Ms. Arnold's Monthly News
February Update
March Is Reading Month
Reading Month Student Goals
Learning Targets
Timed tests: Students will be taking timed tests on Fridays for the remainder of the year. Tests focus on their multiplication and division facts 2-10. They get 6 minutes to complete the 100 problems and in order to pass that level, they have to earn a 90% or higher (A). All students who pass their timed tests through their 10s will earn an ice cream party with me in June.
I encourage students to practice with flashcards or make their own flashcards. They should practice 10-20 minutes a night.
Reading: We are currently starting our nonfiction units. The unit will focus on skills pertaining to informational reading like determining topics and main ideas/supporting details, text features, vocabulary strategies, inferring, and text structure.
Thus far we have also completed many fiction reading targets like predicting, visualizing, asking questions/wondering, Words of Wisdom, inferring, forming opinions, character traits, story elements, messages/themes, genres, structures, fixing up strategies, summarizing, reading with our hearts, reader's reactions, and connections, as well as many fluency and reading habit lessons like rereading, mindset, stamina, setting goals, book selection, Audible, tracking with post-its to aid our comprehension, and tracking the number of books they have read along with its genre.
Reading Levels: All mid-year testing is complete and I'm proud and thrilled to say everyone has grown or is growing and are on the right track! Keep encouraging reading at home! Maybe even listen to a story in the car together or read together as a family every night! Great reading habits build life-long learners!
Daily/Weekly Reading Workshop Students are listening to many mentor texts that expose students to various cultures, to rich characters, and to meaningful life lessons. They are selecting their own books and all readers have the option to read and/or listen to their books on Audible. If the book is above their level at this point, then I do expect them to read/follow along in a book on Audible. But no matter, Audible is a powerful resource given to all students! I am an avid Audible reader and I highly encourage it to all readers of all ages to help build life-long reading! Also, students are tracking things while they read, are setting goals, and are journaling at the end of each reading workshop. Sharing our love of reading is also a large part of our workshop. Students share in teacher conferences as well as in student conferences.
Students are exposed to many authors, illustrators, and series throughout the year!
Book of the Day Current Totals (class read-alouds): 140
Writing: We are currently starting our nonfiction units. Students will be writing a nonfiction book about an expert topic of their own knowledge. These are self-selected topics that they will not have to do additional research. Their books will focus on the text structure, features, and information pertaining to a topic that they can teach others about. I am currently grading students' elaborative, detailed personal narratives. I'm am taken aback by the amount of work put into these narratives. All post-its within the narrative are a reflection of their "revising and editing" throughout the first trimester. The personal narrative goals focused on picking a small memory, adding strong leads and endings, as well as editing print work, spelling, and punctuation. A big area of focus in writing is exposing students to the writing process with a variety of writing types. Using mentor texts/writing, teacher-led mini-lessons, and modeling of writing in a shared experience helps allow for these processes to be applied throughout the units.
A second area of focus is paragraph structure. (Introduction, body, conclusion)
Learning to stretch and elaborate on any topic and for a variety of purposes. (opinion, informational, narrative, etc.)
More Learning Targets
Social Studies: Our next focus area is Michigan (The Great Lakes, symbols, maps, region, resources, government, cities, landmarks, etc...). Then onto Michigan history, Statehood, and the economy.
Upcoming Events
End of Tri 2: Fri, Feb 28th
Report Cards Come Home: Fri, Mar 6th
No School: Mon, March 9th
3rd Grade Music Program: Thurs, March 12th @ 2:30 & 6pm
3rd Grade Harry Potter Day: Fri, March 13th
3rd Grade Hands-On Museum Trip (chaperones needed): Wed, March 25th
Spring Break March 27th-April 5th
Jackie Robinson Day: Wed, April 15th
3rd Grade Project Red Field Trip (students only)
3rd Grade M-Step Testing Begins (we have specific days): May 18th-May 29th
No School: Mon, May 25th; Memorial Day
3rd Grade Reading Law Information
Global Play Day
Ms. Arnold
Email: Stacy.Arnold@mccardinals.org
Website: smore.com
Location: Keicher Elementary School, Broad Street, Michigan Center, MI, United States
Phone: 5177645200
Facebook: facebook.com/KeicherArnold
Twitter: @MsArnoldClass3