3B Newsletter
October 2014
Thank you so much for a great night at the Fashion Show! Our basket was awesome!
Thank you to all the parents who visited 3B during Parent Visitation. It was so great to see you!
We are Mathematicians!
Unit 2
- The students completed the Unit 2 Assessment on Friday, October 24.
- The tests will go home today. Please sign and return your child's test before the end of the week. We will discuss questions and make corrections on Friday.
- Here's a list of important skills from Unit 2:
- extended facts
- in and out boxes
- writing number models with an unknown or variable
- solving number stories using diagrams, pictures, and number models
- time
- adding and subtracting three digit numbers
- ballpark estimates
- place value
- Please continue encourage your child to practice +/- facts at home.
New Unit 3
- Please look for the Everyday Math newsletter in your child's take home folder this week in preparation for this next unit.
Skills of the week:
- customary units of length
- metric units of length
- personal references (ex: 1 quarter is about 1 inch, Math Journal is about 1 ft)
- measuring objects to the nearest whole inch, half inch, and quarter inch
- measuring objects to the nearest whole cm, half cm, and mm
- basic conversions (inches, feet, yards, cm, mm, m)
- Please continue to encourage your child to practice current math skills at home.
We're Readers and Writers!
Readers Workshop (Journeys)
- We are reading and discussing Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
- The weekly comprehension test will be Friday.
- Target skill: cause and effect
- We know good readers think about the events that happen in the story.
- effect = what happens
- cause = why it happens
- Target Strategy: visualize
- Good readers use details to visualize, or picture, the events in a story.
Writers Workshop
- We know how to write true, personal narratives like real authors!
- Throughout this last bend we will focus on revising and editing by:
- adding important details, actions, thoughts
- eliminating unimportant information
- paragraphing (indent or skip lines)
- capitalizing and punctuating
- using quotation marks and commas to show dialogue
- writing an ending (or closing) that shows important actions, dialogues, thoughts
- checking the spelling of words we know by heart
- adding to the heart of the story (the most important part or part that keeps the story alive!)
- We are approaching our publication deadline and we cannot wait to celebrate 3B writers and their stories!
We are Botanists!
- Our Wisconsin Fast Plants are growing at a rapid pace!
- This month we observed:
- the cotyledon embryo and seed coat
- the heart shaped leaves (These are the seed leaves.)
- the spiky leaves (These are the true leaves.)
- We thinned and transplanted some plants to ensure that each one would grow strong.
- Each science class we measure and record our observations.
- Here are some of our predictions:
- "My plant will grow 2 cm."
- "I'll see buds."
- "I'll see flowers."
We are Members of a Community!
- We know a community is a place where people live, work, play, and learn.
- We are using iPads, Google Maps, the SS textbook, and Venn Diagrams to discuss the similarities and differences between Haddonfield, NJ and Jacksonville, FL.
*Just a reminder* Please place all Scholastic Book Club Orders online*
Moby Max
We are excited to implement a new web-based curriculum called MobyMax in our classroom. MobyMax is tailored to your child's individual needs, and I think you will be very impressed by how fast your child will excel while using Moby. Moby's features include:
- Placement tests that accurately identify where your child excels, and where his or her "missing skills" are
- Targeted instruction to "fill in" those missing skills
- Systematic review sessions that ensure that your child retains 100% of what he or she has learned
Best of all, your child can access Moby from your home computer at any time.
Login steps
1. Go to the Moby Max link on my eBoard (I also embedded the link below).
2. Enter School Code: nj315
3. Enter username and password (taped in planners)
You can sign in as a parent as well by selecting "Parent" from the drop-down menu and entering your child's username and password. You will be able to monitor your child's progress, too!