Ms. Russell

...when you're having fun!

We have really started the year off in a wonderful way!  We just sent our Flat Stanley letters out today.  We hope he has fun and safe travels with our friends and family.  When the letters come back we will get to see where Stanley went, what he did, and who he saw.  Every year the kids love tracking his adventures.

In math we just did a whirlwind of new skills.  We learned about perimeter just before the break, finding area of shapes the first week back, and now we are in our first week of fractions!  They love all the new things they are learning and hopefully they are proud to show off their new knowledge at home.  Please try to find ways to ask your kids questions about math, reading, science, and social studies at home.  What fraction of the windows of our house have the curtains closed?  What fraction of our cars are blue?  What fraction of our family members are boys? What fraction of the magnets are square?  Math is everywhere!

We are having TAKS test simulations the last week of January.  Please make sure your child has enough sleep the night before, a good breakfast in the morning, and a healthy snack for school.  These can be tiring days and the healthier they are, the better they will do!

Again, please feel free to contact me anytime.  I am really enjoying all of your children in my class!

While I'm on here, I want to let you know we have a great math program on the Internet that students can use at home.  It helps with computation among other skills.  In the spring we will be having "player of the week" competition.  Each student has their own user name and password.  You can find the link in my "links" tab or by typing in www.firstinmath.com to your address bar.  If you student doesn't know their user name or password please let me know.

I can't believe we are almost halfway through the school year.  It seems to be going too fast. (So fast I feel like it hasn't been a month since my last blog).

We just finished measurement and perimeter (the distance around shapes) in math and we are soon to be starting area (the square units in shapes) and FRACTIONS (ahh!!) after the winter break.  Feel free to teach your children these things over the break ;)  They are doing an incredible job using their strategies and showing their work.  They are multiplication smarties.  I hope you have heard our multiplication songs.

In reading we have been working on using context clues in the story to help us learn the meaning of difficult words.  We also always try to use good reading strategies to read difficult words like- chunking, finding smaller words in the word that we know, using the picture, ect.  Keep reading with your students at home.  Ask them questions about the characters, setting, and ask them to "tell me more about that." 

We have started learning about a few inventors in social studies like the Wright Brothers and Alexander Graham Bell.

On a fun note we will be having our winter party next Friday.  All students have signed up to bring different items.  If you have any questions about this please don't hesitate to call. 

Laaaaaastly, I know new toys are coming into your homes so if you would like to donate your used, old toys to the scholar dollar store we will always accept them.

Thanks for all you do!

We have our scholar dollar store on Friday!  This is a HUGE motivator for the students and we need more donations!  We will take any new or used toy, game, or home item.  If you think it would sell in a garage sale, it would sell in our scholar dollar store!  Any donations would be greatly appreciated!   Please bring in items by this Thursday, October 22.

I added some math websites on the "Links" tab on the left side column.  Some of them will need parent assistance in starting.  I hope you are able to use these at home for extra practice.  Let me know if you have any questions or need any help!

Support Grade! This is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year! Come eat McDonalds from 4:30-7:30pm and 3rd grade will get 20% of the profits or 50cents for every Fried Apple Pie you buy from a 3rd grade teacher!  This is such a fun time for the whole family! Encourage your neighbors and friends to come too!  Drive thru works as well!  Each 3rd grade student that comes can earn $100 scholar dollars!  If they bring in the receipt from the drive thru the next day they can get paid that way too!  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call.  Thanks!

• The learner will be able to read and write numbers through 999,999. 
• The learner will be able to compare numbers (which is greater/less than) through 9,999. 
• The learner will be able to put numbers in order from least to greatest and greatest to least through 9,999.
• The learner will be able to know the value of numbers in places through 999,999 (The value of the 3 in 134,240 is 30,000 or 3 ten thousands).
• The learner will be able to add and subtract 3 digit numbers (through 999).