Upcoming Week 5

Thanks to all who came in to help decorate Writers Notebooks! The kids are excited about the beautiful notebooks and we look forward to using the decorations as inspiration for our writing. Next week, once we had wrapped up our All About Me projects, we will begin our writing unit on Personal Narratives. This unit focuses on helping children write true stories from their lives with details and voice. Students will be challenged to write as storytellers, not just listing events. Dialogue and descriptive details will be added to our writing to help bring our stories to life. We will even look at how paragraphs can help us organize our details for our readers.

Today, your child is bringing home a Mid Chapter Checkpoint in their blue folder. This is a check in to help us gauge their progress in math. We will have our first Math test next Wednesday, October 10th. Please feel free to use the sheet to help review with your child. In class, we will continue to review estimation as we continue working on subtraction and reading word problems carefully. Here are some links to try if your child needs some extra practice:

• https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/rounding
• https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/subtract-numbers-up-to-three-digits
• https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/subtract-numbers-up-to-three-digits-word-problems

We have finished reading Tooter Pepperday and are now enjoying  its sequel, Blue Ribbon Blues. We are practicing comprehension strategies as we continue to think about how what we know about the character from the previous book can help us understand what is going on in the new book. 

Here's what else is happening next week: 

• On Wednesday, we will have our first visit to the Tiny Scientist. We had our first exciting Science lesson today and the children came up with some impressive observations as to why a Maglev train would rise, float and fall. 

Finally, thank you all for your support this week, with Curriculum Conferences, and our Writers Notebook launch. Have a wonderful weekend!

Week 3

We will have our first full week of school coming up! Luckily, our children have learned many routines so that the school days are running smoothly.


This week we began our social studies work by acquainting ourselves with the Seven Continents.












Our Math learning has begun in earnest as third graders learn how to juggle problems that require multiple steps and skills (estimating, then adding, etc.) Below are some links that might provide additional practice with some of the skills required for this work and the work next week.

• https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/rounding-nearest-ten-or-hundred-only
• https://www.ixl.com/math/grade-2/subtraction-equations-true-or-false

Here are some of our events to look out for next week:

• Curriculum Conferences will take place on Tuesday. Third grade will present in the MMR at 5:00- 5:25 pm. Afterwards, we will have an open classroom session during which you can come to visit the classroom and get to know about a typical school day for your child.
• Third graders will decorate their first Writers Notebook! Your child received instructions to gather pictures and flat mementoes to decorate our notebooks. We invite parents to come help us with the decorating on Friday, September 28 from 8:40-9:20 am. Please remember that you have to sign in at the main entrance before coming up to the classroom.

Have an excellent weekend!

Week 2

My thanks to you all for filling out the many forms that accompany the school year. If you have not sent in all the forms, no worries. please send them in as soon as you can next week. I also appreciate the notes sent in informing me of changes to dismissal procedures. It has made dismissal very smooth. 

The children have been doing a great job of getting into our school routines and many children have begun to take on task with independence. This week, we have worked on listening to all speakers with quiet bodies and open mind. Many students have also used a raised hand to show others they have something important to say. These are great habits to have as our children continue the school year. Please compliment your child and encourage them to keep up good listening habits. 

Here's some things to look out for next week:

• Monday and Tuesday will be our days with Ms. Donato, our new gym teacher. Please send your child to school on those days dressed for physical activity. Your child should wear sneakers.
• Schools will be closed on Wednesday for Yom Kippur.
• Children will bring home a Scholastic Book order on Monday. You can help your child order online at Scholastic.com using the code found on the front cover of the blue homework folder. If you are ordering using the paper form given out on Monday, please send in a check for the payment addressed to Scholastic Book Club.

Thank you and have an excellent weekend!

Welcome New Third Graders!

It's been a lovely start to the year as I have had the pleasure to meet many of you and your children! This class has been very sweet and they have been so excited to start learning. This week, we focused on daily routines and are easing back into group behaviors. Just in the past days, I have seen children become more mindful about their voices and how to listen carefully. This is a very promising start and I feel confident that we will have a great year together!

Please send in the dismissal form that was included in the back of the class summer letter if you have not already done so. There are also forms about neighborhood walks and photo/ video permission that will require your signature. Thank you for taking the time to complete those!

Please keep in mind the following for the next week:

• Schools will be closed on Monday and Tuesday for Rosh Hashanah.
• All About Me Bags are due on Wednesday, September 12. This assignment was given to your child on Thursday in a large Ziplock bag. It might great if you and your child looked for items together and talked about why these items are meaningful for your child. This will help your child write about these artifacts in class. 
• Students have begun to borrow books from our class library. It was suggested that students read the same book in class as they read at home so students should have their chapter books in their book bag when they are not reading them. We are reading fiction books to start our year and learning about important story elements like characters and plot. Students will learn to identify important information and make inferences about the characters and events they are reading about in the upcoming weeks. Our main read aloud will be Tooter Pepperday by Jerry Spinelli. 

Have a wonderful Rosh Hashanah weekend!