First Week of School

Dear Third Grade Families,

Welcome to our classroom blog!  Each week I will post an update on what our class has been doing.  These updates will generally be posted on Fridays or over the weekend.

This week was mainly filled with getting-to-know you activities.  It was great to hear students tell a little bit about themselves while presenting their "Me Bags!"  The students also created "Math About Me" posters in which they came up with number sentences related to their age, house number, birthday, etc.  These are displayed in our hallway. 

Thank you for attending Curriculum Night.  If you weren't able to attend, I sent the information packet home with your child.  Read on to find out what else we have been busy with.

Reading
We started off talking about "Just Right" books.  "Just Right" books are books that we can read smoothly, can understand well, only have to stop a few times to figure out a word or meaning, and challenge us to become better readers. We compared "Just Right" books with books that are too easy and too hard so that we fully understand the difference.  We also talked about how "Reading is Thinking."  Our minds are active when we are reading as we are constantly questioning, making connections, visualizing, predicting, etc.  Finally, students were introduced to our classroom library and had the opportunity to choose "Just Right" books for their in-school silent reading period(s).   We will soon start our guided reading groups but until then, students will be taught all of these introductory stills that are pertinent for reading.

Math
Students received their math journal this week, which will stay in school.  They use the math journal to practice concepts that are taught in class.  Students also started Unit 1 and will take a beginning of the year assessment this week. Once I have a good idea of the various skills and abilities, I will group them according to their needs.

Important Information:

Your child's Reading Log folder should stay at home and should be brought back to school on October 1.  The purpose of the Reading Log folder is to house the reading log, reading calendar, and genre overview page. Students were instructed to keep the folder where they do their daily at-home reading.

Please make sure you sign off on your child's student planner after he/she has completed the homework.

Happy Labor Day!