December 22nd and 23rd

We will have a math test on units 5 and 6 on Monday. A review packet will be coming home today with some practice problems. We had a great time building gingerbread houses! Thanks to everyone for sending in supplies and to our volunteers for helping. The only homework over the break is to practice math facts and to read. I will not be sending a reading log home over the break.  Have a wonderful vacation and happy holidays!
   
                                              Before!

After!

December 15th-December 19th

We have a busy week ahead! We will be making our gingerbread houses on Wednesday and Thursday from 2-3. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to help out. Please send in any items for the gingerbread houses by Tuesday.  Thanks! This will be so much fun!

This week...

Reading
Students are finishing their partner reading and we are finishing up the character unit. Students will work with their partner on a final activity. We are also reading a variety of non-fiction books as part of the informational writing unit.

Writing
We are working on the informational writing unit. Last week, students chose a topic and started organizing their topic into categories. This week, we will continue organizing the topic into chapters by writing tables of contents.

Math
Students have been working on a combined unit of chapters 5 and 6 in multiplication. We will finish up this unit and will have a test on Monday 12/22.

Science/Social Studies
We finished up the plant unit in science. In social studies, we are continuing the Celebrations of Light activities. Last week, students learned about Diwali and St. Lucia Day. Check out the class wearing their St. Lucia wreaths and hats! This week, they will learn about Hanukah and Christmas traditions in Mexico.

December 8th-December 12th

We had a great week! We celebrated Rose's birthday and started a new writing unit. In social studies, students learned about economy and did short skits on scarcity and abundance, wants and needs, and natural resources. They had a lot of fun with the skits! We also started a fun unit called "Celebrations Around the World". Students learned about St. Nicholas Day and did a craft. I hope you all had a great weekend!

Upcoming Events:

We will be making gingerbread houses next week on Wednesday 12/17 and Thursday 12/18. Thanks to all who volunteered to help! Your child brought home a letter with one item to bring for the gingerbread houses. Please send this item in by Monday, the 15th.

This week...

Reading
We will be finishing the character unit this week. Students have been reading a book with a partner and will finish these this week. Our read aloud is Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and will be starting book clubs for other Beverly Cleary books.

Writing
We are working on the informational writing unit.The unit starts with reading a variety of non fiction books. We worked on picking out important facts and taking notes in our own words from these books. This week, we will continue reading a variety of books and will decide on one topic for informational writing at the end of the week.

Math
We are continuing the multplication unit. We will cover the 8s and 9s this week and will work on a variety of activities to reinforce these facts. Please make sure your child is practicing their facts on xtramath at least 3 times a week!

Science/Social Studies
In science, we will finish up the plant unit by harvesting our seeds. In social studies, we will continue the Celebrations Around the World unit. We will learn about Divali and St. Lucia Day. 

December 1st-December 5th

We had a short, but fun week! Students enjoyed a Thanksgiving scavenger hunt and they had fun planning Thanksgiving meals. They had to decide on a menu and then they used Hannaford flyers to calculate the cost! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This week...

Reading
We will continue the character unit. Students are doing a buddy read of a book and examining the main character. We finished The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane and wrote about how the main character changed throughout the book.

Writing
We will start the informational writing unit this week. We will start with a pre-assessment so We can see what the students already know about informational writing. Then we will spend time reading a variety of non-fiction books in preparation for choosing a topic.

Math
We will continue the multiplication unit. We will be going over the 0s and 1s, 3s and 6s. Please make sure your child is practicing on xtramath 3 times a week. I have updated it so everyone should have multiplication as part of their practice.

Science/Social Studies
We will finish up the plant unit by examining the pods and breaking them open to see the seeds. In social studies, we will be studying economy by looking at wants and needs, scarcity and abundance and natural resources.

November 24th-November 25th

Thanks to everyone who joined us for American Education Week. It was great to have so many family members here to see what the class has been working on! There will be no homework this week because of Thanksgiving break. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Reminders:
No School on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Reading
We are working with reading buddies as we continue the character unit. Students are reading books together and spending time discussing and writing about the main character. They are reading a variety of titles and are doing a great job with this! We will also be finishing the read aloud, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane. This book has really shown students the idea of character growth and change!

Math
We are continuing Unit 5, Multiplication Facts. We have gone over the 2s, 5s, and 10s and will do the 4s this week.

Writing
We finished the narrative unit and students did a great job! We will do a final post assessment this week and will start informational writing next week.

Science/Social Studies
In Science, we will be finishing up the plant unit. In Social Studies, we will be learning about wants and needs, abundance and scarcity and natural resources.

November 17th-November 21st

We had a great week! Our flowers have blossomed and we learned about pollination. Students used dried bees to pollinate their flowers. We spent more time in Starlab and reviewed the fall constellations and learned about the winter constellations. We enjoyed the Veteran's Day Assembly. Alex's dad spoke and Mr. Sieme (Mrs. Sieme's husband) played America the Beautiful. Check out the pictures below!

Reminders:

November 17th-21st is American Education Week. Please join us on Friday 11/21 from 1-2 to visit Starlab and celebrate the end of our Narrative Writing Unit! You are also welcome to join your child for lunch any day next week from 11:30-11:50.

Reading

We are continuing work on the character unit. We spent time last week discussing character traits. Students created very nice pictures of their names with character traits that describe them. We looked at the character of Edward Toulane from our read aloud and spent time discussing his character traits at the beginning of the book and the new character traits we are seeing as Edward changes in the book. Students will think about character traits of the characters in their books this week.

Writing

We will be finishing up the personal narrative unit. Last week, students spent time adding details and trying to balance dialogue, action and inner thoughts. We also worked on punctuating dialogue correctly with quotation marks and commas. This week, we will work on endings and write final drafts! We will be celebrating the end of this unit on Friday. We hope you can join us!

Math

We are finishing up Unit 4-Multiplication Meanings. We'll have a quiz on Tuesday. Then we'll start Unit 5-Multiplication Facts. I will be adding multiplication to all students' xtramath accounts so they can begin practicing those facts.

Science/Social Studies

In science, we will be going back into Starlab to learn about winter constellations and how to use a star map. We will also continue the plant unit by pollinating. In social studies, we will continue a unit on the United States.

November 10th-November 14th

It's hard to believe that we are already in November! We had another great week!

Payton was Student of the Week and her dad came in for snack and shared some interesting books from his travels.

Reminders:

Wear red, white and blue on Monday for the Veteran's Day Assembly

No School on Tuesday 11/11 in honor of Veteran's Day

Friday 11/21 American Education Week Classroom Visit 1-2

This week...

Reading

We are continuing the character unit. We finished Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. We studied the character of Minli and spent time discussing and writing about her choices and what these choices told us about her character. We started a new read aloud called The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane by Kate DiCamillo. 

Writing

Students are continuing to write their second personal narrative. We spent time last week learning about adjectives and students are trying to make their writing more detailed and interesting by adding adjectives and using strong verbs. This week, we will continue to elaborate by adding details. 

Math

We finished Unit 3 last week and started Unit 4. Unit 4 covers the meanings of multiplication, including arrays and repeated addition. This week, students will be making array cards. We will label them in school and a few sheet will be sent home to be cut out each night. A ziploc bag will be sent home to put the cards in. Please have your child cut these out each night and put them in the bag. They will bring the bag back when all of the cards have been cut out.

Science/Social Studies

We are continuing the plant unit. The plants will be flowering this week and we will begin pollinating. We will also be going back into Starlab during the next two weeks. We are finishing the geography unit and will start the United States.

November 3th-November 7th

We had another busy week. The class enjoyed the Peace Assembly and had fun doing some Halloween activities! Alex was Student of the Week and his dad joined us for snack. He shared some very interesting information about his work in Antarctica with the Air Force. The class had so many questions!

                                                                      Peace Assembly

Learning about Antarctica

Reminders:

Tuesday, 11/4  is a 12:10 dismissal for students.

Reading

This week we are continuing to look at characters in fiction. We are discussing choices characters make and character traits. We will be finishing our second read aloud-Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. Our next read aloud will be The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane by Kate Di Camillo. 

Writing

Students are working on a second personal narrative, this time more independently. They are using the strategies they learned in the first part of the unit. 

Math

We will have a test on Unit 3 on Monday. A review sheet was sent home on Thursday. We will be starting multiplication this week. 

Science/Social Studies

Our plants are really growing well! Students are working on writing detailed observations. Check out the plants below! We are continuing the geography unit in social studies.

October 27-October 31

We had a great week! The class started the plant unit and really enjoyed planting their seeds. The seeds are already beginning to sprout! We celebrated finishing our first personal narrative. The students have made so many improvements in their writing already! They are starting to use paragraphs and dialogue and are working to elaborate and add details. Mrs. Bonacquist stopped in to read some of their work and was very impressed with them!

 Planting Seeds!

Celebrating our writing accomplishments

This week...

Reminders:
Friday, 10/31 Halloween party-please send in supplies/food with your child or drop them off in the morning. We will be having our party before recess. Thanks!!

We will have the Peace Assembly on Tuesday, 10/28. We will be making a rainbow peace sign this year. Third graders should all try to wear green. If they do not have something green, something tie dyed or rainbow colored would be great too!

Reading
We started guided reading groups last week. In the groups, we are practicing close reading by reading non-fiction articles. In our independent reading, we are focusing on characters. Please make sure your child is reading and recording at least 5 entries on the reading log.

Writing
Students finished their first personal narratives. We will continue working on personal narratives this week. Students will choose a new "seed idea" and will be working with more independence, using the strategies they learned in the first part of the unit.

Math
We will be finishing up Unit 3, Addition and Subtraction with Regrouping. We will be having a test on Thursday or Friday. We will review the day before and a review sheet will be sent home for practice. We are working on being able to solve problems in different ways. By drawing a picture, students can more fully understand the concept of regrouping.

Science/Social Studies
In science, we have started the plant unit. The seeds have sprouted and this week, we will thin the plants and will be observing growth. In social studies, we are working on a land form picture dictionary as part of the geography unit.