The Ritenour Review
2015 - 2016 Third Grade Weekly News
One Week Down!
The first week is vital to our success this year. The class participated in a lot of team building activities. We addressed the need to work as a unit. I strongly believe in building our understanding through conversations; however, we just need to know how to communicate kindly and clearly with a purpose. Our class LOVES to communicate. I believe it will be the strength I will work on harnessing for greatness the most this year. Couldn't we learn a thing or two from our brave and fearless kiddos?
Next week, we will begin to dive into our curriculum; however, it is another vital week for me to get to know your child as a learner. The first few days are for me to look into their personalities, their hearts and desires and know how they connect into our class puzzle. This coming week will allow me to know how I can serve them academically as learners. Where can I push and where can I support?
We will kick off the week and get NWEA out of the way and out of their minds. Throughout the rest of the week, I will be working one-on-one to gather some more information about their thinking patterns. Outside of those assessments, we will attempt to gain a sense of normalcy and get into a routine.
Specifically in each subject we will be getting into the following:
- Math: We will continue to build a math culture. We will add to our "Mathematicians Strategies" chart, we will learn about ALL of the available tools and we will work with partnerships to deepen our thinking.
- Language Arts: We will work with a mentor sentence from Enemy Pie.
- Reading: We will work on building stamina for independent reading, picking "Just Right" books for ourselves, and talking about the importance of being a lifelong reader. Ask your child about the reading life goal they made for themselves. I loved hearing them take reading into their own hands!
- Science: We will inventory our new science kit together. We will also vote on which fish will be joining our class aquarium!
Snacks
Special's Schedule
- As you may have heard, our special's schedule is quite unique this year. In order for our growing school to have specials throughout the week, we needed to get creative. A couple classes needed to be split during their special's block and our class is one of the lucky classes! I actually love the idea. We spend all day together, so I find it lovely they get an opportunity to be with other peers from a few other third grade classes.
- On Monday, I will send home a special's schedule with each child, so they will know their specific schedule.