Classroom News

Good afternoon!

Students in Room 8 now have the ability to access IXL Math from home!  All they need to do is go to the link below, and then type in their username and password.

Login information is the same for all students:
username:  first name, last name (no spaces) 609  EXAMPLE:  buffyjohnson609
password: sps

https://www.ixl.com/signin/tritownschool

This is a wonderful way for students to get additional practice with math concepts at home, and they can work at their own pace.  Please be sure to have your child access the Third Grade standards.

Also, are you ever wondering how to get your child to talk to you about their school day?  This can often feel impossible.  Your conversations might go something like this.....

Parent:  So ____________, how was your school day?

Child:  Fine.

Parent:  What did you do?

Child:  Nothing.

Parent:  What did you learn?

Child:  I don't remember.

This can be frustrating!  Please check out the link below for 50 wonderful conversation starters that are almost guaranteed to help you have a productive conversation with your children about school!

https://herviewfromhome.com/50-questions-to-ask-your-kids-instead-of-asking-how-was-your-day/

Typing Fun at Home!

Dear Parents,
Our Digital Learning Specialist, Samantha Kosakowski, has recommended a wonderful new site where students can practice their typing skills at home.  It is free to register, and they will have access to the Dance Mat Typing program that we use at school as well.  This is a wonderful way for students to get more practice with the home row.  Encourage your child to hold their fingers in the correct position at all times, and you'll be surprised at how quickly they increase their skills!

https://www.typedojo.com/

Jumping Jacks for All!

We had such a great time in science today!  Students worked in small groups to find out how many jumping jacks they could complete in one minute.  All students had an opportunity to use a stopwatch, which we will be using for many of our science investigations this year.  In their groups, each student had an important job.  They took turns jumping, using the stopwatch, and counting jumping jacks for their friends.  Students recorded their data in a table, and tomorrow we will be developing a bar graph to display our data.  As I think you can see from the videos below, everyone had a wonderful time -- and got lots of exercise in the process!

Learning to Work as a Group!

This week in Room 8, we have been engaging in many different small group activities.  At this age, it is important for children to learn to work with others.  They need to know how to adjust to new personalities, to problem-solve, to compromise, and to collaborate.  It's never too early to work on these important life skills!

During these activities, children are practicing how to handle classroom materials, how to use quiet voices when working together, how to rotate through stations, and how to monitor their level of focus.  The pictures posted below are of the students playing a place value game for math as well as various language arts center activities.

 Jack and Jonathan

 Evy and Kieran

 Katherine, Kuin, and John

 Jordyn and Beckett

 Ella and Tara

 Working with rhyming words

 Getting some practice with antonyms

 Making new words

Creating compound words

Dylan and Phoebe

Learning the Home Row!

Students are using the Dance Mat typing program to learn the home row keys!  No more one finger pecking at the keyboard! Everyone did a wonderful job resting their fingers in the appropriate position, and they are progressing quite quickly through the levels.  Learning the home row is always a challenge for third graders, as their fingers are still a bit small, but I'd encourage you to have your child practice at home as well.  The more they practice, the faster and more skilled they will become.

Welcome to a brand new year!

I'm so excited to be working with your children.  It was wonderful to meet everyone at Open House on Monday evening.

We've been busy getting to know each other as well as our routines and procedures in class.  I'd like to share a little bit
about what we're learning in the curriculum areas.

Writing

Our focus right now is on the personal narrative.  We have explored the differences between a "seed idea" and a "watermelon idea."  As you can imagine, watermelon ideas are those that are too big and not focused, while the seed idea is very specific.  

This year, students will learn to develop their seed ideas with greater detail, vocabulary, voice, and organization.  In class, we have looked at many examples of student writing and have had some nice discussion about what makes them either strong or weak examples of a narrative.  

At this time, students have selected their first seed idea, and most are almost finished with their graphic organizer.  

Math

We are well into our first unit, "Numbers to 10,000."  In this unit, students are learning to write numbers up to 10,000 in standard form, expanded form, and word form.  Students have worked on patterning and explored place value by comparing and ordering larger numbers.  

We are practicing these skills by using base ten boards and blocks to represent different numbers, playing games with partners, and working on practice pages from the Math in Focus program.  

Reading

Right now we are learning to choose "just right" books for ourselves.  Students are building their reading stamina and practicing early third grade comprehension skills like questioning, predicting, and inferring.  

At home, please have your child read for at least 15-20 minutes each night.  They can read independently, to you, or with you.  

I will be posting pictures and videos soon, so stay tuned.  Your children are doing a wonderful job in grade three!