Weekly Update

Sorry for the delay in posting the newsletter to the blog, as well as this week's spelling words to our class website I was out of town over the long weekend, and the place I was staying didn't have working Internet!  It ended up being a little forced relaxation time.   :)

October is Fire Safety Month. We read an article about it on Friday, and talked about it. Ask your child what he/she learned (not including “stop, drop, and roll”). Does your family have a fire escape plan? If not, you can find information on how to make one from the National Safety Council’s website. Your child might also like the Sparky the Fire Dog safety website.

Did you hear that the children blogged again? They did, sharing their thoughts on whether or not the Fire Island dunes should be rebuilt after being destroyed in 2012 by Hurricane Sandy. A judge will decide on the issue this month. Drop by our class KidBlog, see what the kids had to say, and leave us a comment to share your thoughts on the subject. You could even have your child’s older siblings, grandparents or other relatives share their thoughts in the comments. The kids were so excited to see that others stopped by and left comments on our plastic bag blog entry. 

It’s important that the children know their math facts with immediate recall. This means no longer than about 2 seconds per fact! As fast as a child knows that 1+1=2, they need to know that 15-9=6. Third grade students are asked to solve 100 subtraction problems (0-20) in 4 minutes, and 100 addition problems (0-20) in 4 minutes (multiplication starts in November or December, and division in January).  In school your child practices daily through the use of xtramath.com, other websites, and flash cards. I know at home they are practicing thanks the recording on math logs. Next week I will begin adding another layer to their in school practice with the use of daily addition or subtraction timed fact tests at the beginning of math. It will be a short, 2 mn addition or subtraction test with 50 problems. Once a child is able to get a score of 90 or higher three times in a row, they will no longer have to take the daily quizzes for that operation (addition/subtraction, etc...), unless the score on their monthly 100 question test falls below 80. Thanks for making sure your child is practicing those math facts at home each night, and look for him/her to be able to recall each fact within 2 seconds.

Here's what we'll be learning about this week:

Reader’s Workshop: Using text evidence to make inferences about characters
Writer’s Workshop: Editing and revising small moment stories
Spelling: Unit 6 - Words home on Tuesday, test on Friday. 
Math: Solving problems while using rounding and estimation
Science: Matter

Please remember that my door is always open if you have any questions or concerns. Together we are partners in your child’s education!