3rd Grade Weekly Newsletter
Each newsletter describes what your child has been learning in school, what they will be learning the following week, and homework assignments your child will be receiving.
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Each newsletter describes what your child has been learning in school, what they will be learning the following week, and homework assignments your child will be receiving.
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A few dates to remember as we look forward to next week.
This Week: Feb. 19-23 Reading – This week in reading we practiced finished reading about Flashy, Fantastic Rainforest Frogs, and started a new expository non-ficition book about Deserts. We’re revisiting the strategy of wondering and asking questions as we learn more facts. Chat with your student about what they’ve learned about frogs, rainforests, deserts and the animals that live there. Vocabulary – We learned three new words from Flashy, Fantastic Rainforest Frogs. They were flashy, fantastic, and diverse. We learned that fantastic has two meanings. It can mean great or wonderful, and it can also mean unusual, strange, or unbelievable. We’re focusing on the second definition of fantastic this week. Chat with your student about what words are most interesting to them from this week. Writing – We finished our Author’s Chair on the opinion essays each student published. They enjoyed hearing each other’s writing! We began our second writing performance task on opinion writing. These are designed to help students read texts, comprehend them, analyze them, and then write to a prompt during which they must refer to the information learned in the texts. This helps prepare them for state writing assessments in fourth grade. This performance task will be in the genre of opinion writing, which we just finished studying. Students were asked to read 2 articles about George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. We took notes as a class and thought about what each person did and how to describe each person. Eventually, students will do these performance tasks independently, but we are doing this one together. Math – Continued exploring mulitiplication word problems and how they can be related. For instance, if a word problem askes about 4x4, the second word problem might ask about 4x8. Students should see that these problems are doubles of one another. We’ve also been playing games like Missing Factor and visiting the Reflex Math website to help students gain more fluency with their facts. Practice is highly recommended at home, as we’re coming to the end of this unit very soon. Next week: Reading – Next week students will take their first simulated reading FSA test. After all students have completed this we will go over the answers thoroughly. We will also continue to look at expository texts and what we wonder from them. Writing – Students will continue to do their persuasive writing task, and write an essay about who they would rather meet if they had the chance to go back in time. Math –Next week students will continue to talk about multiples of 10 and higher, and how they relate to the basic facts. For example, 2x8 and 20x8.
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A few dates to remember as we look forward to next week.
This week – Feb. 12-16 Reading- This week in reading we read the book Flashy, Fantastic Rainforest Frogs to practice asking questions and seeking answers to help us learn from reading a non-fiction text. Students have learned that when they learn more from non-fiction, they often have more wonderings. Students were asked to share wonderings by using the words, “I wonder” before sharing or writing. Encourage students to wonder about their topic or characters this week when reading at home. Vocabulary – This week we learned the require, serve, and prefer from our reading of Morning Meals Around the World, and a lunch menu, which we learned was a type of functional text. Check in with your students about these words and how they were used in our texts Writing – This week in writing students started to publish their final persuasive essay. They first met with a peer to go over any tips for revision, then they had a conference with their teacher to help them proofread for any mistakes. Students are also typing their final essay. Math – This week in math we continued our study of multiplication and division. We continued to work on learning multiplication facts. Students have been playing a game called Cover Up with Arrays to help learn factors and facts. We also talked about how to use known facts to help us learn hard facts. Next week - Reading – Next week in reading we will continue to look at more text features in expository text and we will practice using the R.U.L.E. Strategy as we continue to prepare for the FSA. Writing – Next week we will begin our second writing performance task on opinion essays. Math – Next week we will continue to work with arrays and beginning to memorize multiplication facts. A few dates to remember as we look forward to next week.
--2/3 teachers This week – Feb. 5-9 Reading – This week we explored a new facet of non-fiction called Functional Texts. These are texts we use everyday to help us. Things like recipies, lists, calendars, street signs and menus are all good examples of functional texts. Students have been asked to notice functional texts around them in or out of school, and how we might use those texts in everyday life. During independent reading, students have been searching for text features in their own books (captions, photos, fact boxes, glossaries, etc…) and stating what they learned from those text features. Continue these conversations of non fiction books and articles at home. Vocabulary – This week we learned the words achieve, challenge, determination, graceful, original, and spectacular from the non-fiction article The Japanese Art of Origami. Check in with your student about this week’s words, and which was most interesting to them. Ask them about what the article was all about, and how the words were used in the article. Writing – This week, students were learning how to organize their persuasive essays. We’ve explored how these essays are organized into paragraphs where they have an opening statement (opinion), two-three reasons, and a closing statement. Math- We have moved onto Unit 5, which is our second multiplication unit. Students have been using color patterns to work on their multiples of 3’s, 4’s, and 6’s. Continue practicing multiplication at home by using Reflexmath.com. Next week - Reading - Next week we will review how to choose a Just Right Book, and then move onto our next unit which focuses on wonderings and asking questions from our text. Writing – Next week we will continue our unit study of persuasive writing and begin choosing an essay to publish. Math – Next week students will be making connections between multiplication and division. In addition, they will revisit arrays and factor pairs. This week –
Jan. 29-Feb.2 A few dates to remember as we look forward to next week.
--2/3 teachers Reading – This week in reading we started to talk with students about the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment). We used two texts to read through and discuss the skills of sequence, main idea (central idea), cause and effect, and relationship between paragraphs. We are beginning to show students test questions to help them become familiar with the question style and vocabulary. We also continued to work on reading non-fiction expository texts and use text features to help us learn more from the text. Vocabulary – This week we reviewed the words convenient, hazardous, detect, plain, differ and refreshing from the non fiction text entitled, Homes. Talk with your students about these words and how they were used in our read aloud. Writing – In writing this week, we worked on a group of skills including: verbs, linking verbs, simple verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, regular and irregular verb tenses, and comparative and superlative adjectives. Math – This week in math we almost finished our unit four study of perimeter, area, and angles. Students worked with straw building kits to explore different types of triangles and quadrilaterals. Students listed all the attributes of triangles and quadrilaterals. Next week - Reading – Next week we will continue to talk about FSA type questions and concepts. Additionally, we will read articles and learn how to use their text features to help us learn while reading. Writing – Next week we will return to our unit on persuasive/opinion writing. Students will learn how to organize their writing, develop supporting reasons, and how to write concluding paragraphs. Math – Next week we will finish up Unit 4 on perimeter and area. Homework – Beginning Feb. 5, students will receive a weekly FSA reading homework packet, which is due the following Monday. We have chosen these passages carefully to help you and your child see each kind of passages that may be included on the FSA this year. Please work through the packet with your child and use the R.U.L.E. Strategy (explained on the front of each packet) for each question. We will be reviewing these in class each Monday morning, so it is important that students return them on time. Please look over your child's work and talk through any confusions. |