Week 26: March 5 - 9

Week 26: March 5 - 9

Reminders:
9 - Report Cards go home
12-16 Spring Break (No School)
20 - Third Nine Weeks Recognition Ceremony at 9:00 in the cafeteria
23 - Solar System Test
30 - Good Friday (No School)

Reading: Our students worked hard last week and showed amazing effort and skill on the READING practice STAAR test.  Please look for an email from your child's reading teacher by Friday, March 9th to tell you more about your child's reading strengths and areas for growth.  Mostly, know we are PROUD of their reading accomplishments thus far and it is only MARCH!

Narrative NonFiction will continue to be our genre focus for this week. Above you can see some of the titles we have been reading and discussing in class.  Specifically, this week, we will teach students a silly song that can serve as an EXCELLENT strategy for writing summaries or answering STAAR like questions about summary with narrative.  For a sneak peak, or simply to keep the fun going at home, check out this clip.



Writing: Essays will continue to be our genre of focus.  This week we will look at how to write a strong lead.  We will look at many styles and try them out with our first drafts to see which style might be most effective.  Below is a sample anchor chart.  Something like this will be built together in our classroom this week as we write.


Social Studies: Students will finish up their work with map skills.  We hope that maybe a few students have gotten excited and talked to you about how we learned to play BATTLESHIP using our grid map skills.  This week, we will also look the cultural traditions associated with St. Patrick's Day.

Math: During our math block this week, we will continue to look at division strategies and how we can apply these strategies to word problems. Your child will work to create division word problems to help with their understanding of the parts of  division word problems. On Wednesday and Friday, we will learn about area (Area Video). We have taught area models during our multiplication unit and we will make the connection between area and the area models we have already studied. On Thursday, we plan to complete a reflection paper from the practice STAAR that was taken last Monday. This tool helps your child zone in on the concepts they really understand and helps us to identify areas of need. We will send this paper home with your child so that you can use this as a discussion tool at home.

For homework this week, we will have a worksheet come home on Monday - Wednesday. We will not have a problem of the week this week. We will take a fast facts quiz on Friday. If you plan to be out of school on Friday, please let your child's teacher know so that they can take their fast facts quiz before the break.

Science: This week during science, we will continue talking about the relationship between the sun, moon, and Earth and our other planets. On Monday, we will work on the next set of vocabulary cards for the solar system unit. We will send home these cards and review sheet so that your child will be able to study nightly for our test. The date of the test Friday, March 23rd.  During the rest of the week, we will be studying the planets.

Week 34: May 1st -May 5th

Reminders/Announcements:

• Monday, May 8th:  Math STAAR for 3rd (and 4th graders
• Tuesday, May 9th:  Reading STAAR for 3rd (and 4th graders)

Your child will be taking their first STAAR test next Monday and Tuesday, May 8th and 9th.  Here a few reminders and helpful hints to support your child at home:
- We will have an altered schedule on testing days due to beginning the test at 8:00am.  We will take our lunch after the completion of the test at 12:40pm and have specials and recess after.      
- Reassure your child that they have learned all the skills they need for the test.  Encourage and praise them for their success this school year.  Continue to build their confidence this week leading to Monday and Tuesday.  
- Please make sure your child gets plenty of sleep! 
- Eat a healthy breakfast.

• May 19 - Bike to School Day-  Important -If your child is going to participate in this event after school he or she will need a change of transportation note. 
• Monday, May 22nd:  Publishers Picnic
• Thursday, May 25th:  3rd grade Chariot Races
• Friday, May 26th:  Winds of Time school-wide parade 

Reading:
We will start our week reviewing vocabulary skills and context clues strategies.  We will practice how to identify the meaning of unknown words using context clues.  Your reader  will identify synonyms and antonyms of common words in their vocabulary using context clues as well.  

Later in the week, we will work on test taking confidence!  We will complete one final STAAR selection to review test taking strategies as well as celebrate all of the wonderful preparation they've done to be ready for next Tuesday (Reading STAAR test).  We will also learn and practice brain breaks that they can use during testing that do not distract their peers.

Writing:
We are going to revisit some of our favorite entries in our Writer's Notebook this week!  Your writer will reread their past work in their notebooks in order to revise and edit.  We will  specifically work on revising and editing for capitalization.  We will see where we can add capitalization for emphasis (e.g. WOAH!! or I TOLD her I wasn't feeling well.), proper nouns (e.g. Hunters Creek Elementary), and titles and headings (e.g. book titles, SFML titles).  We have added some capitalization online practice to our Language Arts websites.  We want to make sure we send our writers to fourth grade consistently capitalizing! 

Spelling:  We will be looking for how your child applies their spelling patterns this week.  We will take an application grade May 1st- May 4th. 

Social Studies:  Your child will finish their Texas festival project this week.  We can't wait to celebrate our final products this Friday.   

Math: We are entering our second and final week of STAAR Camp. Each class will be reviewing different concepts, as we do our last prep before the test. One concept that each class will cover is perimeter and area. It is important for your child to be able calculate both. They will also need to use the background knowledge of quadrilaterals when finding perimeter. Especially the rule about rectangles and squares when finding perimeter of a figure. 

Fractions will be another topic we will review this week, more specifically equivalent fraction using a pictorial model. The last two days of this week, we will have a circuit that will have different problem covering a variety of topics. This circuit will help prepare your child to how transition to different math concepts between questions. 

Homework this week will have review STAAR-like questions that will give you a chance to discuss past concepts at home. As always keep practicing those math facts. 

Science: This week in Science we are diverting our attention to the math concept of Personal Financial Literacy. We will discuss topics that include human capital, scarcity, credit and interest, and saving. Students will review some of what they learned in their Social Studies unit on Economics. Word problems will show them the connection between economics and math. A series of Kahoots will test their knowledge of various money issues. (And they love Kahoots!)

Week 30: April 3- 7

Week of April 3rd-7th

Reminders: 

OPTIONAL SPRING CONFERENCES: Thursday and Friday we will have early dismissal for spring parent teacher conference. These conferences are optional. Please note that these conferences our optional and its only the second week of the last nine weeks. But if you would like to meet with your child's teacher to discuss your child's progress, we would be more than happy to meet with you. 

Ms. Badrak

Mrs. Duncan

Mrs. Ford

Ms. Jackson

Ms. Rozzell

Mrs. Scott

Here is our half day schedule for Thursday and Friday. 
    Thursday:                                                               Friday
7:50- 8:00 Focus Poetry                                 7: 50- 8:00 Focus Poetry
8:10- 9:25 Block One                                      8:10 - 9:00 Specials
9:25 Switch                                                     9:00- 9:50 Block one
9:30- 10:45 Block two                                     9:55- 10:45 Block two
10:45- 11:15 Lunch                                        10: 45-11: 15 Lunch
11:15- 11: 45 Recess                                     11:15- 11: 45 Recess
12:00 Dismissal                                              12:00 Dismissal                    

Language Arts teachers will send home a Scholastic book order this week in Tuesday Newsday.  This order will be due next Tuesday, April 11th. 

Reading 
Last week, we ended our week utilizing useful reading strategies.  We will use what we learned about nonfiction summaries last week to compare and analyze the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction summaries this week.  For instance, great nonfiction summaries include the main idea, or most important ideas, from the beginning, middle, and end of a text.  Great fiction summaries, on the other hand, include CPR (C=Characters, P=Problem, R=Resolution).  We will compare various summaries in order to continue practicing reading strategies across these two genres. Towards the end of the week, our readers will write a fiction summary of their own using what they know about CPR.  

Writing
We have worked very hard during Writer's Workshop to craft our essays.  We will use this week as an opportunity to prepare our essays for publishing week.  We will enter into the process of publishing week next week in order to celebrate and share our final products. We are also going to take some time this week to prepare for National Library Week (April 9th-15th)  where we thank our wonderful librarian, Mrs. Moore, for everything she does for our school!  Students will either write a poem, letter, comic, or persuasive essay that pays tribute to Mrs. Moore.  We are going to deliver these to her on Monday!   

Spelling
Students will receive new spelling words on Thursday, April 6th.  They will take a test on these words on Thursday, April 13th.   April 14th- April 21st, teachers will be looking for students to apply those spelling patterns correctly in their reading and writing work.

Social Studies
We will continue our study of arts and culture this week.  We will learn information about arts within a community.  We will reflect and respond to this material using graphic organizers.  

Math 

We finished off last week discussing area of figures. This next week, we will introduce perimeter of a figure. Area and perimeter can often get mixed up, so please take time to discuss both of these vocabulary words. Please take some time this week and get on Dreambox. Please use this link to get the login page. https://play.dreambox.com/login/yf4j/c78d

In this perimeter unit, we will also look at problem solving for missing side length of figures. We will be working on using good strategies when trying to solve these type problems. One of these strategies will be to add up all the side lengths and then subtract from the perimeter.  We studied in our geometry unit about how rectangles have opposite sides that are equal to the other. This knowledge of rectangles will help students find the missing side length when perimeter is unknown.




Science
We will start this week with the solar system assessment. Tuesday - Friday we will explore the fourth planet from the Sun... Mars. We will look at what attributes this planet has and how it differs from other planets in our solar system. After we discuss Mars and review solar system  characteristics, we will have a short quiz on Thursday.  Please keep practicing with your child the order of the planets and have your child share their learning about Mars this week. 

Week 29: March 27-31

Week of March 27

Reminders:

4th and 5th grade students will take the STAAR tests 3/28 and 3/29.

We will have a change of schedule to support a quiet test environment.  

The third grade schedule for those two days is:

8:00-10:20 Block One

10:20-12:35 Block Two

12:40-1:10 Lunch

1:15-2:05 Specials

2:05-2:40 Recess

2:40-3:00 Read Aloud

OPTIONAL SPRING CONFERENCES: We have noon dismissal on April 6 & 7 so that teachers have an opportunity to have an optional spring parent conference with parents who are concerned about their child's progress this year. There will not be any new testing information to share at this conference. It is only the 2nd week of the last nine weeks so there will not be many grades to review either. Teachers are happy to meet with parents who have questions or concerns about their child's progress.  

If you would like to schedule a conference during this early dismissal time, please sign up...

Ms. Badrak

Mrs. Duncan

Mrs. Ford

Ms. Jackson

Ms. Rozzell

Mrs. Scott

Reading: We will start the week with some strategy work in Reading.  When reading for tests, readers have to read with a difference purpose and lens.  We will discuss strategies test takers use when determining the best summary for a non-fiction selection. We will then review ways that test takers analyze poetry.  Finally, we will finish the week with a reading checkpoint to see how students apply reading strategies reviewed this week and the weeks since we took the practice STAAR. 

Writing:Writing is a process that can't be rushed.  As one of our WITS writers said, "You're never really finished; you just have a deadline."  We've worked hard in class to transform our essays from outlines to full paragraphs.  Students have learned about various ways to start or lead a read into their essays.  We will continue to work on revising and editing techniques this week as we prepare to finalize our essays to be audience ready.

Spelling:Students received new spelling words on Thursday, March 23.  They will take a test on these words on Thursday, March 30.  Teachers will then look for them to apply them correctly to their responses in reading and writing and an application grade will be taken between Friday, March 31 and Wednesday, April 5.

Social Studies:Over the next few weeks in Social Studies, we will focus on the importance of writers and artists to the cultural heritage of our communities.  Students will learn about the life and work of Maya Angelou, Larry McMurtry, Tommy dePaola and Mark Twain.

Math: During our math time this week, we will wrap up our learning on 2D and 3D shapes. We will construct a 3D shape in class and identify the shape based on its characteristics. On Wednesday, your child will take a 2D Quiz. This quiz will review the 2D shapes found on the yellow paper in your child's binder as well as the pink flash cards that went home last week. They will be asked to name each shape. In preparation for our quiz, we will also review these shapes in class. On Thursday and Friday, we will discuss area. We worked on area during our multiplication unit so this will be a quick review of the concept. We will have more graphing homework this week on Monday and Tuesday as well as fraction homework on Wednesday. We will continue with our fast facts quiz on Friday. 

Science:On Friday (March 24th), your child came home with a Solar System review sheet and vocabulary cards. The solar system test will be on Monday, April 3rd. During our science time this week, we will discuss the relationship between the sun, Earth, and moon. We will notice the limitations of the models of the solar system that we see. On Wednesday, we will learn the order of the planets. In groups, your child will make a mnemonic device to help them remember the order of the planets. On Thursday, we will create planet bracelets. These bracelets will have beads that represent each of the planets. To end our week, we will review for the solar system test playing our Jeopardy game. 

Math and Science for the Week of March 19th-23rd

Parents,

Welcome back from Spring Break!  It was a nice break and it was good to catch up on some rest.  Now we are ready to hit the ground running for the next 11 weeks!

This week in Math we will be focusing on the concept of rounding to the nearest ten and hundred.  Some students catch on really fast, and others are confused about the concept of rounding up or down and need a little extra guidance.  Today we used the "rounding roller coaster" to explain the rounding rules.  A student came up with this helpful rhyme:

"If it's 1 to 4, go to the back door.  If it's 5 or more, run out the front door!"

Here is also a helpful three minute video to explain rounding to the nearest 10.



Later on in the week we will work on Rounding to the nearest 100.  We will use the same "Roller Coaster" concept to help the kids understand rounding.  Here is another helpful video to show your kids on rounding to the nearest 100.



Also in Math this week our Objective review will be focusing on reviewing customary and metric measurement, as well as finding perimeter and area.  We will have another objective quiz this Friday, and we will be reviewing it together the following Monday.  Again these Objective reviews are intended to prepare our 3rd graders for the Math portion of the STAAR Exam coming next month.

In Science this week, we will be learning the relationship between the sun, the moon, and the earth.  The students will be constructing a small 2-D model in class to show this representation.  We will then move into the planets and the correct order of the planets.  I will teach them a fun acronym to help them remember the correct of of the planets from the sun.  It is...."My very excellent mother just served us nachos!"

The kids also had the privilege of meeting Ruby Bridges' mother this afternoon in the library and have a short Q & A with her.  Ruby Bridges was the first African American child to integrate into white schools in New Orleans.  The kids were very interested and asked really amazing questions.

Tomorrow (Tuesday)  we will be watching Motivational Productions.  Motivational Productions is a program that comes every year to discuss bullying and strategies to deal with the ongoing issue in schools.

If you are busy at home helping your child raise money for the K-9 Angels Rescue Foundation, please send money by Friday.

Have a wonderful week ;-)
Mrs. S

Math and Science for the Week of February 13th-17th

Dear Parents,

This week in Math we will be studying a culmination of things.  We are going to finish up learning about Area and have a day of Problem Solving to go back over deciding on an operation.  Then we will be moving on to Geometry for the next couple of weeks.  In the later part of the week, we will be learning about congruent shapes.  All students will identify congruent and non-congruent shapes.  Two shapes are congruent when they are identical in shape and size. In other words, if you place an object in front of a mirror, the image that you see is congruent or " equal " to the object.  The students should pick up on this math concept fairly quickly.  


We have moved on to weather in Science.  Last week we focused on Weather tools and the students and I made a flip chart together of 8 major tools that meteorologists use to predict the weather.  They are as follows:
1. Weather Balloons
2. Thermometer
3. Barometer
4. Hygrometer
5. Anemometer
6. Wind Vane
7. Rain Gauge
8. Weather Satellites


This is vocabulary that they will most certainly need to know for a future test.  This week we will be studying the Water Cycle and Types of Clouds.  Flashcards will be made here at school and will be coming home in the latter part of the week. 


The kids will have a counselor lesson this week and we will be dedicating some time to a typing technology that we must implement into our classrooms for the remainder of the year.  It should be fun!


Love, Mrs. S