Newsletter for the week of Sept. 14-18

September 14, 2015

Dear third grade families,

The children are adjusting well to third grade. They are getting used to using their assignment notebooks and filers as well as daily homework. I’m impressed with their enthusiasm, organizational skills, and great attitudes! Thank you for your patience in working with them these first weeks back to school. I know how hectic it must be for you as parents, and I think you are doing an amazing job!

Reminders: 

Friday: There will be a noon dismisal on Friday because of Westfest set-up and a teacher inservice. Students are encouraged to wear their Westfest shirts on Friday to school, if they don’t have a WestFest shirt they can also wear fall colors.

 

Magazine orders: We’re moving to 100% online ordering. We’ll still accept cash donations on “tally Tuesdays ($25 = 1 order credit), but there will be no more paper orders. First “tally Tuesday” will be on 9/15. Sell those magazines 3B!!

 

Picture day: Individual picture day is next Tuesday, September 22nd. A picture form will be sent home with your child today.

 

Westfest: Westfest is this weekend (Friday and Saturday)! I hope to see you there.

 

Volunteer Opportunity: I would love to have a parent come in and monitor students on Fridays during lunch (12:25-12:45). During this time I have the chance to meet with Ms. Corrigan and Mrs. Helling to plan reading for the week. Responsibilities include: Monitoring students as they eat their lunch, reading to students, overseeing clean-up, and dismissing students for lunch recess. Let me know if you are available and interested in coming in and helping at this time on Fridays.

 

So far I have two parents that volunteered but I wanted to check to see if there were any others that would like to help out as well. Please let me know. Thank you!

 

Filers: In class, students file classwork in the subject sections of their filers. Those papers should remain in the filers until we clear them out in class. We keep papers in the subject sections for referral or completion at a later time. Corrected papers (homework and classwork) sent in the “important papers” file can be taken out and kept at home. Papers that need to be completed or returned to school will be in the homework section.

 

Thanks for helping your child keep his/her filer neat and organized! Thank you, also, for remembering to sign the assignment notebook each night.

Curriculum:

Reading: We are reading The Trial of Cardigan Jones. Our target skill this week is drawing conclusions. Students will read the story and will tie story details together to figure out what is going to happen.

 

Math: Students continue to work on place value. We are half way through this chapter. This week we focus on rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100 and begin to review place value concepts in preparation for the chapter 1 test which will be next Monday, September 21st. At home, you can help your child with their homework and there is an optional online “game time” game (connnected webite, click on “resources” tab, click on worksheets) that you can play to practice place value at home.

 

Science: Students plan, design and build a tower to display a piece of art.  Through this they learn about the engineering process: ASK a question or problem, IMAGINE possible solutions and ideas, PLAN the materials you will need and a diagram of how to make it, CREATE the device/solution, and last, IMPROVE what you made to iron out any troubles and make it better.

 

Social studies: We will locate the continents and oceans on a map. We will learn about where we are in relation to the rest of the world. Last week, students were given their GeoJourney (used for learning the states), these need to be kept in their social studies section of their filers. Students will learn the first section of states (pacific region) this week.

 

Religion: This week 3rd graders will discuss about the Bible. Children will be able to explain in their own words why the Bible is special to the Church. They are also able to state that the Holy Spirit inspired people to write the Bible

 

Language Arts: We talk about and write different kinds of sentences (declarative, exclamation, and questions). Students complete a writing activity where they choose any animal for a pet and describe the pet in detail. We focus on using good word choice and descritpive adjectives when describing their pets.

 

Spelling: Spelling homework is due on Thursday. Our test will be on Friday. The spelling pattern this week is VCe.

 

 

Spelling list

 

spoke        mile            save           excuse                 cone           invite      cube          price           erase          ripe                     broke          flame

life             rule

 

Challenge word: surprise

 

 

This week’s star: Renee

Next week star: Reece

 

Have a good week!

 

Sincerely,

 

Erin Meland