October 13, 2014
Dear Third Grade Parents and Students,
Mid Trimester Reports: Mid-Trimester reports will be coming home on this Friday, October 17th. These reflect the progress that your child is making this year. I just wanted to clarify the grading system. 4, 3, 2, 1 do not equate to A, B, C, or D. Please look at the descriptors. The 4 means exceeding standards, so they are going above and beyond what is expected. They must add more components than requested. Students will not be receiving 4’s at this point in the year. A “4” means the student is going above and beyond expectations. This early in the year it is not appropriate to give a “4” in most subject areas as we have not had the opportunity to delve deep enough into the content to warrant this exceptional score. Your child may be doing excellent work, and they may receive a 3. A 3 indicates that they are meeting the standard for their grade level, and they are doing quality work. A report card with mostly 3’s is something to be proud of! A 2 means that your child is working towards the standard. Your child may be working their hardest, but more growth is needed in order to meet the standard. It also indicates that progress is being shown. On the other hand your child may receive a 2 because they are not trying their hardest. A 1 indicates that your child is below the standard and needs more assistance and practice in order to meet the standard.
IOWA Testing: The third grade will be taking the IOWA tests Friday of this week and all next week. It is important for the students to be at school to take the tests. Please do not schedule any appointments between October 17- 30. Here are some helpful tips to discuss with your child:
* Plan ahead for a peaceful, unhurried evening and morning before the test.
* Make sure your child sleeps well, eats a healthy breakfast, brings a healthy snack, and gets enough water to drink.
* Be on time for school. We take the IOWA tests first thing each morning so be at school by the first bell (8:15) so that students have time to settle in before we begin.
* Give an honest effort; take pride in yourself and DO YOUR BEST.
* Never leave an answer blank!
Book Report:
Third graders are reading the story Amos and Boris. In class, we are learning vocabulary and discussing the characters, setting, theme and plot.
This is a wonderful story to share with others, so we are asking students to re-read the story and complete some enrichment and extension activities as a take-home book project.
Together, we will have gone through the directions and the grading criteria. Students have begun this project and will have the materials needed to complete it. Parents should help their child set aside time over the week or so to carefully and thoughtfully complete the project. Parents may assist students as needed; however, the children should be encouraged to use their own thoughts, ideas and creativity, particularly in written responses. This will help give teachers a more accurate picture of their level of comprehension of this story.
Materials and grading rubric will come home on Thursday, October 16th.
The students will not have other homework assignments during the week of October 20th to allow enough time to complete this book project. It is important that students manage the time given in order to spread out the tasks evenly. One suggestions would be to complete one part of the assignment each night; however, families can choose to do more on a weekend and less during the week, if that works better. Try not to complete too much in one sitting.
The completed book project is due on: Monday, October 27th.
We hope that this will be a fun and meaningful way to practice close reading of a story while allowing for individual expression and creativity.
Important Papers: Please make sure that you are checking the important papers section tonight. There will be a lot of correct work coming home tonight.
Spanish Quiz: There will be a Spanish quiz this Wednesday (Oct. 15). You can go to Mrs. Myers’ webpage to find the description of the quiz and links to study guides
This week:
Reading: We read Amos and Boris and are learning vocabulary and discussing the characters, setting, theme and plot. This will help them prepare for the book report they will be completing at home.
Religion: Students learn about the Holy Trinity. This month we reviewed and practiced the Angel of God prayer.
Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light, to guard, to rule and guide, Amen
Writing: We focus on action verbs and being verbs. Students also write goals that they would like to focus on for the rest of this trimester.
Cursive: We will begin cursive this week! We will start off with the letters “i” and “t”
Science: We finish discovering what our mystery minerals are by performing a scratch test to test for mineral hardness. We compare and contrast other minerals and read about our birthstones.
Math: This week we continue to work on adding with regrouping with 4-digit numbers. We also review subtraction and work on subtraction that involves regrouping.
Social Studies: We finish our study of geography. Students have been working hard on their own version of “Google Earth” and are excited to share them with you. Our Pacific Region test will be tomorrow (Tuesday). A study guide for this test was sent home last week.
Spelling: Assignment due on Thursday and the test in on Friday. The pattern this week is short and long vowels.
This week’s spelling list:
math toast easy socks Friday stuff paid cheese June elbow program shiny piles sticky
Challenge word: holiday
This week’s star: Jack
Next week’s star: Will M
Have a fabulous week!
Sincerely,
Erin Meland