Happy Valentine's Day(a day early!) on this chilly Saturday and the start to February vacation. We had an awesome day yesterday for Winter Fun Day and Valentine's day. It included decorating Mrs. Welch's' door for Read Across America week/Dr. Suess' Birthday with The Sneetches theme, decorating heart sugar cookies, listening to stories read by our wonderful librarians, exchanging valentines, playing candy heart math games and jumping our hearts out for the American Heart Association! Phew! What a busy day!
We are working hard to finish up Unit 5 in math. Due to the weather, we didn't finish before the February break so we will do so when we get back and take the Unit 5 test. We have focused on fractions and multiplication strategies. You may recall that I sent home a note with a 50 fact test encouraging you to have your child practice at home as we do so in school to become adept at multiplying. Thank you for your help.
In Writing we will be finishing up our Non-fiction books when we return. Many students are finished with the writing portion and now are revising or "looking at it again" to make changes and also editing in places where punctuation, spelling and word choice need to be fixed up. We will also be adding some text features, glossaries, indexes, diagrams and fun fact boxes to our books. You will be impressed at how well these books are done. We will be moving into persuasive writing in March.
In Reading we will be wrapping up Non-fiction reading, as well. We have been focused on checking for Boxes and bullets(finding the main idea and supporting details) from the things that we read. We also learned how to "spark" a conversation with someone once we have read a non fiction piece. Next we will be working on Narrative non fiction and reading short biographies to investigate this form of non fiction reading.
We also have been doing quite a bit of non fiction reading about our Maine Animals and working on researching our animals. Your student is in a group of students(either 4 or 5) and have been assigned, after choosing, a Maine Animal to research. They have a subtopic, Habitat, Physical Characteristics, Life Cycle or Food Web and they are working on finding facts about that specific sub topic. After they have researched and put their findings in their own words on a sticky note they will be putting this information in a Google Slides presentation that the group will work on together here at school. We will have a viewing of all of these wonderful projects(including their Maine Animal Dioramas) in a Maine Animal Museum on Thurs. March 3rd.(More information to come on this!)
Speaking of the Maine Animal Dioramas, hopefully your student has told you about these and they have acquired some materials and are getting to work on it! This project is due on Tuesday, March 1st. If you have any questions about this, please get in contact with me. I have provided several students with a shoebox, if they need one, please have them see me.
We have had a wonderful volunteer come to our classroom to read some picture books to us. Her name is Nancy Purinton and she is a retired teacher and Sunday School leader. She is wonderful with the kids and they so enjoy her visits and her stories. Check out my photos page to see a picture of her reading Valentine's stories to the class. Also check out some of our cookie decorating! We also had the Center for Wildlife visit last week with some wonderful animal ambassadors! Thanks Emily Calhoun for coming and teaching our kids about some amazing animals and their adaptations and habitats.
Also, on Monday, March 14th and Tues. March 15th as part of our Maine Studies, we will be celebrating Maine's birthday with many activities in all 7 Third grade classrooms. We will be in contact with you regarding various items we may need.
Thanks so much and as always if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via email or phone.
Stay warm out there! Have a happy and healthy February vacation.
Tracy
Upcoming Dates:
Feb. 15-19-February Break -no school
Mon. February 29th-Musical instruments Due
Tues. March 1st-Maine Animal Dioramas Due
Thurs. March 3rd Maine Animal Museum
Mon. March 14th and Tues. March 15th Maine's Birthday(more info to come on that!)
Friday March 18th-No School-Teacher Inservice
We are working hard to finish up Unit 5 in math. Due to the weather, we didn't finish before the February break so we will do so when we get back and take the Unit 5 test. We have focused on fractions and multiplication strategies. You may recall that I sent home a note with a 50 fact test encouraging you to have your child practice at home as we do so in school to become adept at multiplying. Thank you for your help.
In Writing we will be finishing up our Non-fiction books when we return. Many students are finished with the writing portion and now are revising or "looking at it again" to make changes and also editing in places where punctuation, spelling and word choice need to be fixed up. We will also be adding some text features, glossaries, indexes, diagrams and fun fact boxes to our books. You will be impressed at how well these books are done. We will be moving into persuasive writing in March.
In Reading we will be wrapping up Non-fiction reading, as well. We have been focused on checking for Boxes and bullets(finding the main idea and supporting details) from the things that we read. We also learned how to "spark" a conversation with someone once we have read a non fiction piece. Next we will be working on Narrative non fiction and reading short biographies to investigate this form of non fiction reading.
We also have been doing quite a bit of non fiction reading about our Maine Animals and working on researching our animals. Your student is in a group of students(either 4 or 5) and have been assigned, after choosing, a Maine Animal to research. They have a subtopic, Habitat, Physical Characteristics, Life Cycle or Food Web and they are working on finding facts about that specific sub topic. After they have researched and put their findings in their own words on a sticky note they will be putting this information in a Google Slides presentation that the group will work on together here at school. We will have a viewing of all of these wonderful projects(including their Maine Animal Dioramas) in a Maine Animal Museum on Thurs. March 3rd.(More information to come on this!)
Speaking of the Maine Animal Dioramas, hopefully your student has told you about these and they have acquired some materials and are getting to work on it! This project is due on Tuesday, March 1st. If you have any questions about this, please get in contact with me. I have provided several students with a shoebox, if they need one, please have them see me.
We have had a wonderful volunteer come to our classroom to read some picture books to us. Her name is Nancy Purinton and she is a retired teacher and Sunday School leader. She is wonderful with the kids and they so enjoy her visits and her stories. Check out my photos page to see a picture of her reading Valentine's stories to the class. Also check out some of our cookie decorating! We also had the Center for Wildlife visit last week with some wonderful animal ambassadors! Thanks Emily Calhoun for coming and teaching our kids about some amazing animals and their adaptations and habitats.
Also, on Monday, March 14th and Tues. March 15th as part of our Maine Studies, we will be celebrating Maine's birthday with many activities in all 7 Third grade classrooms. We will be in contact with you regarding various items we may need.
Thanks so much and as always if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via email or phone.
Stay warm out there! Have a happy and healthy February vacation.
Tracy
Upcoming Dates:
Feb. 15-19-February Break -no school
Mon. February 29th-Musical instruments Due
Tues. March 1st-Maine Animal Dioramas Due
Thurs. March 3rd Maine Animal Museum
Mon. March 14th and Tues. March 15th Maine's Birthday(more info to come on that!)
Friday March 18th-No School-Teacher Inservice