October Newsletter
It’s hard to believe that the first half of the quarter of school has already gone by. Time is flying. The students are settling into the routine. Hopefully what we will talk about at conferences will help all the students stay on track.
Language Arts
As the year has progressed some of the students have figured out that they need to study for their word of the day quizzes. It is really important that they take the time to study the words each week as we continually add words. If they already know the words from the previous week it will make it that much easier on their quizzes. Again that is something we will about at conferences and hopefully they are bringing home their sentences and note cards. This is different from what I have done in the past, so I hope it is helping with their study skills. They didn’t seem to know how to study their words in the last few years so I decided to try this and see if it didn’t help to have note cards to study from. This is a skill they can use as they progress in school with other subjects.
Daily comprehension is another area that I hope to see improvement with our conferences. The answers are in the reading above and most are the Right There kind of questions, with a few Think and Search thrown in. Very few are of the type of On Your Own which is the most difficult for the students. Generally if they reread their passages they will not have too much difficulty. However, many get in a big hurry and miss just one or two on a page. They think this is not too big a deal but when there are only six on a page that can create a problem grade. If your child comes home with very few correct on the page you may want to quiz them on if they have read carefully. I’d like to recap below the way I would like to have them complete the comprehension sheets. I will be going over this at conferences if time allows.
- Read the questions
- Mark off the paragraphs
- Think about what each paragraph is about
- Reread the passage. This will make it more cohesive and they will understand the reading better.
- Answer the questions.
DLR or Daily Language Review:
When studying the students should really study the sentences on their week’s review page as a majority of the points come from the three sentences that they must correct. This first quarter I am telling them which ones are on the quiz. I will not be doing that next quarter.
Reading Hours:
I would like the students to read twenty minutes a night. They can keep track of their minutes in the bottom of their planner. If you as a parent would just initial it at the end of the week so that I know that they are accurately keeping track of their time that would be appreciated. Each week we will be having a “Reader of the Week”. They will get their picture posted for that week as the leader in that week’s hours. I hope that all the students will eventually get their picture placed on the board. We hope to have all the students complete the 8 hours this first quarter, which comes out to reading about 20 minutes three times a week. The second quarter we will try for 9 hours, which is still only reading for about 20 minutes three times a week. Any type of reading they do counts. If they read to their little brother or sister, count it, if they reread their story for the week, count it, and if they read their reading assignment from their literature group, count it. It can be the newspaper, magazines, comics or an actual book.
Cursive Writing:
We got a slow start on the cursive writing but we are now hitting it hard. We have learned the letters: i, t, u, w, e, l, h, b, f. I would prefer that they not write their name in cursive until we have learned all the letters in their name as some habits if done incorrectly are terribly difficult to correct.
Reading Groups:
Your child has been placed in a reading group at school. I like to keep them with kids at about their same reading level and reading pace. We will generally have a small assignment that most of the time they can get read here at school and not have to bring home. I try to keep them at their appropriate level, but provide a chapter book at that level. They have a plastic bag that they are to keep their books in so as not to beat them up too bad. Accidents will happen, and I am very understanding about that, but it would be nice to keep the books as good as long as possible. Most are paperbacks and they are well-loved and worn quickly.
Math:
We have finished the first chapter in our math book. Place value is a tough chapter as we go up to ten thousands and hundred thousands. Our next chapter will cover ordering and rounding numbers. If you would like to help your student at home, practicing their basic addition and subtraction math facts will help immensely. Some of them are still counting backwards and using their fingers which although is correct, it is very time consuming.
Each day they have a daily cumulative review or DCR to do. These are definitely review pages and they need to be careful on them. Too many careless mistakes are being made which again can lower their grades as I grade these. Drops in the Bucket is going well, but I have noticed that the students are having difficulty with subtracting and adding two and three digit numbers. We will be concentrating on this much more in a few chapters ahead.
Science:
Daily Science is our primary focus in science at this time. Our daily science covers most of the strands that we talk about in our textbook, so I tend to use daily science as our main lesson and supplement with the textbook.
We are also starting something that I implemented newlast year and it is called STEM science. Stem stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. We usually do a science project lesson on Friday. They will need to go through a series of steps each week to solve a problem in groups of four. This is a great activity to teach problem solving as well as teach them how to interact in a group effectively. It hasbeen interesting to see who takes the leadership roles and who uses their ingenuity.
Social Studies:
Daily geography is the primary area that we use for social studies. We will also study communities and also learn a little about our government both state and local. I also like to throw in a few projects that are extra on the side kind of things that they can do during their free time.
I Pads and Chrome Books
We use the Ipads or Chrome Books in our classroom once a week. The students are being taught not to say play on the computer because what we do is learning and not just playing a game. We work on Khan Academy, a math program, which allows them to work and progress at their own pace. Each of the students has his or her own password and username. They are welcome to continue to practice at home if they wish. I believe the computer is a tool in the educational setting to be used for learning and researching. I hope to put our words on Spelling City if they wish to practice them at home on the computer. That will begin with the first week in November or later in October if I can get to it.
Weather:
Please remind your child to bring a coat on these mornings as the weather begins to turn chilly. They might also want a sweatshirt or sweater they can leave in their locker for days when the temperature in the room is a little chilly for them.
Corrections:
Your child will be bringing home corrections to complete and return to school. I use recess at school for a time to catch students up on incomplete work and not a time for corrections. I want them to run off as much energy as they can at recess because I work them hard during the day. Unfortunately, I can’t let them fall too far behind in their work so I need to keep some in to stay on task and keep caught up. After our first few weeks, I have a pretty good idea of who will take homework home and who will get it done and who will not.
Halloween Party
Halloween parties for third graders will be different this year than what you have experienced with your child in the early grades. We do not dress up in costumes. Parents send the treats with their students in the morning and we pass out after the parade. We play games that the students and I come up with and do not require parental help. We try to teach the students how to be more independent in third grade. I will send home a week in advance who the party parents are that signed up and then you can send the treats on the day of the party. I don’t believe we have any allergies in the class this year, but we do have allergies in our pod, so no nuts please.
I feel that I have rambled on enough for this newsletter so hopefully in November; I will put out a new issue.
Miss Kennedy