Third Grade Thoughts

Week of Sept. 5 - 9

Mon., Sept, 5 - No School - Labor Day

Wed., Sept. 7 - 1:00 Dismiss (Prof. Dev.)

6:30 - 7:30 PM - Parent Partnership Night

We hope everyone had a wonderful, restful Labor Day weekend!

Staff and students are settling into a regular routine and making great strides in building student/teacher relationships. We are enjoying getting to know your children and how to best help, challenge, and encourage them to reach their fullest potential. It's going to be an awesome third grade year! Please be sure to contact us right away if any questions or concerns arise. We will work together with you to find a solution that best meets the needs of your child.

Week 1 Word Work (aka "Spelling")

3rd graders took their first spelling pretest in class today. Please help your child practice these compound words for Friday’s test. Due to the short school week, we will offer one more test over these words next week. Any student getting all eight of the words correct on Friday, Sept. 9, will not have to retake the final spelling test next week. Activities are done with these words in class, in addition to practice done at home.

touchdown, baseball, anytime, ballpark, lighthouse, downtown, daylight, sometime

Reading

Thank you for encouraging your child to read at home each evening. This is meant to be an enjoyable, stress free time together. Your child may read independently or take turns reading with you.

We are hard at work getting beginning of the year reading assessments done and students placed into groups for Reader's Workshop. As soon as our first twenty days of initial lessons and assessments are complete in the Benchmark curriculum, we will begin regular Reader's Workshop rotations. Our FAST EasyCBM (Fluency/Accuracy) assessments will be done on Thursday and Friday this week 

Writing

Students have finished the beginning of the year district writing assessment and are busy writing in every subject every day. Cursive penmanship practice has also begun!

Math

In addition to Rocket Math (our three minute daily basic fact fluency practice), students are learning place value to the hundred thousands place in standard, expanded, and word form. This is a challenging skill for many third graders.We have been impressed with our students' willingness to take risks as they learn new concepts. We are all part of a team, and need to feel safe making mistakes as we learn together.

Science

We will soon begin exploring matter and motion as we dive into our first science kit! Students love the hands-on learning these kits offer.

Parent Partnership Night 

Please join us tomorrow night in Mrs. Kimm's third grade classroom for an informal presentation and question/answer session. Mrs. Bonewitz and Mrs. Kimm will explain our third grade schedule, routines, procedures, and expectations. Come a few minutes early to grab a cookie before we begin. We look forward to this great evening of shared communication between home and school. See you tomorrow night!