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***Talent Show***
Attention all students, the Sawyer's Got Talent Show is looking for students who want to show off their talent. The show is March 6th at 6:30. If interested in participating, sign up here! The deadline to sign up is January 30th.
Logging into Clever-- Please use this link to find directions for logging into Clever at home.
Clever Instructions for Families
Reading 20 minutes a day at home is important. This could be done daily or as a total of 80 minutes per week. We want the students to choose high-interest, “good fit books.” The goal of reading daily is not only to grow as a reader but also to instill a love of reading. We don’t assign students books to read at home, but trust that they’re choosing a book that they enjoy, and will help them develop reading for meaning skills and further develop their vocabulary.
Math fact fluency is the building block for higher-level math concepts, and by the end of third grade, students should know by memory all products of two one-digit numbers (3.0A7). Students should spend 5-10 minutes each night practicing their multiplication facts up to 10x10. Math fact fluency also helps students solve more complex math problems more quickly. If they have mastered their math facts, these concepts will be significantly easier, and they will be better equipped to solve them at a more efficient speed. The benchmark for trimester one is that students will “Know from memory all products of factors 0,1,2,5,9 and 10.” They can practice in a number of ways. Traditional flash cards, reciting facts aloud, writing them on paper, or using an online program. We suggest that students start with 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10.
Xtra Math- In math, we use the online fact program XtraMath to monitor their progress. It is an online fact fluency program that helps students develop quick recall and automaticity of their basic math facts. Although it is a timed fluency program, we remove the visual timing elements from the screen so that students are not distracted or become anxious by this. Within the program, students have 3 seconds to type an answer. If this is not completed, the program reinforces their learning by giving the correct answer, having students read the correct answer, and typing it in before moving on. We will be introducing this program next week and having each student take the placement quiz to determine their initial fluency score. Once the placement quiz is completed, each day, students will be given a two-minute progress quiz to check what progress they have made. Based on this progress quiz, students are given an individualized set of 10 facts for the students to work on. Spaced repetition is used to solidify knowledge of these particular facts. Students are asked to complete a full round of XtraMath each day, which is 10 minutes or less. Students with a strong foundation of basic math facts will have an easier time when they begin to tackle more advanced math, like fractions or algebra in the higher grades.
ELA- Over the next couple of weeks, we will be finishing up Module 2 Unit 3. In this unit, students complete their freaky frog book by writing an informative five-paragraph essay about a chosen “freaky” frog and creating a trading card of their chosen frog. They began by researching a frog with three “freaky” adaptations, chosen from four options: the water holding frog, the Amazon horned frog, the glass frog, and the goliath frog.
As part of the writing process, students analyze a model of the poison dart frog and use this to generate criteria for the different sections of an effective informative essay. Throughout the unit, students work on the essay, referring to this model and the criteria to plan to write a five-paragraph essay.
At the end of the unit, students will create a trading card of their freaky frog that uses a scoring system to rate their frogs against others. These cards will be included in the book along with their essays.
Math--We will be starting Unit 4 on Measurement and Fractions. The unit will cover telling time and calculating elapsed time. In this unit we will also cover measuring mass and volume to solve problems. Finally, we will review fractions, and learn to model and compare fractions in different ways.
Feel free to use the free Math Vocabulary Cards app that accompanies our math program for additional support in practicing multiplication. You can find these at mathlearningcenter.org/apps. Another great resource is IXL Fact Fluency Zone. Fact Fluency Zone can be found under the learning tab, and includes fluency games, worksheets, and videos. You can access IXL through this link https://www.ixl.com/signin/nashoba You may need to log into google to use this link.
Science-- We will be finishing the unit on forces, motions, & magnets in the upcoming weeks. In this unit, students explore the forces all around them. Next, we will be starting the unit Animals Through Time. In this unit, students develop an understanding of how animals and their environments have changed through time. Fossils provide a window into the animals and habitats of the past. Analyzing the traits of animals that are alive today and comparing them to fossils provides evidence of how these ancient organisms and environments of the past may have appeared.
Social Studies--We are continuing our learning of the history of Bolton. We will continue reading the series of biography passages that the Bolton Historical Society has shared with us about some of the many interesting historical people with ties to Bolton.
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