3rd Grade Newsletter
Third Grade Newsletter
Volume 7, Number 19 sadkins@pennoyerschool.org March 20, 2009
Hello Parents! This is Miss Wierzgac writing to you! I have been teaching all day for the past two weeks now! My goodness, time seems to by flying by for me but I am definitely having a wonderful experience here at Pennoyer School! I absolutely love working with your children and developing good relationships with them! So, having that said, this past week was a bit mixed up. We had to change some things around for St. Patrick’s Day and because of the Variety Show that is taking place today! By the way, if your child came home trying to show you some Irish Dancing moves, it was because I used to Irish Dance with the McNulty School of Irish Dance and I wore my wig and showed them some cool moves! Aside from that, here’s what’s been happening in their different subjects:
Reading ~ Our story this week was a historical fiction story called, Boom Town. The story takes places in the colonial era and it’s about a family that moves to a frontier in California and creates some exciting changes! The story was quite long so we were not able to finish it during our reading time. It really seemed like all the children did a great job of finishing the story at home so, thank youJ. While reading the story, we really tried to pay attention to the sequence in which events happened. When we met in our centers this week, we focused on the idea of sequencing a bit more. In one of the centers, the students had to put a story in the correct order. They seemed to struggle with this concept so I decided to change it up a bit for the next day. When they did the sequencing again, I had them read a very short story using clues in the story to help them place the events in the right order. They did much better! In addition to this, when I got to meet with them one-on-one in the reading corner, we read some short stories that were informational nonfiction and had the same settings as our story in our reading book.
Language Arts ~ For our grammar this week, we focused on singular pronouns, plural pronouns and pronouns. The students worked on creating sentences that demonstrated the different kinds of pronouns. In order to this, they picked a card from a box that had several different cards in it. On the cards were things such as, singular pronoun, pronoun, plural pronoun, or examples like “they” “me” “you” etc. They then used construction paper to create sentences and draw a picture to go with it. They did great! Aside from this, during our writing time, we were really working on brainstorming for our Narrative writing that we will begin after spring break. In order to do this, we used different scents to help provoke memories. Each day we would smell two different kinds of scents. All of the kids had to write down any thoughts or memories that came to them when they took a sniff of each smell. Ask your child what kinds of unique scents they smelled this week!
Math ~ This week in math we did not have anyone pass the timed multiplication testL. However, there were some students who were very, very close! I keep telling them, “You’ll get it next time!” So, hopefully they can practice their flashcards over spring break and be ready to pass when they come back. They have had two months to learn their multiplication facts and it seems as though some of them are not taking time to study their flashcards at home. Make sure that your child is practicingJ. Aside from this, we finished up chapter 20 this week and the students took their test on Thursday. I am hopeful that they will all do well. They seemed as though they really understood the material. Also, since our schedule has been a bit goofy, we had some time in the afternoon on Thursday to play a multiplication review game. It was very fun! We got the chance to change things up a bit and we went down into the multi purpose room. All of the children were VERY excited and VERY engaged! They were all shouting and cheering! It was super fun! Ask your child about the game and how they enjoyed it!
Science ~ In science this week, we have continued to learn about heat by investigating and reading through the next section in our chapter. All of the students were able to conduct and experiment to figure out what kinds of materials get hot. We used typical household utensils such as a wooden spoon, metal spoon, plastic spoon and several different cups. We had to be very careful because we were placing hot water in the cups and the students all had to touch the different spoons and cups to compare them. Luckily, they all did a great job of being safe and listening to the directions! In addition to this, we read through our second section and our vocabulary for this week was conduction, conductor and insulator. The students were able to connect the words really well with the experiment and identify the different materials that we used as either a good conductor or an insulator.
Social Studies ~ This past week in social studies we read about a fictional character such as Robinson Crusoe and how he created a new community. We learned that geographic locations affect the way people live. We saw pictures on how Crusoe modified the physical environment so he could survive. Your child created a map which showed Crusoe’s island. Ask your child about this activity. Regarding our biographies, we read about Joan of Arc and her courage that helped her take on England and saving the King of France. Finally, please look for your invitation regarding the Wax Museum. We hope you could come and see the hard work the 3rd graders have done.
Other Areas of Interest:
- Today is the last day of the third quarter. Any corrected work must be turned in by Tuesday, March 31 at the latest. Report cards will go home on Friday, April 3.
- The final Book-It is due after spring break on Tuesday, March 31. We have had 100% participation in this program so far this year, and I hope we can keep it up for our final month. They should have lots of time for reading over spring break!
- Remember to come to our Wax Museum if you can on Friday, April 3. Please take time over spring break to help your child settle on an appropriate outfit to wear for this special event.
That’s it for now! It looks like we are in for beautiful weather this weekend and next week during our spring break. Yay! It sounds like some of you are planning to travel, so please be careful out there, especially if you are planning a trip to Mexico. We wish you all a wonderful weekend and spring break, and remember to keep your child reading!
Miss Sarah Wierzgac
Mrs. Sarah Adkins
