Third Grade News - September 13th

 Dear Third Grade Families,

 Third graders did a great job during our first full week of school! We attended the first Chamberlin School Assembly of the year. Third graders traded in over 2,000 Bee Bucks for honey cells to help fill our school’s Bee Hive! In celebration of earning so many Bee Bucks, third graders were invited to eat lunch in the classroom today. They also had extra recess time with the whole school in the afternoon! Here’s some information about what your child has been learning this week. Social/Emotional Skills 
Third graders learned about positive self-talk this week. Self-talk means talking to yourself in your head or with a quiet voice. Positive self-talk can help students to focus, stay on task, and handle distractions. Self-talk can help students to manage strong emotions and make good decisions.
Math 
Third grade mathematicians reviewed the different types of addition facts within 20. See the attached Addition Facts Table. Ask your child to show you examples of the different types of math facts on the table. Ask your child to share his/her strategies for solving some of the facts. Ask your child to explain the Commutative Property of Addition (5 + 3 = 3 + 5). Ask him/her to define the word sum. Ask your child questions such as, “What’s the sum of 3 + 17?” “Are the sums of Doubles facts odd numbers, even numbers, or both odd and even numbers?” We learned that when we count by 2’s those numbers are even numbers, and when we can divide a number into two equal groups, that number is even. During Number Corner, students are learning about various ways to model multiplication facts. They have looked at examples of ratio tables, arrays, pictures, and loops and groups models for multiplication.
 Reading 
 During reading this week students learned about our “mini-lesson” structure. They learned that both our reading and writing lessons are short or mini and that they have three jobs during a mini-lesson to keep the lesson short. For example, holding their questions until the end of the lesson, turning and talking, and finally they must be hyper-focused on the learning at hand. Students also discovered their new just-right reading spot in the classroom and worked on their A-Reading computer assessment this week. In addition to this, third graders are now reading independently and quietly in class for 25 minutes! You have worked very hard building up your reading stamina! Nice work third graders! Writing 
 During writing students made a writing heart map that they will glue into their writing notebook. A heart map is a tool we will use this year during writing. It has labels and drawings of places, people, food, pets, memories, etc. that we care about and/or are important to us. This tool will help us come up with ideas for writing our own personal narrative, the first writing unit of the year. In the next upcoming weeks, students will be selecting small moment stories from their lives that they can write about. For example, the time I won a pizza eating contest, or the time my cat got locked in the closet, or maybe even a memory of watching leaves fall off trees. Students will be brainstorming more ideas next week in class. We have included an extra heart map in case you want to create one at home. Science 
 This week, third grade scientists conducted experiments with magnets and balloons to observe that electric and magnetic forces between objects do not require that the objects be in contact. Students observed that the force between two magnets depends on their orientation relative to each other (north pole to north pole, north pole to south pole, etc…). Students also learned the following vocabulary words: push, pull, repel, and attract.

There is an Early Release Day on 9/20/19 Friday, September 20th, is an early dismissal day for students. Students will eat lunch in the classroom to be ready for dismissal at 12:30 PM. If your child will be ordering school lunch on this date, please complete the attached lunch order form. Thank you! Upcoming Events
September 20th – Early Release, 12:30 PM Dismissal for Students
 September 28th – PTO Harvest Festival
 September 30th – PTO Fall Catalog Fundraiser Begins
October 2nd – International Walk to School Day

 Thank you to families who sent in crackers for students who have needed a snack at snack time. We are in need of baby wipes for wiping desks. if you have a spare pack at home to send in, your help would be appreciated. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Keelin Simpson and Ashley Cota
 kmcgrath@sbschools.net
acota@sbschools.net