Third Grade Newsletter October 9, 2007

Good day, Families

We hope everyone enjoyed the extra weekend day. We are packing plenty into our short week number seven (already!).

Our reading story this week is about a multi-generational quilt that helps to pass along a family tradition. You might share with your son/daughter something that belonged to one of your/their ancestors and tell the family story that goes with that item. As we are reading, we are learning to evaluate the clarity and style of the author as well as understand the author’s viewpoint. The students will be learning more about taking notes and contrasting facts and opinions as the week continues too. Understanding fact vs. opinion is difficult for children, so as much as you can reinforce those concepts at home, you’ll really be helping…thanks!

We are studying compound words in writing as well as learning more about the revision and editing steps in the writing process. Revision is a relatively new step for the students as writers, so we’ll be working on this stage for quite awhile. Finally, the students will be creating a Venn diagram to contrast items and learn to combine sentences using and and but correctly.

Spelling looks at various ways to spell some long vowel sounds: ai, ay, ee, ea, and the especially challenging: eigh as in neighbor and weigh. The students did an amazing job of learning their own spelling words last week. Now we’ll look for more conventional spellings as they write.

The week will be devoted to learning to make change: counting up, using fewest coins, using available coins, and using subtraction. We’ll be playing a fun math game called Count It Up, so ask your child to explain it and play it with you too. In the meantime, we are secretly practicing addition and subtraction facts as we count money. We are overtly reviewing rounding and estimation to keep those skills solid too.

In social studies, we listened for Spanish words we knew when hearing, in both Spanish and English, the explanation of the Day of the Dead. We also learned about Columbus Day using the same bilingual listening method. Now we are learning about some of the Asian countries while learning to research on-line and in printed resources. Ms. Mohammed is helping us learn to use the computer as a research tool during computer classes too. Specific information about the Asian country each child is responsible for will be coming home early in the week.

Thanks and Announcements:

Thanks to our parent helpers who are making it possible for us to swim.

Thanks to Ms. Garcia who donated a microwave that will be in the Spanish room for third grade and aftercare use. We will be using the following rules with the microwave:

1. The microwave can be used for one minute. It is for reheating healthy foods that have been packed, not for cooking. (This will lessen the chance of children getting burned.)
2. People using the microwave are also responsible for cleaning it. Ms. Evangelista or Ms. John must be in the room while students are using the microwave.
3. All students need to have finished reheating quickly enough to participate in the ritual of the third grade sitting together and having social conversation during snack and lunch.

Have a great week, and please email Dr. Kimble pkimble.ghs@gmail.com any pictures of the class from our trip to Creque Dam Farm or any other third grade photos you have so we can include some new ones on our third grade website. Thanks!

Mrs. Layton, Mrs. Stellerine, and Dr. Kimble