Embedded Files
Hi everyone!
I hope you're not reading this while it's still so beautiful outside! With cooler mornings and warm afternoons, I've been encouraging my class to dress in layers and to bring reusable water bottle.! Our classroom tends to get warm, so it's important that everyone is prepared to keep themselves comfortable throughout the day!
MCAS: Third grade students will be taking ELA MCAS on Tuesday, May 18th. They will have about 2.5 hours to take the test in the classroom but can have the entire day to complete it if needed. Last week, we talked about some strategies to use to help them "Beat the Test Makers" with some help from Super Mario! Ask your child to explain some of the strategies they can use!
Here are some important things to note about MCAS:
Students must fully charge their devices on Monday night and bring them to school on Tuesday. We have limited outlets in our classroom and won't be able to accomodate students moving around during the testing session to charge their devices.
There will be no candy or mints allowed during the testing session. We will all go outside for snack when the session is over so please be sure your child brings something to eat!
It's important that your child is well rested and has eaten a good breakfast on Tuesday morning!
Here's a peek into what we've been doing in our class:
Math: Students have been working hard to place fractions on a number line and to compare two different fractions on a number line. They have also been working on noticing equivalent fractions and finding patterns to quickly identify when two or more fractions are equivalent. This is one of the trickier skills we practice in third grade, so we will continue to do some practice activities for the rest of the year. Here's a quick video explaining how we've been learning about fractions on a number line!
Writing: Two weeks ago, we welcomed school committee member, Mr. Hayner, into our classroom on Zoom so that he could teach us some important public speaking skills! We've been using those skills to help us share pieces of the speeches we've been writing! Students have learned that great speech writers have to work on a lot of things simultaneously to convince their audience of their opinion. Here are some of the big ideas we've learned:
write a brave, bold thesis
provide different, convincing reasons to support your thesis,
examples should help your audience visualize your topic
speak directly to your audience's thoughts and concerns
use strong words that evoke emotion
organize your speech using paragraphs and transition words
Reading: In our Character Studies unit, we've been learning that main characters rely on secondary characters to help them along their journey up and over the story mountain! Students have been exploring different characters in their own book club books! We've also been practicing some jobs within book clubs. So far, students have been a "Character Cop", "Discussion Director", "Word Wizard", "Artful Artist", and "Super Summarizer". This week, we'll work on increasing independence with these jobs!
Social Studies: We shifted gears into a new unit all about the Pilgrims and Puritans! We've learned about why they decided to travel to America, the challenges they faced onboard the Mayflower and once they landed in Plymouth, and finally, what their initial encounters with indigenous people were like.
Word Study: We've been learning about a lot of new spelling patterns lately! We started by learning about contractions and how you can shorten two words into one by using an apostrophe as a placeholder. We moved on to talking about adding vowel suffixes to the end of base words and how that affects the spelling of them!
We've had so much fun these past few weeks together. I can't believe we only have about a month left!
I hope you all enjoy this beautiful week. Please reach out with any questions or concerns!
Best,
Ms. McLellan
Page updated
Report abuse