything that you did to plan such a wonderful party.

Week of October 26th

2009-10-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Reading / LA / Spelling: This week we are back to a story week. We will be reading The Keeping Quilt. We will be learning about cultures and traditions. Practice your vocabulary words by playing the memory game with your vocabulary cards. Vocabulary test will be Thursday. Spelling activities for this week are to write the words three times each and complete a word search. Both are due Wednesday. We will continue to work on our personal narratives through writer's workshop. We are also going to be learning about homophones and cause and effect.
Theme 1 test will be sent home this week. It is separated into three grades: one for LA, spelling, and reading. Please practice and review these concepts with your child.
Math: We are starting chapter 2 in Math class. It deals with the associative, commutative, and identity property. We will also be practicing addition. We will continue to complete our problem of the day and fast math. You should continue to practice your addition facts!
Science: We have just completed thinning and transplanting our plants and will continue to observe the life cycle through growing buds and flowers. We will learn about the parts of a flower and about honey bees. We will learn about the three types of bees and their jobs. We will also learn about cross pollination and use dead honey bees to help pollinate our plants.
Social Studies: We are doing to continue to work on Chapter 2 in Social studies. This will include more map skills dealing with land forms. We are going to begin creating a treasure map that includes all of the map skills that have been learned so far.
This week: Friday is the Halloween party. We are still in need of toilet paper rolls. Please send in another roll if you have extra around home!
We will have a parade before the party for 3ds and 4th grade students and teachers only. This will give the students a chance to share their costumes with their friends. We then will head to our rooms for our classroom parties. Thank you to all parents who have been helping with the planning of our party. We are looking forward to having a great time!

Week of October 19th

2009-10-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at Open House Wednesday night! It is always an exciting time for students! Don't forget to stop at the Book Fair. Please make sure you sign up for parent teacher conferences.
I am excited to see the community projects. I am hearing about all of the work that the students are putting into this project and am thrilled to see the finished products!
We will be completing NWEA computer test Tuesday.
BOOK ORDERS due Friday, October 23. You may order by sending money or check into school, or you can order online.
Reading / Spelling / LA: This week we will not have a spelling list or story for the week. We are going to be taking the big theme test on all of the skills that we have learned so far this year. Students will be completing comprehension activities and reading a book in different literacy groups. This is a great chance for me to work with students in small groups or independently. We will also be starting our writer's workshop.

Math - We will be finishing Chapter 1. We will continue to work on counting change and strategies for story problems. There are practice problems at the end of each chapter that reviews the concepts learned in the chapter. Students may bring home their book any time or you can access it on-line.

Science - we will continue to observe our plants and talk about the parts of the seed and seedlings. We will also learn about the function of each part of the plants. We worked on thinning and transplanting our plants last week and will be focusing on one plant to measure and observe the growth and cycle of that particular plant!

We are in need of hand sanitizer, Kleenex, and Clorox wipes to help stay clean and healthy this flu season!

Money Practice

2009-10-13T07:24:00.001-07:00

Here are some great sites that will help your child count money and make change.
http://www.tennessee.gov/tdfi/java/game/ExactChangePlease/index.html
http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/games/puzzler/index.html
http://www.funbrain.com/cashreg/
http://www.aplusmath.com/cgi-bin/flashcards/money
http://www.netrover.com/~jjrose/moneypete/money.html
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/campCoin/timeline/

Week of October 12

2009-10-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

This week is going to be a 4 day week. There is no school for students on Friday.

Reading / Language Arts / Spelling - This week there will only be 12 words and the spelling packet will be due Thursday. There will still be a practice test on Wednesday and final test on Thursday. This packet was sent home Friday, so students can have the extra time to study and complete packet.

There will be no Vocabulary list this week. We will be focusing on a number of different project and concepts. We will be writing paragraphs to compare and contrast Mulan the movie and Ballad of the Mulan. We will be completing our Chinese character stories. We also will be learning how to identify the main idea in a paragraph. We will continue to work on complete sentences and fragments.

Math - We are going to continue to review rounding. Please continue to practice with your child if he or she is struggling with that concept. We are going to start working with money. Students will learn to make change. Please have your child practice counting money at home. You can hand them a handful of change to count each night.

Science - Our plants have started to grow! We will begin to measure and observe our plants. We will also learn how to thin and transplant our plants. Try to bring in some seeds to share with your class. Make sure you put it in a plastic bag and write the name of the seed on a piece of paper.

Social Studies quiz is Wednesday. Please continue to study the vocabulary words that were sent home a couple of weeks ago. I will send home additional information to study on Monday, including a map and timeline worksheet that will be completed in class. This information will also be on the quiz. Hopefully by now students will know the vocabulary words since they have had over two weeks to study them. Make sure you are working on your community project!

Here are a couple of dates to remember:
NWEA testing will be on Tuesday, October 13th and 20th.

School Store: Wednesday, October 14th

Community Project due - Monday, October 19th

Open House - Wednesday, October 21st at 6:30 - 8:00

Halloween Party - Friday, October 30th

October reading project (post card) and reading log are due Friday, October 30th

Week of October 5th

2009-10-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

We are working very hard in third grade. There are so many new concepts that we are learning! There is a school store. Third and fourth grade students are permitted to visit it before they come to class. It is located outside the office. If you would like to buy some school supplies, please send money with your child. This will be next Wednesday morning.
Reading: We are reading The Waterfall. Make sure that students are studying their vocabulary words each night. Quiz will be Thursday. Students may bring home their reading book any night to read the story for extra practice. OCTOBER BOOK PROJECT--- is due Friday October 30th. Students should read 20 times this month. There should be 20 entries on their reading log for 10 to 15 minutes each entry. The project is to create a postcard from a character in the book that is chosen for the month. Please make sure that each child can complete the book that he or she chooses in that month. Directions and postcard template will be sent home Tuesday. LA - continue to practice subjects/predicates and the four different types of sentences.
Math: We are doing rounding. Please practice each night with your child. You can make up numbers and have them round to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousands place. Use the two pink sheets that should be traveling to and from school as a guide to help your child. We will soon be working with money. Please practice counting money with your child.
Social studies: We are going to finish chapter one dealing with community and map skills. Keep studying your vocabulary words for the chapter test next Wednesday, October 14th. There will be another study guide sent home this week to help with your studying. DON'T FORGET TO START YOUR COMMUNITY PROJECT!!! It is due Monday, October 19th. ALL students must complete this project.
Science: We are planting Brassica Fast Growing plants and will begin to gather data and observe the plant life cycle. Please send in any seeds that you find to school in a plastic bag. Please write the name of the see on a piece of paper and put that in the bag as well. Please only one type of seed in each bag. If you eat a peach...save the seed! Students will be learning the parts of a seed and the function of each part.

UPCOMING EVENTS: NWEA (MAP) testing will be Tuesday, October 13 and 20. Both days we will be testing after lunch.
Act 80 DAY - Friday, October 16
PTO Craft Show - Saturday, October 17
Open House - Wednesday, October 21 at 6:30 - 8:00
Fall Party - Friday, October 30

Week of September 28th

2009-09-29T06:53:00.000-07:00

Hello! This week we are back to a five day week. Here are a coupe of great websites that you can use to practice vocabulary or grammar skills. This site can be used to review subject and predicate. All you have to do is click on subject and predicates on the list. This should be found towards the bottom of the page in the middle column. http://languagearts.pppst.com/
The next site provides picture cards that can help with studying vocabulary words. Just find third grade and the story that we are reading and click on that and you will see the vocabulary words. http://www.smbsd.org/page.cfm?p=1445

Reading - This week we are reading The Ballad of Mulan. This is another story in our adventure theme. Students also took their first oral comprehension quiz on Monday. I read them a passage and then they had to answer 4 questions about that story.
A blue paper was sent home with the spelling list and a reading list. The first list 1-22 are the spelling words. The assignments for this week are write words 3 times each and do the word search. The second list is a reading list with challenging vocabulary words that will be found in our story. Students should just practice READING this list. They do now have to know how to spell them or know the definition. All they need to do is read through the list. I will assess them on Thursday by having them read the words to me. Students should also study the 7 vocabulary words at home. This quiz will be Friday.

Language Arts - We are continuing our lessons on Subjects and Predicates. In the graded folder I sent home Monday, there was a quiz dealing with this concept. Many if the students did a great job with this concept. However we are going to continue reviewing this concept this week and students will be assessed again by two separate quizzes, one dealing with complete subjects and predicates. The other quiz will be about simple subjects and predicates. The students that got an A on the quiz will have the option of whether or not they will retake the quiz. This is something you may want to discuss with your child. If they choose not to take it, they will be given a "challenge" activity to complete.

Math - We are working on ordering numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least. We are also going to be starting to work on rounding numbers.

Science / Social Studies - We are still waiting for some material that is needed to plant our Brassica plants. However we have started our science notebooks and will be observing wet and dry beans. In social studies, we are learning about communities in Chapter 1. Continue to study your 22 vocabulary list that was sent home last week. This test will hopefully be some time next week. I will send home more information next week.
I am sending information for the community project. Each student will be creating a poster about their community. All of the information will be in the packet that is sent home. If you are going to need a poster, please let me know and I will send it home with your child.

Accelerated Reader

2009-09-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

We are going to start participating in a wonderful program called accelerated reader. There are thousands of books that are available for students to read and then take a comprehension check. It will hopefully encourage reading, and it is also a way to check their understanding of what they read.

We need to create labels for all of the books in our classroom library, so if anyone is good at computers and has time to look up the titles on the Accelerated Reader site, please let me know. You can come into school or I can send a list of titles home. We have a lot of books, so all the help we can get is welcome.

I am excited to participate in this program.

Third Week

2009-09-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

This was a very eventful week. We had an assembly about our fundraiser. Packets went home Thursday. Students can win some great prizes for selling items this year.

Next week: Monday is Day 6 on our special cycle.
Reading / LA:
Last week we read Lost and Found. We will continue some activities dealing with this story. We are working on writing in complete sentences. We will continue to work on subjects and predicates. We are going to review proper letter form and write letters to our Student of the week. Make sure each student is reading 10-15 minutes for the reading log. Start working on the September book project not. It is due at the end of the month.

Spelling:
Words were sent home Friday, since this week is a short week. Spelling assignment is due Wednesday and the practice test will be that day too. The final test will be Thursday. These words deal with letter writing and the months of the year.

Math:
We will continue with chapter 3. There will be a quiz on the information that has been taught so far. We will continue work on standard form, place value, expanded form, and word form. We will also be working on comparing numbers.

Social Studies and Science:
We will continue to work on Map Skills. We will also begin our Plant Growth and Development unit in Science. We are growing plants and will be able to observe the entire life cycle of the plant. We will also be using bees to help pollinate the flowers.

Don't forget...Book orders are due Tuesday. You can order on line or send your order to school. If you are writing a check, just write one to Scholastic Book Clubs.

Picture Day is Wednesday!

Second week

2009-09-12T19:38:00.001-07:00

We are through our first 6 day cycle. Monday will start on Day 1.

It was wonderful to see so many parents at the Orientation Wednesday! I enjoyed having the chance to talk to you!

It has been a busy week, ending with the Anti-Bullying Kickoff. It was great to see that some of the parents were able to come and support the program with their child / children! We had a lot of fun and were able to see the Evans City Pop Rocks! What a great way to start of the program!

Here are some updates and information!

Reading: Many students are filling out their contract with the chapter book that they have chosen. Some students need to pick out their book. Encourage your child to do this if they have not. I sent home the description of our September Book Project. Students are creating a diorama and writing a three paragraph summary about the book that they read. This will be due at the end of the month, along with the reading log of at least 15 entries. Next week we will be starting our first story from our adventure theme. It is called Lost and Found. It is a fun story about students who get lost in the lost and found box!
Don't forget to read for your reading log. Students need to read 15 days this month for about 10-15 minutes each day. Also, when students complete their chapter book start working on the diorama.

LA: This week we focused on subject and predicate. We also learned about the 4 types of sentences...command, statement, exclamation, and question.

We will be starting our unit on letter writing. We will be exchanging letters with Room 33.

Spelling: The list will be sent home Monday with the spelling homework. Students will write their words 3 times each and choose 10 words and use them in a sentence. Both assignments will be due Wednesday. It can be turned in early. Practice test will be Wednesday. I will check those tests and return tests that did not get a 100%. Students will be required to choose an activity from the list on the purple paper. Please write in your child's planner what activity they completed. The final test will be Friday.

Social Studies: We have been learning about map skills. Students should know the city, state, country, continent, and planet where they live. They should also be able to label the 7 continents and 4 oceans. I will be sending a study guide home Monday! Make sure you study a little bit every night!

First Week

2009-09-04T17:44:00.000-07:00

Our first two days went well! We were able to work on team building activities and were able to get to know the other students in our class. We also created rules for the classroom and started talking about the wonderful new anti-bullying program that we are starting this year. We are working on PEACE simile books, "Wanted" posters, and "face" stories! Next week students will bring in 3 items to share with the class, so we can get to know each other even better. We will also be creating name posters! We will be starting Chapter 1 in math, map skills in social studies, and sentence structure in LA.

Summer Vacation

2009-08-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

Hello boys and girls!
Here is another way you can learn more about your fellow classmates! Tell us about your summer! Did you go on vacation? Did you swim, visit friends or family, see any good movies, or read any great books? Tell us all about your time away from school this summer! I am excited to hear about your wonderful adventures!

Welcome Back

2009-08-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to school! I am looking forward to having a wonderful year. Third grade is an exciting grade. We are going to learn about so many interesting things. We will read many different genres of literature and have a chance to publish and share your own work. We will be working with magnets and electricity and even grow our own plants! We will learn about our local community, PA, and our country! You will even learn how to multiply and divide.

Some important things that you will need are: 2-3 folders, 5-6 pencils, 1-2 highlighters, 2-3 dry erase markers, an eraser for a white board... (can be an old sock), crayons, scissors, glue stick, and a handheld pencil sharpener. Don't forget to bring your art shirt! You can bring a tablet, but large binders are difficult to fit in the desks.

Things that would be great to have for our class are: Kleenex, Clorox or baby wipes, hand sanitizer, and prizes for our class store (school related items, small toys, books).

Have a great last week of summer! I am looking forward to having a wonderful and exciting year!

Book Review

2009-07-03T14:06:00.001-07:00

Hello boys and girls!!! This page is a chance for you to blog about a favorite book you have read or even a book you are reading about now. Maybe you loved it so much that you want another student to read it. What did you like about this book? What was this book about? What are the story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution, and conclusion)? Don't forget to write the title and author of the book!

Read This Summer!

2009-07-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

It is so important to read over the summer. Children who do not read over the summer can lose many of the reading skills that they learned during the school year. If your child is a reluctant reader, but loves being on the computer, you might want to check out this website. Johnnie’s Story Page, http://jstorypage.com/, is a web site that will give your child reading practice at whatever his/her reading level is. You will find activities dealing with the alphabet and phonics. There are classic stories, myths, legends, folktales, and much more. Let me know if you like it or if it works with your child.

Welcome!

2009-07-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our class blog!! I am excited about the journey we are about to embark on together. This class blog is new to you and me. This is a communication tool to enhance the learning that will take place in class. Students and parents will be updated on daily homework, weekly curriculum, and events in our classroom. The students are able to interact with other students and to express their thoughts. I will also include websites that will enhance third grade learning. I welcome any comments or suggestions.