Wow! Can you believe it is already December? Third grade is flying by and we are learning so much! The kids have been telling me how much they enjoy this class feeling like a family - I can't tell you how happy that makes me! We have worked hard to build a strong sense of community in our classroom and I hope you are hearing about it at home as well!
Below you will find a bunch of information that will lead us up to Winter Break! Please always reach out with questions or concens!
Important Dates:
- December: Sock and Mitten Drive!
- December 8: Ugly Christmas Sweaters Due (This is a page in our memory books, so please make sure to send this back!)
- December 13: 4/5 Grade Performance at 6:00 (arrive by 5:45)
- December 14: 2/3 Grade Performace at 6:00 (arrive by 5:45)
- December 19: Field Trip Permission Slips due (field trip on January 11)
- December 20-January 5: Winter Break
- January 8: December Reading Log Due
- January 11: Field Trip to The Museum of Nature and Science (permission slips due December 19)
- January 25: Unit 4 Math Menu Due
Curriculum Updates:
- Math: We just finished Unit 3 with addition and subtracting with regrouping! Now we are moving on to Unit 4 which is all about connecting multiplication to division! The kids have been waiting to divide for months! We will begin exploring division with equal groups and move into an understanding of division as the inverse of multiplication. In this unit, we also learn how to multiply and divide bigger numbers (23 x 4 OR 63/3). Finally, we tackle multi-step word problems that require an understanding of all the operations. DON'T FORGET TO COMPLETE THE MATH MENUS AT HOME - THESE REINFORCE AND REVIEW ALL OF OUR MATH SKILLS. Math Menus are due on January 25 before our Unit Test.
- Reading: We are in our 5th module of reading! This unit focuses on teamwork. We will read several stories about kids and how they worked together to achieve a common goal. We will focus on text and graphic features, theme, author's craft, literary elements, author's purpose, point of view, and figurative language. We practice these skills through narrative nonfiction and realistic fiction. Finally we will practice homophones and homographs, vowel diphthongs, greek and latin roots, and contractions. Busy, busy unit!
- Writing: The kids have done a wonderful job with our RACES strategy! We will continue to work on this strategy to help prepare us for CMAS written responses. We are going to be moving on to informative writing. We will be researching and writing paragraphs about a prompt using our research. This will tie into our Science unit and our field trip to the Museum of Nature and Science.
- Science: We have been exploring animal and plant adaptations and inheritance. The kids have learned about animal and plant life cycles and found patterns between different animals' life cycles. They also explore heredity of traits in both animals and plants. They went around to different classes to discover patterns of traits between groups of students. Currently, we are exploring inherited vs. acquire traits by learning about spiders and their ability to create webs.
- Second Step: We are exploring emotion management in our second step lessons. Our first lesson told us that we get information from our emotions. For example, when we feel scared, we are getting information about a potential danger. We will continue to examine what different emotions mean and practice strategies to help us manage those big emotions.
