Brown's Blog

September 2011

What a great couple of weeks, and week seven is already here! How quickly time passes when you are having fun! Everyone has settled in well and doing a great job as 3rd graders. They are eager and working hard. Please take a look at what the next few weeks will bring.

Science: We have just begun our unit on Rocks and Minerals. High Touch/High Tech was here Friday and the students enjoyed all the hands on activities learning the similarities and differences between the two. We will follow with a unit on Fossils.

Social Studies : We will be learning about what makes our economy work beginning with our four productive resources. We will also end our unit on Democracy learning the three branches of government.

Math: We are working on chapters 3 and 4, addition and subtraction. Students will learn how mental math and estimation strategies are related to place value, the relationship between addition and subtraction, and how we can use addition and subtraction strategies to help us count back change. We will continue daily practice with elapsed time.

Reading: We have started our Guided Reading and Workstations and I can not begin to tell you how well your children are doing with it. They jumped right in and work like have been doing it forever. In reading groups we are working on sequencing, facts and opinions, and non-fiction book features.

Writing: We are finishing our unit on "ideas" and will begin working on the trait of "organization". The students will also begin writing their final narrative piece of writing for the nine weeks. As written in their agendas on Friday, they are to come to school on Monday with an experience they had and remember well so we can begin filling in our graphic organizers!

Grammar: We will continue working on common and proper nouns as well as capitalization.

As always if there is anything you need please don't hesitate to let me know.

Sincerely,

Mrs.Brown

IMPORTANT REMINDER: CoGat testing begins Wednesday, October 5th. We will begin promptly at 8:15 a.m.. Please be sure and have your child at school on time, well fed and well rested!!

September

Wow what a wild first couple weeks of school! Just in case you haven't heard we are welcoming Mrs. Carrie Dunn to our 3rd grade team. The student's that will be making up her class spent Friday afternoon getting to know each other. They will begin their first full day together on Tuesday. I know they are going to have a great year!! These next couple of weeks are going to be busy ones! Tuesday we will begin Spelling Sort 4. We will also begin Guided Reading and Workshops. This will require a few days of practice, but once we have it down I will let the parents who have graciously volunteered to help know when to come in! In math we will spend Tuesday reviewing Chpt.1 and will have our Post test on Wednesday. The students who attend Target will take theirs in the morning before they leave. We will then begin Chpt.2 Numbers to 10,000 as well as 2 lessons in Chapter 6 on Elapsed Time. We will be learning about the Writing Process and the 6+1 Traits as we begin Writing Workshop this week. Language Arts will include lessons on Capitalization, Punctuation and Dictionary and Thesaurus Skills.In Social Studies the students will begin making a brochure of Greece based on the information they have learned. Maps skills will include locating the equator and prime meridian and lines of latitude and longitude. We will also begin discussing the 3 Branches of Government. Guidance will begin this week with Mrs. Ofiara visiting our class Friday morning. Well I think that is it for now. As always if you have any questions or need anything please let me know.Warmly,Mrs. Brown