Wow! The weather outside doesn't seem to be very March-like and I'll take it. Today's 60 degrees was very welcome. I hope that you had a chance to visit our Maine Animal Museum the other day and see the wonderful projects your children did. We have a very busy few weeks coming up with Maine's Birthday, MEA state testing, Maine Night and field trips and April Conferences.
In Unit 6 in math we have been focusing on multiplication strategies and working on some of the more challenging facts to remember. Your students should know how to use a helper fact and then add a group or subtract a group, use a square fact and then a near fact or use doubling to get to some answers to more challenging problems. Ask them what strategy they prefer.
In Writing we finished our Non-fiction books and they came out GREAT! We will be having a writing celebration to share these great works with one another and possibly some other students in our pod. We are now working on persuasive speeches. Many of my students have already tried out their persuasive speech writing on you, their parents, to ask for a variety of things! They can be pretty persuasive when given the "write" tools. We even wrote letters to Mr. Murphy to ask him for extra recess. He came and listened to many students and then wrote a letter in response. It was very powerful for your kids to see what their writing can do. Although he didn't grant extra recess immediately....he told them that he wasn't going to do it yet!
In Reading we have begun working on Narrative Non-fiction books, specifically Biographies. The students have really been enjoying these and learning lots of interesting facts about famous people. We have worked on story elements. Finding the characters, setting, problem and then resolution. We started by using a graphic organizer that stated: Someone(character) wanted, then(problem) so(resolution). This then helped them learn to write summaries of the biographies that they read.
In Science, as I mentioned, we just finished up our Maine Animal unit. The students did a fantastic job of creating their dioramas(thanks for your help and support on this!) and for creating a Google Slides presentation on their animal. They not only learned about their animal but they learned valuable technology skills as well as how to work in a group and time management. I think that they all had fun too! Take a look at my picture gallery to see some pictures of your kids in action, presenting their projects.
Oh and we asked for donations for Center for Wildlife at the door during our Maine Animal Museum and we got enough money to "adopt" two animals as our mascots--Byron the Barred Owl and Zipper the Cornsnake. The kids were very happy about this and it is for a good cause.
In Social Studies we will be immersing ourselves on Monday and Tuesday, March 14th and 15th in Maine's food, culture and professions. It's Maine's Birthday! Your student will get a chance to spend time in each of the seven third grade classrooms exploring many different things about Maine. We also have started talking about famous people from Maine and did a webquest about them in computer lab.
We will be taking the Maine State MEA standardized tests the week of 3/21-3/30. We will be testing from 11-12:30 each day and we will make sure to have lots of outdoor and down time. Please try to have your student eat a healthy breakfast and a get a good night's sleep.
April conferences are right around the corner, if you haven't signed up yet please do so at this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4ba5a82ba20-april1
Here are few important dates to mark on your calendars! Lots happening in the next few weeks!
Mon. 3/14 and Tues. 3/15-Maine's Birthday
Friday 3/18-Teacher Inservice-NO SCHOOL
Mon. 3/21-Wed. 3/30 MEA State testing
Tues. -Thurs. 4/5-4/7 York Historical Society
Thurs. 4/7 - Maine Night Concert 6 pm
Fri. 4/15-Student Led Conferences
As always if you have any questions or concern, please don't hesitate to email me or call. Thanks!
Thanks and enjoy this beautiful weather!
Tracy
In Unit 6 in math we have been focusing on multiplication strategies and working on some of the more challenging facts to remember. Your students should know how to use a helper fact and then add a group or subtract a group, use a square fact and then a near fact or use doubling to get to some answers to more challenging problems. Ask them what strategy they prefer.
In Writing we finished our Non-fiction books and they came out GREAT! We will be having a writing celebration to share these great works with one another and possibly some other students in our pod. We are now working on persuasive speeches. Many of my students have already tried out their persuasive speech writing on you, their parents, to ask for a variety of things! They can be pretty persuasive when given the "write" tools. We even wrote letters to Mr. Murphy to ask him for extra recess. He came and listened to many students and then wrote a letter in response. It was very powerful for your kids to see what their writing can do. Although he didn't grant extra recess immediately....he told them that he wasn't going to do it yet!
In Reading we have begun working on Narrative Non-fiction books, specifically Biographies. The students have really been enjoying these and learning lots of interesting facts about famous people. We have worked on story elements. Finding the characters, setting, problem and then resolution. We started by using a graphic organizer that stated: Someone(character) wanted, then(problem) so(resolution). This then helped them learn to write summaries of the biographies that they read.
In Science, as I mentioned, we just finished up our Maine Animal unit. The students did a fantastic job of creating their dioramas(thanks for your help and support on this!) and for creating a Google Slides presentation on their animal. They not only learned about their animal but they learned valuable technology skills as well as how to work in a group and time management. I think that they all had fun too! Take a look at my picture gallery to see some pictures of your kids in action, presenting their projects.
Oh and we asked for donations for Center for Wildlife at the door during our Maine Animal Museum and we got enough money to "adopt" two animals as our mascots--Byron the Barred Owl and Zipper the Cornsnake. The kids were very happy about this and it is for a good cause.
In Social Studies we will be immersing ourselves on Monday and Tuesday, March 14th and 15th in Maine's food, culture and professions. It's Maine's Birthday! Your student will get a chance to spend time in each of the seven third grade classrooms exploring many different things about Maine. We also have started talking about famous people from Maine and did a webquest about them in computer lab.
We will be taking the Maine State MEA standardized tests the week of 3/21-3/30. We will be testing from 11-12:30 each day and we will make sure to have lots of outdoor and down time. Please try to have your student eat a healthy breakfast and a get a good night's sleep.
April conferences are right around the corner, if you haven't signed up yet please do so at this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0f4ba5a82ba20-april1
Here are few important dates to mark on your calendars! Lots happening in the next few weeks!
Mon. 3/14 and Tues. 3/15-Maine's Birthday
Friday 3/18-Teacher Inservice-NO SCHOOL
Mon. 3/21-Wed. 3/30 MEA State testing
Tues. -Thurs. 4/5-4/7 York Historical Society
Thurs. 4/7 - Maine Night Concert 6 pm
Fri. 4/15-Student Led Conferences
As always if you have any questions or concern, please don't hesitate to email me or call. Thanks!
Thanks and enjoy this beautiful weather!
Tracy