Third Grade Newsletter
Good day, Families. Thanks to all who came to clean up the mangroves at Salt River/Columbus landing.
Third grade is beginning week five
with a continuation of the study of The Legend of Mulan
in reading. We are focusing this week on what a legend is by reading
other legends such as the legends of Johnny Appleseed
and John Henry. From these, we will deduce the characteristics of a legend. You
are invited to discuss with your child someone in your own family or an ancestor
who has become a kind of legend. (Dr. Kimble’s family has an aunt who is a
legend for the goofy gifts she always gave, for example.) Mrs. Layton will be
showing the students about Chinese brush strokes as we examine more closely the
art of Chinese painting and calligraphy. Finally, we are hoping to be able to
compare the story of The Legend of Mulan to
the movie version. All of this serves as experiential backdrop to our research
of
Aside from the thank you notes to our two guest speakers, our writing is focusing on the writing process. Students are learning to revise and edit their writing. We are working to build fluency in writing and endurance so the students can write more and for longer periods of time. Currently, the students are journaling or drafting for about 10 minutes at a time. Our goal is to build that endurance and concentration level to 30 minutes by the end of grade three. Being able to focus and write for an extended period of time will greatly enhance the students’ abilities to succeed in upper grades, in higher education, and beyond.
The students will be studying a spelling list this week of commonly misspelled words. These lists are typically more difficult than the ones that include spelling patterns, so please try to fit in spelling practice a little more often this week.
This week concludes Unit 1 in math with more practice rounding large numbers to the tens, hundreds, and thousands place. The students seem have a breadth of experience tackling word problems in math, so we are trying to give them daily practice at listening for key words and rereading to be sure they are visualizing the problem. Additionally, we are checking to be sure we are answering the question that is being asked. We want the students to feel confident that they can figure out math problems in any form—experiential, word, or calculation problems. They seem interested to learn that math problems can be solved several different ways. This is obvious as we solve estimation problems.
In science, we continue our
exploration of adaptations in plant life to see how important adaptations are
to life cycles. The students will be examining flowers to see how their
structures facilitate pollination. Some reading skills the students are
learning related to this science unit are: skimming, relating new information
to previously learned information, monitoring their understanding as they read,
and using graphics. On Friday afternoon, we will be visiting Creque Dam Farm to see how organic farming relies on plant
life cycles. Please try to have the children’s field trip permission slips
returned by Wednesday.
This week’s reminders include:
GHS’ fortieth anniversary All
School Picture under the arches is
Hispanic Heritage Month Assembly is
also Wednesday from
Homeroom and individual pictures for third graders will be taken on THURSDAY as soon as school starts, so please don’t be tardy. The photographer asked us to remind children to not wear white—instead blues, reds, greens, or prints make a better picture.
Have a wonderful week. Oh, our gala auction basket theme, chosen by the students, is: Birthday Games and Fun. Let your creative juices flow about how to make this an enticing, exciting basket. More information about the basket will come in future weeks.
Mrs. Layton and Dr. Kimble