Friday, January 13, 2017

Weekly Wrap Up

Early in the week we did some goal setting. Your child was asked to come up with goals for reading, math, home, and personal/social. Then they picked three of them and wrote them on a banner that’s now hanging in the hallway outside of our class. Ask your child to talk with you about the goals they set, and why they thought those goals were important to them.

It’s that time of year when Lost and Found fills up quickly! If your child is missing anything, please make sure to remind them to look for their missing items. In order to make sure your child keeps all items that belong to him/her, please take some time to write their name in coats, backpacks, lunch bags, and anything else that comes to school. Not only will that help make sure your child gets his/her things back, but it will also make sure someone doesn’t accidentally take something that looks like theirs, but belongs to your child.

Third grade is the year that your child begins working on keyboarding! We do this through the use of a program called Typing Club. Your child can even do this at home! If he/she logs into the Chrome browser with their district Google account information, and then accesses the site, they can pick up where they left off at school by selecting the option to save their data. Once they login again in school, they won’t have to repeat the section they did at home. The key is to make sure they login with their district Google account. We’ve done this in school before, so your child should be comfortable doing it at home if they want to, and if you let them online at home.

Here's what we're learning about next week:

  • Science: Force and Motion/Simple Machines
  • Math: Division
  • Reading and Writing: Finish organizing notes by sub-topic/chapter. Determine if chapters have enough information, or need to be combined or need more research, begin writing chapters.


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

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Weekly Wrap Up

Happy New Year! I hope that the holidays and vacation were fun and restful for all families! We are totally back in the swing of things, and your children have been such hard workers this week! You should be a fly on the wall to see their amazing effort and focus!

We’ve spent the week learning about the meanings of division. Students have learned that dividing means breaking things up into equal groups. They’ve practiced doing that with Fruit Loops (a yummy fun math lesson!) and with counting cubes. They’ve learned how to use repeated subtraction to divide, as well as use a multiplication chart to find the answer (quotient) to a division problem. They’ve also started learning to recognize when a story problem is asking them to divide. That one takes a little practice though. You can help at home by giving them a story problem, and asking them what operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) they should use to solve it and why. The “why” is important, it helps them process through the problem, stopping to think what needs to be done. Once they can give you the why, then have them solve it. An example of a problem you might use at home is: Grandma has 9 cookies to share equally among the three kids in our family. How many cookies should each child get?

Just a reminder, your child has PE every Thursday. Please try to remind them to wear sneakers on that day, or have them in their bag to change into. Also, they have music every Tuesday and should bring their recorder and music folder to school.

The most recent math fact test scores went home this week for your signature. If you have questions or want at-home practice sheets, please let me know. Now that we’re learning division, your child should begin studying division facts at home.

Here's what we're learning about next week:

  • Science: Introduction to Force and Motion/Simple Machines
  • Math: Division
  • Reading and Writing: Finish up taking notes on information topic. Build new ideas from notes taken through different sources. Organize notes by sub-topic/ chapter. Determine if chapters have enough information, or need to be combined or need more research (this might go into the following week)

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