Welcome to the Third Grade Website!
January News
Here it is, January already! Report cards will be coming home at the end of the month, as our school year is already almost half way over!
During our literacy portion of the day we are reading various informational texts and noticing how authors use various structures to help the reader better understand. These structures include Cause/Effect, Sequence, and Compare/Contrast. If you happen to notice any of these structures during your own reading, feel free to point them out to your child and talk about how it’s helped you organize your thinking as you read.
We are writing opinion pieces during our writing time. Third graders have many opinions, that’s for sure! They’ve learned to state their claim (opinion), then back it up with reasons and evidence. You might be interested in asking your child what he/she is writing about!
Our newest grouping of IBlock has just begun. The students will be working on specific skills during their IBlock time. These skills include vocabulary building strategies, reading for meaning using both fiction and informational texts, and finding the message of stories. The students are grouped according to need and will continue to receive instruction to help them become even better readers.
We will soon be working on multiplication facts in school and will be sending home flashcards. It would be great if you could devote some time each evening to help your child learn those facts. An understanding of basic facts will help the third graders as they learn how to multiply multi-digit numbers later this year.
The third graders have continued to enjoy their time with their 5K buddies. We meet up with them once each month. It is heart warming to see the friendships they make and see what positive role models the third graders are! In December we made our 5K buddies books entitled, “All About My Buddy.” We looked at some beginning readers and modeled our books after them, using large print, easy words, and lots of pictures. The 5K students loved them!
As always, thanks for all of your support! Please feel free to contact any of us with any questions you may have. Stay warm!
October Update
November has arrived and Parent-Teacher conferences are quickly approaching. We are really looking forward to meeting with all of you soon and discussing your child’s progress. Please watch for your specific conference date and time to come home with your child. If you don’t see any information by the middle of next week (November 13), please contact your child’s teacher. We are also sending home a questionnaire asking if there are any specific topics you’d like to discuss. Please return that form by Monday, November 17.
October was a busy month! We took an awesome field trip to the Grignon Mansion and learned so much about pioneer days. The students had an opportunity to see and experience so many aspects of a pioneer’s life: doing the wash, cutting wood, grinding corn, spinning wool, and going to school. Highlights of the day included a tug of war (boys vs girls!) and walking on stilts!
Your child also participated in the second annual Woodland Fun Run. As you know, the money raised is being put toward technology. The weather was beautiful and the event was well organized! Everyone had a great time and put forth a lot of effort. We were all impressed by the number of laps that were run - individually and collectively!
Speaking of running, we've given the third graders another opportunity to walk or run every day at recess. Every third grader is welcome to take STEPS to Wellness during our afternoon recess. They can keep track of the laps they walk or run and as they complete 20 laps they fill out a certificate documenting their commitment to wellness!
We are just wrapping up a reading and writing unit where we've focused on how stories are built. Students have been reading various types of literature (folk tales, fables, poems, plays, etc) and retelling those stories in the order that the events happened. Our writing targets have included producing a narrative, or a personal story that has a beginning, ending, and organized sequence of events. We've also looked at dialogue and talked about the importance of “speaker tags,” such as said, asked, whispered, shouted.
Reminder: Pizza Hut is offering a reading incentive program called Book It! This program is optional. Pizza Hut offers a free Personal Pan Pizza each month (October - March) for students who meet the reading goal set by their teacher(s). The goal we set for third grade is to read 400 minutes per month (approx. 100 minutes per week). If you choose to participate, keep track of your child’s reading minutes on their monthly literacy log. If your child meets the goal, sign the bottom of the literacy log and your child will receive a pizza coupon.
Our next book swap is November 12th if you are interested in volunteering - open the following link:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E48ABAB23AAF49-november1/
Thanks so much for your continuous support in and out of the classroom. We appreciate you and are looking forward to seeing you at conferences.
September Update!
Wow! Third grade is awesome! We have been very busy during the month of September. Here are a few of the things that we have been learning and doing.
The year got off to a great start with our Woodland Way assembly. We reviewed everything we know about following the Woodland Way and learned about Paw Points. Your child may earn a Paw Point for doing a superb job of showing respect, responsibility, honesty, and/or kindness. Eventually these Paw Points can be "spent" in our school store! More information will be coming soon.
As readers we have been working hard to understand what we are reading. Some strategies that help us are asking questions before, during, and after we read, using context clues to help us figure out words we aren't sure of, and using both the text and our background knowledge to answer questions we have about what we are reading. We also learned about reading fluently and practiced reading at a good rate, with expression, and using clues in the text like bold words or punctuation so that we know exactly how the author wants us to read it. We will put what we practice into use thoughout the school year, but especially when we meet with our 5K buddies each month.
As writers we have been learning all about the writing process. We know that authors get ideas from many different places. Once we have an idea, we need to decide what we want our readers to know, or what our message is. This month we focused a lot on having a clear message and details to support it. We create and use plans to help us stay organized and get our message across. As writers we are always rereading what we wrote, adding, and making changes to make it our best work! During our writing and word work time we also learned about different parts of speech and what a complete sentence needs.
It has been a great first month in third grade and we are excited for what October will bring!
Meet The Teachers!
Back : Mrs. Slowey, Mrs. Everson, Mrs. Schuh-Peterson
Front: Mrs. Pawelkiewicz, Mrs. Valentyn
