Embedded Files
Weekly Newsletters
Newsletters will be updated weekly. Please check back every week.
Book mark this page for easy access.
Newsletter October 26-30, 2026
📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter
Week of October 26-30, 2026
Dear Families,
We hope you enjoyed a wonderful Fall Break! It was a great opportunity to spend time with family, relax, and enjoy a little extra free time. As we return to school, we are excited to jump right back into learning and begin another quarter of growth and discovery!
This week, we will be finalizing grades for the first quarter. As a reminder, Early Light Academy uses standards-based grading, which focuses on students' mastery of grade-level standards and their growth over time. We recognize that learning is a journey, and our goal is to help every student develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to succeed.
Throughout the first quarter, students have been introduced to many challenging concepts and have worked hard to strengthen their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. As we move forward, we will continue to provide rigorous, explicit instruction, along with the guidance, practice, and support students need to meet high expectations.
We believe every student is capable of tremendous growth, and we are committed to helping them rise to new challenges, celebrate their progress, and become confident, independent learners.
Thank you for your continued partnership in your child's education. We are looking forward to another exciting quarter of learning and growth!
Read, Relax, and Earn a Reward!
We hope your student kept their reading skills sharp over Fall Break while having fun with a good book!
The Challenge: Complete at least 7 reading activities on your Fall Break Reading Challenge form. Each activity must include at least 20 minutes of reading.
Parent Initials: After completing each activity, have a parent or guardian initial the square to verify that you completed the challenge.
Earn a Fun Reward!
Students who complete at least 7 challenges can choose one of these exciting prizes:
A 3D-printed fidget
A scratch-and-sniff bookmark
Fun reading stickers
Deadline: Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Return your completed reading challenge form, with parent initials, by October 28th to earn your reward!
Fall Break Reading Challenge link
Reading
This week, we will continue our journey into the world of historical fiction! We have enjoyed reading stories about immigration to the United States and exploring the many reasons people leave their homelands to begin new lives in a different country. These stories have provided wonderful opportunities for students to build empathy, make connections, and better understand the experiences of others.
As we read, we have been learning to identify the theme of a story and uncover the important message or lesson the author wants readers to understand. We are encouraging students to think beyond what happens in a story and consider why it matters.
One particularly challenging skill is identifying cause-and-effect relationships—understanding why events happen and how one event influences another. We will revisit and reinforce this important comprehension skill throughout the week, helping students make deeper connections within the texts they read.
Our goal is to help students become thoughtful, confident readers who not only understand what they read but can also think critically about the author's message and the relationships between events.
📖 Wonders Unit 2, Week 4: Unit 2 Week 4
Home Reading: 20 Minutes Every Day
We expect students to read for a minimum of 20 minutes each day at home.
After your student completes their reading each day, ask them comprehension questions.
Asking and Generating Questions: Encourage students to ask who, what, where, when, why, and how before, during, and after reading.
Summarizing and Retelling: Have students break a story into smaller chunks (like chapters or paragraphs) and recount the main events in their own words.
Making Inferences: Encourage readers to use context clues and background knowledge to figure out details the author did not spell out directly.
Visualizing: Ask students to create mental pictures of the characters, settings, and action in the story.
Identifying Text Structure: Help students recognize how a story or informational text is organized, such as chronological order, cause and effect, or compare and contrast.
Thank you for supporting your child’s reading journey at home!
Grammar Focus
This week in grammar, we are learning about combining either subject nouns or predicate nouns while using the conjunction "and" to help us. Students will also learn where to place commas correctly in sentences. They will also be able to complete an assignment for a grade where they use all of their skills from the week to combine sentences and place commas in the correct spots.
Writing Focus
This week in writing, we are continuing with working on our Cultural Fair projects tying in with Korea. We will be finishing our final draft writing pieces and getting our brochures ready, making sure they look ready to hang up in the hallways. Focusing on capital letters where they go, correct punctuation, correct sentence structure, beautiful handwriting, etc.
🔬Science Spotlight
We are jumping back into another science unit! For the next few weeks, we will be learning about Life Cycles. In this week's lesson, “How is Your Life Like an Alligator’s Life?,” students explore animal life cycles by thinking about their birthday buddies—all the animals that were born on the same day as they were born—and what happens to those birthday buddies over the course of their lives. In the activity, Birthday Buddies Timeline, students develop a model to compare the life stories of different animals. Using this model, students discover that although the lives of animals can be very different, they all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
Math Corner:
We will begin quarter 2 still focusing on multiplication concepts. As we grow in multiplication, some students that are memorizing their facts may start to feel that class is getting more and more easy. We love that! This will really support them when we get to division. Don’t forget to continue to work on memorizing multiplication facts at home. Please remember to correct work and resubmit for updated grades when possible.
✖️3rd graders MUST memorize multiplication facts for 0s-10s. We prefer through 12s. They have timed opportunities each morning to show their competency and move on to the next number. We cover the concept of multiplication in 3rd grade, but the facts MUST be done on their own. There are many resources, but writing and memorizing have proven to be most effective over the years. Students will not be able to finish the daily sheets without memorization. Students who memorize their facts historically succeed in math with less difficulty than those who still use repeated addition to count up. Please add this into your evening routines. Reach out to your student’s math teacher for more information as needed.
Here are some websites you can use to practice math skills.
iReady Fluency Flight is available through your student’s portal in Classlink.com. They will sign in with Google. They use the same login as they do in school. You may have to add @earlylightacademy.org to their Google login
https://play.stmath.com/academy/modules/hs_started/ if you sign up as a homeschool student, you can have access for free, I believe.
Spelling Words-
Words with three-letter blends are the focus this week. Our spelling words will have a three-letter blend made up of three consonants at the beginning of a word.
scrubs
screams
scratch
scrape
screen
spread
splash
spray
streak
strength
strong
squeak
three
throw
thread
wrote
knife
sign
streamer
scribble
wristwatch
Vocabulary Words
Arrived: got to where you are going
Immigrated: to have come to a new country to live
Inspected: looked at something closely and carefully
Moment: a very short amount of time
Opportunity: a chance for good things to happen
Photographs: pictures taken with a camera
Valuable: worth a lot of money, or means a lot to someone
Whispered: spoken in a very quiet voice
Important Dates
October 26-30, 2026: Spirit Week/Red Ribbon Week
Monday: Wear RED/Superhero Day
Tuesday: PJ Day
Wednesday: Decades Day
Thursday: Favorites Day (favorite sport/artist/hobby/color); not free dress
Friday: Halloween Costumes - Note: inflatable costumes may only be worn during the parade and will not be worn in class or during recess.
October 28, 2026: Fall Break Reading Challenge Due
October 26, 2026: Term 2 Begins
October 30, 2026: Halloween Parade and Parties
Newsletter October 12-16, 2026
📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter
Week of October 12-16, 2026
Dear Families,
It’s hard to believe we are quickly approaching the end of the first quarter! We have spent time reviewing and strengthening skills from second grade while diving into exciting new third-grade concepts. As our lessons become more challenging, we are encouraging students to stretch their thinking, ask thoughtful questions, and develop their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
As teachers, our goal is to guide and support students as they learn new concepts, gradually releasing responsibility so they can become more independent, confident learners who can demonstrate their understanding.
One of the highlights of our learning has been making meaningful connections between Language Arts and Social Studies. By integrating these subjects, students have had multiple opportunities to deepen their understanding of government and apply their knowledge across different learning experiences.
🏛️ A Special Guest Speaker!
We had the wonderful honor of welcoming Utah Supreme Court Justice John Nielsen as a guest speaker! He shared his knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and the three branches of government, helping bring our classroom learning to life. What an incredible opportunity for our third graders to learn about government from someone who works within our judicial system!
We are proud of the growth our students have demonstrated this quarter and look forward to watching them continue to develop as curious, capable, and independent learners!
🏛️🇺🇸 Field Trip — Utah State Capitol
We are excited to announce our first field trip of the year! We will be traveling by bus to the Utah State Capitol on Thursday, October 15th. Permission slips are DUE NOW!!!
We are excited to announce our first field trip of the year! We will be traveling by bus to the Utah State Capitol on Thursday, October 15th. Permission slips are DUE NOW!!!
🚌 Departure: 12:00 p.m.
🏫 Return to School: Approximately 2:30 p.m.
📝 Permission Slip Due: Monday, October 12th
Please sign and return your child’s permission slip by the due date. If you would like to accompany us as a chaperone, please let your child’s teacher know. We are looking forward to this exciting opportunity to bring our learning about government to life.
Field Trip Permission Form-MAKE A COPY
📖 Wonders Unit 1, Week 4: Unit 2, Week 3
Home Reading: 20 Minutes Every Day
We expect students to read for a minimum of 20 minutes each day at home.
After your student completes their reading each day, ask them comprehension questions.
Asking and Generating Questions: Encourage students to ask who, what, where, when, why, and how before, during, and after reading.
Summarizing and Retelling: Have students break a story into smaller chunks (like chapters or paragraphs) and recount the main events in their own words.
Making Inferences: Encourage readers to use context clues and background knowledge to figure out details the author did not spell out directly.
Visualizing: Ask students to create mental pictures of the characters, settings, and action in the story.
Identifying Text Structure: Help students recognize how a story or informational text is organized, such as chronological order, cause and effect, or compare and contrast.
Thank you for supporting your child’s reading journey at home!
Grammar Focus
Irregular plural nouns: these words do not add an s or es to the ending. Some of the words we look at are man to men, woman to women, child to children, and mouse to mice. Collective nouns are used to name groups of people, places, and things. Thursday, we will practice taking words and changing them to their correct irregular plural noun form.
Writing Focus
This week in writing, we are continuing to work on our Korea History Fair projects. Students will continue their research/writing with their brochures that will go up in the hallway, as well as their compare and contrast of one custom from Korea and one custom from Utah. We are focusing too on having capital letters, correct punctuation, finger spaces, clear handwriting, and correct spelling.
Social Studies Spotlight
In Social Studies next week, we will be learning about the United States Constitution, the Preamble, and the First Amendment. Students will explore what “We the People” means, learn about the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment, and discuss how these rights affect their daily lives. Through group activities, games, and artwork, students will discover the importance of freedom, making choices, and being responsible members of their community. You can support your child’s learning by discussing freedom, rights, and ways to make a positive difference in your community at home. Thank you for your continued support!
Math Corner:
We began timed multiplication tests last week, and some students are realizing they may need to put in more effort at home memorizing facts! Please support this however you can. We will continue classwork with multiplication concepts, and students will take a summative test that has rounding, addition, subtraction, and multiplication on it this week. Please remember to correct work and resubmit for updated grades when possible.
✖️3rd graders MUST memorize multiplication facts for 0s-10s. We prefer through 12s. They have timed opportunities each morning to show their competency and move on to the next number. We cover the concept of multiplication in 3rd grade, but the facts MUST be done on their own. There are many resources, but writing and memorizing have proven to be most effective over the years. Students will not be able to finish the daily sheets without memorization. Students who memorize their facts historically succeed in math with less difficulty than those who still use repeated addition to count up. Please add this into your evening routines. Reach out to your student’s math teacher for more information as needed.
Here are some websites you can use to practice math skills.
iReady Fluency Flight is available through your student’s portal in Classlink.com. They will sign in with Google. They use the same login as they do in school. You may have to add @earlylightacademy.org to their Google login
https://play.stmath.com/academy/modules/hs_started/ if you sign up as a homeschool student, you can have access for free, I believe.
Spelling Words-
Silent Letters: Words with silent letters have irregular spellings; students may not be able to decode them. Silent letters are letters in words that we write but do not hear when we say the word. Even though we cannot hear them, they are important because they help us spell words correctly.
wrap
wrists
wrote
wreck
wring
write
wreath
knit
knife
knight
knock
knee
gnome
sign
gnaws
heel
weak
field
wristwatch
knapsack
peanut
Vocabulary Words
Arrived: got to where you are going
Immigrated: to have come to a new country to live
Inspected: looked at something closely and carefully
Moment: a very short amount of time
Opportunity: a chance for good things to happen
Photographs: pictures taken with a camera
Valuable: worth a lot of money, or means a lot to someone
Whispered: spoken in a very quiet voice
Important Dates
October 15, 2026: Field trip to the Utah State Capitol
October 19-23, 2026: Fall Break
October 26, 2026: Term 2 Begins
October 26-30, 2026: Spirit Week/Red Ribbon Week
October 30, 2026: Halloween Parade and Parties
Newsletter October 5-9, 2026
📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter
Week of October 5-9, 2026
Dear Families,
We have officially entered October, and it is finally starting to feel like fall! 🍂 We only have three more weeks until the end of the quarter, and our third graders are working hard and continuing to grow as learners.
Third grade is an important transition from the primary grades. Students are moving beyond simply recalling information and are learning to think critically, explain their thinking, make connections, and apply their knowledge in each subject area. We are so proud of the progress they are making as they become more independent and confident learners!
🏛️🇺🇸 Field Trip — Utah State Capitol
🏛️🇺🇸 Field Trip — Utah State Capitol
We are excited to announce our first field trip of the year! We will be traveling by bus to the Utah State Capitol on Thursday, October 15th.
We are excited to announce our first field trip of the year! We will be traveling by bus to the Utah State Capitol on Thursday, October 15th.
🚌 Departure: 12:00 p.m.
🏫 Return to School: Approximately 2:30 p.m.
📝 Permission Slip Due: Monday, October 12th
Please sign and return your child’s permission slip by the due date. If you would like to accompany us as a chaperone, please let your child’s teacher know. We are looking forward to this exciting opportunity to bring our learning about government to life.
Wonders Unit 1, Week 4: Unit 2, Week 2
Home Reading: 20 Minutes Every Day
We expect students to read for a minimum of 20 minutes each day at home.
After your student completes their reading each day, ask them comprehension questions.
Asking and Generating Questions: Encourage students to ask who, what, where, when, why, and how before, during, and after reading.
Summarizing and Retelling: Have students break a story into smaller chunks (like chapters or paragraphs) and recount the main events in their own words.
Making Inferences: Encourage readers to use context clues and background knowledge to figure out details the author did not spell out directly.
Visualizing: Ask students to create mental pictures of the characters, settings, and action in the story.
Identifying Text Structure: Help students recognize how a story or informational text is organized, such as chronological order, cause and effect, or compare and contrast.
Thank you for supporting your child’s reading journey at home!
Grammar Focus
This week in grammar, we will be focusing on singular and plural nouns. Singular nouns focus on a person, place, or thing, and it is just one. For plural nouns, we take the noun and we add an ending to show more than one thing. The ending that is added is based on if it ends with a certain letter at the end of it. If it ends in an s, ch, sh, x, then you would add an es to the end of the word. If it doesn’t end in one of those endings, then you just add an s.
Writing Focus
This week in writing, we will be working on our Korea brochures for the history fair coming up. We will be researching the history behind Korea and putting in information about Korea to hang and present in the hallways for the history fair.
Social Studies Spotlight
This week we are learning about the importance of rules and laws, including why our country needs a Supreme Law—the U.S. Constitution. Students will learn that rules and laws help keep people safe, create order, protect people’s rights, and help communities work together. We will explore how rules affect our everyday lives, how different countries organize their governments, and why the Constitution is an important foundation for the United States. As we learn, we encourage you to talk with your child about rules at home and in your community and discuss why those rules are important. Asking your child questions about what they are learning is a great way to help them make connections between our classroom lessons and the world around them. Thank you for partnering with us as we help students become responsible and respectful members of their communities!
Math Corner:
This week, we will continue multiplication!!!!! We will begin our daily timed tests this week.
3rd graders MUST memorize multiplication facts for 0s-10s. We prefer through 12s. They will begin having timed opportunities each morning to show their competency and move on to the next number beginning the week after next. We cover the concept of multiplication in 3rd grade, but the facts must be done on their own. There are many resources, but writing and memorizing have proven to be most effective over the years. Students will not be able to finish the daily sheets without memorization. Students who memorize their facts historically succeed in math with less difficulty than those who still use repeated addition to count up. Please add this into your evening routines. Reach out to your student’s math teacher for more information as needed.
Here are some websites you can use to practice math skills.
iReady Fluency Flight is available through your student’s portal in Classlink.com. They will sign in with Google. They use the same login as they do in school. You may have to add @earlylightacademy.org to their Google login
https://play.stmath.com/academy/modules/hs_started/ if you sign up as a homeschool student, you can have access for free, I believe.
Spelling Words-
The long-e sound can be spelled in several different ways. Here are some sample words: for example, e as in me, ea as in team, ee as in tree, e-e as in eve, ie as in chief, ey as in monkey, y as in sunny. Point out that the ea spelling is sometimes pronounced as short e, as in the word head.
heel
week
creek
free
green
street
freeze
seal
weak
bean
speaks
team
clean
cream
field
tight
tied
cute
sixteen
peanut
music
Vocabulary Words
Announced- told people about something
Candidates- people seeking an office or honor
Convince- to cause someone to believe or do something
Elect- to choose by voting
Estimate- to guess an amount
Government- people who guide a city, state, or country
Independent- able to do things for yourself.
Important Dates
October 7, 2026: Buddy Class Day
October 15, 2026: Field trip to the Utah State Capitol
October 19-23, 2026: Fall Break
October 26, 2026: Term 2 Begins
October 26-30, 2026: Spirit Week/Red Ribbon Week
Newsletter September 28-October 2nd, 2026
📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter
Week of September 28- Oct. 2, 2026
Dear Families,
It was lovely to see everyone at student-led conferences. They were proud to show the growth that they have achieved since the beginning of third grade. We are so excited to see what they accomplish next on their Journey to a Phoenix.
Reading
We have completed the first unit in Wonders, our Language Arts curriculum. We will now shift our focus to expository, or informational, texts. Our quest will be to learn how people help make government work. This will align with our Social Studies lessons. We will continue to use text evidence to identify the author’s purpose, claims, and text structure. As we read our stories, we will identify text features that provide additional details.
Wonders Unit 1, Week 4: Unit 2 Week 1
Love to Read
Statewide Read-A-Thon will be on October 2nd. During the Read-A-Thon, students will set aside special time during the school day to get lost in a good book! Students can enjoy a favorite story, discover a new author, explore an interesting topic, or learn more about something they are passionate about. This event is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate reading together and build excitement about books across our classrooms and communities.
Reading plays an important role in student success. It helps children build knowledge, expand their vocabulary, strengthen comprehension, spark creativity, and develop a lifelong love of learning. The Statewide Read-A-Thon celebrates the power of literacy while reminding students that reading isn't just something we do for school—it can also take us on adventures, introduce us to new ideas, and be a whole lot of fun!
We are excited to celebrate reading together!
Home Reading: 20 Minutes Every Day
We expect students to read for a minimum of 20 minutes each day at home.
After your student completes their reading each day, ask them comprehension questions.
Asking and Generating Questions: Encourage students to ask who, what, where, when, why, and how before, during, and after reading.
Summarizing and Retelling: Have students break a story into smaller chunks (like chapters or paragraphs) and recount the main events in their own words.
Making Inferences: Encourage readers to use context clues and background knowledge to figure out details the author did not spell out directly.
Visualizing: Ask students to create mental pictures of the characters, settings, and action in the story.
Identifying Text Structure: Help students recognize how a story or informational text is organized, such as chronological order, cause and effect, or compare and contrast.
Thank you for supporting your child’s reading journey at home!
Grammar Focus
This week in grammar, we will be working on nouns! We will be learning about common nouns, which are general nouns like library, chair, and mother. We then also look at proper nouns, which is when we focus on names of people, places, towns, states, holidays, special events, geographical names, and historical periods. We must capitalize those! We also look at concrete nouns, which are a person, place, or thing- something that we can see or identify with our five senses. Abstract nouns are things that cannot be seen or identified using our five senses. Please review these with your child this week!
Writing Focus
This week in writing, we will be continuing to finish our two writing pieces for this school year-we will be focusing on something they did in their life that was difficult, as well as something they are proud of that they accomplished. We will be working on revising our writing, taking our rough draft (not starting over) and making it even better. We are working on learning that it is always okay to improve our writing every time we write, even if we have to fix it multiple times.
Social Studies Spotlight
As we start social studies this week, we are talking about the types of government found around the world and focusing on the United States government system, a constitutional republic. We will also talk about the system of checks and balances and how those keep the power-holders and decision-makers in our country in balance.
Math Corner:
This week, we will begin multiplication!!!!!
3rd graders MUST memorize multiplication facts for 0s-10s. We prefer through 12s. They will begin having timed opportunities each morning to show their competency and move on to the next number beginning the week after next. We cover the concept of multiplication in 3rd grade, but the facts must be done on their own. There are many resources, but writing and memorizing have proven to be most effective over the years. Students will not be able to finish the daily sheets without memorization. Students who memorize their facts historically succeed in math with less difficulty than those who still use repeated addition to count up. Please add this into your evening routines. Reach out to your student’s math teacher for more information as needed.
Here are some websites you can use to practice math skills.
iReady Fluency Flight is available through your student’s portal in Classlink.com. They will sign in with Google. They use the same login as they do in school. You may have to add @earlylightacademy.org to their Google login
https://play.stmath.com/academy/modules/hs_started/ if you sign up as a homeschool student, you can have access for free, I believe.
Spelling Words-
Both the long-i sound and the long-u sound can be spelled in several different ways. Here are some sample words: for example, i as in find; ie as in pie; igh as in right; i_e as in bite; y as in fly; u as in unit; u_e as in use; ew as in few.
sky
fry
pie
tied
tight
right
bright
grind
child
cube
cute
mule
music
drew
few
coast
scold
bone
mighty
Utah
eight
Vocabulary Words
Announced- told people about something
Candidates- people seeking an office or honor
Convince- to cause someone to believe or do something
Elect- to choose by voting
Estimate- to guess an amount
Government- people who guide a city, state, or country
Independent- able to do things for yourself.
Important Dates
September 1-30, 2026: Winter Clothing Drive
October 2, 2026: State-Wide Read-A-Thon- you can wear comfy clothes
October 2, 2026: Dress Down Day for Students- you can wear comfy clothes
October 7, 2026: Buddy Class Day
October 19-23, 2026: Fall Break
October 26, 2026: Term 2 Begins
October 26-30, 2026: Spirit Week/Red Ribbon Week
Newsletter September 14-18, 2026
📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter
Week of September 14-18 2026
🌟 Dear Families,
This week we will be celebrating Leadership Week. Every year we have our students participate in activities that celebrate leadership. This year our theme is “Journey of a Phoenix”. “As an ELA Phoenix, with a growing understanding of my place in history, I can develop the ATTRIBUTES, SKILLS, and KNOWLEDGE that fuel my journey to be a lifelong learner and inspiring leader.” Each day this week, we will be focusing on one activity relating to the SKILLS portion of the “Journey of a Phoenix”. As we do so, it will be enlightening to see how your child grows along this pathway.
📚 Reading
This week in Wonders, we will be continuing our quest to see “What can traditions teach you about cultures? We will be comparing and contrasting stories to discover an author’s purpose, plot, and how characters develop throughout stories while using sequence of events.
As we have analyzed data from the beginning of the year assessments, we discovered that many of our students are doing really well, but they need help with comprehension. We are teaching them to be critical thinkers while using comprehension skills.
📚 Wonders Unit 1, Week 4:Unit 1 Week 4
🏠 Home Reading: 20 Minutes Every Day
Our expectation is that students read for a minimum of 20 minutes each day at home.
After your student completes their reading each day, ask them comprehension questions.
Asking and Generating Questions: Encourage students to ask who, what, where, when, why, and how before, during, and after reading.
Summarizing and Retelling: Have students break a story into smaller chunks (like chapters or paragraphs) and recount the main events in their own words.
Making Inferences: Encourage readers to use context clues and background knowledge to figure out details the author did not spell out directly.
Visualizing: Ask students to create mental pictures of the characters, settings, and action in the story.
Identifying Text Structure: Help students recognize how a story or informational text is organized, such as chronological order, cause and effect, or compare and contrast.
Thank you for supporting your child’s reading journey at home! ❤️
📝 Grammar Focus
After learning about the subject in sentences for the past couple of weeks, we are now learning about the importance of predicates. Predicates are also known as the action within a sentence (what the subject is doing). It is important that we have both subjects and predicates in order to make a sentence complete. This week we will be focusing on adding actions or predicates into our sentences to make them complete while also using capitalization and correct ending punctuation.
✍️ Writing Focus
This week, students will start working on a two-week writing topic. Students will be choosing an experience in their lives that made them proud. They will learn about the writing process and use a beginning, middle, and end sequence to formulate their writing each writing session.
🔬Science Spotlight
In this week's lesson, we will introduce students to the concept of climate and explore the world’s five major climates. In the activity, Climate Decoder, they will color one part of a world map to figure out the different climates of that region. They’ll then combine maps and search for global climate patterns.
🔢 Math Corner:
We will move into 3-digit adding and subtracting with regrouping! This is a very important topic, and place value must be followed to be successful. Remind your students to stack their numbers by place value and write carefully so they can read what they do. We are seeing great effort in Math class! Encourage them to keep persevering!
🔠 Spelling Words-
We are switching gears and learning vowel teams. A vowel team is a group of two to four letters that work together to make a single vowel sound. The long a sound can be spelled in different ways, such as ay as in play; ai as in tail; a_e as in face; ea as in great; eigh as in weigh.
plain
braid
fail
grain
snail
paint
sway
tray
gray
stay
state
fake
same
weigh
they
fine
skate
globe
sleigh
afraid
eight
📚 Vocabulary Words
Celebrate- do something special for an important event
Courage- bravery in a difficult situation
Disappointment- feeling of sadness because something is not as good as expected
Precious- very valuable to a person
Pride- a feeling of satisfaction in something you have done
Remind- make a person remember something
Symbols- a thing that represents ideas or objects
Traditions- things that have been done for a long time
📅 Important Dates
September 14-18: Leadership week
September 24-25, 2026: Fall Conferences
September 28, 2026: Teacher Comp Day, NO SCHOOL
September 1-30, 2026: Winter Clothing Drive
Newsletter September 8-11, 2026
📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter
Week of September 4-11, 2026
🌟 Dear Families,
This year at ELA, we are taking our students on a Journey to a Phoenix.
“As an ELA Phoenix, with a growing understanding of my place in history, I can develop the Attributes, Skills, and Knowledge that fuel my journey to be a lifelong learner and inspiring leader.”
We will move through the year learning and sharing what it takes to be a Phoenix. Already, we have a competition in the lunchroom and at recess to show how we can become a Phoenix.
We are working toward earning stars for our class when students demonstrate RISE throughout the day. Once our class reaches 15 stars, we will celebrate with a special class reward! ⭐
📚 Reading
We are switching gears to learn more about realistic fiction and ponder the question, “What can traditions teach you about cultures? What traditions does your family celebrate? What special foods do you prepare? Are there songs, stories, holidays, or celebrations that are important to your family? How does your culture contribute to your community?
During our stories this week, we will look into character perspectives and character development through stories. One of the challenges students will face is to find the author’s purpose for writing these stories.
📚 Wonders Unit 1, Week 3: Wonders Unit 1 Week 3
🏠 Home Reading: 20 Minutes Every Day
Our expectation is that students read for a minimum of 20 minutes each day at home. Reading can look different for every child! Students may:
Read independently.
Read aloud to you.
Take turns reading with you.
Read to a sibling.
Read to a stuffed animal. 🧸
Even 20 minutes of reading each day can make a tremendous difference. Consistent reading helps students build vocabulary, strengthen comprehension, develop fluency, and become more confident readers. It also provides an opportunity for children to discover new ideas, explore different worlds, and develop a lifelong love of reading.
Thank you for supporting your child’s reading journey at home! ❤️
📝 Grammar Focus
This week in Grammar, we will be working with Subjects. Subjects are extremely important to add to sentences, as they tell us who the sentence is about. Students will add subjects to a sentence to complete it, as well as correct sentences so the sentence makes sense. We will also focus on adding subjects in our writing this week.
✍️ Writing Focus
This week in writing, we will continue to focus on writing about a time in our life that was difficult and how we overcame that. Students will also work on a creative writing piece, making sure to include subjects in their sentences while adding predicates along with it. We will continue to build our foundation of a 5-sentence paragraph.
🔬Science Spotlight
This week in Science, we are continuing our unit about weather patterns. In this lesson, students explore seasonal weather conditions across different regions. They investigate how weather patterns can be used to make predictions about future weather. In the activity, Snow Fort Weather, students organize daily temperature data from three snowy towns into a table so that they can compare weather conditions and predict which town is most likely to have the best weather for a snow fort festival next year.
🔢 Math Corner:
This week, we will finish up with a hands-on rounding activity. After that, we will move into 3-digit adding and subtracting with regrouping! This is a very important topic and place value must be followed to be successful. Remind your students to stack their numbers by place value and write carefully so they can read what they do. We are seeing great effort in Math class! Encourage them to keep persevering!
🔠 Spelling Words-
We will now be focusing on words with the silent e. A word spelled with a vowel, consonant, and final e usually has a long vowel sound. You can hear a long a in late, a long i in invite, and a long o in alone. The final e in these words is silent.
date
lake
skate
plane
grade
fine
life
rice
wise
smile
rose
globe
smoke
come
used
step
rock
luck
sneeze
stripe
white
📚 Vocabulary Words
Celebrate- do something special for an important event
Courage- bravery in a difficult situation
Disappointment- feeling of sadness because something is not as good as expected
Precious- very valuable to a person
Pride- a feeling of satisfaction in something you have done
Remind- make a person remember something
Symbols- a thing that represents ideas or objects
Traditions- things that have been done for a long time
📅 Important Dates
September 7, 2026: Labor Day NO SCHOOL
September. 8, 2026- Fall Pictures for students- students must be in school uniform
September 24-25, 2026: Fall Conferences
September 28, 2026: Teacher Comp Day, NO SCHOOL
Newsletter- August 31- Sept. 4
📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter
Week of August 31- September 4, 2026
🌟 Dear Families,
Last week was busy and productive! We spent time reviewing classroom procedures and expectations while also diving into new content across our different subject areas. We recognize that some students may have experienced the “summer slide,” which is when students forget or need to refresh some of the skills they learned previously. We worked hard to reactivate those skills and remember what we learned in second grade.
This week, we will continue emphasizing our school-wide RISE expectations: Respectful, Inclusive, Safe, and Engaged. We are working toward earning stars for our class when students demonstrate RISE throughout the day. Once our class reaches 15 stars, we will celebrate with a special class reward! ⭐
📚 Reading
This week in reading, we will continue learning about narrative nonfiction. Our focus question is: How do people from different cultures contribute to a community? We would love for you to continue this conversation at home! Take some time to share your family’s culture and traditions with your child. You might talk about:
What traditions does your family celebrate?
What special foods do you prepare?
Are there songs, stories, holidays, or celebrations that are important to your family?
How does your culture contribute to your community?
These conversations are a wonderful way for students to make connections between what they are learning at school and their own lives and experiences.
📚 Wonders Unit 1, Week 2: Wonders Unit 1 Week 2
🏠 Home Reading: 20 Minutes Every Day
Our expectation is that students read for a minimum of 20 minutes each day at home. Reading can look different for every child! Students may:
Read independently.
Read aloud to you.
Take turns reading with you.
Read to a sibling.
Read to a stuffed animal. 🧸
Even 20 minutes of reading each day can make a tremendous difference. Consistent reading helps students build vocabulary, strengthen comprehension, develop fluency, and become more confident readers. It also provides an opportunity for children to discover new ideas, explore different worlds, and develop a lifelong love of reading.
Thank you for supporting your child’s reading journey at home! ❤️
📝 Grammar Focus
This week in grammar, we are focusing on commands and exclamations. A command is important to use when telling someone what to do. An exclamation will show strong feelings and emotions. Discuss with your child the difference of when we use each of these types within sentences and why they are important.
✍️ Writing Focus
This week we will be working on writing about something that has been difficult for students to do in their lives. We will be working on creating a strong topic sentence, and then adding the steps that they took when it was a hard thing for them to do. After adding in our topic sentence and three steps, we will finish with a strong concluding sentence to wrap up our writing. The goal for this year in third grade is a strong five-sentence paragraph.
🔬Science Spotlight
This week in Science, we are continuing our unit about weather patterns. We will learn how to predict when it's going to storm. Great timing for this wild weather we're having!
🔢 Math Corner:
We are jumping into rounding this week! In 3rd grade, students learn to round to the nearest ten and hundred. You can help at home by asking between which two tens or hundreds a number falls. For instance: 37. Which two tens is this between? 30 and 40. Because 37 is past the midpoint (35), it rounds up to 40. Encourage your students to persevere!
🔠 Spelling Words-
This week we will review words with short 3, short o, and short u sounds. If your student got a 4 on the pretest that they took today, they will not need to take the posttest on Friday. If your student didn’t get a 4, please practice the spelling words all week long. They will take the posttest on Friday to show what they have learned.
step
mess
head
crops
stop
rock
clock
sock
pond
jumps
shut
luck
slump
bugs
mug
clap
sick
snack
ready
does
said
📚 Vocabulary Words
Scared- afraid of something
Admires- likes
Classmate- someone who is in your class at school
Community- a place where people live, work, and play together
Contribute- give money or help
Practicing- doing something again and again to get better
Pronounce- say the sounds correctly
Tumbled- fall
📅 Important Dates
📅 Important Dates
August 31, 2026.-Early Light Academy will be conducting hearing and speech screenings starting on Monday. The Utah State Board of Education requires hearing screenings each year for all third-grade students.
September 4, 2026- Spirit Dress Day
September 4, 2026- Early Release at 1:00 pm
September 7, 2026 Labor Day NO SCHOOL
September. 8, 2026- Fall Pictures for students
September 24-25, 2026: Fall Conferences
September 28, 2026: Teacher Comp Day NO SCHOOL
Thank you for partnering with us as we begin this exciting school year. We are off to a great start, and I can't wait to see what this amazing group of third graders accomplishes together!
Newsletter Monday, August 24, 2026
📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter
Week of August 24-28, 2026
🌟 Dear Families,
We had a wonderful first week! It has been so much fun watching our students come together and begin building our classroom family. We participated in many activities designed to help us get to know one another, and it has already been exciting to see students making new friends and showing kindness to one another. I am so proud of the way they are beginning to care for and support each other!
Our first week included many procedures, expectations, and routines as we learned what it means to be a successful third-grade classroom. We used the RISE framework to talk about what respectful, inclusive, safe, and engaged behavior looks and sounds like in different situations. We also learned a new acronym: KYHFOOTY—Keep Your Hands, Feet, and Other Objects To Yourself! Now, I can simply say “KYHFOOTY,” and students know exactly what I mean. 😊
🏔️ The Power of the Yeti: Growing Through Challenges
This year, we are focusing on growth—not just academic growth or physical growth (and I have a feeling these third graders are going to experience plenty of that!), but also growth in our confidence, skills, and ability to persevere when things get hard.
We talked about the Power of the Yeti and how there may be things we can't do “yeti”—but that doesn't mean we can't learn to do them! Each student chose something they would like to improve or get better at this year. Some students chose an academic goal, while others chose something physical or personal.
We talked about what happens when we encounter something difficult and how important it is to keep trying, ask for help, and believe that we can grow.
I shared a personal experience with the students as an example of perseverance. Five years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was an incredibly difficult time in my life. I went through multiple surgeries, chemotherapy—including losing all of my hair—and radiation. I had many difficult days, but I kept moving forward, one step at a time. Today, I am doing very well.
I wanted my students to understand that hard things don't have to stop us. Sometimes we need to take a deep breath, try again, ask for help, or simply remind ourselves that we are still learning.
Ask your student what they chose as their goal this year and how they can use the Power of the Yeti when they encounter something challenging. I hope this becomes a reminder we can return to throughout the year: “I can't do it yet, but I can keep growing!”
📋 Student Code of Conduct
Many of you have already returned the Student Code of Conduct form—thank you! I am still missing a few, however. If you haven't yet had a chance to sit down with your student and discuss the expectations together, please do so over the weekend. After discussing the form, please have your student initial it and return it to me on Monday.
Students who returned their forms by today will receive PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) points as a reward for being responsible and getting this important task completed.
I have also linked the Student Code of Conduct forms on my classroom website under the Helpful Links page for easy access.
📖 Reading Focus: Narrative Nonfiction
This week, we officially begin our reading curriculum, Wonders! Our first unit focuses on personal achievements and new experiences with the essential question:
“How do experiences help us grow?”
Students will explore texts such as Gary the Dreamer while building important foundational phonics and spelling skills, including working with short-vowel patterns.
As we begin studying narrative nonfiction, students will learn how this type of text combines real-life information with storytelling. We will explore:
📚 What makes a text narrative nonfiction
🗺️ Text features such as headings, maps, and other informational elements
🧩 How authors organize information using text structure
🎯 How to identify an author's purpose
🔎 How text features help us better understand what we read
I am excited to see our students grow not only as readers, but also as thinkers who can make connections between what they read and their own experiences.
Wonders Unit 1 Week 1
Thank you for partnering with me as we begin this exciting school year. We are off to a great start, and I can't wait to see what this amazing group of third graders accomplishes together!
📝 Grammar Focus
This week we will be focusing on the difference between sentences and sentence fragments. We will be talking about what makes up a sentence and that it’s important to have a subject and predicate to complete the sentence.
✍️ Writing Focus
Our writing this week will tie in with our grammar concepts this week. Students will be answering writing prompts and making sure they are including complete sentences that tie in with a subject and predicate. We are also focusing on capital letters, finger spacing, and punctuation.
🔬Science Spotlight
This week in Science, we are starting a unit about weather patterns! We’ll be learning about some weird weather and where clouds come from.
✖️Math Corner:
This week we will review material learned in second grade. We will go over number sense and read and write numbers to 1000. We will compare two three-digit numbers using place value, using > < = to record comparison.
🔠 Spelling Words-
This week we will review words with short a and short i sounds. If your student got a 4 on the pretest that they took today, they will not need to take the posttest on Friday. If your student didn’t get a 4, please practice the spelling words all week long. They will take the posttest on Friday to show what they have learned.
clap
camp
hand
stamp
snack
rack
grabs
glad
bill
miss
click
pink
sick
grin
lift
cat
bit
man
anthill
cramp
ran
📚 Vocabulary Words
Admires means looks up to something or someone very highly.
A classmate is a person who is in the same class at school.
A community is a group of people who live in a certain area. They may share similar interests.
To contribute means to supply, give, or bring something about.
Practicing means doing something over and over to gain skill.
To pronounce means to speak or say the sound of a letter or word.
Scared means to be afraid of or frightened by something.
Tumbled means to have suddenly fallen in a helpless way or turned and rolled around.
📅 Important Dates
Student Code of Conduct and Technology Agreements due now
August 28th- Spirit Dress Day
Early Light Academy will be conducting hearing and speech screenings starting on August 31, 2026. Hearing screenings are required by the Utah State Board of Education each year for all third-grade students.
Thank you for partnering with us as we begin this exciting school year. We are off to a great start, and I can't wait to see what this amazing group of third graders accomplishes together!
Newsletter Friday, August 12, 2026
Welcome to Third Grade!
Dear Families,
Welcome to the 2026–2027 school year! I hope you had a wonderful summer and are ready for an exciting year of learning, growth, and adventure. My name is Kristen McIff, and I am thrilled to be your child’s third-grade teacher at Early Light Academy!
A Little About Me
Growing up with an educator as a mother, I developed a deep respect for the teaching profession at an early age. Her influence shaped my path and instilled in me a lifelong passion for learning—something I strive to inspire in my students every day. My goal is to empower students to become curious, confident, capable, and lifelong learners.
I believe great teachers are always learning, too. I am committed to continually growing in my practice through professional development, coursework, collaboration, and opportunities to learn from others. I am always looking for ways to strengthen my teaching and help my students reach their full potential.
Literacy holds a particularly special place in my heart. I have loved books for as long as I can remember! As a child, I eagerly participated in reading marathons and book challenges, and I am currently working my way through the 100 Must-Read American Novels. I hope to share that love of reading with your child and help them discover books that make them laugh, wonder, think, and see the world in new ways.
Outside of the classroom, I love spending time with my family. I am a proud parent of three children and a grandparent to two wonderful grandchildren. I am also a Disney enthusiast and enjoy gardening, hiking, and traveling. So far, I have explored 30 U.S. states and eight countries, and I am excited to see where my next adventure takes me!
Communication
I believe that strong communication between home and school is an important part of student success. Throughout the year, I will send a weekly newsletter with classroom updates, reminders, upcoming events, and important information.
You will also find our newsletters, a two-week look ahead, our year-long plan, homework, and important dates on our class website:
Mrs. McIff's 3rd Grade class important info
https://sites.google.com/earlylightacademy.org/mrs-mciffs-3rd-grade-class/important-info
Please bookmark this page! It will be updated regularly throughout the school year and will be an important resource for our classroom.
If you would like to meet with me during the school year, my office hours are Monday–Thursday from 3:30–4:00 p.m. The best way to reach me is by email, although you may also contact me through the school. I will do my best to respond within 48 hours.
Please also feel free to share anything you think would help me get to know your child— their interests, strengths, goals, or anything else that will help me support them and make this a successful year.
Important Dates
Back-to-School Night
Monday, August 17 | 5:00–7:00 p.m.
Back-to-School Night is a wonderful opportunity to drop off school supplies, meet me, ask questions, and learn more about our classroom expectations and school policies. I look forward to meeting you!
First Day of School
Tuesday, August 18
Please have your child dressed according to the school dress code and ready for an 8:20 a.m. start. Students should bring their lunch, backpack, school supplies, and a water bottle.
School dismisses at 3:10 p.m. If your child will be meeting a sibling after school, please make arrangements for a designated meeting spot outside the school.
Room Parent Volunteers
We’re looking for Room Parent volunteers for the 2026–2027 school year!
Being a Room Parent is a great way to get involved in your child’s classroom and help support our teachers throughout the year. Room Parents typically help celebrate teacher birthdays, plan and run up to four class parties, coordinate volunteers, decorate classroom doors for school-wide events, and help with Teacher Appreciation activities.
You can serve individually or as part of a Room Parent team, and you’re always welcome to recruit other classroom parents to help with parties, activities, and other needs throughout the year.
If you’re interested in volunteering, please fill out the Room Parent Interest Form here: https://forms.gle/a51Vuz7wvQGHskNs7
Questions about the role or time commitment? Please reach out to Mallory Bohn at roomparentcoordinator@earlylightacademy.org. She is happy to answer any questions!
Thank you for helping support our teachers, students, and ELA community!
Classroom Expectations
During the first week of school, we will spend time getting to know one another, learning classroom procedures, and establishing expectations for our learning community. We will also work together to create class rules that help everyone feel respected, included, safe, and ready to learn.
One important reminder is that toys should stay at home. We want our classroom to be a place where students can focus on learning, building friendships, and taking care of themselves and one another. We will also talk about respecting each other’s belongings and creating a classroom community where everyone feels welcome.
Let’s Make It a Great Year!
I am so excited to begin this journey with your child! Third grade is such an important and exciting year, and I am looking forward to watching your child grow academically, socially, and personally.
I truly believe that the best school years happen when teachers and families work together, and I am excited to partner with you throughout the year. Please never hesitate to reach out with questions, concerns, celebrations, or information that will help me better support your child.
Thank you for trusting me to be part of your child’s educational journey. I can't wait to see all that we will learn, discover, and accomplish together!
I look forward to seeing you at Back-to-School Night on August 17th!
Warmly,
Kristen McIff
Third Grade Teacher
Early Light Academy
--
Page updated
Report abuse