We are back into the routine of school and are hitting the ground running! Please continue to have your child read 20 minutes each night and practice their flashcards in preparation for their test each week. The importance of knowing multiplication and division facts is huge! These facts help your child in every math unit during 3rd and 4th grade and beyond. Your child can also boost their math facts and knowledge by practicing on MobyMax. I have contests set up each month with point goals and prizes if students reach their goals!
Questions to ask your child about 3rd grade this week
Can you tell me a little about your animal's habitat? About their diet?
What is our state reptile?
What does opaque, translucent, and transparent mean? Can you use motions to describe these? Can you find items around your house that are opaque, translucent or transparent?
What type of graph using pictures to represent data?
*Ask your child these questions and they can earn a special treat from Mrs. Haagsma!
Curriculum Updates
Writing- We worked very hard this past week to draft our Table of Contents, habitat, diet, and adaptation chapters for our Animal Research books. The students have blown me away with their creative and purposeful writing!
Math- Reading graphs and creating our own using tables was our goal in Math this past week. We learned about pictographs, bar graphs and line plots.
Science- Light continued to be our focus this week. We learned that objects can be opaque, translucent or transparent, depending on how much light they allow through. We also learned that light travels in straight lines and the colors of a rainbow (ROY G. BIV).
Social Studies-Each Thursday we gather all three 3rd grade classes together for our "Michigan Days" or we rotate between classroom; where we learn all about Michigan's history, landforms, government or economics.
Spelling- Students receive a new spelling list every other week and are given a practice test on Friday. If students received 100% on their practice test, they do not need to practice their words the second week (as I take their practice test grade as a final grade). If your child did not get 100%, they need to continue to practice their words for another week. The words that they got wrong are the only ones they need to write in their agendas each night
Reading- We finished our character study of "Because of Winn Dixie" and began a new unit on Non-fiction. We learned a strategy to use before we begin reading a non-fiction text. We learned how to preview, predict and tap for prior knowledge. We work to preview the text by looking at the pictures and quickly reading the headings, predict by thinking about what the text could be about and tap for prior knowledge by thinking about what we already know about that topic to help us get ready to read.
Reminders:
Store Donations-If you are willing to send in donations for our store, we are grateful as 3rd grade teachers! We welcome donations of candy, cans of pop, and small trinkets (they can be used). Thank you!
Upcoming Dates:
Friday, Jan. 20- Popcorn Friday
Sat., Jan. 21 -Mother/son Bowling
Jan. 23-27- Box Top Competition
Thursday, Jan. 26- Skating Party @ Tarry Hall 6:30-8:30pm
Thursday, Feb. 2 - Kindergarten/PreK Registration night 7PM
Friday, Feb. 3- Early dismissal - 12:15PM
Wednesday, Feb. 8 -Statewide Count Day
Monday-Gym and Library
Tuesday-Music
Wednesday-Art
Thursday-Gym
Friday-Music and Kinderbuddies