A message from the teacher:
We have started off the 2024 school year with a bang! The kids are figuring out our routines and learning some new material! I have loved getting to know all of their unique personalities and I can't wait to see what else we discover this year! Please see below for important dates, curriculum updates, and homework requirements.
Important Dates:
- September 11: Fall Picture Day
- September 19: Field Day (3rd grade 8:45-10:45)
- September 20: NO SCHOOL Teacher Work Day
- September 26: Michelle Barone Author Visit (see Friday Folders for flyer on how to order books)
- September 27: Barky's Bonfire (can't wait to see everyone there!)
- October 3: Field Trip to Colorado State Capitol (more information to come)
- October 7-11: Scholastic Book Fair
- October 10: Donuts with Grown-ups 7:00-7:45
Curriculum Updates:
- Math: The kids have been learning about scaled bar and picture graphs as an introduction to multiplication. This first unit focuses on building an understanding of the basics of multiplication. We understand that multiplication is equal groups and repeated addition. We add in skip counting songs in order to learn tunes to help remember different count bys. Please see the links below for our count by songs to practice at home! :) The skill of multiplication is used all year so please encourage practice at home! See if you can find equal groups of things (ex. squares on a chocolate bar, columns or rows in the bleachers, spaces in a parking lot, packs of markers, etc).
- Reading: Our first module in reading covers a lot of skills. Remember that in 3rd grade we shift from "learning to read" to "reading to learn". Students are reading to gain information, make connections, analyze author's purpose, and engage deeply with text. This unit's essential question is "What makes a character interesting?" We are reading fictional stories that focus on skills such as point of view, literary elements, theme, figurative language, inferences, and text and graphic features. We also work on reviewing short vowel sounds in multisyllabic words and introducing prefixes/suffixes as word parts with specific meanings. So far we have learned un- and mis-. Ask your students what they mean and maybe some words they might know with those prefixes!
- Writing: For our first unit in writing, we have been focusing on sentences. We focused on the different parts of speech - nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Now, we have moved into complete sentences and different types of sentences. We are learning that every complete sentence must include a subject and a predicate. We have learned about compound sentences and complex sentences. We understand what independent and dependent clauses are and can write detailed sentences with precise language. After developing these building blocks of writing, we will begin working on our RACES process. RACES is a way to answer short answer questions completely and with text evidence. R estate the question. A nswer the question. C ite text evidence. E xplain your text evidence. S ummarize. More information coming next month when we've dove in more completely!
- Social Studies: We have kicked off the year by reading Capitol Ghost Mystery by Michelle Barone (author visit on Sept. 26). This book allows us to research different aspects of Colorado History and government. We also learn about the city region of Denver while exploring the Capitol. The kids are loving the mystery of our book so far and can't wait to explore everything that our main character, Silvie Blake, is seeing while on her field trip!
- Second Step/SEL: We are beginning our year by building community and trust. We are doing morning circles where we share silly, fun, and personal opinions on many different questions. We are going to begin a Second Step unit on growth mindset and goal setting in the next week. This unit will focus on what happens to our brains when we learn new skills and why it can be difficult at first. We will focus on the power of the word "yet" and how we can find success and progress in our classroom!
count by songs
