Here we are in the middle of October and only 2 weeks left of the first quarter. It has been a great year so far. They are wonderful. I was afraid that with a small group there wouldn’t be a lot of discussion but they are coming around. We're starting to have great discussions.
We are on our 3rd day of testing the IOWA basic skills test and they are not doing to bad. I will be doing testing through next Tuesday. I broke it up a little more than the years before. I have been giving them well deserved breaks in the afternoon.
So, what has been going on since last month? Plenty!
I have been busy planning lesson on the mimio board. The kids really like to go to the board and us the interactive board. It is more fun for them and me. It beats standing in front and lecturing. It also gives the kids more hands on learning opportunities.
In reading we have read several stories. We’ve worked on fantasy & realism, sequence of events, cause and effect, noting details, and story structure. We have also been working on leveled reading, small groups. We concluded with ending the theme of adventures and started the next theme on celebrating traditions. If your family has a special tradition you celebrate, please come join us and share your information.
In religion we are still on Unit 1, Family of God. We have read and discussed scripture stories about the creation of the Earth, helping on another, and Mary visits Elizabeth. After this week we will be finishing up the unit with a unit review and test. Ask your son/daughter to bring home their religion book and review with them the first three lessons. Some of the new vocabulary words in this unit are: create, responsibility, Bible, Church, Visitation, authority, domestic, image, respect, Holy Trinity, and community. Every Friday I do a lesson about the Gospel reading for that Sunday. When you go to church on the weekend the children will understand the Gospel readings.
In math we have been working with addition the last couple of weeks. I really see that many students really need to learn their basic math facts. They know how to add but they are making simple mistakes. When they don’t know what 9 + 4 is they struggle. Please work with them to learn their facts. In fact we just did the math computation test and many students said it was hard. Math computation knows their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. I’m going to start testing kids on their facts. My goal is to have all 8 students knowing their addition and subtraction facts through 10 by Christmas. PLEASE HELP ME REACH MY GOAL!!
In spelling we have learned 20 new words to add to our 3rd grade spelling list. We are on word 190. Check your list I sent home earlier and review all the words up to this point with your child. Please remember to do the Dear Parent activity with your child. It is part of the skills spelling test. We have learned and review long vowels, /ou/ spelling patterns, when h follows c, s, t, or w, the combination stands for a new sound, antonyms, contractions, and reviewed all the short vowel sounds. Our next spelling test will be Wednesday, Nov. 2nd.
In language we have finished up our first unit. In this unit we revisited what is a sentence, statements, questions, commands, exclamations, the subject and predicate of a sentence, and correcting a run-on sentence. We will have out unit test next week sometime.
In handwriting we have made it though several letters. It wouldn’t hurt to have your child start writing short words in cursive. The more they practice the better they will get. I know many people say, why teach cursive if they never use it? My feelings are one, it is recommend in 3rd grade to learn cursive and the other thing is some students do much better with cursive than manuscript. It is easier to keep writing one word than to keep picking u[ the pencil and starting a new letter.
In science and social studies we’ve been moving along a little slowly. You will notice they do not have a lot of opportunities for grades. These subject areas are more discussion. I also have been doing mimio lesson in this area.
In social studies we have been talking about communities. Within the communities we have learned where people live and work, where people build communities, the different types of communities near water and different kids of landforms. Thanks to a wonderful donation we will start Tuesday, Time for Kids magazine. It is like the weekly reader they did last year. This will help us keep up with events going on around us.
I let the kids look through the science book and pick their top three units they would be interested in. We started this year with types of animals. We have read and discussed about the animals habitat, what they need to live, and what vertebrates are. We will be starting invertebrates next week. Some of the vocabulary words in this unit were: oxygen, vertebrate, mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, and invertebrates.
A few reminders:
If you have not attended a Base Training Creating Safe and Sacred Environment training please try to attend the next one on Monday, Oct. 24th. You need to have this training to volunteer in the classroom, drive for field trips, or anything to do with working with studetns.
Watch for the Halloween note to come home. We will have a small party in the classroom at 10:00. Anyone can bring treats.
Early release at 12:00, Monday, Oct. 31st.
End of first quarter, Friday, Nov. 4th.
Picture Re-take Day, Wednesday, Nov. 9th.
