Apr 25 to 29

Oh my!  It's the last week of April! Time is sure flying by this spring.  

Our work this week will include:

Reading: The students will finish reading "How to Steal a Dog" and will be recalling and retelling events from the story.  In our small reading groups, they will be investigating further various features of extreme environments and adaptations of living things that help them survive.

Word Work: Noun Suffixes

Spelling: Double Consonant

Math: The third-graders continue to work with fractions in their GoMath workbooks to understand the various quantities and divisions.  They will be ordering them on number lines, building whole amounts based on the fractions, and making fraction strips.  

We spend a lot of time using different materials to act out problems.  Here, eight people (markers) are sharing 4 sandwiches (pink paper).  These types of activities really help students understand what it means to separate whole amounts into equal pieces. 

Week of April 18 to 22

Reading: The third-graders are continuing to read How to Steal a Dog with Mr. Groshans' class.
We are also starting Unit 6: Extreme Environments in our reading materials.  The students will be investigating the question "What does it take to survive in the wild?".

Spelling: 2-syllable words with a VCCV pattern

Math: We are investigating fractions using many, many hands-on activities.  We are learning the names for various fractions (halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and eights), words used in describing fractions (parts, whole, numerator, denominator), and the relative sizes of fractions. We will be working through the lessons in Chapter 8 on equal parts, equal shares, unit fractions, and fractions of a whole.

Please remember that Friday will be a day of no school!  School resumes on Monday.

Thank you!
Miss Kimpton

Thinking Balloons!

Your kids may have told already told you, but they started the week with "Testing Survival Kits". In each kit, they have new materials to help them solve math problems and "thinking tools" to stretch or mold as they work.  Today, they made their own "Thinking Balloons" filled with sand or gravel.  It was a great way to start our day, and they are great tools for kiddos to hold in their hands as they work!

Apr 11 to 15

The students have a day off from school as we teachers go to a morning of training on various types of technology and then an afternoon meeting to continue learning better ways to help kiddos learn.  Then we'll resume school on Tuesday and kick off our first Smarter Balanced testing week.  Each morning, the third graders will be completing different modules on Language Arts and Math.  In the afternoons, they will be continuing to build their understanding of fractions with many hands-on and interactive activities.

How can you help your child this week during testing?

1. Make sure that they eat nutritious meals.

2. Ensure that they get 10-11 hours of sleep each night.

3. Listen as they talk about the tests.

4. Send them to school with some engaging books that they can read after they finish their tests.

5. Write them an encouraging note on the yellow paper I sent home on Friday and send it back to school in the envelope.

We will not have any spelling words this week due to the testing.

Thank you!
Miss Kimpton

April 4 to 8

Hello families! The following are our learning goals for the week:

Reading: Continue reading "How to Steal a Dog" and review story elements, asking and answering questions, and predicting. In small groups, the students are reading their selection 2 about a legend, folktale, or myth and use a "Tracks" chart to show their thinking as the students read.

Word Work: Using adjectives to compare and describe.

Spelling: Suffixes -less and -ness

Math: The students will be doing their Chapter 6: Understanding Division test on Monday, and then they will start practicing with fractions for the remainder of the week.

Writing:  The third-graders are going to be learning about the specific parts of an informational paragraph.

April Fools!

The Spelling tests were pretty poor this week.

April Fools!