Team Third Grade
Mrs. Behm, Mrs. Komar, Mrs. Frye & Mrs. Marcks
Friday, March 5, 2021
Thank You!
Thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedules to connect with us on Webex for your child’s parent teacher conference and find out how your child is progressing both socially and academically this year. We enjoyed our time with each of you and can see that you care very much about your child and their learning.
Report Cards:
Student report cards go live for viewing on Friday, March 19th. Please make sure you log in to Infinite Campus to see current progress for academic subjects, characteristics of lifelong learners, and comments.
Language Experience
In Language Workshop, we are reading and discussing together books that help us to better understand that power can be used in positive and not so positive ways. We are developing and expanding our knowledge and growing a deeper understanding of social issues that impact characters and people in fiction and informational text.
Grammar/Patterns of Power
The students have been noticing and discovering how writers use apostrophes to show ownership. Using apostrophes accurately for its intended purpose in the written form seemed to be a welcomed challenge for our readers and writers. It encouraged our students to write with the intention to create meaning behind their thought process. They used models to compose sentences to show ownership and at least one contraction.
Reader's Workshop
In Reading Workshop, the students are identifying social issues that are presented in text and noticing how they are reflected in real life experiences. They are also analyzing and comparing how characters across texts made similar decisions and how sometimes they differed greatly. They have noticed how the themes and lessons between text are interrelated which helped to grow a better understanding of humanity.
Writing Workshop
We have completed Unit 4, “Lessons Learned”, and each 3rd grader has written their own adapted/fractured fairy tale! Look for these written pieces to come home soon!
Did you hear the commotion? 3rd graders are now learning cursive letter writing! As 3rd grade teachers, we introduce the cursive letter, but we are not grading/assessing the handwriting. As teachers we find ourselves in an interesting position; our school board requesting each student know how to write their name in cursive, but there isn’t a “grade” for cursive on the report card. It could be registered as an “effort” grade instead. Please, engage with your student and ask them about cursive writing.
What is hard for them in learning cursive?
What is easy?
What do they like, or appreciate, about learning cursive writing?
Word Study & Phonics
This week in word study we are working on the diphthong “ou/ow”. We are recognizing that this sound relies on the muscle memory of knowing which words are spelled with an “ow” and which ones are spelled with an “ou”. Here are some examples: mouse, down, about, now, and house just to name a few.
Math Workshop
Our measurement and data unit has successfully come to an end! Students have been working hard to understand the difference between measuring to the nearest inch, half inch, and quarter inch. This concept is tricky but with practice, students are showing their understanding! Moving forward, we are looping back to multiplication! Students are starting to understand the concept of multiplying on an open array as area and perimeter are on the horizon. How to support at home? Continue practicing multiplication facts to build fluency in our third graders. For March, our focus is on area and perimeter. Students have been busy discovering their own learning through a problem solving launch into this unit. They learned that we can find the area by counting the number of tiles in a shape and we are transitioning to a more efficient strategy - multiplying rows by columns!
Science
Recently we finished up our animal inquiry. The third graders’ final project was to create a 3D model of their animal’s life cycle. It was a fun learning experience! After that we started a mini unit on fossils. They are having fun exploring with some real fossils and doing a mock fossil dig. By the end, we should be able to make connections between our learning of animals and fossils.
Second Step
In Second Step, third graders are learning about how to deal with anxieties that are found in our lives. We talk about different strategies and how to manage this strong emotion. We also are spending time to focus on how to deal with problems that may arise in their lives. Students are understanding that they need to take a step back before they react - breathe, name the emotion, and then try to solve the problem.
Digital Citizenship
The third graders have continued to learn about how to be good digital citizens. Now that we know more about it, students came up with a digital citizenship pledge for how they will act in 4 different online situations: at work, at play, when sharing, or responding to others. This was a great discussion to have and now everyone signed off that they will be making these appropriate choices when they’re online.
The next lesson focused on what we put out there when we’re online and our digital footprint. Students realized that people make assumptions about them based on their selfies and other things they share. Hopefully this awareness will help next time they post something online! You should be receiving helpful tip sheets and family activities after each of these lessons. Check your son or daughter’s home folder.