September 15, 2014
Dear third grade parents,
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!
A few reminders for you:
Newsletter: This is the last newsletter that I will send out as a hardcopy for everyone. I will also send it via email and post it online. Please let me know if you don’t get the email. Thank you!
Friday: There will be a noon dismisal on Friday because of Westfest set-up and a teacher inservice.
Magazine orders: can be turned in on Tuesdays. We are looking for 100% participation! Let’s get pumped up!
Picture day: Individual picture day is next Monday, September 22nd. A picture form was sent home on the first week of school. If you need another one, you can find them in the school office.
Westfest: Westfest is this weekend (Friday and Saturday)! I hope to see you there.
XtraMath-An information paper about how to access XtraMath at home will be coming home with you child today. This is a website to use for practicing basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. Please let me know if you have any questions.
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.
I already have a few 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.
We have another busy week of learning ahead:
Reading: We are reading The Trial ofCcardigan 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 Tuesday, September 23rd. 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: We will start our first investigation of rocks. Students will dissect “mock rocks” to determine that rocks are composed of smaller “pieces” called minerals!
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, we will learn about prayer and start on our 5-min sacred story prayer which focuses on mercy. We will also discuss about Bible.
Writing: We talk about and write different kinds of sentences (declarative, exclamation, and questions). Students complete a writing activity where they choose 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 should be turned in on Thursday. Our test will be on Friday.
This week’s star: Tyler
Next week star: Annabelle
Have a good week!
Sincerely,
Erin meland
Spelling list
spoke mile save excuse cone invite cube price erase ripe broke flame
life rule
Challenge word: surprise
Assignment:
The worksheet was sent hom with your child today. The spelling pattern this week is VCe.