Happy Friday 3rd Grade Families
Congratulations to Daniel!!! He is our Student of Character this week. This month we are focusing on Responsibility. Responsible students come to class on time and are ready to work. They complete their homework, are accountable for their decisions, and are honest and trustworthy. Thank you Daniel for being a Responsible Spartan!
Classroom Volunteers:
· This year I will use Sign-up Genius to manage our classroom volunteers. I will send 1 sign-up for each trimester. If you have a set day you’d like to come each week, please let me know, otherwise please sign up here for volunteer opportunities August – October 2016. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f48a4a72fa0fb6-trimester1
· If you are interested in supporting our class for monthly art lessons, please contact me. I would love 1-2 parents each month. We will generally have art on Fridays from 12:15-1:45. We will have our first art lesson today! Art is so much fun but runs much more smoothly when I have parent volunteers to assist students during the lessons. Anyone interested in helping with art this year?
· Calling all party planners!!! Do you like to plan parties, do crafts, love Pinterest? I am looking for a few parent volunteers who would like to take charge of planning our holiday party. We will have 3 parties this year. Our first party will be a holiday theme party on Tuesday, December 20th 12:15-2:45. Ideally I would like a few parents to take charge and plan as you wish. I have a small budget to start and we generally ask the families for donations (either items or money to support the fun). I usually ask parents to plan 4 stations containing a combination of art/craft (a possible holiday gift for a family member), a yummy treat, etc. I’m open to your crafty ideas. I do like to keep it simple, each station taking no more than 20-30 minutes.
Sunrise folders go home each Wednesday. Please sign any items in the “Sign & Return” side of the folder and have your child return their Sunrise folder no later than Friday each week. If you find you have received another student’s work by accident, please just send it back and I will make sure it gets sent home. I do make mistakes and I thank you for your patience and understanding!
Every Thursday students are dismissed at 1:55 for Early-out staff collaboration time.
Homework: I will check parent signatures every Friday on the homework agenda so if you forget to sign it during the week, please make sure to initial all days by Friday to indicate your child did their reading. They get credit each week for reading with your initials to verify they did the work. We will correct math in class each morning and the corrected math will go home in the Wednesday folder.
Another reminder about Accelerated Readers: On Wednesday you received your child’s Trimester 1 AR reading level and goal. Please help your child reach their goal by making sure their nightly reading homework is being completed with books within their reading level. The 25 minutes of nightly reading should be independent reading time where students are reading silently to themselves or reading aloud to someone but requiring very little help. If students are reading books in their level, they should require little assistance with decoding words and comprehending the text. Students have started taking quizzes in class and are on their way to reaching their trimester 1 goals! Goals are lower this trimester as students are learning this new level of accountability and responsibility. Go to www.arbookfind.com to find books at your child’s level. Parents can sign up at Renaissance Home Connect to access information about your student’s progress and receive emails showing their quiz/test results. Instructions for this went home on Wednesday as well. Please use this feature if you would like updates. Looking up each student’s quiz scores is not something I have time to do each day. I will review progress towards goals in class with students as needed.
What are we learning this week?
Attached you will find an information sheet describing our learning goals in Language Arts for this week. Please read to find information on the reading strategies, skills, and vocabulary we will focus on. You will also find attached a list of spelling words as examples of the spelling patterns we will focus on this week.
In Math we will wrap up Chapter 1: Addition & Subtraction within 1,000. We will have our chapter test next week on Wednesday. Please visit the GoMath Think Central website if you’d like examples of our daily lessons for this chapter. There are games and other activities for the students to work on from home for extra practice. If your child loses their nightly math homework, it can be printed from this website as well.
In Social Studies we are studying Geography. We continue to learn about maps, map skills, landforms, and other geography terms. The students have completed a Geography Dictionary. They did beautiful work!
In Science we’re learning about Biomes. We’re exploring the desert, grasslands, temperate forest, tropical rain forest, and arctic region. We will focus on life cycles and animal and plant adaptations. We will begin working on a Biome Book.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!
Samantha Casey
3rd Grade Teacher
A Track