Wonderful Week!

It was another wonderful week in 3rd grade!

We were excited to continue our work in our Mineral Field Guides in science.  After observing our minerals, we described their appearance, feel, and smell.  We also did a streak test with our minerals and were surprised by some of the results. We will continue our work in our field guides next week.

It was a great week in math as we continued our unit on computation.  We learned two different algorithms for both addition and subtraction this week.  Our test will be next week, and students will get to choose their preferred methods of adding and subtracting on the test. 

We have been especially happy with our work in writing lately.  We have been working on having strong leads that hook our readers.  See if your child can share with you some of the different types of strong beginnings we learned.  We have also practiced writing seed stories that really focus on a small moment in time.  

We have really enjoyed hearing all of the great ideas about the Map in a Month projects, and we can't wait to see them. Students should be completed with Day 15 by the end of this weekend, so please encourage your child to catch up if he has fallen behind.  

In addition to this great week of learning, we had several special things going on this week.  We celebrated College Go Week with a fun spirit day and a great discussion about college.  We had a fun convocation on saving energy that was both entertaining and informative.  Today we came decked out in our blue and gold to support the CHS homecoming.  Unfortunately our trip to view the parade was rained out, but the students kept a good attitude as we found other ways to enjoy the afternoon.  We also celebrated a successful fall fundraiser by duct taping Mrs. Klinginsmith and Ms. Inskeep to the wall!  Fun times!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Science Rocks!

Third grade has enjoyed the start of our first science unit last week.  In fact, we are in complete agreement--Science rocks!  This is what we heard over and over throughout our rooms as we started our new rocks and mineral unit--they sure enjoyed that play on words. :)


We're only a week into our new unit, but we've already done a lot.  The geologists in room 10 and 13 sorted the rocks by different properties.  Ask your child which properties his group used to sort the rocks.  We also learned that we can classify rocks by how they were formed.  After reading about igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, we reexamined the rocks to see if we could find clues as to how our rocks were formed.  See if your child can tell you what clues we were looking for in the rocks.

 Over the next two weeks, we will perform some field tests and record the data we collect.  We will then use our field guides to see if we can identify the minerals.  We can't wait to learn more about our minerals!

Calling All Cartographers. . .

We have started our first big project of the year: Map in a Month.  The students have been super excited to start on this project.  Even though we just officially started the project today, I have already heard so many great ideas.  I can already tell that we are going to have some creative maps!  The schedule and directions were sent home with the students today, and they can also be found below. I have added some pictures of maps from previous years that we looked at in class for examples of different map parts.  It is very important that students do not get behind on this lengthy project, because it will overwhelm them if they have to do many tasks in a short amount of time.  This is a fun project for those students who stick to the schedule and do a little bit each night.  I can't wait to see the maps that are created this year!

Map in a Month schedule and directions

Map Examples from Previous Years

For more ideas of landforms that can be included on the map (day 5), visit this slide share.

Our Week: Short in Days, Long in Learning

It was a short but busy week in third grade! The students were really excited to share how they spent their Labor Day weekend.

Hard at work on our first math test!

Students in the third grade math class took their first test of the year  and did so well! They worked really hard and persevered through each question. In third grade, we emphasize the importance of using the whole time and checking each problem multiple times to make sure silly mistakes and errors are caught. We will now move on to Unit 2.  Unit 2’s emphasis is on addition and subtraction.  There are four main areas of focus:

• To review fact families and number families
• To solve “What’s my Rule?” problems
• To use diagrams to help solve number stories
• To review algorithms for addition and subtraction

We also wrapped up our work on geography in social studies.

• See if your child can tell you the three things we use to describe a place's physical geography.  Students should be able to tell you we use physical features, climate, and natural resources.  
• Check and see if your child can describe the physical geography of Indiana.  

We'll be starting our Rocks and Minerals unit next week in science!

In writing, we wrapped up how to SHOW instead of tell when writing  narratives. Students learned that if they use action, dialogue, thoughts, and sensory details, they can produce wonderful writing! Ask your child how they've turned a boring, telling sentence into a great, descriptive paragraph that keeps their reader interested! Next week, we'll focus on how to write great beginnings.

The 100 Book Club has started again!  Although completing the program to 100 books is optional, we would like all third graders to record the books they read in the packet.  Many times students are overwhelmed at the idea of reading 100 books, but they are then surprised at how quickly the books add up with all of the reading they do in 3rd grade.  The students were very excited to get the packets and set a goal to make it to the 25 books level.  Please help them achieve this goal by reminding them to record the books they finish at home.

We're excited to see what next brings in third grade!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Our Week in Review

Third grade is in full swing, and we are so happy with all of the learning that is going on!

• In math we are wrapping up Unit 1, which is a review of some second grade math skills.  We have been working hard on telling time to the exact minute, counting money, and continuing patterns.  Our first math test of the year is next Friday.  Mrs. Nilo's math class just had their first test on Thursday of this week over their geometry unit.    

• In social studies we are working on our geography unit.  The students can't wait to put to use all of these new map skills on our upcoming Map in a Month project.  We have one more week of geography, and then we will be moving on to our first science unit of the year--rocks and minerals.  

• We are becoming better writers every day!  One way we have worked on this is by working on "Show, Don't Tell" in our writing. In Show, Don't Tell, we use our words to show ideas to our readers instead of just telling them.  This makes our writing a lot more interesting to read, and it helps the readers paint a picture of our story in their minds.  We have gotten pretty good at this skill.  Give your child a telling sentence (The boy is mad. The girl was happy.  I am nervous.  The desk is messy. It is a nice day.) and let them tell you what great sentences they would use to show this idea.  We used our Show, Don't Tell skills when we learned about using a 'storyteller's voice' in our writing instead of a 'reporter's voice.'

• In reading we continue to work on our independent reading skills and routines.  We've learned to pick 'just right' books, we've examined our reading interests, and we've learned how to do our best 'real reading' instead of 'fake reading' during our independent reading times.  This will be especially helpful for us as we begin Reading Workshop next week. We are so excited to see the students so excited about reading!

With so much great learning going on in 3rd grade, I don't know how we will top it next week--but I bet we do!  Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!