Month: January 2024

Happy Friday! I hope you are staying warm. I know the students were rooting for snow this week, but I’m grateful we had this full week of learning before the three- day weekend.

Next week we will be diving into a unit on genetics, family history, and heredity. I’ll be sending home some items to collect data, as well as interview sheets for parents, and eventually grandparents. It is helpful for me to know (if I don’t already) any sensitive family situations so I can be aware of to help your child through the process.

Multiplication Games!

Academics

Literacy– This week we read about King Midas and his greedy ways. Students used text evidence to answer comprehension questions, identified similes, and looked at the plot of a story once again. In writing this week we wrote the second and third paragraphs of our self-essays and wrote a paragraph about their dreams (after learning about Martin Luther King Jr.)

Math– Third graders wrapped up the final unit on multiplication before diving into division. This is where it gets really important to know those facts!

Social Studies– This week we began a non fiction book on Ellis Island together. Students were also to get on a program called Readworks to read more about immigration at their reading level, covering comprehension and vocabulary as well. Next week the students will get their assigned roles and start learning about who they will become. I can’t wait! IMMIGRATION DAY IS FEBRUARY 5TH.

Religion -For religion this week we covered the dignity of every human, how we are created in the image and likeness of God, and the difference between body and souls. We learned more about the life of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a great saint!

Science -This week scientists looked at the life cycle of mosquitos and made claims as to how they would prevent the

Art -Tangram Shape Art -Students will explore the world of tangrams, identifying and constructing shapes using their tangram sets. They will explore the impact of fundamental shape elements on both the final composition of the tangram and the visual art examples. The journey will unfold through a narrative, guiding students to craft geometric animals. 

Spanish –Una nota de Señora Anna- This week in Spanish, we decorated days of the week, month, and season words to use on our classroom calendar. Then, we reviewed numbers 1-30 so we can talk about dates on the calendar.

Music – This week in music we are…Playing music in a variety of tempos, and reviewing sixteenth notes. Dancing the Sasha dance . Keeping a steady beat and learning a partner clapping activity in Japanese called O Mochi.

Read-In Fun!

Happy New Year! As hard as it was to come back from the relaxing break, I was sure grateful to see the students and get back to our school routines. It was fun to hear all about the adventures and magical experiences over break and I hope you all enjoyed your time as well.

I wanted also send a heartfelt thank you for all the generous, amazing Christmas gifts. Wow! I also had a couple that did not have names on them and I feel bad if you did not receive a thank you note from me. Know that I’m grateful and appreciate all of you!

Book Reports– Students have approved a fictional book with me and should be reading this book throughout the month. This report will be due on January 31st and more information will come home soon about this fun one!

Multiplication Facts– Students are expected to be practicing their facts every night, regardless of their other homework. I know many of you have helped with this and I appreciate your support. Laminated practice pages are to come back to school clean and ready to go every morning.

*Read In- Students are anxiously awaiting a date and I wanted to wait until I knew a couple of our avid readers and goal helpers were back, so the day will be Wednesday, January 10th. Students are allowed to bring stuffies, pillows, sheets, etc. for reading forts and we will have fun reading and celebrating all those 104 books posted.

Academics

Literacy– This week we learned about adverbs and how they tell us how, where, when, or why. They identified adverbs and sorted them and will combine them with adjectives next week when we do reading centers. We began a big writing project with the self essay and will be writing a series of four paragraph essays.

Math– This week we began looking at patterns, exploring a little algebra, and setting the stage for division. Please ask your child how they are doing with their multiplication facts.

Social Studies– This week began our unit on Immigration. We learned what the word meant, explored why some people might immigrate and read a fictional story called Molly’s Pilgrim. Next week we will dive into a nonfiction text to help us understand more about Ellis Island specifically.

Religion -For religion we talked about the liturgical calendar and it being the season of Christmas. We read a story called One Word and the students identified one word to help them be a better version of themselves in 2024 and reflected on that word. We wrapped the week up with the Epiphany and reading a Tomie dePaola story about the three kings and an activity.

Art -Tangram Shape Art -Students will explore the world of tangrams, identifying and constructing shapes using their tangram sets. They will explore the impact of fundamental shape elements on both the final composition of the tangram and the visual art examples. The journey will unfold through a narrative, guiding students to craft geometric animals. 

Spanish –Una nota de Señora Anna- This week in Spanish, we practiced months of the year and reviewed our knowledge of days of the week, weather, and seasons. 

Think Outside the Box Thursday!