Week 11

This week...

Parent-Teacher Conferences 

Parent-Teacher Conferences will take place all week. I’m really looking forward to meeting with you, sharing your third grader’s portfolio of work, and discussing their goals for the year. I’ll email you a Zoom link prior to your scheduled appointment. Thank you for taking the time to connect. I truly value our partnership in supporting your child’s growth!

Social Studies

We are piloting Investigating History, an innovative new social studies curriculum being developed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in collaboration with Educurious, an educational nonprofit based in Seattle, Washington. 

The curriculum is designed to be fully aligned to the Massachusetts state history standards and to develop students’ knowledge of history while engaging them in the work that real historians do.  

Our curriculum has 4 units of study:

1. Indigenous peoples and places of Massachusetts and the Northeast

2. Colonization of Massachusetts and the Northeast

3. Massachusetts and the American Revolution

4. The people and government of Massachusetts, past and present

Across our units students have a chance to develop their historical empathy and critical thinking skills. They develop the capacity to look at past events from multiple perspectives and consider the individuals who were impacted. They are encouraged to take a critical eye to past events and consider positive and negative effects that continue to have a lasting influence.

Wampum Belt Project

Wampum was used by Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands for ornamental, ceremonial, and diplomatic purposes. Belts made of wampum were often used to mark agreements between different groups. The word wampum comes from a Narragansett (Algonquian language family) term meaning “a string of shell beads.” These tubular beads were traditionally made from Atlantic coast seashells—white beads from the whelk shell and purple beads from the quahog clam shell.

In our classroom, we’ll use white and purple plastic pony beads to create our own wampum-inspired designs that reflect our individual identities. Please let me know if you’re available to help with this hands-on project: Monday, November 24th from 1:30-2:45PM and/or Tuesday, November 25th from 9-10AM, we’d love your support!

Literacy

We will continue with Unit 4 in Fundations. Students will learn new spelling rules for adding suffixes to vowel consonant-e syllables. Here are the Home Support Materials for Unit 4.

We’ll begin our second Fishtank unit: Rediscovering Thanksgiving: Fact or Fiction. This unit explores the experiences of Indigenous and Native peoples of the United States when the colonists first arrived. We’ll read This Land by Ashley Fairbanks, the article “The English Colonies,” and The Wampanoag (A True Book: American Indians) by Kevin Cunningham and Peter Benoit.

Is your 3rd grader interested in Battle of the Books?

In the Spring of 2025 (Wednesday, March 18th), teams will participate in a trivia-style competition! Each team will be asked to answer a series of questions based on the 10 novels above. Read them all or divide them amongst your team! Grade 3 through 5 are welcome to join and teams should be composed of 2 to 4 students. Please include the students participating in the comment box of your sign up. The adult listed will be the point of contact for all event information and while adult involvement is encouraged to help keep teams reading and prepared, it is not required.
Happy Reading! Sign up Here: Battle of the Books Sign Up

Math

We will continue with Unit 2 in Math: Area and Multiplication. We will calculate the area of rectangles using multiplication. Students will use rules, tape measures and yard sticks to measure side lengths of rectangles to find their areas.

Social Emotional Learning

This week, our Second Step lessons will focus on Planning to Learn. Students will practice a simple three-step strategy to help them make a plan for accomplishing a goal. We’ll talk about how a good plan makes sense, is easy to follow, and includes steps you can actually do!

Picture retakes

Picture retakes will take place on Tuesday. Please let me know if you would like your child to have their photo taken again.

Repeat Announcements

Warm Clothes and Footwear:
The heat is ON! Now that the heaters are running, our classroom can get quite toasty. Pro tip: students should dress in layers so they can bundle up for recess but have a lighter layer to stay comfortable indoors. If your child wears rain or snow boots to school, please send in a pair of indoor shoes, sneakers, or even slippers. They’ll be much more comfortable moving around the classroom and school in dry shoes.

Mystery Reader:
Would you like to volunteer as our next Mystery Reader? Click HERE to sign up.

Scholastic Book Ordering:

If you would like to order books through Scholastic Book Clubs, our online ordering code is DPC2T (purchasing online is required).  SHOP OUR CLASS PAGE. By building your home library with Scholastic, you will also be helping to build our classroom library. The more books students order, the more free books we get for our classroom library!

Library Reminder: 

Our book swap day in the Media Center is every Wednesday. Please help your child remember to return their library books.

Links for more information: 

Click HERE for home support materials for Unit 4 of Fundations

Click HERE for home support materials for Unit 3 of Fundations

Click HERE for home support materials for  Unit 2 of Fundations

Click HERE  for home support materials for Unit 1 of Fundations

Link to access Clever from home

Directions:

Log in with Google

Enter student username (initials + # @students.needham.k12.ma.us)

Enter student password 

Click on ST Math App or Amplify App then Boost

Special Subject Schedule

Monday -- Art

Tuesday -- P.E. & Spanish

Wednesday -- Media

Thursday -- P.E.

Friday -- Music & Spanish

Important Dates

Monday, November 3rd- Fall Conferences Begin

Tuesday, November 4th- Picture Retake Day

Monday, November 10th-- No School, Professional Development Day

Tuesday, November 11th-- No School, Veterans' Day

Wednesday, November 19th-- Early Release Day, 12:15 dismissal

Wednesday, November 26-- Thanksgiving Break, no school

Monday, December 1st-- Class resumes

Wednesday, December 3rd-- Early Release Day, 12:15 dismissal

Created 11/2025

Jennifer_ramras@needham.k12.ma.us