Third Grade News

Dear Third Grade Families,

It’s been fun enjoying the extended summer weather with the children this year.  Now that the temperature is starting to dip, students are beginning to bring in jackets and sweatshirts. It’s always a great idea to write your child’s name on his/her clothing; especially snowpants, jackets, boots, and water bottles.  If items are found on the ground or in a different area of the school,  they are more likely to be returned to your child if they are labeled with his/her name.

This month, third graders are excited to study forces and interactions.  Students will be reading nonfiction books and conducting experiments to develop their knowledge of the science concepts listed below.

1. Forces acting on an object effect the motion of the object.

2. Electric and magnetic interactions exert forces on one another without touching.

3. Gravitational force pulls objects toward the Earth’s center.

Third grade mathematicians are beginning to learn about multiplication.  Students are learning to represent multiplication equations using loops and groups, ratio tables, arrays, and skip counting sequences. You can help your child at home by practicing skip counting for five minutes each day.  You might practice with your child while you are in the car, waiting in line at the grocery store,  or setting the table for dinner.  Skip count by numbers 3 through 9.  Count by 3’s to 30, 4’s to 40, 6’s to 60, etc… Ask your child to show you how he/she uses Super Sequencer, a skip counting program that can be found on Mrs. Simpson’s blog. Please read the attached informational letter to learn more about our study of multiplication.

In literacy, third graders are becoming more and more independent.  Students are working in book groups with books at their appropriate reading levels, and are learning the strategies of “in the text” reading- stopping along the way to make sure you are comprehending, predicting, and using the strategies that independent readers use to gain meaning from print.  We are definitely moving from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”!  We are also working as a whole group reading and discussing the book “Stone Fox”, which is our first read-aloud of the year.  This allows us to model in real time the thinking that readers should do as they interact with print.  In writing, we are continuing our work with personal narratives, and have chosen a topic to take all the way through the writing process- from choosing a topic, to revision, to editing for grammar, vocabulary, and spelling- and we will finish by typing it into a Googledoc!  Lots of hard work!

Important Note from Kathy:

I want our families to know that in the coming weeks, I will be out of the classroom quite a bit.  My mother, who is 91, is seriously ill, and I will need to be tending to her care, as well as organizing and getting in place home health services for her. Next week, I will be out all week, but the following weeks I hope to work out a schedule that will allow me to minimize my time out of the classroom.  Thankfully, our afternoon schedule allows me to be gone without losing a great deal of instructional time (students have lunch, recess, integrated arts classes).  I am preparing very careful plans, and will be working very closely with our guest teacher and Mrs. Simpson to minimize the impact on the third grade program. I appreciate your understanding. Please contact me with any questions.

Upcoming Events

• October 10th – PTO Meeting, Chamberlin Library
• October 11th – Open House, 6:30-7:30 PM
• October 13th – Fire Safety Day
• October 13th – PTO Movie Night, 7:00 PM
• October 14th – Chamberlin Harvest Festival, 1:00-3:00 PM
• October 19th – No School, Staff In-service
• October 20th – No School
• October 24th - The third grade will lead a Morning Meeting Assembly (8:10 - 8:30 AM).

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

K. Simpson and K. Buley