Weekly Update: August 20-24

We had a great first full week of school! We continued to do some community building activities such as Saving Fred in small groups, and a marshmallow challenge with Mrs. Lilleboe's class. We also developed our class Social Contract which is a document that describes how we plan to treat each other at school.

We have started delving into our curriculum with the following units:

Math - Graphs and Data: We are learning about frequency tables, bar graphs, pictographs and dot plots and learning how to answer questions based on data from the graphs. This unit will continue into next week.

Science - An Introduction: We have covered science safety guidelines and learned about some of the tools we will use this year. We will discuss famous scientists on Monday and then move into our first official unit over the three states of matter.

Social Studies - Government and Good Citizenship: We have just begun this unit by previewing some of the important vocabulary terms we will learn such as government, taxes, election, and citizenship. This unit will extend throughout the first 9 week grading period.

Reading - Setting Up Reading Workshop: The first few weeks of reading in third grade involve setting up routines for reading workshop. We usually begin each day with a mini-lesson on a particular reading skill, and then students move into independent reading time where they practice that new skill. This time is when I work with small groups or individual students, but for the next few weeks, it is the time when I do our beginning of the year testing one-on-one to determine their individual reading levels.

Writing - Personal Narratives: So far, we have brainstormed what topics we can share personal stories about, and the kids have come up with some great ideas. On Friday, they created "Heart Maps" to show what is near and dear to their hearts that might serve as writing inspiration. We will begin writing a personal narrative next week!

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and don't forget about Parent Night on Tuesday. Here is the content of the email I sent earlier this evening about the event.

This Tuesday August 28  is Parent Night for third grade from 6:30 to 7:30pm. All parents should meet in the cafeteria at 6:30 for a grade level information session. Following that, you will be able to come back to the classroom to find out more specifics about our procedures, routines, and learning. To help with parking, the front and back doors will be unlocked at 6:15 so that you can park on both sides of the school. 

Parent Information Nights are designed for parents, not students.  Space inside classrooms is limited, and we have a lot of information to share with each of you. Please make other arrangements for your children so that at least one parent can attend the meeting. Childcare will not be provided at the school. If you are unable to attend, I'll email both presentations to everyone so you won't miss out on all the information.