Sharpen the Saw

Third grade has been working hard on the 7 habits this year.  We have read books about the habits, found examples in movies and books, written goals, and, most importantly, worked at applying the habits to our lives.  Lately we have been working on habit 7--Sharpen the Saw.  We talked about how important it is to have balance in our lives.  As part of our work on this habit, we are going to create a class display of photographs of our class sharpening our saws, and we need your help.  Over the next week or two, look for a time when your child is doing something for this habit, snap a picture, and e-mail it to me or Mrs. Hreno.  We'll print it and add it to our class display.  Look at the poster below for more information about this habit.

 You could get a picture of your child eating a healthy snack or meal.  You might catch them getting exercise at basketball practice or playing in the backyard.  A picture could be sent of a family game night or your child practicing the piano.  The possibilities are endless!  Don't worry if you can't send a picture.  If we are missing any students, we will take a picture of them here at school practicing the habit so that each child can be part of our display.  This will be a fun habit to practice this week--we can't wait to see our display come together!

2017-Full of Learning!

It was a great week in third grade! All third graders began their second round of NWEA testing. We started with the math portion and will continue this upcoming week with the reading portion.

In math, we wrapped up our fractions unit and will begin Unit 5-Place Value in Large Numbers and Decimals.  Remember, multiplication/division facts, telling time to the nearest minute, and addition and subtraction (especially with regrouping) of three digit numbers are great skills to be practicing along with what we’re learning in math.

 In social studies, we started our economy unit. This is always a fun one! This week, students learned what all goes in to buying and selling things. See if your child can tell you….

·        How a market and economy relate to one another

·        Examples of goods and services

·        What it means when something is scarce

·        Costs and benefits of things we buy

In writing, we’ve ended our persuasive writing unit and are learning how to ramp up our narrative writing! One way to do this is by learning how to weave different types of figurative language such as similes, hyperboles, and personification into their writing.  We’ll read picture books that include examples of the figurative language we’re focusing on, practice writing and identifying sentences that reflect it, work on incorporating the figurative language into a whole class piece we’re working on, and then eventually include it in our own writing. Some students are already noticing that they’ve used figurative language throughout their writer’s notebook but just didn’t realize it had a fancy name! ;) Stay tuned for a closer look at what our figurative language practice looks like

Our third graders continue to blossom in reading! We’re working hard on identifying the theme of the text-the lesson or message that the author wants you to learn from the story. This is a tricky third grade skill because the theme is almost always inferred. When reading with your child at home, ask them the following questions to help them identify the theme.

•     What did the characters learn? 
•   How did the characters grow or change?
• Why did the characters act this way?    

It’s hard to believe we have entered our third quarter of third grade! Miss White and I can’t wait to see the continued growth our third graders will make in the new year! J