To help your student learn organizational skills, please check their
homework planner daily. Homework should be checked and placed in their
homework folder. Developing good organizational skills is a key to success
in school.
Please practice math facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division with your child throughout the year. Fact triangles are a great
way to reinforce these operations. Creating some problems which involve
real life situations,such as "How much change do I have in my pocket?", is
another important way you can reinforce the skills we are working on in
class.
Also, please help your child become a life long reader and lover of
literature. Set aside at least 20 minutes of quiet reading time for your
child to explore the books he or she enjoys reading. Good readers become good
writers, spellers, and thinkers!
WHAT ARE WE WORKING ON IN CLASS?
MATH - We are working with many math skills. The children have been reviewing and mastering
their addition and subtraction facts. For the few facts that still need to be mastered, fact triangles
are the best skill builder. Each fact triangle teaches the relationship between addition and
subtraction fact families. We have also practiced place value skills with whole numbers, telling time,
and working with money. Students have used number grids to reinforce our facts. They are also
looking at number patterns and reviewing measurement skills. Daily homework in math reinforces
the skills we have been studying in class.
READING AND WRITING - Encourage your child to read a variety of books at
home to help strengthen their reading fluency, vocabulary and
comprehension. Have your child talk about some of the books that we share
in class. The children should try to make connections between the books
they are reading and experiences from their own lives.
In class we will read many different genres throughout the year. In READER'S WORKSHOP the
children are enjoying reading stories in the genre of realistic fiction. We are currently reviewing and
applying our reading strategies. The students are making excellent connections between what they
read and their own experiences.
In WRITER'S WORKSHOP the students are working on "small moment" stories from their own lives.
These stories explore the writing style of the personal narrative. Throughout the year the students
will become excellent storytellers.
The third graders are switching classes for SCIENCE and SOCIAL
STUDIES. Check with your child for homework assignments and tests in these
subject areas. In SOCIAL STUDIES the students in third grade are learning
about communities and map skills. In SCIENCE the children are learning about rocks and minerals.
