Happy February everyone! We are entering the month of love and kindess! Because I have been working with the kids on kindness and being aware of how our actions affect others, I will be sharing several resources throughout this month to help encourage kindess at home as well as at school! Please encourage your student to complete some of these activities! Please see below for important dates and curriculum updates! As always, reach out with any questions or concerns!
Important Dates:
- Fun Run: February 9 at 9:45
- Parent-Teacher Conferences: February 13 and 15 **EVERYONE NEEDS TO SIGN UP
- Valentine's Day Party: February 14 @ 2:00 **The kids will exchange Valentine's with each other (Class List) and we will play a class game. ** I won't have parent volunteers in the room for this party because it is such a short time. However, if you would like to donate decorations, a game, or even a healthy treat please email me and let me know! :)
- NO SCHOOL: February 16 and February 19
- End of Trimester 2: February 23
- Report Cards go home: March 1
- Scholastic Book Fair: March 4-8
Curriculum Updates:
- Math: We just wrapped up Unit 4, which focused on the connection between multiplication and division. We also tackled two-step word problems using all operations to solve. In Unit 5, we begin to understand fractions and what they mean. We start the unit by identifying unit fractions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8) and build into an understanding of non-unit fractions (3/4 or 6/8). We explore number lines and equivalent fractions. We wrap up our unit with comparing fractions. This is a big unit so PLEASE work with your student on their Math Menu (coming home tomorrow with Friday Folders)!
- Reading: In Reading we are in our Module dealing with informational and narrative nonfiction texts. The kids have enjoyed learning about dragonflies, octopuses, and siberian tigers! The skills we have been focused on have included analyzing connections within a text, identifying and explaining text structures, interpretting text features, understanding figurative language, and identifying and supporting the central idea of a text. With all of these skills, I have also started making packets for each story we read with comprehension questions that the kids fill out while we read - this is helping them with finding text evidence and following along in stories.
- Writing: In writing, we are working on informational writing that connects to our reading module. Currently we are working with what we call a TIDE paragraph. *Ask your kids to sing their TIDE song to find out what this is!* Our first paragraph is being written together about how the Arctic Fox survives in the frigid climate. The kids have done all the research and are working together to write a strong paragraph! Next, they will choose their own animal to research and wrtie a TIDE paragraph on. They are so excited to research and share what they've learned!
- Social Studies: In Social Studies we are going to spend some time exploring primary and secondary sources. We will explore what each source type can teach us about history and help with future research. We will also begin exploring the different communities that make up Colorado's history to start preparing for our field trip to the Golden History Museum in a couple months (details coming soon).
- CMAS prep: EEK CMAS is sneaking up on us! CMAS is the standardized state test that begins in 3rd grade. We assess the kids on Reading/Writing and Math. In order to prepare for this test, Mrs. Fransen and I have started exposing the students to the different types of questions they will be expected to answer on the test. This test assesses a lot of skills all at once and requires an attention to precision that we sometimes struggle with. Please work with your kids at home on following multistep directions, answering questions with complete sentences, and even doing some practice CMAS tests!
- Social Emotional: Our Social Emotional Teacher, Ms. Mandy Cyphers, is starting monthly circles with all of 3rd grade to work on specific skills. We will be practicing and working on how our actions have a ripple effect, self-motivation, self and social awareness, and organization. These whole class circles will happen once a month (our first one on February 2).
