September Recap
September has been a busy but exciting month in third grade! Over the last few weeks, your kids have been working hard on getting to know our classroom routines and expectations, creating classroom rules, participating in community building activities, completing beginning of the year reading and math assessments, and reviewing material from second grade. We elected our class representative last week. Congratulations to Dia! Also, a big kudos to Stephanie, Kennedy, Isabel, and Gabrielle for completing Campaigning 101 and for having the courage to run for a government position. I am very proud of all of you!
Open House
Thank you very much to all of you who were able to attend Open House last week. It was great getting to meet you and for you to see where your child will be learning and growing this year. If you were unable to attend, above you will find a PDF version of the presentation that I gave for you to look through. If you have questions about any of the information presented, please feel free to contact me at any time. During Open House, I also provided a room parent sign up. I will send out an email blast with this person's name and contact information this week.
New Staff
We have a new staff member who has joined our classroom community. Mrs. Katie Discordia (Mrs. D) will be assisting in our room five days per week during our reading and writing blocks. She is a caring and talented educator and has already developed a rapport with students in our classroom. We are very lucky to have her!
Blog Information
In these monthly blogs, it is my goal to provide you with information about upcoming events and curriculum. Important dates for the next two months will be provided on the first page of the website.
General Information
In the month of October, we will be starting to dive into third grade curriculum having spent the month of September securing our classroom routines and expectations. Doing this has allowed the students to feel comfortable and confident in their environment so that less instruction time will be lost needing to review these routines.
Homework Begins!
Homework will begin this month. In addition to twenty minutes of nightly reading, students will also be required to complete a monthly homework menu. These menus will contain 12-16 boxes of mixed skill activities varying in length and complexity. All of the activities will review the skills that were presented in the previous month to ensure that those concepts stay fresh. Each activity will be assigned a point value. Every month, the students will be given a point goal to try and reach. This point goal will increase each month. If the point goal is reached or exceeded when the menu is turned in at the end of the month, they will receive five micro dollars. Using a homework menu allows for flexibility for you and your child. Since the homework is being assigned on a monthly basis, you can choose the number of assignments you want your child to complete each night. In the past, I have had students work hard to reach their point goal within the first week. Others have spread the assignments out throughout the month. You have the freedom to decide how you want to schedule homework. I would recommend sitting down with your child at the beginning of the month and having them choose which activities they want to complete and deciding together on how many assignments per week/day they would like to complete. In third grade, I do require students to take accountability for their own work. While providing your child with help on their homework is perfectly fine, if you find that your child is struggling with a particular skill at home, please let me know so that we may continue to review that skill at school. It will be likely that the struggles you notice at home will match up with the data we will be collecting here at school. As I mentioned at Open House, your kiddos are going to be working very hard during the school day. Keeping homework time light at home will be beneficial for your child. We believe that a majority of the time at home should be spent with family, participating in extracurricular activities, and exploring interests and talents. Please visit the homework center for tools and other information you may find valuable throughout the month. This is also the place where spelling lists will be posted.
October Curriculum
Reading: This month in reading, we will be focusing on asking and answering questions using text evidence in both fiction and nonfiction books. This will be a skill we will continue to circle back on throughout the year. Students will learn the difference between four types of questions: Right There (answers can be found directly in the text,) Think and Search (the answer is in the text but may not use the same language from the question,) Author and Me (the answer is not in the text and will require the use of background knowledge to find,) and On my Own (the answer is not in the text,cannot be inferred from background knowledge, and will require and outside source.) We will spend one week on each type of question.
Writing: In writing this month, we will be focusing the first two weeks on paragraphs. Students will learn the parts of a paragraph and will have practice producing and correcting paragraphs throughout this time. Also this month, we will begin our first unit of study on Personal Narratives. These are narrative nonfiction pieces that reflect a real event from the life of the author. We will continue to talk about incorporating the six traits of writing into these pieces.
Grammar: In September, we reviewed the function of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. This month, we will focus on pronouns, proper nouns, and possessive nouns.
Spelling:/Vocabulary: The first week of the month will be spent with a focus on vocabulary. These are not words that students need to study at home as they will not be assessed on them formally at school but instead will participate in weekly formative assessments throughout the week to build understanding. Spelling lists will be sent home the second week of October. These words will focus on a particular spelling skill and will also include two review words.
Math: In math, we will be wrapping up a unit on place value and rounding. You will receive results from both the pretest and post test of this unit to see the growth your child has made throughout the unit. With each assessment, I will also send home a breakdown of the skills from this unit that your child may need more practice with at home. After we finish up this unit, we will be moving on to a unit on addition and subtraction of three and four digit numbers. Again, students will be given a pre test on the skills presented in this unit to determine which group would be best for them. The groups of students who travel together will all be presented with the same material but the pace and complexity at which the content is presented will vary depending on the present skill level of the students.
Science: In science, we will be starting a unit on buoyancy. Students will be conducting hands on experiments as well as developing an understanding of the scientific method and vocabulary words such as buoyancy, mass, and displacement.
Social Studies: This month, we will be starting a unit on Government. The students will learn about the three branches of government, how authority is distributed, how a bill becomes a law, and will learn about the contents of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Some of these concepts will also be presented during Micro time.
Microsociety: This month, students will be getting ready to apply for jobs. Students in grade three will be able to apply for agency jobs before ventures are announced. Agencies include the government, the bank, the post office, and the warehouse. These applications will be due on October 10th. Students are all required to work for agencies as well as ventures as they provide a different skill set. After agency employees are hired, ventures will be chosen by the MACS staff and the job fair will take place on October 30th for third grade. As we lead up to this date, students will be working on writing resumes, understanding how to match themselves to the right job based on their strengths and skill set, and will practice interview skills.
Thank you for reading! As always, if you have questions or concerns throughout the month, please feel free to email me at [email protected]
September has been a busy but exciting month in third grade! Over the last few weeks, your kids have been working hard on getting to know our classroom routines and expectations, creating classroom rules, participating in community building activities, completing beginning of the year reading and math assessments, and reviewing material from second grade. We elected our class representative last week. Congratulations to Dia! Also, a big kudos to Stephanie, Kennedy, Isabel, and Gabrielle for completing Campaigning 101 and for having the courage to run for a government position. I am very proud of all of you!
Open House
Thank you very much to all of you who were able to attend Open House last week. It was great getting to meet you and for you to see where your child will be learning and growing this year. If you were unable to attend, above you will find a PDF version of the presentation that I gave for you to look through. If you have questions about any of the information presented, please feel free to contact me at any time. During Open House, I also provided a room parent sign up. I will send out an email blast with this person's name and contact information this week.
New Staff
We have a new staff member who has joined our classroom community. Mrs. Katie Discordia (Mrs. D) will be assisting in our room five days per week during our reading and writing blocks. She is a caring and talented educator and has already developed a rapport with students in our classroom. We are very lucky to have her!
Blog Information
In these monthly blogs, it is my goal to provide you with information about upcoming events and curriculum. Important dates for the next two months will be provided on the first page of the website.
General Information
In the month of October, we will be starting to dive into third grade curriculum having spent the month of September securing our classroom routines and expectations. Doing this has allowed the students to feel comfortable and confident in their environment so that less instruction time will be lost needing to review these routines.
Homework Begins!
Homework will begin this month. In addition to twenty minutes of nightly reading, students will also be required to complete a monthly homework menu. These menus will contain 12-16 boxes of mixed skill activities varying in length and complexity. All of the activities will review the skills that were presented in the previous month to ensure that those concepts stay fresh. Each activity will be assigned a point value. Every month, the students will be given a point goal to try and reach. This point goal will increase each month. If the point goal is reached or exceeded when the menu is turned in at the end of the month, they will receive five micro dollars. Using a homework menu allows for flexibility for you and your child. Since the homework is being assigned on a monthly basis, you can choose the number of assignments you want your child to complete each night. In the past, I have had students work hard to reach their point goal within the first week. Others have spread the assignments out throughout the month. You have the freedom to decide how you want to schedule homework. I would recommend sitting down with your child at the beginning of the month and having them choose which activities they want to complete and deciding together on how many assignments per week/day they would like to complete. In third grade, I do require students to take accountability for their own work. While providing your child with help on their homework is perfectly fine, if you find that your child is struggling with a particular skill at home, please let me know so that we may continue to review that skill at school. It will be likely that the struggles you notice at home will match up with the data we will be collecting here at school. As I mentioned at Open House, your kiddos are going to be working very hard during the school day. Keeping homework time light at home will be beneficial for your child. We believe that a majority of the time at home should be spent with family, participating in extracurricular activities, and exploring interests and talents. Please visit the homework center for tools and other information you may find valuable throughout the month. This is also the place where spelling lists will be posted.
October Curriculum
Reading: This month in reading, we will be focusing on asking and answering questions using text evidence in both fiction and nonfiction books. This will be a skill we will continue to circle back on throughout the year. Students will learn the difference between four types of questions: Right There (answers can be found directly in the text,) Think and Search (the answer is in the text but may not use the same language from the question,) Author and Me (the answer is not in the text and will require the use of background knowledge to find,) and On my Own (the answer is not in the text,cannot be inferred from background knowledge, and will require and outside source.) We will spend one week on each type of question.
Writing: In writing this month, we will be focusing the first two weeks on paragraphs. Students will learn the parts of a paragraph and will have practice producing and correcting paragraphs throughout this time. Also this month, we will begin our first unit of study on Personal Narratives. These are narrative nonfiction pieces that reflect a real event from the life of the author. We will continue to talk about incorporating the six traits of writing into these pieces.
Grammar: In September, we reviewed the function of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. This month, we will focus on pronouns, proper nouns, and possessive nouns.
Spelling:/Vocabulary: The first week of the month will be spent with a focus on vocabulary. These are not words that students need to study at home as they will not be assessed on them formally at school but instead will participate in weekly formative assessments throughout the week to build understanding. Spelling lists will be sent home the second week of October. These words will focus on a particular spelling skill and will also include two review words.
Math: In math, we will be wrapping up a unit on place value and rounding. You will receive results from both the pretest and post test of this unit to see the growth your child has made throughout the unit. With each assessment, I will also send home a breakdown of the skills from this unit that your child may need more practice with at home. After we finish up this unit, we will be moving on to a unit on addition and subtraction of three and four digit numbers. Again, students will be given a pre test on the skills presented in this unit to determine which group would be best for them. The groups of students who travel together will all be presented with the same material but the pace and complexity at which the content is presented will vary depending on the present skill level of the students.
Science: In science, we will be starting a unit on buoyancy. Students will be conducting hands on experiments as well as developing an understanding of the scientific method and vocabulary words such as buoyancy, mass, and displacement.
Social Studies: This month, we will be starting a unit on Government. The students will learn about the three branches of government, how authority is distributed, how a bill becomes a law, and will learn about the contents of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Some of these concepts will also be presented during Micro time.
Microsociety: This month, students will be getting ready to apply for jobs. Students in grade three will be able to apply for agency jobs before ventures are announced. Agencies include the government, the bank, the post office, and the warehouse. These applications will be due on October 10th. Students are all required to work for agencies as well as ventures as they provide a different skill set. After agency employees are hired, ventures will be chosen by the MACS staff and the job fair will take place on October 30th for third grade. As we lead up to this date, students will be working on writing resumes, understanding how to match themselves to the right job based on their strengths and skill set, and will practice interview skills.
Thank you for reading! As always, if you have questions or concerns throughout the month, please feel free to email me at [email protected]