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!

Moving Lines Art Project

Here are some photos showing our most recent art project using rulers to measure and draw straight lines.  The students then cut the original paper into strips, and organized them in a fan arrangement.

March 29 to April 1

Hello families!  Report cards for 3rd quarter will be coming home on Friday, so watch for them in your child's folder.  Here are the learning goals for the week:

Reading:  The class is reading How to Steal a Dog, and they are continuing to identify the various story elements. In the small groups, they will be reading biographies and choosing a person that they would like to research.  Research will be through books and the internet. They are also focusing on character traits of various people in history.

Word Work: Adjectives (used to describe a noun and to compare objects)

Spelling: Suffixes (-ful, -ly, -er)

Math: The students are working on Ch. 6 Understanding Division.  Specifically, they will be relating multiplication and division, solving problems to use division, and working through various strategies to divide.

Test Prep: Daily, the students will be working on the Smarter Balanced Practice Tests to get familiar with the testing format.

Enjoy your week!
Miss Kimpton

Mar 7 to 11

Hello Families!  We had a magnificent time yesterday at the Alberta Bair Theater watching The BFG.  What a treat that we were able to go and enjoy it.  Thank you to the community for offering it to us!

Reading: We will continue reading Frindle this week.  Many of the reading strategies we will be using this week will be comparing and contrasting (The BFG movie, book, play) with a triple Venn diagram, making and writing opinions, and defining character traits.

Math: We are currently working on hands-on activities that give the students practice with estimating, graphing, multiplying, and dividing.  We are also working on taking a total amount and putting it into groups (we are building a solid understanding of division).

Spelling: Words ending with -ed and -ing

Writing: The third-graders will be writing their own elaborated sentences to turn Humpty Dumpty into their own sentences and stories.

On Friday, we will be visiting the 5th-grade Wax Museum. The 5th-graders have researched people from history, and they will be dressing up as the wax character.  For a coin (penny, nickel, dime, or quarter), they will answer a question.  If possible, please send your child to school with five or more coins so they can participate!

We will also have the school carnival from 6-8 on Friday night! Come join the fun and games!

Enjoy the remainder of your week!
Miss Kimpton

Week of Feb. 29 to Mar. 4

Hello!  This week, we have/will be working on:

Reading: We are starting Frindle by Andre Clements.  The students will be predicting, questioning, and drawing images from their minds as we read.

Leap Day: We did a few fun activities to investigate Leap Years, including comparing calendars from various years, identifying the Leap Years, and using the dictionary to make words from February Twenty-Ninth.

Spelling: Unit 23 Contractions

Math: We are starting division this week!  All week, the students will be investigating the process of division through sharing various materials.  They will be learning how to use the proper symbols to write equations, and they will be relating multiplication to division.

Writing: The third-graders will be adding details to the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" to answer the questions Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How? They will then practice writing elaborated sentences for each part of they rhyme.

This class is filled with so many responsible kids that we are instituting Gum Fridays.  They will be allowed to bring gum to school to chew on Fridays.  The rules are:

1. Bring your own gum.
2. No sharing
3. Chewed gum goes in the garbage.
4. Gum is allowed only in our classroom.

Enjoy this first week of March!
Miss Kimpton