Weekly Update: September 13, 2019

Happy Friday 3B Parents!

Students have been working hard all week with MAP testing learning and practicing many 3^rd grade routines and procedures. We began some academic content this week with phonics, writing, and handwriting. Students also set up interactive notebooks for math, writing and reading! Next week we will begin reading lessons, religion, and grammar.

Important Dates/Events:

• Tuesday, September 17^th-3B will be visiting the Scholastic Book Fair at 8:45am.
• Thursday, September 19^th - Back to School Night at 7:00pm

Math: This week I have started introducing math centers. Students are learning how to work the centers and how to be independent while rotating through. Once I feel students are independent enough (which will most likely be sometime next week), I will be able to really dive into teaching Topic 1. Students typically circulate through 3 rotations: Math Centers, Lesson Work, and Teacher Time. I love being able to work with a small group of students when teaching the daily content. 

To practice this I had half the class be the “students” and practice working in the “centers.” They practiced behaviors that met teacher expectations for independent work while the other half were the “teachers” who circulated the room taking positive notes on how well the students were working.

Reading: This week students learned how to choose “Just Right Books.”  Students learned to choose books that they want to read, are interested in, and that they can understand. Next week I will also begin teaching students comprehension strategies for them to use while reading independently.

Students circulated the room to visit the different bins of books in our classroom library. They looked for books that were "Just Right" to fill their book boxes with! 

You can help:

It is really important for students to be reading books that are Just Right. You can help them choose appropriate books by practicing the 5 Finger Rule with books your child is reading at home. Have them read any page of the book and put a finger up for every word they do not know. At the end of the page if they have 0-1 fingers up, the book is Too Easy. If they have 2-3 fingers up, the book is Just Right. If they have 4 or more fingers up, the book is Too Tricky.

Writing: This week, students began working on a new assignment for Back to School Night. They began creating their entry for the class Important Book. Be on the lookout for this that night! 

This assignment was a great introduction to our writing workshop period. During writing workshop, students will receive a short 5-8 minute mini-lesson regarding the focus of the day. They then will be sent off to independently apply the writing skill or strategy taught. Then I will circulate the room and hold writing conferences with students.

Phonics: We began phonics instruction this week. Our main focus has been identifying blends and digraphs.

Students should understand that a digraph has two letters that make one distinct sound. The digraphs they have learned thus far are: wh, ch, sh, th, and ck.

Consonant Blends are consonants that are next to each other in a word, either before or after the vowel. Blends can include 2 or 3 letters that each have a distinct sound but blend together nicely when the word is pronounced. Some examples of blends include: bl (blank), sl (slip), str (strong).

I am very much looking forward to meeting and speaking with many of you on Thursday! Have a wonderful weekend!