Half Way Through Marking Period 1!

It's hard to believe that September is coming to a close and we are half way through Marking Period 1.  If I have any academic or behavioral concerns about your child's progress, I will be sending home a progress report next week.  If you would like to meet with me about it, please send me an e-mail or call me.

This week we began our "Words Their Way" spelling program. For the first two weeks, students will all have the same words- they are contractions. Yesterday, we worked together to select 15 of the words for the test next Friday.  On October 8, we will begin spelling groups and students will have different words.  I determined the groups after administering a spelling assessment so I could analyze the types of words they have trouble with and what kinds of errors they are making.  This test will not count towards their spelling grade. Each group will have a large sort of words and then we will work together to select 15 words for their test.  The spelling tests will always be every 2 weeks. Students should be bringing their spelling notebook to and from school each day along with their take home folder and agenda.
Here is an awesome site to help your child practice their words in all kinds of fun ways:
http://www.spellingcity.com/

We continued our study of subtraction this week, especially working on 3 digit subtraction equations where you have to "double re-name"- such as 400-178. On Thursday in small groups, students used the khan academy site to view a mini lesson to review different subtraction strategies. The Khan academy is a fantastic site full of lessons on everything from basic addition to advanced calculus.  Every lesson is followed by different activities to reinforce the concept.  If you sign your child up for an account, it will even monitor their progress and send you updates.  I can not create the accounts myself, because you need to enter an e-mail address, but please consider using this site for homework help and to offer some challenge as well. I added the link to both of these sites to the left. The Khan academy was recently featured on 60 Minutes and you can watch the clip here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7401696n.

Here is the lesson we started in small groups, if you'd like your child to watch it over the weekend:

http://www.khanacademy.org/math/arithmetic/addition-subtraction/v/subtraction-3---introduction-to-borrowing-or-regrouping

A few reminders:
-we will hold our Student Government elections for our class representatives on Friday, October 5.
-Our first spelling test is also 10/5.
-Students will be bringing home our first BIG homework project on Monday, October 1. It is due the 31st.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Wonderful Week Four!

Hello students and parents!

This week we have learned a lot of facts about gravity!  Ask your child to tell you something they have learned.  We especially enjoyed learning about our weight on different planets- there is a link below to a fun website where students can check out what their weight would be in the other planets of our solar system.

In social studies, we have continued to talk about democratic principles and are beginning to really focus on our main project for the quarter- contributing to the common good.  Ask your child what it means to contribute to the common good.  We have been reading and learning about kids who are able to help people in their community.  Later this quarter, students will be planning their own community service projects- group projects at school and individual projects as part of their homework.

To enjoy Fitness Friday and the beautiful weather, we played "Butterfly Tag" outside- a great way to get exercise for our brains and our bodies!

Some important reminders:
-If you'd like to order scholastic books, the last day is Friday, September 28.  The link to order online is below.
-Send in any slips to subscribe to Highlights magazine or Puzzlemania by Friday as well. You will be billed directly.
-If you are running for SGA, speeches and posters are also due by Friday, 9/28.
-There is no school Wednesday and a half day Friday- we are half way through the first marking period- its flying by!
-In week 5 (9/24), you may begin seeing incomplete classwork coming home to be done as homework.

Week 3 Wrap Up

Last week was busy in Grade 3! We had a very successful Back to School Night on Wednesday with a presentation about our new curriculum, report card and grading system and new behavior management system.  If you missed it or you would like the chance to look it over in more detail, go to the school website and look under "Classrooms", then "Grade 3" and you will see the link to our power point presentation. Please feel free to contact me, my e-mail is at the bottom of the site.

We did so many things last week but two of the most exciting were during science in our study of forces of motion.  We were able to borrow a cart of laptops from the media center and explore a website where students got to create a maze- practicing moving objects around and observing how objects bounce and move. The students had to use trial and error to achieve their goal. Ask them to show you how to play "Tinker Ball"- the link is at the lower left of the screen. Another day, we used many objects in groups to experiment with how we can change an object's motion and different ways to describe objects in motion.

All in all, it was a great week!

Welcome to Grade 3!

We are off to a great start this year in Grade 3! Currently, my class has 18 students- 9 boys and 9 girls. During this first three weeks of school, we have been working on developing our classroom rules and routines. We have begun a rigorous new curriculum, a new behavior management system and a new grading policy as well. In reading, I have been able to test each student's reading level while doing whole-class instruction on inferencing and point of view.  This week, we will be focusing on starting our small reading groups. In writing, we have begun writing a personal narrative about a good deed we have done. In science, we began the year talking about stress and strengths and weaknesses and now we are being a unit of study on forces of motion. In social studies, we have been studying American Democratic Principals and discussing rules and laws. In math, we are currently working on addition and subtraction to 1,000 and are using rounding to make good estimates. I am so excited to be off to a great start for a wonderful new school year! The theme of much of what we are doing right now in all subject areas is collaboration and doing things for the common good and all of our Penguins have been working together productively every day!