• Mar262013
    3/26

    POSTED AT 09:09 PM

    Hi 3B Families,
    What an interesting week! It is finally spring, however we had quite a snow on Monday! As I'm sure you heard, the kids were pretty disappointed that we had a full day of school with all of that snow outside. Luckily, the kids were able to go outside for recess and had some time to play in the snow before it all disappeared. 
    We have officially earned our 3rd paw print celebration. We get to celebrate once we have 25 class paw prints (1 per student). The student voted for extra recess time. We took the paw prints down to the office today. This means we have officially earned 75 paw prints so far this year! Actually, we have earned 79 as the kids have earned 4 more since our 75th was earned. We are hoping to get our 4th celebration before the year is over. This would equal 100 total this yaer. I was telling the kids we would have to do something extra special to celebrate 100. I might ask for parent help for this celerbation. I told the kids to start thinking about what they might want to do. It will take us a while to earn all those paw prints though. 
    I've had a few parents ask for different supplemental resources to help support their children at home. Unfortunately, a lot of the resources I have I use in the classroom. However, I have put together a document that lists resources relating to third grade standards. Specifically, it list sites/services that you can subscribe to or use to buy materials if you are interested in more word problem practice, or reading passage practice. If you just want a few examples of something, please email me (unfortunately telling me in passing, I might forget being so busy) and I will try to send you a few extra materials if I have them or direct you to a source. Please see the attached document for places to get resources relating to our third grade standards. 
    Scholastic book orders for March are due this Friday, March 29th. I will be submitting the order Friday night or Saturday. The books should hopefully be here when we return from spring break (it usually takes about a week).
    Academic Updates
    Reading- We are continuing with our short text unit. This past week we have been studying ways to learn about character and develop theories about character. We have also been working on comparing characters across texts. We will next work on finding the big idea of fiction passages. After spring break we will work on nonfiction short texts. I will continue giving students reading passages to read at home during this unit. Their goal is to apply what they have been learning in class to their at home short text reading. THey should show this by marking up the text and using post-its to note their thinking. They can add this reading to their reading log. 
    Writing about Reading- We have been working on writing paragraphs about our thinking in reading. Students are expected to write the main idea (answer to the prompt) and support it with examples from the text. Writing about their reading is a great way to see how well students understand what they read. 
    Math- We have been working on a multiplication and division strategy unit that is aligned to our new Common Core Standards. Recently our focus has been using multiplication properties to help solve multiplication number sentences (communitive property, distributive property, and associative property). Also, we have been working on decomposing multi-sided shaped to help solve for the  area. 
    Math Facts- At this point students should still be practicing facts every single night. While they practice their goal is to complete the facts as quickly and accurately as possible. In May, I will be assessing students to see if they can meet their third grade goals for fact fluency. They need to be able to meet this to be prepared for fourth grade. They need to be able to solve 50 addition/subtraction facts in 3 minutes and 30 multiplication facts in 3 minutes. 
    Math fact resources:
    Math games for the family:
    Over spring break you should play a game with your child! Or, get your child to play a game with their sibling/friend. This website has lots of wonderful suggestions of how you can use a regular deck of cards for math fact games! http://letsplaymath.net/2006/12/29/the-game-that-is-worth-1000-worksheets/
    Writer's Workshop: We have been researching for our nonfiction papers. Students have just about finished with their research. You can help your child by checking in with them and seeing if they feel like they need more resources or need help taking more notes about their topic. Most students are now at the point of organizing their notes and planning what the big ideas of the paragraphs will be. 
    Have a wonderful week.I hope you get to enjoy your spring break with your child. Hopefully there will be time for some nice family time. 
    Thanks,
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    Mar132013
    3/13/13 Update

    POSTED AT 08:02 PM

    Hi 3B Parents!
    I hope everyone is having a great week. Unfortunately, I was sick and home from school part of last week.Plus we had a snow day. Because of all this, I missed sending out a weekly update. Luckily I'm feeling better now and have caught back up. 
    It was really nice to see many of you at the auction. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to talk to all of the families from our classroom while I was there. I always enjoy seeing Janney families outside of the regular school day. The auction, parent socials, and picnics are always a great way to get to know everyone better. Also, it was a great fundraiser for Janney! Thanks Kristen Maxson for all of your work on our auction project. I thought it turned out great. I loved the pictures of the kids - especially with mustaches on their faces. 
    Today we just finished our very last ANET testing day. We will have the DC CAS in April.  This year there is a new rule about testing from OSSE. Classroom teachers will not be able to test with their class. We "practiced" this rule for the last ANET test. Ms. Koruda proctored the test for 3B. She will be with them for the CAS. I was in 3C with Ms. Seward to proctor their test. Ms. Koruda was very impressed with how hard the kids worked. I am so proud of them. I know it is tough to have to test as a third grader. It is also hard to keep up all of that hard work when your teacher isn't in the room. However, they did a great job. 
    In math, we are working on a multiplication and division unit. We have recently been working on problem solving skills and how to show our strategies and explain our work. Starting tomorrow, we will begin to explore variables in equations and word problems. 
    Math facts- Students should continue practicing their fact fluency for any facts that they haven't met our third grade goals for yet. The goal is: 50 facts in 3 minutes for addition and subtraction. 30 facts for multiplication in 3 minutes. Please use www.firstinmath.com as an excellent resource to help students practice facts. I will quiz students on Fridays for fact fluency. When they have fact math homework, students should be working to complete it as quickly and accurately as possible. 
    In reading, we are currently working on a short text unit. Last week we explored short texts and learned how reading short stories, texts, and articles is the same/different than other types of literature. For example: one reason a short story is often different is because the plot build up and climax often occurs quickly since the story is not long. We also discussed the fact that in a short text, all of the authors words are very important to pay attention to. Right now, we are working on being close readers. This is an extremely important strategy for reading any type of text and involves rereading, chunking text, reading slowly, note taking, and developing theories. Next, we will move into learning about characters. During this unit we will study short fiction stories, nonfiction articles, poems, letters, short plays, etc. This is a great time to break out the kids magazines, newspapers, and poetry books at home and read some short texts together. 
    A good math and reading resource is www.scootpad.com. I sent this information home around conference time (I either gave it to you personally or sent it in THT). It will quiz students directly related to common core questions. THis is also good, because both you and I can see how well students are doing. 
    Writing- Everyone has officially finished publishing their writing and turned it in. This means we are finally ready to have a publishing celebration.If you are interested in joining us for the writing celebration, we will  sharing our writing in class after we unpack this Friday morning 3/15. (Sorry for the short notice, it was a bit difficult to plan). You are more than welcome to walk up with us after Jamboree on Friday to join for this event!.
    We have begun our research projects as well. At this point, student have picked topics relating to the human body/DC/government. Students have chosen areas they want to focus their research on and we are beginning to take notes. This will mostly be an in case project. However, you can help your child by asking if they have enough resources for their topic. Some students picked a topic, even if they knew we didn't have much material on the topic. They might need to borrow a book from the library, or find an article online. Also, brainpop and brainpop jr. has many videos for these topics. Students can use these videos as a resource as well. You can play them at home for them (username: janney password: school)
    March
    March 13: Community Meeting
    March 15 &16: 5th grade Musical
    March 29: Records Day - 12:15 dismissal
    April
    April 1-5: Spring Break
    April 15: School closed for PD day
    April 16: Emancipation Day, Janney Closed
    April 22-26: DC CAS for 3rd Grade

    Happy Birthday!
    Lindsay  3/04
    Addie 3/06
    Ben  3/09
    Sydney J 3/16
    Thanks,
    Amanda Quirin
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    Feb192013
    2/19 updates

    POSTED AT 08:46 PM

    Hi Parents, 
    I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! It sounds like many students had a fun weekend! 
    THT will come home tomorrow, as we had to pack up before lunch today with double special in the afternoon. 
    Ms. Hunter had to cancel the walking tour last Thursday due to a lack of volunteers. Please email Ms. Hunter at lah356@gmail.comif you are available to go on the walking tour from 1:15-2:15 this Thursday 2/21. Sorry this isn't much more notice. However, she hoped more people would be available this week since it is after the long weekend and Valentine's day. 
    Scholastic book orders are due 2/22. If you are interested in ordering for February please be sure to order this week! (See our website if you need ordering information) 
    I've uploaded new photos onto our dopbox account. These pictures include photos from a day at recess, mustache day and 2 recent assemblies that some of our students were called on stage to participate in. All of these photos are in a folder called Jan-Feb. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8sznlilu5jg81hb/--q-uYWWQq 
    Attached is a copy of our third grade team newsletter. 
    In Reading, we are still working in our nonfiction unit. We have been working on using evidence to find a main idea and using evidence to describe the author's point of view. 
    In writing we are beginning to publish our fairy tales. I hope they will finished for parent conferences on Monday so that you can see them. Our next writing unit is our research unit. We would still really appreciate any books or articles on health, DC or government. Please send any materials in that we can borrow for our research!
    In math we have been working on units of measurement. For the last week we have worked on estimating weight. Our focus for the third grade standards is metric units, however, we also spent time learning the US customary measurements as well. Starting tomorrow we will begin learning about capacity. This is a great unit that you can reinforce at home. At home, fill and compare to capacity of containers. Look for examples of metric or us customary units of capacity. Show students containers and ask them what unit they would use to fill the container (Would it make more sense to fill it with milliliters or liters?).  Check out this link for an adult cheat sheet on units http://teacherpages.nhcs.net/schools/blair/sharipeacock/Documents/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Measurement%20Chart.pdf 
     I found this page of games, which is a great reinforcement of what we have been doing in class http://jmathpage.com/JIMSMeasurementmassvolume.html. You can also revisit the list of Learnzillion codes for videos that reinforce the skills for this unit http://teacherweb.com/DC/janney/Quirin/apt14.aspx. 
    For facts, we are going to continue to work towards our goal of 30 multiplication facts in 3 minutes and 50 +- facts in 3 minutes. I will be assessing students fluency on Friday. Students should be working on completing their fact homework as quickly as they are able to do it correctly to help with their speed. 
    Dates to Know

    February
    February 22: Bingo Night
    February 22: Scholastic Book Order Due
    February 25: Conferences

    March
    March 1: Read across America Day 
    March 9: Janney Auction


    Happy Birthday!
    Aiden 2/01
    Isabelle 2/05
    Madison 2/28

    Thank you! Have a wonderful week!
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    Feb052013
    2/5 updates

    POSTED AT 08:09 PM

    Hi 3B Families,
    Last week students did a great job on their ANET assessments. They worked extremely hard. As a class we are working on thinking carefully as we read questions, reading everything completely and checking our work to make sure the answer makes sense or is correct. Overall, in multiple subjects, many students work quickly and make silly errors. We have been working on strategies to try to improve this. This includes looking in the passage to check reading answers or carefully trying to solve math problems. 
    In reading, we are continuing our nonfiction unit. THis week our focus is on finding the main idea of a section. Please remember we are looking for government, DC, health and human body books or articles. We would really appreciate if you let us borrow any you might have or if you are willing to purchase any resources for your child or the class. 
    In writers workshop we are continuing to draft our fairy tales. Students have been working on including a sense of "anticipation" in their story to add interest. 
    In math, we just finished our fractions unit. We took our fractions assessment on friday. Today we began a new unit on measurement. We will spend the next week or two studying different forms of measurement. We will specifically look at measuring length, volumne and weight. This would be great to discuss at home. As we explored measurement today, it was clear students were very familiar with the units and tools for measuring length. Students new a little about weight, and were less familiar with volumne. This chart (that I just found online for your reference) lists all of the units that we will use for measureing. It would be great to use these in discussion with your child. http://teacherpages.nhcs.net/schools/blair/sharipeacock/Documents/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Measurement%20Chart.pdf
    For example, "Do you think the table is 3 inches or 3 feet?"   or "How much do you think the bag weighs?" or "What unit could I use to measure the enough water to fill the bathtub?" 
    We really want the kids to get a feel for the scale of these units - understanding how big and small they are, and to be able to compare them. 
    I've attached a bookmark I will give the kids that I think is also really helpful for this. 
    Additionally, below are the Learnzillion videos for this unit. The first two videos that involve understanding volume and mass will be the most important concepts for this unit. 

    Understand volume and how volume is measured: LZ1270

    Understand mass and how mass is measured: LZ1273

     Estimate volume in liters: LZ1271

     Measure volume in liters: LZ1272 

     Estimate mass in grams: LZ1274

     Estimate mass in kilograms using benchmarksLZ1275

     Measure mass in grams: LZ1276

     Measure mass in kilograms: LZ1277

    For our multiplication practice we are studying x12 this week. We will assess on Friday. 
    x12
    School House Rock- Little Twelve Toes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uJsoZheTR4
    Attached, and sent in THT, is the information about Valentine's day. This was also sent home last week!
    I sent home the February scholastic book order today. It is due on Friday 2/22 if you are interested in ordering any books. If you need a reminder on how to order online, just click "scholastic book orders" on our website. 
    Also attached to this newsletter you can find the most recent edition of our third grade newsletter (also sent home in THT). 
    Dates to Know
    February
    February 5: Pete's Apizza Fundraiser Event
    February 14: Valentine's Day Celebration
    February 15: No school for students - PD Day
    February 18: Presidents Day
    February 22: Bingo Night
    February 22: Scholastic Book Order Due
    February 25: Conferences


    Happy Birthday!
    Aiden 2/01
    Isabelle 2/05
    Madison 2/28
    Thank you! Have a great week! 

    Amanda Quirin
    http://teacherweb.com/DC/janney/Quirin/apt1.aspx

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    Jan292013
    1/29 update

    POSTED AT 08:09 PM

    Hi 3B Families,
    Today our third grade students worked really hard on their Reading ANET test. Ask them to share with you what they thought when well. Tomorrow, we will be testing for the Math ANET test. Please remember to help your child by making sure they get a good night's sleep, eat a good breakfast (we had a lot of hungry bellies today), have a water bottle, and wear comfortable clothes. Please remember to be on-time for school, as students can not interrupt the class testing if they come in late (they will have to wait in the office). 
    Due to the snow day, and to days of testing, we don't have as much academic time in class this week as we usually. 
    Reading - We are continuing were we left off last week, with the beginning of our nonfiction unit. We are working on the skills nonfiction readers need to use as they read a nonfiction text. We are especially focusing on questioning and how readers need to ask questions to themselves while they read. 

    As mentioned in previous newsletters, our new nonfiction units will be connected to our science and social studies curricula. Your child will be writing a research report based on their research in reader’s workshop. Please help your child gather research by providing them with materials. Each class is requesting resources for students in the areas of: Government (local or federal) or Health and Human Body. Please provide your child with age appropriate books, Internet and magazine articles, or other helpful resources based on their topic of interest in Government or Health. We will have some resources available in class, but students will most likely need additional resources during the course of the unit. Example topics include (but are not limited to):

    -The skeletal system 

    -The nervous system (or any system in the human body)

    -How to be healthy

    -The 5 senses (or 1 of the senses) 

    -The heart

    - How the DC government works

    - The job of the legislative branch

    -The job of the President

    -The job of the judicial branch (or job of the Supreme Court)

    - Voting /Elections

    (There are many other topics within DC/Government and Health/Human Body that could work. Students will be working with me in class to decide a topic they are interested in).

     Please send in any related books you have that we may borrow. If your name is on the book, it will make it easiest to return it to you at the end of the unit.  Also, if you are interested in purchasing books for your child or the class, check out our recommendations or wish list on Scholastic. The Tenley Library, other DC libraries or Amazon would be other great resources  for materials as well.

    Writing- We are beginning to draft our fairy tales. 
    Math- We are finally finishing up our fraction unit. We are comparing unlike fractions, looking at fractions greater than one, and solving fraction word problems. We will start our unit assessment on Friday. To help your child prepare for the assessment on friday, you can watch some of the Learnzillion resources together. (http://teacherweb.com/DC/janney/Quirin/apt14.aspx)  
    Some students could use more practice with comparing fractions. I found this app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pizza-fractions-comparing/id372978173?mt=8 that would be a good resource for this. 
    Math facts: This week we are doing our x11 facts. Most students already know these facts, however, I'd rather they had a bit of a break with this busy week then be tested on 11 and 12. Because the kids are already pretty good on x11,  I will be sending home general multiplication fact hw in addition to x11 hw this week. We will test on x11 on Friday 
    We will celebrate Valentine's day on 2/14. Please see the attached note for information regarding student valentines and in-class celebration. I will post this on our website blog as well and send home in next week's THT. 
    Dates to Know
    January
    January 29: ANET -ELA Testing
    January 30: ANET Math Testing
    February
    February 5: Pete's Apizza Fundraiser Event
    February 14: Valentine's Day Celebration
    February 15: No school for students - PD Day
    February 18: Presidents Day
    February 22: Bingo Night
    February 25: Conferences


    Happy Birthday!
    Aiden 2/01
    Isabelle 2/05
    Madison 2/28
    Have a great week!
    Amanda Quirin
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    Jan292013
    Valentine's Day

    POSTED AT 08:09 PM

    Happy (almost) February!

     

    Valentine’s Day is almost here! We will be celebrating in class on Valentine’s day next Thursday 2/14/13. Students are not required to make or bring in valentines. However, I ask that if students want to make valentines to exchange with their friends that they make valentines for all students in our class to continue to nurture our class community and to make sure that all of the kids are included and appreciated. To help support this, I have included a list of all students’ names below. Students are invited to bring in a “mail box” so that they can receive and bring their valentines home in. Examples of a “mail box” can be: a decorated shoe box, envelope, or paper bag with child’s name on it. Students will celebrate during the last hour of the day to exchange valentines, enjoy a treat, and listen to a Valentine’s Day story.

     

    Thank you for your continued support and help in and out of the class. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at Janneyclass3B@gmail.com

     

    Amanda Quirin

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    3B Class List

     

    Cesar Breitner

    Maxwell Breton

    Libby Brown

    Benjamin Davis

    Madison Dias

    Stella Dufresne

    Louisa-Sophia Filmer

    Addie Gaskins

    Olivia Gogarty

    Toby Grygiel

    Sydney Janssen

    Charles Lee

    Sydney Lieber

    Annie McLean

    Taylor Maxson

    Lily Meierhoefeer

    Lindsay Miller

    Kevin Olmstead

    Aiden Richelieu

    Isabelle Schiff

    Jacob Schwartz

    Christopher Smith

    Lakshmi Trikkur

    Lordes Weston

    D’Mone Wilson
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    Jan242013
    End of Week Notes

    POSTED AT 07:56 PM

    Hi 3B families,
    This is just a reminder that tomorrow is a school spirit day. Students are encouraged to wear a mustache to school. They can make a paper one or draw one one. They don't need to do anything fancy! 
    Also - for our class paw print celebration we are having a "read-in" during our reading time. Students may bring a book of choice, if they would like to read. Also, they may wear their pajamas. 
    Scholastic book orders are due tomorrow as well. You have all day to order. If you decide after tomorrow you would like to order. Feel free to go on and do so - just email me so I know and can send the order through on Scholastic. 
    Finally, I wanted to send the link for a vocabulary video. The vocabulary inquiry team has decided that one way we can share our vocabulary instruction is to create short videos that classes can share. That way different classes can learn from eachother. To start this off, the members of the vocabulary team created our own video to model for the kids. The kids really enjoyed watching some of their teachers in a video. They made me promise I would email this and put it on our website (I'll post this email on the blog). Hopefully you can watch it or share with your child again. 
    Don't forget dismissal is at 12:15 tomorrow!
    Thanks.  Enjoy the weekend!
    Amanda Quirin
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    Jan242013
    1/24 Update

    POSTED AT 07:53 PM

    Hi 3B Families,

     

    I hope everyone had a wonderful 3 day weekend. In class we discussed how this weekend was important for many reasons. Saturday was the Day of Service for Martin Luther Kin Jr Day. We also spoke about Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Inauguration. We shared our inauguration experiences from this and the last inauguration. As this is the first inauguration I've lived in DC during, I went down to the mall for the event with Ms. Klein. I shared some of my photos and experience with the kids. 

     

    Thank you for sending in snacks for the homeless shelter. I'm the woman will greatly appreciate it! 

     

    This Friday 1/25 we are celebrating an whole class paw-print celebration for reaching our goal of 25 pawprints. We will be having a “read-in” that the students voted for. They will get to pick what they want to read and where in the classroom they want to read it. They also can wear their pajamas to school to be super comfortable while they read.

     

    Today we began a new unit in reading. We are working on a new nonfiction unit. This first week we will be reviewing the skills good nonfiction readers use, to make sure the kids get back in the habit of being good nonfiction readers. Today we focused on building our stamina as nonfiction readers. It would be great for you to work on reading stamina at home as well. Also, read or discuss nonfiction reading at home. Maybe your child can tell you some of the skills they need to use to be a good nonfiction reader (Rev up their mind before reading, use the text features, read the headings, pay attention to the main ideas, etc.)

     

    As mentioned in previous newsletters, our new nonfiction units will be connected to our science and social studies curricula. Your child will be writing a research report based on their research in reader’s workshop. Please help your child gather research by providing them with materials. Each class is requesting resources for students in the areas of: Government (local or federal) or Health and Human Body. Please provide your child with age appropriate books, Internet and magazine articles, or other helpful resources based on their topic of interest in Government or Health. We will have some resources available in class, but students will most likely need additional resources during the course of the unit. Possible topics your child may pick  to research include:

    -The skeletal system 

    -The nervous system (or any system in the human body)

    -How to be healthy

    -The 5 senses (or 1 of the senses) 

    -The heart

    - How the DC government works

    - The job of the legislative branch

    -The job of the President

    -The job of the judicial branch (or job of the Supreme Court)

    - Voting /Elections

    (There are many other topics within DC/Government and Health/Human Body that could work. Students will be working with me in class to decide a topic they are interested in).

     Please send in any related books you have that we may borrow. Also, if you are interested in purchasing books for your child or the class, check out our recommendations or wish list on Scholastic. The Tenley Library, other DC libraries or Amazon would be other great resources  for materials as well. 

     

     

    In writing, we are just finishing brainstorming our fairy tales. Your children are so creative. These are going to be wonderful stories!

     

    In math we are continuing our work with fractions. Right now we are focusing on comparing fractions. This week we will compare fractions with the same denominator, same numerator, different fractions. We will also find equivalent fractions. 

     

     

    Below is a list of Fractions videos to help support comparing fractions. You’ll see there are a lot of videos, however, there are videos that show comparing fractions in 3 ways: area models. sets. and number lines. We have learned all of these and students can use any. You could ask your child how they prefer to work if you are showing them a video. I would suggest starting with area models, as students seem most familiar there. However, if students are having difficulty, maybe they should watch a different strategy video to see if that helps it make sense.

     

    Fractions -

    Week 4 Comparing Fractions

    Compare fractions with the same denominator by reasoning about their size:LZ1470

    Compare fractions with the same numerator: using the greater than and less than symbols: LZ370

    Compare fractions with different numerators and denominators using area models: LZ844

    Compare fractions with different denominators using area models: LZ1434

     

    Compare fractions with different denominators using set models: LZ1435

    Compare fractions: using a set model: LZ105

     

    Compare fractions with different numerators and denominators using a number line: LZ843

    Compare fractions with different denominators using a number line: LZ1433

    Compare fractions with different numerators and denominators using a number line: LZ843

    Create Common Denominators using Number Lines: LZ845

    Create common denominators using area models: LZ846

     

     

     

    This week we will also be learned our x8 facts. We have almost learned all multiplication facts. Hang in there! Here are 2 videos you can use to learn x8 facts. 

    x8

    Counting by 8 Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SwaOvWD-PY 

    School House Rock- Figure 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCGNUo-XQJ8 

     


    Our scholastic book order (www.scholastic.com/bookclubs) for January went home last week. You can order online until Friday 12/25 (all day). 


    Check out our 3rd grade newsletter as well (attached). There was a copy paper shortage this morning so I wasn't able to copy it for you.  

     

    Check out the important things coming up:

    Dates to Know

     

    January
    January 24: International Night

    January 25: Records Day- Students Dismissed at 12:15

    January 25: Mustache Day (Spirit Day) 

    January 25: PJ Day for class

    January 25: Scholastic Book Order Due

    January 29: ANET -ELA Testing

    January 30: ANET Math Testing

     

     

    Happy Birthday!

    Kevin 1/14

    Charles 1/17



    Thank you!

    Amanda Quirin

    http://teacherweb.com/DC/janney/Quirin/apt1.aspx

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    Jan152013
    Weekly Update Email 1/15

    POSTED AT 09:03 PM

    Hello,
    2013 is officially in full swing with our second week of school in the new year beginning. Our third graders have been doing a great job with their return back to school. We have earned 25 paw prints to receive our second paw print celebration. We will be celebrating on Friday. The kids voted for a "read in". They also will pick to either have a healthy snack or wear their PJ's with their extended reading time. We forgot to vote on that part today. Look for an update later this week! 
    This Friday the school is also have a school-wide paw print celebration in the afternoon to celebrate 1,000 school pawprints. It should be a fun afternoon. 
    In Writer's Workshop we have begun writing fairy tales. Our third graders are very creative! They have also been able to successfully incorporate elements of traditional literature and fairy tales into their writing. This week we are working on planning the problem, climax, and solution of our story. We are also working on planning out the traits and actions of the characters.  Please ask your child to tell you about their topic. 
    In Reader's Workshop, we will be concluding our traditional literature unit this week. This week we are exploring cause and effect, and finding the main idea of traditional literature stories. Feel free to continue to read any traditional literature at home. Students recently enjoyed reading fables and finding the lesson of the fable quite a bit. 
    Our next reading unit, which will begin around January 21st, will be a nonfiction unit. For this unit we will be working on reading nonfiction in the content area. We will be reading nonfiction books relating to our social studies curriculum. During this time we will be studying DC history and local/federal government. We have also expanded, in hopes to have enough books to include books relating to our science curriculum. This would include books relating to Energy (current unit) or Health/human body (our next unit).   During this reading unit, students will be doing research on a topic of interest for their writing project. We are hoping to have at least 2-3 resources for each student to read and use for their research. This unit is slightly new this year, as we made adaptations to previous units as we are adopting the common core standards fully. 
    We will need to collect more books before this unit to ensure we have enough books for all students to read. All third grade classes are looking for donations of DC books, Government books, energy books, or health/human body books.. We would also enjoy just borrowing some books for the unit. If you are able, please pick out books with your child relating to one of these topics that they are interested in. This would ensure that they have access to books relating to a topic they would enjoy to research.
    In Math - we are continuing with our fractions unit. Students have been making a successful start to the unit. Please check in with your child to see how they are doing and feeling with fractions so far. So far we have learned to:
    -partition a whole in more than one way
    -know what the numerator and denominator signify
    -identify the fractional parts of a shape
    -find the fractional part of a collection
    In this week we will focus mostly on applying our fraction skills to number lines. We will: 
    -  identify fractions on a number line
    -  compare fractions using a number-line model
    -plot fractions from 0 to 1 on a number line
    - plot fractions greater than one
    -compare fractions with the same numerator and different denominator

    If you would like to help support your child as they learn fractions, you can use the apps, LearnZillion videos, or websites I sent last week (see the blog entry on our website of last week's newsletter to find those again).

    The Sheppard's Software website (the link is on our website) has a section just for fraction games as well: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm#fractions

    Learnzillion Codes: These codes will relate more to what we are doing next week with comparisons and equivalent fractions. However, we are beginning with number lines this week.

    Compare fractions to a benchmark of one using number lines: LZ848
    Compare fractions to a benchmark of one half using number lines: LZ1321
    Create equivalent fractions using a number line: LZ1245
    Compare fractions with different denominators using a number line: LZ1433
    Compare fractions with different numerators and denominators using a number line: LZ843
    Kahn Academy:
    Numerator and Denominator of a Fraction
    Identifying Fraction Parts
    For our fact fluency, we are working on our x7 facts for multiplication this week. Also, please keep practicing addition and subtraction facts so that students will be able to meet their fluency goals (50 addition and subtraction facts in 3 minutes). Many students have reported really enjoying  the First in math website. I also hear that they have found it to be very helpful. Give it a try if you have not yet. 
    Some recent fact fluency assessments were sent home in today's THT - be sure to see how your child is doing. 
    Our January Scholastic book order was sent home today. If you are interested in ordering books, orders for January are due on Friday January 25. To order please visit www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and enter the class code: HQBQV. Please make sure you receive your confirmation email to confirm that scholastic revieved your order. 

    Our word of the week is accountable. We had a discussion about what it means to be accountable for something. Some students explained they are supposed to do things (like make their bed) but aren't actually held accountable for them - so they don't always do it. Maybe this will give you a chance to use this word at home. We then discussed how as you grow up, you have to hold yourself accountable. No body checks to make sure I made my bed, but I still do. 
    We also discussed the word dreary today, based on today's dreary and gloomy weather. 

    For our shared poetry, we have been examining figurative language in poetry. Lately we have been looking at poems with similes and metaphors. 

    Dates to Know
    January
    January 16: Community Meeting: State of the School
    January 18: School Paw Print Celebration
    January 21: MLK Day & Inauguration Day No School
    January 24: International Night
    January 25: Records Day- Students Dismissed at 12:15
    January 25: Mustache Day (Spirit Day) 
    January 25: Scholastic Book Order Due
    January 29: ANET -ELA Testing
    January 30: ANET Math Testing


    Happy Birthday!
    Kevin 1/14
    Charles 1/17
    Have a great week! Let me know if you have any questions,
    Amanda Quirin 
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    Jan152013
    Soup Kitchen Donations

    POSTED AT 09:03 PM

    Our class is signed up to help with the soup kitchen for Tuesday 1/22. 
    As you may know, for more than a decade, the Janney community has been providing a monthly lasagna dinner at a center that serves homeless women now called Thrive DC.  The lasagna dinner has become one of the women's
    favorite meals of the month!  Janney families sign up to provide lasagnas, green beans, or lettuce, etc., each month.  A classroom provides the desserts (cookies), salad fixings (tomatoes, cucumbers,
    onions, shredded carrots, and salad dressing) and snacks.  We ask that you provide enough to feed 40 – 60 woman.  (More is fine).

    We are scheduled to bring in the snacks. Between now and Tuesday, please help with this project by sending in snacks. 

    You can send in packaged snacks anytime between now and Tuesday 9:00 am to our classroom. Store bought options that the women seem to enjoy include cracker/cheese and cracker/peanut butter packets as well as granola bars.
    You can also make a snack if you would like: putting peanut butter on crackers (and packaging or bagging due to nut allergies please), or slices of cinnamon bread. 
    Again, Our goal is to have enough snacks for 40-60 women by this upcoming Tuesday am. 
    Thank you for your help!
    Amanda Quirin 
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