What's Your Bag?... A Book Report

A book report was assigned today!  The theme of the book report is "What's Your Bag?"  The students have been asked to choose a fiction book as the subject for their book report. The book must be a chapter book on their reading level and approved by me. The students will be presenting their reports and their bags to their classmates the week of November 20. (All reports are due November 20!) Exact details for the report should come home today in your child's Take Home Folder.   As always, thank you for all the support you provide at home!!  I have attached a link to the book report in the "Forms" section on this website.

The English test has been corrected and is coming home today in your child's Take Home Folder. Many students did poorly on the third page ofthe test that covered the concept of subjects and predicates.  A make up test on this portion of test will be given this Thursday for ALL students who wish to improve their grade.  A note is attached to the test that suggests pages in the book for further review.

I hope you all are preparing for your English test tomorrow!  In addition to using pages 24-26 in the Voyages English text book, this website has a fun review game:

www.voyagesinenglish.com

We are currently studying the Sentences unit.

Multiplication Fun Has Begun!
 
Recently the concept of multiplication was introduced in math class.  The students have caught on very quickly and have enjoyed drawing equal groups and relating multiplication to repeated addition.  The concept of multiplication will continue to be reinforced in class, but it is also necessary for the students to memorize their multiplication facts through the 12 times tables.

Each group of facts (0, 1, 2, etc.) will be introduced in class, but most of the memorizing will need to be done at home!  Students should spend at least 10-15 minutes per night studying their times tables.  Responses to times tables should be automatic and without hesitation.  If your child has to pause to calculate a problem or uses his/her fingers then extra practice is needed.

To reinforce the importance of memorizing the facts, an incentive plan has been put in place!  Each day in math class the students will have the opportunity to take timed tests on which ever math fact they are currently studying.  This allows students to progress at their own rate.  Once a group of facts has been mastered the student will earn an ingredient of an ice cream sundae. 

To master a group of facts, they must complete three 2-minute timed tests with 32 problems on each.    To help track your child’s progress, a table will be taped on the back inside cover of your child’s planner.  Each time your child passes a test, it will be recorded and signed on the table.  We will also do our best to correct your child’s test each day, so that you know what facts to study each night.  

This may seem a daunting task at first, but as the old adage says, “Hard work pays off.”  Your child will experience a sense of pride and accomplishment as they master each group of facts. Later in the year, we will have an ice cream sundae party to celebrate their success!! 

Wondering what it means to be a WORD THIEF???

Well, one of my goals is to have students answer questions in a complete sentence.  I tell them that to do this, they should be a WORD THIEF!  That is, they should "steal" words from the question to write an answer in a complete sentence.

If the question is: Which color received the most votes?  The answer should say:  The color that received the most votes is...

(See how we "stole" words from the question to write a complete thought.)

I have been modeling this in class and providing work for students to practice this skill.  You may see comments that come home on papers saying, "Remember to be a WORD THIEF"!  Now you'll know how to reinforce this at home!  Thanks for all you are doing to support your third grader!

Good morning!

I hope you enjoyed your week end.  It was great meeting you all at Back-To-School-Night.  Thank you to those who have already returned the survey for the engineering study with the Boston Museum of Science.  If you have not done so and intend to return through school, please return it by tomorrow.

On another note... I look forward to meeting many grandparents on Friday at our annual Granparent's Day.  Due to the nature of the day, our reading selection test for the week will be on Thursday.  The story will come home on Wednesday evening for you to review with your child.  The spelling test will still be on Friday.

Have a great week!

We made to the end of week 1 in third grade!  I hope your child had as much fun learning this week as I have.  We learned more about each other, schedules and routines than we did about content area, but we learned none-the-less!  I was also able to get some valuable baseline assessments done.  We will start content learning next week.  We will begin our LA routine with spelling, handwriting, reading, writing and grammar.  In math, we will learn about place value and rounding.  The scientific method will be our focus for science next week!  Have a great LONG week end!