Week 2

Class News

What a wonderful start to third grade! Thank you for your cooperation and teamwork during our first week. It’s already clear that we have a fantastic year ahead! Students have enthusiastically shared their “Bags About Me” and “Three Truths and a Lie” sentences, and it has been so much fun getting to know one another. We’ve heard about favorite family traditions, travels, musical instruments, team sports, pets, and some very interesting collections!

We’ve also had some important firsts as a school community. We practiced our first fire drill and gathered together for our first whole-school community meeting, giving students a chance to come together as a Mitchell School community.

To build communication and teamwork skills, we took on some fun group challenges, including creating paper chains and building cup pyramids together—with no hands!

Looking Ahead

This week, our academics will begin to ramp up! We’ll open our classroom library and launch Arc, our new literacy program.

We’re kicking off third grade with a fun journey through time as we explore dinosaurs, knights, and life long ago. Students will investigate questions such as: How old is Earth? When did humans become part of Earth’s story? How was life long ago similar to—and different from—life today?

As they explore these fascinating topics, students will build background knowledge and vocabulary while strengthening important reading skills, including reading multisyllabic words, building fluency and stamina, using context clues, and monitoring their understanding as they read.

I am looking forward to learning this new curriculum alongside your students!

We’re off and running in math, too! We’ll begin Unit 1 of Illustrative Math, Introducing Multiplication. In our first unit, students will explore picture graphs and bar graphs and use them to solve problems. We’ll also begin building an understanding of multiplication by exploring equal groups, counting groups of objects, and connecting pictures and models to multiplication expressions.

We’ll focus on making sense of math and explaining our thinking, rather than simply finding the answer. You can support your mathematician at home by asking, “How did you figure that out?” or “Can you explain your strategy?” Most importantly, we want students to discover that math is all around us, and everyone can be a mathematician!

Mrs. Fein will introduce students to their iPads, where they’ll learn to log into Google Classroom and explore some of our digital tools, including creating online word clouds.

We’ll also begin working on our “Hopes and Dreams.” Students will think about what they hope to learn, improve, or accomplish this year and set some personal learning goals. From time to time, we’ll circle back to these goals so students can reflect on their progress, celebrate their growth, and think about what they’d like to work on next. Building this habit of reflecting on their own learning is an important part of becoming an independent learner.

It’s going to be a busy and exciting week—and we can’t wait to get started!

Reading Homework

Our goal is for students to enjoy reading and engaging with books at home while building a consistent reading routine. Each night, students should spend 20–25 minutes reading independently or being read to. This might include reading a book or magazine, listening to a read-aloud, taking turns reading together, or enjoying an audiobook or online story. 

Students will also be asked to log their reading minutes in a new online app called Beanstack. More information and instructions will be coming soon! 

We encourage children to choose books and topics they love—whether that’s sports, animals, history, science, or something completely different. A quick conversation about what they read can also help deepen understanding and make reading more meaningful. Most importantly, we want reading at home to be enjoyable, relaxing, and something students look forward to each day!

Red Folders

The red folders that went home in your student's backpack are meant to go back and forth between home and school each day. Please help your third grader put their folder in their backpack each day and remind them to remove any papers that come home with them each afternoon. 

Picture Day

School Picture Day this year for individual and class portraits is Friday, September 11. Picture ordering forms went home in backpacks last week. Our Photographer is Coffee Pond Photography.  Link: coffeepond.com. 

Allergies

We have tree nut, peanut, sesame, pumpkin seed, and sunflower allergies in our classroom. Please be mindful when packing snacks and lunch. Thank you!

Beginning Strings

On Friday, Mrs. Casados, our Strings teacher, will visit the 3rd grade and introduce the Needham Strings Program. To learn more about the program, click here.

Scholastic Book Ordering

I will send home Scholastic book order forms from time to time. If you’d like to order books through Scholastic Book Clubs, our online ordering code is DPC2T (purchasing online is required). The online ordering link can be found HERE. 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!

New Special Subject Schedule

Monday -- Art & Media - Please return your Media books every Monday so you can check out new books each week. 

Tuesday -- P.E. & Spanish

Wednesday -- Music

Thursday -- P.E.

Friday -- Spanish

Important Dates

Monday, September 7th -- No School, Labor Day

Thursday, September 11th -- Picture Day

Wednesday, September 16th -- Early Release Day, 12:15 dismissal

Friday, September 18th--  Ice Cream Social on the Playground

Monday, September 21st -- No School, Yom Kippur

Friday, September 25th -- Mitchell Movie Night

Wednesday, October 7th -- Early Release Day, 12:15 dismissal 

Monday, October 12th -- No School, Indigenous Peoples Day

Wednesday, October 21st -- Early Release Day, 12:15 dismissal

Created 9/2026

Jennifer_ramras@needham.k12.ma.us