Saturday, December 17, 2016

December 17th

I hope you are all enjoying this snowy Saturday. It was great until my daughter's flight was cancelled...holiday travel and snow UGH!

We have been enjoying the season in third grade. Even with the excitement of Christmas they have continued to work hard. 

We have started a new math unit on measuring, shapes, and mass. They had fun measuring everything in the room with a tape measure:) We have also been working on multiplication facts. Any practice they do at home would be great! Multiplication cards make great stocking stuffers!

Thank you for helping your child with the reading log. You may also count times when you read to them. Remember the log is due on Mondays and it should have 95 minutes recorded for the week. Third graders seem very excited to turn them in!

On Wednesday, we will celebrate together as a class, wing, and school. We have some class activities planned.  As a wing we will play board games and share snacks. Starting at 1:00 students will have some special activities to choose from and we will end our day with a school wide smores treat!

Enjoy your weekend!
Holly

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

November 22, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!

Third grade finished their Plymouth Colony unit. The students did a 9 day simulation about what life was like for colonists. They learned about the voyage of the Mayflower, Speedwell, settling a colony, planting, trading, building, clothing, schools, and so much more. We finished our unit with a small feast. Third graders  invited K/1 to share a small feast. Third graders read Thanksgiving stories to their K/1 friends. We shared bread(made by 3rd grade), popcorn, and 3 different pies. They also had time to share what they knew about the First Thanksgiving. It was fun to learn from each other!








After Thanksgiving we will be starting a unit on, "The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe." This is a new unit for me as well, so I am pretty excited. I think the kids will love it. We will be doing another science unit and more poetry!
I will also be starting a reading log with each child. We will keep all books we read for guided reading in school. The reading log will help the children track their weekly reading. They will read books of their choice and at the end of the week they will turn their log in to me. In order to get credit for their reading it will need to be signed. I will send home more information home along with the log.
Your kids have probably told you that we have handed out parts to our intermediate musical. We will keep you updated on our progress. Our play will be performed in January!

I hope you all enjoy your families this long weekend!
Holly



Sunday, November 6, 2016

NOVEMBER???

How can it be November? Time is flying by and third grade is a very busy place!

Thank you for sending in juice boxes for our Intermediate Halloween fun.
We had a great time writing scary stories and creating some pretty awesome pictures to go with our stories. Working together as a wing is the best! We also had some yummy cookies to decorate...Thank You Mr. Hileman!












We also teamed up to make Veteran's Day cards for our celebration on Thursday.








Last week third grade was introduced to our new keyboarding program....Typesy and they love it! They have started with learning home row.




As you can see we have been busy. Last week we finished a science unit on animal behaviors. This week we start a social studies unit. Third grade will be taking part in a simulation about Jamestown. This is an AWESOME unit and the kids will love it. They will learn all about the life of colonists and pilgrims through team work and simulations.

We started Unit 3 in math. As our math starts to become more challenging please remember your child has math homelinks nightly. It is very important to get that extra practice and most homelinks take about 10 minutes. Thank you so much for helping your child!

In reading we have finished up some class books and responses. This week we will start group books. If you child brings home a book to read it is important for them to complete the assignment so all groups can move along together. Having children read 20 minutes each night is so important in helping them develop great reading and writing skills. It also helps them become more confident readers.

Again, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email or call me at any time. I am truly enjoying working with you and your children!

I hope you all had a great weekend.


Friday, October 21, 2016

Happy Friday

Third grade has been very busy! I have been so proud of their hard work. Our schedule is pretty packed so we do not have much down time. We are working on taking our time and being proud of our work!

In reading third grade is reading free choice books and books in guided reading. It is so great to hear them say, "I really like to read!" We are also doing an author study on Patricia Polacco. Last week we read, "Thunder Cake," and they loved it! As we read her books we have great book talks and then record the authors purpose for writing this story. Ask your child why she wrote, "Thunder Cake." We followed up by making a Thunder Cake. I will post the REAl recipe and you can try it at home. We made our own version because Mrs. Humphrey had a few mishaps at the grocery store! It was yummy!



1 c. shortening (I used butter)
1 3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs separated
1 c. cold water
1/3 c. pureed tomatoes (I used canned tomato sauce)
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. dry cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Beat together shortening or butter, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, water and tomatoes.  mix in the dry ingredients. Beat the egg whites separately until stiff.  Fold them into the batter gently.
Pour batter into two greased round cake pans. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Cool and frost with chocolate frosting. Top with sliced strawberries.
We started a new unit in science. Third grade is learning about Social and Group Behavior. We have done several activities to show what it is like to rely on your group or herd. They also got to see what it would be like to be the leader of your group and then to be the one that loses the herd. Students have worked in groups to talk about what are the benefits of living in a group and what happens when you are alone.

Students had to give their partner directions, while they were blindfolded. We also formed groups and their leader had to lead them through a maze in our classroom. Herds were looking for water and a few got lost along the way.






Third graders are doing an awesome job in their interactive notebooks. We answer questions about what we learned about animals living in herds or groups. They also wrote their first CER...this is new to them and I was very happy with their answers! They have to make a C-claim about what they learned and then give E-evidence and R- reasoning to support their claim.

Math has been a challenge for us this week. Third grade has start multiplication and division. They are learning to make arrays. They have also done MANY word problems. Our next test will be on Tuesday. 
We took a break from our regular math books and had a great time with lego robotics. They amaze me!







We did two writing activities this week. The first was writing a persuasive piece about selling a haunted house. They made haunted houses and then had to convince people to buy them. This is their first writing piece that they wrote and then had to edit. I was very pleased with how hard they worked and how creative they were. Third Grade also read the book, Crankenstein.  It was a picture book but the activities we did with the book challenged their writing and thinking!

If you are looking for a new house we have just the one for you!!


IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Halloween Fun: Oct. 28th, 3,4,5 will be sharing some activities and snacks

Math: It would be great if third graders practice addition and subtraction facts. This will help in all areas of their math.

Oct. 26 & 27: I will be at a conference so their will be no homework on those days

I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Holly






Monday, October 17, 2016

Third Grade Update

Dear Parents,
This is just a quick update! I will have pictures and more information on Friday!

It was great to see you all at conferences. 

We have started a new science unit. We are learning about Social and Group Behaviors in animals. I will post pictures of some of the fun activities we have done to help us understand some behaviors.

This week in reading we are finishing The Chocolate Touch. Today we read together and answered questions. The students read a chapter in pairs and then had to write about it. Third graders are working on adding details and remembering what they read.

Their will be no spelling test this week. We are on a review week so we are working with the spelling patterns we have already learned.

We are working on a persuasive writing piece this week. This is the first piece that they will write and we will edit together. Third graders made haunted houses and now they are for sale! If you are looking for a cool house come check them out!

Have a great week!

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Another busy week in grade three...

Third graders did an awesome job creating posters for urban, suburban, and rural towns.







We had fun exploring, mass, equal shares, and equal groups!










 It was great to watch them work
together and problem solve!


During reading this week we practiced fluency and voice. It was fun to read picture books with our partners!


As you can see they picked some great books. It was nice to see them reading with each other. We had some pretty crazy voices going on in our room :)








Third graders used their chrome books to look up facts about our town, state, continent, country, and planet. They were pretty serious about their work. You could hear a pin drop in our room!







 Emmaline is very serious about her illustrations!




Mason and Kason are hard at work!

Third graders also had their first math test this week. In reading we read another chapter of The Chocolate Touch and answer comprehension questions. We are practicing answering with part of the question and in complete sentences. I am so proud of how hard they are working.

I am looking forward to meeting you all at conferences!

Have a great week!