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.

October 20th-October 24th

We had another great week. We were able to go back into Starlab, which the kids absolutely love! We also enjoyed a special assembly with an actor playing Beethoven. It was very interesting!

Reminders:

• Monday 10/20 is another 11:45 dismissal for parent conferences
• Thursday 10/23 is picture day
• Friday 10/24 is the Monster Mash from 6-8
• Friday 10/24 Wear Pink Day!
• Halloween Party is on 10/31. Please send treats/supplies on the morning of the 31st or before with your child. 

This week...

Reading

We are continuing to study characters in our read aloud and independent reading books. Students are really enjoying the read aloud-Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. We have been discussing the main character, Minli, and what we would do if we were in her shoes. We will continue to focus on close reading and are still working on choosing "just right" books.

Writing

We are continuing the personal narrative unit. Students worked on organizing their narratives into paragraphs. This week, we will finish making our first narrative look beautiful by re-writing them. We will spend some time this week focusing on conventions as well-writing strong sentences and using strong words.

Math
We have started Unit 3, Addition and Subtraction of Larger Numbers. Last week, we worked on breaking apart larger numbers into ones, tens and hundreds before adding  them. Students also practiced estimating and adding. This week, we will also work on subtracting larger numbers. We are emphasizing to students how important it is to read word problems carefully and to show their work.

Science/Social Studies
In science, we will start the planting unit. We will be planting seeds this week! In social studies, we will continue the geography unit.

October 13th-October 17th

We had a very busy week here in 3rd grade! On Monday, we had the fire safety presentation. On Wednesday, Ann Schwanda came in and the children made quilt squares which will be sewn into a quilt to be given to needy children. On Thursday, we celebrated Ethan's birthday and on Friday we enjoyed Spirit Day and took our first trip into Starlab! Enjoy the long weekend!

Eagle Pride!

Quilt Making

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Weekly reminders:

Tuesday 10/14 and Monday 10/20 will be early dismissal at 11:45 for parent conferences. A note came home last week reminding you of your date and time.

Reading
We are continuing to practice "close reading", where we read passages closely for deeper understanding. We are also looking at characters this week. We will also begin guided reading groups this week.

Writing
Students are continuing to work on personal narratives. We have been revising and this week, we will work on organizing into paragraphs.

Math
We will have a test on Unit 2 on Tuesday. We reviewed last week and a review sheet came home for some extra practice.  We will begin Unit 3, Using Place Value to Add and Subtract, on Wednesday.

Science
We will go into Starlab again this week and will learn about fall constellations. We will also be starting the plant unit this week.

Social Studies
We will be continuing the geography unit.

Week of October 6th-October 10th

We had another great week. Pictures above show Brian and Zoey reading the poem of the week "Autumn, Queen of Year" aloud to the class, students working hard on reading reflections and Sophia's birthday celebration!

Reminder:
Ann Schwanda "The Quilt Lady" is coming to work on the community service project on Wednesday morning. Thank you to everyone who already sent in a dollar. The activity will be from 9:30-10:30. If anyone is able to come in and help with this, please send the form back by Monday. This is a great opportunity for our class to make a positive impact!

Friday is a half day-11:45 dismissal for parent teacher conferences.

Reading
Please make sure your child is recording their reading on the log 5 times a week. There were a few students who forgot last week. These are collected each Monday. In reading, we finished our first read aloud-Justin Case. We spent time on Friday discussing and writing about how Justin changed throughout the book. We will start our next read aloud on Monday-one of my favorite books, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. Students worked on writing really detailed reflections about their independent reading books and we are working on close reading with non-fiction and fiction articles.

Writing
We are continuing the personal narrative. Students have chosen an idea and are writing drafts. We have discussed writing strong leads and using details and dialogue. We read a book called, Come on, Rain by Karen Hesse and discussed what she did to make her narrative come alive. We will be working on developing the heart of the story and will begin using paragraphs this week.

Math
We are continuing the second unit, Addition and Subtraction. Last week, we learned the properties of addition and worked on rounding. This week, we will work on estimating sums and differences. We will have a chapter 2 test on Friday.

Social Studies
We will continue working on geography. We have been looking at types of maps and will be learning about latitude and longitude.

Science
We will be taking out first trip into Starlab this week! This week and next, we will be going in and learning about fall constellations.