The Ritenour Review
2015 - 2016 Third Grade Weekly News
Websites to Use at Home
Math Sites:
- khanacademy.org
- xtramath.org
Five minutes each night or morning - that's it! Super quick!
Xtramath.org
Login Info: critenour@zcs.k12.in.us
Student name and code
- Scootpad: go to zcs.k12.in.us -> login using username: first-last and password is lunch code -> click on scootpad icon
- office.com: We have used Word so far.
- Newela: Current Event Reading
**We will add to this list in the coming weeks.
What's Happening in Our Classroom!
GENIUS HOUR PROJECT - Whew! We are in the midst of a busy researching project. I hope your child comes home excited to talk about the project throughout the week. We have a lot of fun conversations daily. This past week, you should've seen a paper that went home. The paper had a calendar we are hoping to follow over the next two weeks, plus your child should've written down their struggles with the project. Feel free to use the nightly reading minutes to help them research anything else they are struggling to find in class. In class, we needed to get creative to research a few parts of their questions. A few needed to alter their questions a bit and a few needed to look beyond the internet and ask some experts. In the end, we might not find the perfect answers, but we will have learned a lot!
Word Work Spelling - Last week, your child received their spelling words for the next two weeks. The combination of OLSAT and Chaucie's Place did not allow me enough time to meet with spelling groups as much as I would prefer before their assessments. We will continue to work with the same list of words this coming week and test on Friday.
Writing - We'll combine our Genius Hour Research with composition ultimately creating a wonderful piece of writing which will highlight all of the Genius Hour work. This week will transition from a heavy focus on research to a heavier focus on the writing process.
Math - We will continue to work with perimeter ("around" + "measurement") and add the concept of area to our thinking. Our Chapter 4 test will be early the following week. My goal is to get them graded and sent home before the long break.
Reading - We will continue to work on nonfiction reading skills. Moving beyond saying simply the topic and looking into the complete main idea is still our focus. We will test on this unit early next week, too. Again, with a goal of getting those graded before break.
Science - Robotics & Sound Unit of Study
Second Step Program - Empathy
Digital Citezenship and Internet Safety
In class on Friday, we revisited some important internet safety concepts. As we navigate the internet with a research project such as Genius Hour, it is important to remind our young students about being safe while on the internet. We focused on three main topics:
- Being a Good Citizen Online
- Being an Upstander
- Find a Trusted Adult if Something Makes You Feel "Just Not Right"
These are not new concepts we were addressing, but it is important to revisit those concepts frequently. It is especially important to address when we have 20 kiddos researching 20 very different concepts.
As with any conversation in a third grade classroom, you can only imagine how many tangents we entertained. Many kids focused on online games (Roblox, Xbox) and shared their knowledge on internet safety. Although, we are not playing online games in the classroom, it was a beautiful conversation for everyone to hear with a group of peers.
Please, reach out if you have any questions about our conversation and how I can better assist your child in this area.
Next Week's Mentor Sentence
We will not have specific Mentor Sentence for the next two weeks. We will be revisiting the concepts learned over this semester and hit a few that are taking a bit longer to stick. Here is a list of topics we will be revisiting:
- Subject/Predicate
- Compound Sentences, Subjects and Predicates
- Possessive Pronouns
- Adjectives and Adverbs
Upcoming Dates
- December 13th - Boone Meadow Voices concert @ 7:00
- December 21st - Last Day of School before Winter Break PLUS Holiday Party! **Look for a Sign-Up Genius Link
- January 7th - Students return to school
- January 23rd - Family STEM Night "Cardboard Challenge" 6:00-7:30