It’s hard to believe November is upon us!  Congratulations to the students who have met the October reading goal for the “Book It!”  When students return their calendar to school, they will receive a coupon for a free personal pizza to be redeemed at Pizza Hut.  During class time, students are documenting their independent reading and completing literature responses.  This is turned in and a “ticket” is awarded.  The ticket is then put into a raffle for a prize!  A focus for this raffle is to encourage students to read a variety of different types of literature. 

In mathematics we’ve begun Unit 2.  Students review addition with renaming and subtraction with regrouping.  Please review the Unit 2 Family Newsletter to help your child at home.  We have begun a project in which the students will calculate the length of day using sunrise/sunset data; discuss how this data will be collected and analyzed throughout the school year; and complete exercises involving time.  To help reinforce this learning, we will send home a schedule to record their daily activities and connect classroom learning to their real life.  They can use this to calculate elapsed time, a difficult skill for students to master.

Our FOSS Structures of Life Module is in full swing!   In this module, children investigate the structures and behaviors of living things. Our classroom is home to bean plants grown using hydroponics!  Ask your child what this means.  Students are regularly making observations, recording plant growth, and documenting changes.  In addition to our plants, we now have crayfish. We will soon compare the structures and behaviors of the crayfish with Bess Beetles. You can increase your child’s understanding and interest by asking about these investigations! 

In third grade there is a switch from “learning to read”, to “reading to learn”.  Throughout the day students are engaged in reading in mathematics, science, and social studies to help gain knowledge. Writing for a variety of purposes is also a specific focus.  Students keep math problem solving notebooks, reading journals, science notebooks, vocabulary journals, writer’s notebook, and social studies folders.  The goal is for students to see reading and writing as an integral part of everything we do! 

Thanks for your continued support!