It is hard to believe that it is already MAY, and that we only have a few more weeks left of school! A special thanks goes out to Katherine Chong, who subbed for the class while the third grade teachers had an extended lunch. We love our Sommer Stallion parents! You all make us feel so supported every day, and we truly appreciate it. ALADDIN Tonight [Thursday] is the choir performance of Aladdin. Tomorrow morning students will see the performance in an all-school assembly. We wish all of our choir members good luck! (Actually, I said, "Break a leg," but then I made sure I explained what that really meant! ) GRADES Progress reports go home today. Please keep in mind that grades are being updated every week, and that you can check on Home Access. MATH FACTS Even though students have stopped recording this in their binder daily, I wanted to remind everyone how important it is for students to know their multiplication and division facts. Third graders are only required to memorize up to 10 x 10, but knowing those facts up through 12 x 12 with automaticity is tremendously helpful for streamlining the problem solving process. I have a few links to multiplication and division sites on our class website, but even using flash cards a few minutes a day in the car would be helpful. EPIC WATER BALLOON BATTLE Our class will be having an epic water balloon battle with Mrs. Knicky and Ms. Kramr's classes on May 25th. We are trying to accumulate as many water balloons as possible. This is the kind that we need. You can buy them in pack of 100 at HEB for $7.88 or 420 at Costco for $19.99. They are also available at Walmart and Target. While we love old fashion balloons, those are too hard to fill in bulk. Thank you so much! UPCOMING FOR 4/30-5/4 Math: Students will start our last unit in math for the year. Our focus will be place value to 100,000 and personal financial literacy. Science: We are starting our next unit life cycles of lady beetles, tomato plants, and frogs. (We received our lady beetles/ladybug habitat with larvae today!) Reading: We will continue bridging our reading strategies and skills we have learned throughout the year. We are learning how to apply these skills to the testing genre, in preparation for the STAAR test. Writing: Students will continue writing persuasive essays on topics they are passionate about as they move through the writing process. Social Studies: Students are learning about how communities change over time, including how settlers choose a location to meet their needs. UPCOMING EVENTS Th April 26-Evening Performance of “Aladdin” F April 27 Whole School Assembly-Choir Performance “Aladdin” M-F April 30-May 4 Patsy Sommer Staff Appreciation Week M April 30th: Anti-Bullying Presentation @ 9:30 F May 4th: Last day to check out books from the library M May 14th: ALL LIBRARY BOOKS DUE M-T May 14th & 15th: STAAR Testing for 3rd Graders (Math/Reading); closed campus Th May 24: EOY Party, 3rd Grade T May 29th: Last Day of Classes 3rd Grade Garden
Did you hear? 3rd Grade Gardens won the “Search for Excellence” Award. Placed 1st place in the Youth Junior Master Garden program for the whole state of Texas!! (out of 254 counties, since each county has a MG program, and can submit a project for the award) We are so proud!!! Our Master Gardener volunteer Wendy Odlum submitted our garden for this award. UPCOMING FOR 4/23-4/27 Math: Students will continue learning different strategies to help them solve 2-digit x 1-digit multiplication problems and will apply these strategies to problem solving during math. Science: We will be continuing with structures and functions of plants and animals. Students will have an assessment coming up the following week. Reading: We are bridging our reading strategies and skills we have learned throughout the year. We are learning how to apply these skills to the testing genre, in preparation for the STAAR test. Writing: Students will continue writing persuasive essays on topics they are passionate about as they move through the writing process. Social Studies: Students are learning about how communities change over time, including how settlers choose a location to meet their needs. Important Dates: F April 20-Spring Carnival Th April 26-Evening Performance of “Aladdin” F April 27 Whole School Assembly-Choir Performance “Aladdin” M-F April 30-May 4 Patsy Sommer Staff Appreciation Week M April 30th: Anti-Bullying Presentation @ 9:30 F May 4th: Last day to check out books from the library M May 14th: ALL LIBRARY BOOKS DUE M-T May 14th & 15th: STAAR Testing for 3rd Graders (Math/Reading); closed campus Th May 24: EOY Party, 3rd Grade T May 29th: Last Day of Classes Individual Photo Proofs were distributed today. These are due April 25th, if you would like to purchase them.
Multiplication 2 x1 1 digit If your child has already been taught the traditional algorithm for multiplying with regrouping, please make sure they understand what each step means. In class we are beginning by breaking apart a multiple-digit number by place value, multiplying each by the one-digit number, and adding the products. Class Book Thank you for returning these envelopes so quickly. We needed to have an envelope returned from each family, whether or not an order was made. I gave each student the opportunity to choose their writing genre. Some students are drawing options for the cover this weekend, and we will vote on our favorites on Monday. One cover and two inner artwork pages will be chosen. UPCOMING FOR 4/16-4/20 Math: Students will be looking at different strategies to help them solve 2-digit x 1-digit multiplication problems. Science: Students will explore how structures and functions of plants and animals allow them to survive in a particular environment. Reading: We are beginning our unit in the Persuasive genre. Students will identify the ways in which persuasive texts are structured and how authors try to convince the reader. Writing: We are using the writing process to begin our persuasive writing pieces. Social Studies: We are learning about current events using Time For Kids, identifying real-world examples of how people persuade others to take positive actions to better the growth of their communities. Important Dates: Sat April 14-RRISD Celebration of Families-Empty Bowl Festival F April 20-Spring Carnival Th April 26-Evening Performance of “Aladdin” F April 27 Whole School Assembly-Choir Performance “Aladdin” M-F April 30-May 4 Patsy Sommer Staff Appreciation Week M-T May 14th & 15th: STAAR Testing for 3rd Graders (Math/Reading); closed campus Th May 24: EOY Party, 3rd Grade T May 29th: Last Day of Classes This week we have been talking about capacity in math. I have asked students to find a container that is labeled with its capacity: a milk jug, a cereal box, etc. I told them to make sure it was clean, and that they should look for containers that had been emptied, and not to bring things like measuring cups for baking, etc.
I would still like students to practice their multiplication and division facts, but we will not continue to write that in their planners. Just please know that having that fluency helps make their problem solving more efficient, and we would like for them to practice it at home, because we don't utilize our class time to drill math facts. UPCOMING FOR 4/9-4/13 Math: Next week we will be finishing up Unit 9 and be taking Unit 8 & 9 DCA. Unit 10 will be on deepening reasoning of multiplication and division relationships. Science: We will be finishing up our unit on food chains and environmental changes. The test will be coming up on Monday, April 16th. Reading: We are continuing our novel study of The Tale of Despereaux. We are using this book to go deeper into fiction concepts, like character traits and changes they go through. We are also inferring using details written, finding cause & effect episodes, and predicting next events based upon what we understand about the characters. This is a fun unit and it will continue for up to two more weeks. Writing: We will be working on personal narratives for two more weeks. During this time, we will be trying to show our actions instead of telling/listing things. Students are working on slowing down a moment and adding in details to help readers make mental images. We are also using our novel to study various grammar needs in each classroom. Social Studies: We will learn how communities change over time. Important Dates: T-W April 10-11 4th & 5th Grade STAAR Testing F April 13-Friday Assembly 3rd-5th Grades: Wear light blue 3rd Grade shirt or Sat April 14-RRISD Celebration of Families-Empty Bowl Festival F April 20-Spring Carnival Th April 26-Evening Performance of “Aladdin” F April 27 Whole School Assembly-Choir Performance “Aladdin” M-F April 30-May 4 Patsy Sommer Staff Appreciation Week M-T May 14th & 15th: STAAR Testing for 3rd Graders (Math/Reading) Th May 24: EOY Party, 3rd Grade T May 29th: Last Day of Classes |