Month: March 2024

Happy Spring! This time of year is so fun as a teacher. The students are truly off and running and it’s amazing to see the growth from the beginning of the year.

A great way to start the week. Welcoming Ryan back and celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day with Readers Theater and a special popcorn treat.

Book Reports -Students should have their directions based on their selections now and able to have fun this month relating a project to the plot of their book. These are due by Thursday, but please send them in as you finish so we can share throughout the week. Also, if your child is eager to begin their April book, please go for it! We have Spring Break to start and I’d love for them to take advantage of that reading time! I’ll require students to tell me their April book by the 8th when we return.

ACADEMICS

Literacy – This week students took on our new fictional unit and read a version of Cinderella from her point of view. We looked at perspective in the story, and learned about superlative and comparative adjectives, along with hyperboles. It’s so fun to see them recognizing all the figurative language we’ve been learning in their own books and our read alouds. For writing we wrapped up our opinion pieces and are getting into a creative story. These should be fun!

Math– Third graders dove deeper into fractions this week and looked at a number line, fractions greater than one, and even plotted their names in fractions.

Religion- As we approach Holy Week we are preparing to learn about the Triduum, and the Passion of Christ. In our religion books this week we covered virtue vs. vices and faithful vs. unfaithful.

Social Studies– The students and I are having fun with our new curriculum and learning together all the online portal can offer. It’s fun to see them discover new features, share their findings, and teach each other. This week we looked at the natural features of deserts and oceans.

Science -We completely wrapped up our unit on Genetics/Heredity this week. The students wrote a letter to someone about all they’ve learned, with a rubric to guide them in explaining their knowledge.

Spanish -This week in Spanish, we designed cards to give to family members. We also learned vocabulary to name our pets.

I’m incredibly proud of these 8 students who have completely passed out of multiplication and division fact fluency through our Xtra Math Program. I know more students will be joining them soon and ALL students are improving! Keep up the great work and congratulations to these!

What a fun, busy week! From the Perfect Pizzeria, St. Patrick’s Dress, to the preparations of our Readers Theater and buddy time, we learned and worked hard!

If you did not receive a personalized Canva Invitation from your child, know that you are all invited to their Saint Patrick’s Day presentations on Monday at 8:30. I let the students have a say in who they wanted to invite, where they were going to perform, and which script they wanted. They even created the invitations and programs. Love the ownership and putting their voices into play as we learned in our government unit.

Book Reports -You will find the student choice sheet in the Friday Folders today. Students know these are due on Monday, with their selections. I will give you the outline and complete instructions based on their choices next week. They should be working through those March books at this time.

Academics:

Literacy -This week we wrapped up the Benchmark Unit Book and our selection on the African American and women’s right to vote. Students answered text dependent questions with evidence and PQPA. We also continued practicing the skill of writing a concise summary with the main idea and the 5Ws. The paragraph writing is getting really good with this group!! The rest of our reading time was spent practicing scripts, and truly working on the important element of fluency. In writing students are working through the writing process on their opinion piece.

Math -Fractions! So fun! We tackled the tricky lesson of equal shares but they are doing a great job! It was fun to teach about Pi and link in our fractions and dividing pies into equal pieces and recognizing unit fractions. As your child what pi is ;).

Social Studies -Geographers looked at landforms today and we explored the site that matches our curriculum, Studies Weekly. They specifically learned about mountains and valleys and will dive into more natural features next week.

Religion -Third graders finished their Stations of the Cross illustrations with their buddies and completed the assessment in their religion book on God’s covenant with his chosen people, the Israelites in the old testament, and began learning about faithfulness and unfaithfulness. How is your Lent going?

Science -We will be wrapping up our Heredity Unit looking at inherited vs. acquired traits.

Spanish -Using the Spanish family vocabulary we’ve learned, students created cards for various members of their family. We also played many vocabulary review games!

Happy Friday! Another short week but I’m grateful for the opportunity to meet with several of you to support your child second semester. What a great group of kids and I’m grateful for all of you!

**PENNY WARS PIZZA PARTY -We will be celebrating this victory on Tuesday. You will not have to pack a lunch that day. Students will be awarded this lunch, along with a celebratory ice cream sundae! Congratulations, class!!

I’m just hoping that I can ask one of you to go to Lakeway and pick up the pizza from Little Cesars and deliver it by noon that day (Tuesday). If you are able to volunteer to do this, please reach out to me.

We had a lovely field trip to the courthouse and visit with Judge Jones! Thank you volunteers. It’s really one of my favorites with the class and how special that it was his youngest daughter’s class!

Academics:

Literacy – This week we read a nonfiction passage on the history of voting, specifically for African Americans and women. Students used the 5W framework to write a summary with the main idea and they are doing great with this! We also began a Readers Theater Unit on Saint Patrick’s Day and they are having a blast. In writing we are working on an opinion piece based on what they want to do/be when they grow up. I’m breaking it down to add similes, and make their writing more engaging to read.

Math -Mathematicians wrapped up their unit on division after spending a few days on order of operations. I assured them they will revisit this concept year after year and build on their foundation. Next week we will dive into fractions, another fun math concept!

Social Studies -In social studies this week we wrapped up our government unit. Next week we will get back into landforms.

Science -Scientists looked at selection this week. We learned that natural selection can even happen without humans. The students were very intrigued on how dogs have been bread and we did an experiment about geckos, based off a real life island near Florida.

Religion -For religion we continue to learn through our Lenten journeys but we also began a chapter on Noah and God’s covenant. Students will be praying the stations of the cross around the school next week.

Spanish -This week in Spanish class, we created a family tree with all the family vocabulary we’ve learned. Then, students asked each other questions about their families, and made a graph about siblings.

What a fun process! We can’t wait to top it off on Monday at our field trip to the courthouse and visiting Judge Jones (regular uniform please). The students learned a lot through this process and will continue to learn about the history of voting rights next week. However, I am holding everyone in suspense until Monday when Adele (one of our candidates) returns. I’m proud of all three of the girls. What great leaders they are!

If you signed up for a conference next Friday, March 8th I should have emailed you a time. All times are filled, however if you would still like a spring conference, please reach out to me.

Academics

Reading -This week we learned about Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez in our reading book. We talked about what made them good leaders and specifically how to pull out important information and write a summary with the main idea. This is a challenging skill but we will be working on it for a good month. At this age they want to give ALL the details!

Writing -We began the process of writing and publishing a third grade book. They are writing about when they grow up. They are silly, creative, and fun! We used the acronym OREO (Opinion, Reasons, Examples, and Opinion-restating). Their paragraphs are getting solid and it’s so exciting to see them at the point of adding detail and expanding their ideas more. Look for an order form for these great books soon!

Math – Mathematicians are solidifying their division facts as we quickly cruised through the chapter. We end with multi step problems and order of operations next week though and those are harder concepts. Keep practicing those facts!

Religion –This week the students enjoyed a Lenten Bible Hunt with a friend. They were given questions and verses to find the answers. They did an amazing job! Students also had an opportunity to go to Reconciliation so we did a thorough examination of conscience.

Science -Scientists did two engaging activities through Mystery Science this week on traits and genetics. Specifically we looked at selection, breeding, how plants and animals have evolved.

Social Studies -Government Unit -Students should be quite familiar with the three branches by now and how the election process works (a nice election ;)) They creative a tree with the three branches as a visual and we are looking forward to Mondays field trip to gain more information.

Spanish -This week in Spanish class, students labeled their family pictures and described their family in Spanish to a small group.