General Information
Spring has sprung!! The month of April will be a very, very busy month as we prepare to take our NH-SAS assessment and as we start to wrap up our curriculum for the school year.
NH-SAS Practice
This month, we will continue to prepare using the practice tests. A lot of you have been wondering how you can help your child to prepare at home. The biggest thing that I want to stress to the kiddos is that reading directions carefully and taking their time are the keys to doing well on this assessment. There will be a writing, a reading, and a math component on the test. While we are unsure exactly what will be on each test, we know that the math will be a mixture of multi-step word problems, computation, and conceptual topics such as fractions, measurement, and geometry. Our trickiest unit (fractions) is being taught in the month of March so that those skills are fresh in our minds when we take the test! The reading test will require the students to read one or more passages (usually a fiction and a nonfiction) and answer multiple choice and short answer questions based on what they read. As much practice as possible as they can get with these skills the better. The writing will vary depending on the student. Each student will either be assigned and opinion writing assignment or an informational writing assignment. There is no way of knowing who will get which assignment so we are preparing for both just in case! You can also access the practice test at home by following the link below. You are allotted 99 attempts for each device that you use. Don’t panic if your child sees something on the practice test that we haven’t covered yet. We will cover everything that is relevant before the date of the test. :) This practice test looks EXACTLY like the real thing. However, the content of the questions as well as the passages will obviously be different. This is a GREAT tool to use to help your kids become even more familiar with the test itself so I strongly recommend that everyone uses it at home to practice. :)
https://nh.portal.airast.org/training-tests.stml
Click: Take the Training and Practice Tests
Click: Sign in
Select 3rd grade
Choose ELA or Math
Follow the directions
Talent Show and Micro Day
The talent show will be taking place on April 5th this year at the Nashua Community College Auditorium. We hope to see everyone there! We have several third graders performing this year and we can't wait to see them shine up on stage! Tickets can be purchased at the door
Micro Day is an exciting event and a great opportunity for families to come and see what Micro is all about! Families who attend will be able to purchase product and services from the ventures during marketplace time and will be able to see how agencies such as the government and peacekeepers are run! Micro money can be purchased the day of the event. If you wish to pre-purchase the micro money, the rate is $10 for 25 Micro Bucks and you will need to send back the pink form that went home with your children earlier this week. If you purchase on the day of the event, the exchange rate is 2 Micro Bucks for every $1. The pre-purchase forms are due back quickly, so don't delay! We need them by Tuesday, April 9 in order to allow our Micro City Bank employees enough time to get your envelopes of money ready for Friday. If you haven't had a chance to sign up for a Micro Day visit time yet, you can do so by following this link:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0E4DA5AF2BA6F85-micro3
Book Fair
Our spring Scholastic Book Fair is happening next week! We will be previewing the book fair as a class on Monday afternoon. While there are lots of goodies available at the book fair, I encourage students to purchase at least one book at the book fair. We are looking for parents to assist with Monday's preview day (sign up for as many slots as you can stay for!), as well as with book purchases each morning throughout the week. The book fair will be open periodically during Micro Day, so if you are available to help on Friday either before or after your Micro Day visit time, that would be great! If you are available to help then, please sign up using the link below:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0e4da5af2ba6f85-macs7
April Curriculum
Reading: This month in reading, we will be continue to focus on cause and effect. We will also be starting a short unit on informational text structures.
Writing: This month, we will be finishing up our informational reports. The kids have chosen their topics to become experts on, researched facts on their topics, and have begun organizing their subtopic paragraphs. We will be learning how to write our introduction and conclusion paragraphs in the next week. After April break, we will be starting another mini writing unit on biography writing.
Grammar: This month, we are going to be focusing prefixes and suffixes and understanding the meaning of each one.
Spelling:/Vocabulary: We will be assessing our previous spelling list from March at the end of the first week in April. From there, we will move to a new vocabulary unit.
Math: In math this month, we will be wrapping up our unit on area and perimeter and will later move on to line plots and measurement.
Science: In science, we will be starting a unit on the six main animal groupings: mammals, birds, invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, and fish.
Social Studies: This month, we will be continuing our unit on communities.
Thank you for reading! As always, if you have questions or concerns throughout the month, please feel free to email me at [email protected]
Spring has sprung!! The month of April will be a very, very busy month as we prepare to take our NH-SAS assessment and as we start to wrap up our curriculum for the school year.
NH-SAS Practice
This month, we will continue to prepare using the practice tests. A lot of you have been wondering how you can help your child to prepare at home. The biggest thing that I want to stress to the kiddos is that reading directions carefully and taking their time are the keys to doing well on this assessment. There will be a writing, a reading, and a math component on the test. While we are unsure exactly what will be on each test, we know that the math will be a mixture of multi-step word problems, computation, and conceptual topics such as fractions, measurement, and geometry. Our trickiest unit (fractions) is being taught in the month of March so that those skills are fresh in our minds when we take the test! The reading test will require the students to read one or more passages (usually a fiction and a nonfiction) and answer multiple choice and short answer questions based on what they read. As much practice as possible as they can get with these skills the better. The writing will vary depending on the student. Each student will either be assigned and opinion writing assignment or an informational writing assignment. There is no way of knowing who will get which assignment so we are preparing for both just in case! You can also access the practice test at home by following the link below. You are allotted 99 attempts for each device that you use. Don’t panic if your child sees something on the practice test that we haven’t covered yet. We will cover everything that is relevant before the date of the test. :) This practice test looks EXACTLY like the real thing. However, the content of the questions as well as the passages will obviously be different. This is a GREAT tool to use to help your kids become even more familiar with the test itself so I strongly recommend that everyone uses it at home to practice. :)
https://nh.portal.airast.org/training-tests.stml
Click: Take the Training and Practice Tests
Click: Sign in
Select 3rd grade
Choose ELA or Math
Follow the directions
Talent Show and Micro Day
The talent show will be taking place on April 5th this year at the Nashua Community College Auditorium. We hope to see everyone there! We have several third graders performing this year and we can't wait to see them shine up on stage! Tickets can be purchased at the door
Micro Day is an exciting event and a great opportunity for families to come and see what Micro is all about! Families who attend will be able to purchase product and services from the ventures during marketplace time and will be able to see how agencies such as the government and peacekeepers are run! Micro money can be purchased the day of the event. If you wish to pre-purchase the micro money, the rate is $10 for 25 Micro Bucks and you will need to send back the pink form that went home with your children earlier this week. If you purchase on the day of the event, the exchange rate is 2 Micro Bucks for every $1. The pre-purchase forms are due back quickly, so don't delay! We need them by Tuesday, April 9 in order to allow our Micro City Bank employees enough time to get your envelopes of money ready for Friday. If you haven't had a chance to sign up for a Micro Day visit time yet, you can do so by following this link:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0E4DA5AF2BA6F85-micro3
Book Fair
Our spring Scholastic Book Fair is happening next week! We will be previewing the book fair as a class on Monday afternoon. While there are lots of goodies available at the book fair, I encourage students to purchase at least one book at the book fair. We are looking for parents to assist with Monday's preview day (sign up for as many slots as you can stay for!), as well as with book purchases each morning throughout the week. The book fair will be open periodically during Micro Day, so if you are available to help on Friday either before or after your Micro Day visit time, that would be great! If you are available to help then, please sign up using the link below:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0e4da5af2ba6f85-macs7
April Curriculum
Reading: This month in reading, we will be continue to focus on cause and effect. We will also be starting a short unit on informational text structures.
Writing: This month, we will be finishing up our informational reports. The kids have chosen their topics to become experts on, researched facts on their topics, and have begun organizing their subtopic paragraphs. We will be learning how to write our introduction and conclusion paragraphs in the next week. After April break, we will be starting another mini writing unit on biography writing.
Grammar: This month, we are going to be focusing prefixes and suffixes and understanding the meaning of each one.
Spelling:/Vocabulary: We will be assessing our previous spelling list from March at the end of the first week in April. From there, we will move to a new vocabulary unit.
Math: In math this month, we will be wrapping up our unit on area and perimeter and will later move on to line plots and measurement.
Science: In science, we will be starting a unit on the six main animal groupings: mammals, birds, invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, and fish.
Social Studies: This month, we will be continuing our unit on communities.
Thank you for reading! As always, if you have questions or concerns throughout the month, please feel free to email me at [email protected]