Third Grade News
The Fifth Six Week's
What We Are Learning
Reading
Writing
The focus of the fifth six weeks is to reassess students in reading and writing, we will continue working on using the writing process to compose expository essays (explain why).
During the sixth six weeks we will practice making connections across texts. Students will also work on their individual reading strategy and reading stamina. During writer’s workshop, we will use the writing process to write expository essays (explain why) and work on our writing stamina. We will also continue to read, interpret, and analyze poetry.
Math
In this six weeks your child will be problem solving with fractions. Last year, your child learned how to partition and name objects in equal sized parts. They learned that the more fractional parts used to make a whole, the smaller the parts and that the fewer the fractional parts, the larger the part.
This year, students will be building off of that knowledge in order to explain what a unit fraction is, how to decompose a fraction as a sum of its parts, and how to represent equivalent fractions using objects and pictorial models. Students will also be working on their reasoning and communication skills in order to justify why one fraction may be larger or smaller than another.
Students will be representing fractions, including equivalent fractions with concrete objects, and pictorial models including strip diagrams and number lines. They will also be comparing fractions with the same numerator or denominator.
During this six weeks, students will also learn how to multiply two digit by one digit multiplication (27 X 8 =) and long division. We will introduce multiplying two digit by one digit by using the boxed method. Here is video on the boxed method.
Math @ Home
You can help your child in several ways.
HELP your child learn their math facts. We cannot stress this enough. This will help your child in third grade and beyond!
While in the car, mark the passing of time with fractions. “We are one-third of the way there.” Or, “it will take us 20 minutes to get to practice. In how many minutes will we be halfway there?”
Let the students explore with measuring cups and spoons. Have them discover how many ⅙ there are in ⅓ or how many ¼’s are in ¾’s.
- Practice skip counting by unit fractions up to a given number. For example: ⅚- ⅙, 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, ⅚. There are five ⅙ in ⅚. Or, 3/3- ⅓, ⅔, 3/3. There are three ⅓ in 3/3.
Science
During this unit your child will be learning about different environments and the interactions & cause/effect relationships of the living and nonliving things within them.
We will be researching different environments through the internet and our school library. The students will research the interactions of the organisms in each. We will learn how the animals and plants depend on one another for energy and how there can be changes to environments and the things living within them due to major events such as flooding and droughts.
Social Studies
During the fifth six weeks, third graders will understand that people have choices in how they earn, spend, and save their money. People are motivated to pay for goods or services based on various factors such as quality, cost, convenience, and popularity. They will learn that profit is a measure of success and production cost should be less than the sales price. Students will see that there is a relationship between the market price of a product and its supply and demand in a free enterprise system.
Students will name ways they can earn, spend, save, and donate money. They will use this information to create a simple budget. The concept of scarcity will be explored as students explain the impact it has on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Next, students will complete activities to understand how businesses operate in the U.S. free enterprise system. They will identify individuals, past and present, who have started new businesses. These individuals include Henry Ford, Mary Kay Ash, Wallace Amos, Milton Hershey, and Sam Walton.
To show their understanding of the free market system, students will create and advertise a product. They will buy and sell their products during a class market day and reflect on the adjustments they could make to make more profit in the future.
Boosterthon
Perot Museum
If your child is bringing a lunch from home, they will need to bring a sack (paper sack) lunch and a drink for the field trip. At the Perot Museum, students will not be able to purchase a lunch from the Perot Museum cafeteria.
If you are chaperoning, no younger children or siblings will be allowed to go. Prior to leaving all volunteers/chaperones will be required to fill out a criminal history check.
Parents who go on the field trip will have to carpool or drive their own cars due to not being allowed to ride on the buses. Your child will have to ride with the school to the field trip, but you'll be able to sign out your child when we are loading the buses to head back to school. Chaperones will also have to buy a ticket once you arrive to the museum.
Think Through Math and iStation
We get asked a lot, how can I help my student. Well, here is your answer! Think Through Math and iStation is like having your OWN private tutor for your student! Each student will begin the programs by taking a placement. The programs will then put your student on an individualized learning plan.
Each program is proven to increase reading comprehension and math proficiency when implemented 2 to 3 times a week or about 90 minutes. Your child will have about an forty-five minutes each week to work on each program while at school. However, you can access the programs at home by going to the Paloma Creek Elementary website, clicking on student services, and selecting one of the programs. Here is the link to both programs:
Link to iStation Link to ThinkThroughMath
Their login is their student ID Number and the word dentonisd EX: 12346dentonisd
Their password is their birthday EX: 01062007
Important Dates
2/17- College Shirt Day
2/19- End of the 4th Six Weeks: PCE Falcon Spirit Day; Faithful Falcon Assembly at 1:40
2/20- Daddy Daughter Dance
2/24- Report Cards Go Home; BHS Spirit Day
2/26- PCE Spirit Day
3/3- Boosterthon Begins
3/14-3/18- Spring Break
3/25- Bad Weather Make Up Day (if needed)
3/29- Field Trip to Perot Museum
4/15- Bad Weather Make Up Day (if needed)
5/9-5/10- STARR Testing
5/30- No School: Memorial Day
6/2- Last Day of School/Early Release