Weekly Update: October 25, 2019

Happy Friday 3B Parents! 

I have really been enjoying my days with this group of kids! They are all hard-working, enthusiastic to learn, and so lovable! They making coming to school every day such a joy!

I am looking forward to speaking with many of you next Wednesday night at conferences! 

Important Dates to Remember: 

• Wednesday, October 30th---Pumpkin Projects Due

• Wednesday, October 30th---Parent Teacher Conferences 

• Thursday, October 31st----Pumpkin Project Fair at 8:30-9:15am 

• Thursday, October 31st---Halloween Party at 1pm 

• Friday, November 1st---All Saint’s Day Mass at 10am 

• Tuesday, November 4th---Chapter 3 Science Test (review of all 3 lessons)

• Thursday, November 7th---Early Dismissal at Noon 

• Thursday, November 7th---Parent Teacher Conferences 

Morning Work: Students have been spending a couple mornings a week enjoying a new initiative I’ve implemented this year called “soft start.” 

Scholastic defines soft start as: 

• A soft start is similar to its name: it is a soft way to start the day. This means that when students come into the classroom, they are greeted at the door, then prompted or prepped with “put your mind at ease” activities to warm up their minds for the learning day. 

Soft starts help build classroom community as students ease into the day with mind-stretching activities. Some activities I have available for students are: Legos, Brain Flakes, puzzles, Geoboards, Rubik’s Cube, and block stacking puzzles. 

Math: We finished Topic 2 this week and took our test today. Next week, we will move onto Topic 3 which focuses on strategies for adding and subtracting 3 digit numbers. 

Reading: We have finished up our work with character traits with two final books. We first read Louder Lili and used evidence from the story to help us describe Lili. We then read the book Crow Boy and focused on Chibi’s emotions and how different events in the story changed the way he felt at the beginning when compared with the end. 

During Reading Rotations, students have been completing Character Trait reading centers. 

Religion: We have finished Chapter 3. Class discussions focused on how we can “stay awake” and prepare for Jesus’ second coming. We also learned how being a good Christian doesn’t only mean not doing anything “bad.” We learned that we have to show our love for others as well, and being a loving person is just as important as avoiding sin. 

Writing: Students began drafting their Ouch! stories this week. I was blown away by the level of detail they have been adding to their first draft. Everyone seemed so excited to write and it was hard getting them to stop so we could go to our special! Their enthusiasm for writing makes me so excited for what lies ahead! Once drafts are completed, students will be working slowly through their pieces revising it bit by bit. I will be going through the whole entire writing process with them and students will receive detailed mini lessons that will aid them in their independent writing time. I can’t wait to see how these stories turn out!

Weekly Update: October 18, 2019

Hello everyone,

It has been a great week in third grade!  The students have been very enthusiastic and are working hard.  

Important Dates to Remember:

• Friday, October 18^th—Progress Reports
• Thursday, October 24^th-----Chapter 3 Religion Test
• Friday, October 25^th—Topic 2 Math Test & Lesson 3 Science Quiz
• Wednesday, October 30^th---Parent Teacher Conferences
• Thursday, October 31^st----Pumpkin Project Fair at 8:30-9:15am
• Thursday, October 31st---Halloween Party at 1pm

**Progress Reports**

Students will be receiving their progress reports to bring home this afternoon. They will be in their blue homework folders. Please sign and return to school. 

**Parent/Teacher Conferences**

I have made a conference sign-up sheet online using Signupgenius.com. I sent an email through the website. Many of you have already signed up which is great! If you haven’t signed up yet you can find the link here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f44a8a828a5fb6-november3

Math: This week’s lessons focused on rounding to the nearest ten and hundred. We then moved on to estimating sums.

There will be a math test for Topic 2 next Friday.

Students are finding their interactive math notebooks helpful for reference as we progress forward through the math curriculum.

You Can Help: Posing practice problems at home will help your child gain a better sense of rounding. 

Below you will find Rounding Video Tutorials to help you better understand the strategies I am teaching students in class. This will hopefully prove helpful as you work with students at home.

Rounding to the Nearest Ten

Rounding to the Nearest Hundred

Reading: Students have been practicing building their stamina when reading independently. I have been timing the students to see how long the class as a whole could read without getting distracted. They started out the year at 1 minute and 23 seconds and this week achieved  33 minutes of uninterrupted reading. I believe the best way for students to become better readers is for them to read! I can tell we have a class full of book worms! Students normally will not spend more than 20 minutes a day reading to self but their ability to read independently for over half an hour shows they will be able to make the most of their independent reading time during Reading Rotations!

Grammar: This week we focused on subjects and predicates with a Star Wars twist. Students have been coding sentences with “The force” using “light sabers.” They have been learning that the subject is who or what the sentence is about and the predicate is what the subject is doing.

Writing: This week lessons focused on how to Show, Don’t Tell. Students practiced being descriptive writers. For example: Rather than “telling” the reader they are nervous, students learned to “show” the reader through descriptive words that paint a picture: Butterflies swarmed through my tummy as I entered my new classroom.

Next, students mapped out the sequence of their Ouch stories. They will begin drafting next week.  

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update: October 12, 2019

Happy Long Weekend 3B Parents!

                                   

Important Dates to Remember:

• Monday, October 14^th – No School
• Friday, October 18^th – Chapter 1 Social Studies Test
• Friday, October 18^th—Progress Reports
• Thursday, October 31^st----Pumpkin Project Fair at 8:30-9:15am

Secret Reader: Please remember to sign up for secret reader! Here is the link to the Secret Reader Sign-Up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084fa9ab2fa5fd0-3bsecret

**Pumpkin Project Fair!**

Since the children have been working so hard on their pumpkin project, we would like to hold a Pumpkin Character Fair!  Please join both 3rd grades on Thursday, October 31st from 8:30-9:15 in the cafeteria. There they will show off their handiwork, creativity and tell you a little bit about their pumpkin character!  We hope that you can join us!  

~Mrs. Ferullo and Mrs. Newell

Math: This week we moved on to Topic 2. This topic is focused on number sense and includes addition and subtraction meanings, using mental math, rounding, estimating sums and differences, and making sense of addition and subtraction equations.
Thus far, students have been gaining practice on learning to identify key words in word problems. These words help students determine whether to add or subtract.

We also learned different strategies that can help us mentally solve addition and subtraction problems. 

You Can Help: Posing practice problems at home will help your child gain a better sense of the strategies used in mental math. 

Below you will find Mental Math Video Tutorials to help you better understand the addition and subtraction math strategies I am teaching students in class. This will hopefully prove helpful as you work with students at home.

Addition:

Breaking Apart Both Addends

Subtraction:

Making a Ten 

Reading: This week we did some more work with character traits. We read the book Pinduli and named ways to describe her. They could be descriptive words that describe how she looks on the outside, how she was feeling at the moment, or words that describe who she is on the inside.

We then used the book Stripes to sort these descriptions into physical traits and internal traits.

Next week, we will finish up our work with character traits by focusing on the difference between emotions (how characters feel at the moment) and character traits (the character’s personality). In guided reading groups, we have been discussing the character traits of the main characters of our passages.   

Religion: Religion tests will be coming home next week.  Reviewing the test with your child will help them to see their mistakes and how they will need to study for the next test. In Chapter 3 the children will learn about the Last Judgment and that Jesus taught us to love others. 

Writing:   I spent time teaching students how to write in complete sentences when answering short answer/essay questions. We learned how to box “question words” and restate almost every other word in the question. This is a handy trick, but like any strategy there are always exceptions.

  

Also this week, we started brainstorming our OUCH stories. Next week, we will begin working on generating personal narratives about a time they've gotten hurt along with building stamina for writing. They have so many stories to tell and I can’t wait to help them grow as authors!

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update: October 4, 2019

Happy Friday 3B Parents!

The class and I had a wonderful week! The students are adjusting really well to third grade! I am excited for what this year has in store with this group of students! They are making so much progress with learning independence and responsibility! 

This week we celebrated the Feast Day of St. Francis. We made a poster with our pet pictures and presented it at the altar so our pets could receive a special blessing!

Important Dates to Remember:

• Wednesday, October 9th-School Picture Day
• Friday, October 11^th and Monday, October 14^th – No School
• Friday, October 18^th – Progress Reports
• Thursday, October 31^st----Pumpkin Project Fair at 8:30-9:15am

Secret Reader: Please remember to sign up for secret reader! Here is the link to the Secret Reader Sign-Up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084fa9ab2fa5fd0-3bsecret

Message from the BSS PC:

Hello Parents,

On Thursday, October 17^th from 7:00-10:00 pm in the school gym, the BSS School Board and PC Leadership Team welcome you to join in a casual Meet and Greet.  Light appetizers, beer and wine will be served.  We encourage all to come enjoy a casual evening with other parents.  Please follow this link to learn more and let us know if you can make it so that we can plan optimally:  https://forms.gle/UiezSgeTYdNtYbDQ7

Thank you and we look forward to seeing many of you there!

The BSS School Board and PC Leadership Team

Math: Students took their Topic 1 tests this week. It was great to see so many students demonstrate mastery of the place value concepts introduced. Students are gaining more and more independence with the MATH Rotations. Next week we will dive more deeply into Topic 2.

Reading: This week in reading students have been learning about character traits. They learned that character traits are adjectives that describe how the character is on the INSIDE. They learned that they need to pay to attention to what the character does or doesn’t say and do. They have learned that when describing a character, they also need to provide evidence from the text to explain their thinking. 

Reading Rotations began this week. Check them out below!

Book Club

Read to Self

Listening to Reading

Technology Center

Writing: We have displayed their first paragraphs on our new bulletin board based off the book, What If You Had Animal Teeth? Students wrote about what it would be like if they had a certain animal's teeth instead of their own. 

Next week we will begin working on generating personal narratives along with building stamina for writing. They have so many stories to tell and I can’t wait to help them grow as authors!