The Ritenour Review
2016 - 2017 Third Grade Weekly News
Convocations and Conversations
It's February already! This quarter is flying!
This week, we started with a visit from Grandma Rose. Grandma Rose wrote Simon's Hook and she came to talk with out school about teasing and 'taking the bait' from other kids. As she had several kids act out the story, she stopped along the way and taught us how to handle teasing situations. A tease is like catching a fish with bait. You only let the bully win if you 'bite' the bait. Very symbolic; however, very easy for our students to understand the concept. In about 45 minutes, Grandma Rose gave our students a lot of tools to use in different situations.
Rules for Being a Free Fish!
1. DO little or nothing! Don’t react!
2. Agree with the hook!
3. Distract! Change the subject!
4. Laugh at the hook! Make a joke!
5. Stay away! Swim in another part of the sea!
Last Week
Reading: This week, we talk a lot about know our characters in our stories and building a theory based on what patterns we have seen. We are taking our reading skills beyond simply retelling a story and now we are building predictions based on how we have interpreted those prior events - sometimes using our prior knowledge. We are still reading Wonder in the classroom and this has been a great read aloud for us to practice those skills and dive into deeper meanings. I love walking around the room and listening to each child explain the predictions for their personal books. Wow! Our reading is starting to take off!
Writing: Last week in writing, we worked on the basic parts of a Literary Essay. Currently, we are reading the same stories as a class and looking for lessons and morals we can take into our own lives. This is a great unit to practice using textual evidence. The students really need to focus on the story, look back at parts and apply it to their writing.
Math: We finished unit 5! I am currently grading those tests still, but it looks like we knocked it out of the park! The class is practicing their multiplication facts like crazy and their new efficiency showed on the test.
Spelling: We are still working on homophones. This week we finished our last long /a/ sort. I am starting to see better patterns in their writing, too!
Science: Rocks! We are finishing up our rock unit. This week, I had the students step into my shoes and they practiced being the teacher and taught a classmate the rock cycle and its properties. They did really well!
Next Week
Language Arts: We start looking at ISTEP prep questions for grammar and writing topics.
Math: We are starting out 6th unit. This is a great unit to revisit several topics touched earlier this year. We will hit geometry and subtraction methods this week.
Word Study: We will work on long /e/ homophones.
Science: We will test this TUESDAY on our rock cycle.
Valentine's Day
Your child brought home a pink paper for our newest project. For valentine's Day, we would like them to create their own box/container at home - using their animal from last quarter. This is a project that is very exciting, but do not feel you need to spend a lot on this project. We talked about creative ways to decorate with the things we already own at home. These boxes should be brought to school on Monday, February 13th.
We will have a celebration on the 14th and will explore everyone's boxes and enjoy the treats from each other. We will not have a bigger party - like Winter or Fall break - however, feel free to join us if you would like. I will send out a Sign Up Genius if anyone would like to send in treats or snacks.
Mineral Detectives
Teaching the Rock Cycle
Zionsville History
Math Games
Dillan's Birthday
Special's Schedule
- Monday: Art
- Tuesday: Wellness **bring/wear tennis shoes
- Wednesday: STEM
- Thursday: Music
- Friday: Library
Upcoming Dates!
- February 9th - PTO Meeting (BME Cafe at 6:00)
- February 11th - BME Talent Show (BME Cafe at 2:30)
- February 25th - Boone Meadow Blast - free event hosted by PTO
- February 27th - ISTEP+ Testing begins