Newsletter Friday, August 22nd

We had a great first week! It has been so fun watching our students come together and build a “Classroom Family”. We participated in many different activities to get to know each other. Already, kids have made new friends. It is so amazing seeing them being so kind to one another. 

We had to cover a lot of procedures, expectations, and routines this week. We used the RISE framework to discuss how correct behaviors look and sound like in different situations. Part of this we talked about KYHFOOTY- Keep Your Hands, Feet, and Other Objects To Yourself. So now I can just say KYHFOOTY and they can quickly change what they are doing.

This year we are focusing on growth. Not just in academics or stature- these 3rd graders are going to have a growth spurt this year. But we talked about the Power of the Yeti. Each student picked something that they want to get better at this year. Some chose a school subject while others chose something physical. We discussed some difficult things that they can’t do “yeti” and what we can do when things get hard. I shared that they can do hard things. I was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago. It was a really difficult time in my life. I had multiple surgeries, chemotherapy (including losing all my hair), and radiation.  I was able to fight during the hard times and now I am doing really well. We talked a lot about perseverance and to keep trying. Ask your student what they want to work on this year and how they can use the Power of the Yeti.

We had many of the Student Code of Conduct sheets returned to me but I am still missing a few. If you haven’t sat down with your student and discussed these things with them, please do so over the weekend and have them initial the form and return it to me on Monday. Those that turned it in by today will receive PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention Supports) points. I have linked the Student Code of Conduct forms on my website on the helpful links page.

Title 1 School- We are a Targeted Assistance School 

Please fill out this form! We will receive federal funds to help our students and help teachers have things for their classrooms.

Click here- Steps for creating an account in ASPIRE and filling out a Free/Reduced meal application

Just an update about the road work near the school, they will have to shut down a small portion of the road again next week to do some manhole/sewer work. 

Here are the essentials for families:

• Full road closure: Vadania Dr. from 11800 S to Digory Dr.

• Detour: Traffic will be routed to Grandville Ave. Detour signs will be in place.

• Sidewalks: East sidewalk closed to pedestrians; west sidewalk remains open.

• Timing: Work hours are daytime; the closure will remain in place all week for safety.

After Back To School Night, someone left a teal laundry basket in my room. If it is yours, please let me know and we can arrange how to get it back to you.

The vocabulary words from this week include: manipulatives, cooperation, unique, empathy, perseverance, transitions, initials, technology, peers, and path.

Warmly,
Kristen McIff
Third Grade Teacher
Early Light Academy

Newsletter Wednesday, August 20th

Hello Parents and Students,

Welcome to the 2025–2026 school year! I hope you had a wonderful summer and are ready for the exciting year ahead. My name is Kristen McIff, and I am thrilled to be joining Early Light Academy as a third-grade teacher.

Growing up with an educator as a mother, I developed a deep respect for the teaching profession at an early age. That influence shaped my path and instilled in me a lifelong passion for learning—something I now strive to inspire in my students every day. My goal is to empower students to become curious, confident, and lifelong learners.

As an educator, I am committed to continually growing in my practice. Whether through graduate coursework or informal learning opportunities, I am always seeking ways to improve my teaching and enhance student outcomes. Literacy holds a special place in my heart—I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember. As a child, I eagerly joined reading marathons and book challenges, and I’m currently making my way through the 100 Must-Read American Novels.

Outside of the classroom, I enjoy spending time with my family. I’m a proud parent of three children and a grandparent to two wonderful grandchildren. I’m also a Disney enthusiast and love gardening, hiking, and traveling. So far, I’ve explored 30 U.S. states and eight countries—and I’m excited to see where my next adventure takes me.

Communication

I believe that strong communication between home and school is essential. I will send out a weekly newsletter with reminders, upcoming events, and classroom updates. You will also find newsletters, a two-week look ahead, our year-long plan, homework, and important dates posted on our class website (linked at the end of this email and on the school website under my name).

If you’d like to meet during the year, my office hours are Monday–Thursday, 3:30–4:00 pm. The best way to reach me is by email, though you may also call through the school. I will respond within 48 hours. Please also feel free to share anything about your child’s interests, needs, or strengths that will help me better support their success this year.

Important Dates

• Back-to-School Night: Monday, August 18th, 5:00–7:00 pm
  This is a great opportunity to drop off supplies, meet me, ask questions, and receive information on classroom expectations and school policies.
  
  

• First Day of School: Wednesday, August 20th
  Please ensure your child is in dress code and ready for an 8:20 am start. Make sure they have their lunch, backpack, supplies, and water bottle. School dismisses at 3:10 pm. If your child rides with a sibling, please arrange a meeting spot outside.
  
  

Classroom Expectations

To help foster a positive environment, please do not send toys to school. During the first week, we will focus on learning procedures, expectations, and creating our own class rules together. We will also discuss the importance of respecting one another and each other’s belongings.

I am excited to partner with you in making this year a positive, engaging, and successful experience for your child. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. I look forward to seeing you at Back-to-School Night on August 18th!

Warmly,
Kristen McIff
Third Grade Teacher
Early Light Academy

Newsletter Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2025

Newsletter Sept. 22, 2025 

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of September 29-October 3, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

We are off to a great start this month! Students are working hard on reading, spelling, writing, science, math, and vocabulary. Please take a few minutes each evening to review words and concepts with your child. Consistent practice helps build confidence and fluency!

📖 Reading Focus: Reader’s Theater

This week we are introducing Reader’s Theaters! Students will practice reading fluently with expression, pacing, and accuracy as they prepare to perform a play. Reader’s Theater helps students build confidence in reading aloud and makes reading fun and interactive.

✍️ Writing Focus

We will focus on opinion writing. Students will create an argumentative text trying to convince their friends to visit a national park or national monument to learn more about the United States. They will practice using reasons, examples, and persuasive language to support their opinions.

🔬 Science Spotlight

In science, we will be practicing bridge building! Students will learn about real-life bridge design and how forces work in engineering. In the activity Paper Bridge Engineering, students will use only paper to design a bridge that can hold as many pennies as possible.

➕ Math Corner: Add Using Arrays

This week, students are learning about adding with arrays. An array is a set of objects arranged in equal rows and columns. Students will explore how to break apart arrays into rows or columns to make addition easier.

For example:
- 5 rows of 4 = 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 20
- 4 columns of 5 = 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20

👉 Try grouping objects at home into rows and columns to practice skip-counting.

🔠 Spelling Words- there are no new spelling words this week. Since it is a review week.

List A

1. coast

2. float

3. toad

4. coal

5. soak

6. gold

7. sold

8. scold

9. slope

10. broke

11. note

12. bone

13. slow

14. show

15. foe

16. snail

17. same

18. weigh

19. bowl

20. program

List B

1. plain

2. braid

3. fail

4. grain

5. snail

6. paint

7. sway

8. tray

9. gray

10. stay

11. state

12. fake

13. same

14. weigh

15. they

16. fine

17. skate

18. globe

19. sleigh

20. afraid

📚 Vocabulary Words

1. gigantic – very, very big.

2. mission – a special job or task to do.

3. destination – the place you are going.

4. population – the number of people who live in a place.

5. investigate – to look at something carefully to learn more.

6. recycle – to use something again instead of throwing it away.

📅 Important Dates

- Assessment day for Language Arts, Math and Science: Friday, Oct. 3
- Student-led conferences October 2nd and 3rd

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of October 6-10, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

It was wonderful to meet you during student-led conferences. We are proud of the progress students are making already. We appreciate your support in your child’s education. 

📖 Reading Focus:Informational Text

This week we are highlighting text features: headings and bar graphs in informational text. Along with, author’s purpose and author’s claims. Our purpose is to discover how people make government work.

✍️ Writing Focus

In writing, our class is working on creating a realistic fiction story! Students are writing about two elementary students who are trying to convince their principal why RISE is important and why everyone should follow it. This project helps us practice organizing ideas, using strong details, and writing with purpose while also reinforcing the values behind RISE.

You can support your child at home by asking them to share their story idea and explain how their characters persuade the principal. This is a fun way to see how they are combining creativity with real-world problem-solving!

📝 Grammar Focus This week, our class is exploring different types of nouns! We are learning to tell the difference between common nouns (general names like teacher, city, book) and proper nouns (specific names like Mrs. Smith, New York, Charlotte’s Web). We are also discovering the difference between concrete nouns (things we can see, touch, taste, hear, or smell, like dog or pizza) and abstract nouns (ideas or feelings we can’t physically touch, like happiness or friendship). 

Ask your child to point out examples of each type of noun at home or while reading together—this is a great way to reinforce what we are practicing in class!

🏛️ Social Studies Spotlight

This week, we are diving into government and our rights as citizens! Students are learning about the different forms of government and how the three branches of government work together to make and enforce laws. We are also exploring the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights and discussing why it is so important to them as students—protecting freedoms like speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition.

Ask your child to share one way the First Amendment affects their daily life at school. It’s a great way to connect what we’re learning in class to the world around them!

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with 0, 1, 5, and 10

We will begin timed multiplication fact tests this week! We are continuing our work with multiplication. Please study facts at home. We will begin with 0s, 1s, and 2s! .Consistent practice helps build confidence and fluency!

🔠 Spelling Words- Both the long-i sound and the long-u sound can be spelled in several different ways. 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

1. Announced- told people about something

2. Candidates- people seeking an office or honor

3. Convince- to cause someone to believe or do something

4. Decisions- choices you make about something

5. Elect- to choose by voting

6. Estimate- to guess an amount

7. Government- people who guide a city, state, or country

8. Independent- able to do things for yourself

📅 Important Dates

- Assessment day for Language Arts, Math and Science: Friday, Oct. 10th
- Fall Break October 20-24

- 2nd term begins October 27

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of October 13-17, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

We are excited to announce our first field trip,

Field Trip Details:  see attached field trip information, sign and return before Fall Break

Destination: Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point

Date: Wednesday November 5, 2025

Departure/Return: Leave at 11:30 and return at 2:30 pm 

Transportation: School Buses

Chaperones are needed per class - 5 adults per class

Chaperones must complete a background check before attending fieldtrips

Student permission slips are due October 27th

📖 Reading Focus: Informational Text

This week we are highlighting text features: headings and bar graphs in informational text. Along with, author’s purpose and author’s claims. Our purpose is to discover how people make government work. We will work to identify characteristics of good citizenship, including participation in government by educating oneself about the issues, and voting. Also, we are learning about prefixes. A prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a word. A prefix changes the meaning of the word it is added to. You can use prefixes to figure out the meaning of new words.

• re- means to do again: retry means to try again.

• dis- means not or opposite: disappear means to go out of sight.

• un- means not or opposite: unhelpful means not helpful.

✍️ Writing Focus

In writing, our class is working on creating a realistic fiction story! Students are writing about two elementary students who are trying to convince their principal why RISE is important and why everyone should follow it. This project helps us practice organizing ideas, using strong details, and writing with purpose while also reinforcing the values behind RISE.

You can support your child at home by asking them to share their story idea and explain how their characters persuade the principal. This is a fun way to see how they are combining creativity with real-world problem-solving!

📝 Grammar Focus This week in language arts, our third graders are learning about singular and plural nouns! We’re exploring how singular nouns name one person, place, or thing (like dog or apple), and plural nouns name more than one (like dogs or apples). Students are practicing adding –s, –es, and changing spelling patterns to make nouns plural. You can support your child at home by pointing out singular and plural nouns in books you read together or around the house. It’s been exciting to see students strengthen their grammar and writing skills!

🏛️ Social Studies Spotlight

This week we will continue learning about government and our rights as citizens! Students are learning about the different forms of government and how the three branches of government work together to make and enforce laws. We are also exploring the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights and discussing why it is so important to them as students—protecting freedoms like speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition. Ask your child to share one way the First Amendment affects their daily life at school. It’s a great way to connect what we’re learning in class to the world around them!

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with 3, 4, and 6

We are focusing on the properties of multiplication. Multiplication will involve working with equal groups of objects. We are using the expression 7 x 2=14 to say 7 groups of 2 is 14. 

We are conducting multiplication timed tests each morning to practice math fact fluency. Please continue studying with your students. Here is the link for access to Quizlet flash cards. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kQ1jdLL2Qc8TOur9--J8i3SddQaT-yTo2niYB3qzQko/edit?usp=sharing

To work on math from home you and your child have access to Khan Academy. Please see this document for steps to log in https://docs.google.com/document/d/11c0eFvAk-j0QMoA0N-Jwt1pdgcdlZK2bu3u-0iJ_pDk/edit?usp=sharing

🔠 Spelling Words- Both the long-i sound and the long-u sound can be spelled in several different ways. 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.

heel

week

creek

free

green

street

freeze

seal

weak

bean

speaks

team

clean

cream

field

tight

tied

cute

sixteen

peanut

scold

🪶 Morphology-the study of how words are formed from smaller units called morphemes.Endings such as -es, -ed, -er, or -est can be added to change the form of a word. In some words that end in y, change the y to i before adding the ending: carry, carries, carried; happy, happier, happiest; lovely, lovelier, loveliest.

📅 Important Dates

- October 13-17th- Safety Week

- Assessment day for Language Arts, Math and Social Studies: Friday, Oct. 17th
- Fall Break October 20-24

- 2nd term begins October 27

- Halloween October 31st. Parade will start at 8:45 am. Students may wear school appropriate costumes.    No masks or weapons. Students’ costumes do not need to be a book character this year.Red Ribbon Week: - Oct 27th- October 31st- Red Ribbon Week/Spirit Week

• Monday- RED OUT day- wear all red for red ribbon week

• Tuesday- Luau Day- Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts bright colors and leis

• Wednesday- Decades Day- dress up in your favorite decade 

• Thursday- Hobby Day - wear what you love (sports gear/ band t's/ skater gear/ musical shirts/ etc)

• Friday- Book Character day

Dress code reminder- students are not allowed to wear grey bottoms of any kind. If they come to school wearing grey bottoms you will be called to come and bring them a different pair of bottoms. As the weather gets colder, please dress your child appropriately. They will be outside before school starts and at recess. Please label sweaters and sweatshirts with your child’s name.

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of October 27-31, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

We are excited to announce our first field trip,

Field Trip Details:  see attached field trip information, sign and return before Fall Break

Destination: Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point

Date: Wednesday November 5, 2025

Departure/Return: Leave at 11:30 and return at 2:30 pm 

Transportation: School Buses

Chaperones are needed per class - 5 adults per class- If you would like to chaperone, please let your child’s teacher know.

Chaperones must complete a background check before attending field trips. Background checks are good as long as your student is enrolled at Early Light Academy.

Student permission slips are due October 27th.

WE NEED PERMISSION SLIPS NOW!

📖 Reading Focus: Historical Fiction and Informational Text

This week we are focusing on historical fiction passages. We will be asking students, “Who do people immigrate to new places?” As we do so, we will be talking about plot, theme, and character development. When reading informational text, we will look at text structure and cause and effect.  If you have stories about someone in your family that has immigrated to a new country, please share them with your children.

✍️ Writing Focus: This week students will be identifying collective nouns and irregular plural nouns and writing the correct form of each. We will also be working on a Halloween writing prompt this week-encompassing all parts of a sentence-capitalization, punctuation, fingerspacing, complete sentences with a subject and predicate along with correct spelling. 

📝 Grammar Focus This week in language arts, our third graders are learning about plural possessives. A noun can be used to show possession: a child’s toy. A singular possessive noun is formed by adding an apostrophe and an s: a pig’s tail, a man’s hat, a book’s page. A plural possessive noun is formed by adding only an apostrophe if the plural noun ends in s: the dogs’ bowls. If a plural noun does not end in s, the possessive is formed by adding an apostrophe and an s: the men’s cars.You can support your child at home by pointing out plural possessive nouns in books you read together or around the house. It’s been exciting to see students strengthen their grammar and writing skills!

🔬Science

This week students will make observations and measurements of an object's motion while showing evidence that patterns can be made to create future motion. We will also be looking at a Halloween

science lesson of what would happen if you didn't have a skull.

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with properties of multiplication.

-We are focusing on the properties of multiplication. We are focusing on the properties of multiplication. We will be exploring the use of order and grouping to multiply. 

-We are conducting multiplication timed tests each morning to practice math fact fluency. Please continue studying with your students. Here is the link for access to Quizlet flash cards. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kQ1jdLL2Qc8TOur9--J8i3SddQaT-yTo2niYB3qzQko/edit?usp=sharing

-To work on math from home you and your child have access to Khan Academy. Please see this document for steps to log in https://docs.google.com/document/d/11c0eFvAk-j0QMoA0N-Jwt1pdgcdlZK2bu3u-0iJ_pDk/edit?usp=sharing

🔠 Spelling Words- We are working on silent letters in words. Silent letters are letters in a word that are not pronounced when spoken. They can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of a word and can be either consonants or vowels. Examples include the 'k' in "knife," the 'b' in "debt," the 'g' in "gnat," and the 'h' in "ghost".

wrap

wrists

wrote

wreck

wring

write

wreath

knit

knife

knight

knock

knee

gnome

sign

gnaws

heel

weak

field

wristwatch

knapsack

scold

📅 Important Dates

- October 13-17th- Safety Week

- Assessment day for Language Arts, Math and Social Studies: Thursday, October 30th

- 2nd term begins October 27

- Halloween October 31st. The parade will start at 8:45 am. Students may wear school appropriate costumes.    No masks or weapons. Students’ costumes do not need to be a book character this year.Red -Ribbon Week: - Oct 27th- October 31st- Red Ribbon Week/Spirit Week

• Monday- RED OUT day- wear all red for red ribbon week

• Tuesday- Luau Day- Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts bright colors and leis

• Wednesday- Decades Day- dress up in your favorite decade 

• Thursday- Hobby Day - wear what you love (sports gear/ band t's/ skater gear/ musical shirts/ etc)

• Friday- Book Character day

Dress code reminder- students are not allowed to wear grey or brown bottoms of any kind. If they come to school wearing grey bottoms you will be called to come and bring them a different pair of bottoms. As the weather gets colder, please dress your child appropriately. They will be outside before school starts and at recess. Please label sweaters and sweatshirts with your child’s name.

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of November 3-7,  2025

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of November 3-7, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

Thank you to our awesome room parents for planning and carrying out such engaging activities for our Halloween parties. We really appreciate you!

We are excited for our first field trip on Wednesday. Thank you to our parents that have volunteered to help chaperone during our field trip! We are looking forward to learning more about Ancient Life that will tie into our science standards and curriculum. 

📖 Reading Focus: Historical Fiction and Informational Text

We have really enjoyed the stories from last week regarding immigration. This week we are continuing our focusing on historical fiction passages. We will be asking students, “Why do people immigrate to new places?” As we do so, we will be talking about plot, theme, and character development. When reading informational text, we will look at text structure and cause and effect.  If you have stories about someone in your family that has immigrated to a new country, please share them with your children.

✍️ Writing Focus: This week students will be revisiting their research about National Parks and National Monuments. As we prepare to celebrate our National Parks and Monuments on November 13th for our Culture Fair, our classes will  take a look at unique geography, habitats, flora and fauna of the National Park they chose. We will be working with our buddy classes in the junior high to share information about their chosen topic.

📝 Grammar Focus Grammar: This week students will be learning how to combine predicate nouns and subject nouns within sentences as well as using commas in the correct spots for sentences. Discuss with your child about what a subject and a predicate are. Also review with them how we use commas within a sentence (they can be used in more than one way! See if you can come up with them all.)

🏛️ Social Studies Spotlight

This week students will learn about their civic rights and responsibilities within their community. They will learn about the importance of the influence of many within the community that came before them. We will also learn about how our community has improved over time and recognizing the contributions to our community. 

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with properties of multiplication.

This week and next, we will be reviewing multiplication properties, multiplying by multiples of 10, and starting division! For example, if the equation is 6x80, students that know their facts can easily use the fact of 6x8=48 to apply a strategy of placing an additional zero to easily solve a multiple of 10 to solve 6x80=480. However, students that do not know this fact will have to draw a model to solve. That is cumbersome and not the most efficient way. The standard algorithm is not taught until 4th grade so students should be practicing daily to improve their multiplication fluency.  Families, it is IMPERATIVE that you are working on fast multiplication facts at home. It is getting more and more necessary for students to know their facts! Please reach out to your student's teacher if you need ideas for learning these!

-We are conducting multiplication timed tests each morning to practice math fact fluency. Please continue studying with your students. Here is the link for access to Quizlet flash cards. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kQ1jdLL2Qc8TOur9--J8i3SddQaT-yTo2niYB3qzQko/edit?usp=sharing

-To work on math from home you and your child have access to Khan Academy. Please see this document for steps to log in https://docs.google.com/document/d/11c0eFvAk-j0QMoA0N-Jwt1pdgcdlZK2bu3u-0iJ_pDk/edit?usp=sharing

🔠 Spelling Words- We are working on silent letters in words. Silent letters are letters in a word that are not pronounced when spoken. They can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of a word and can be either consonants or vowels. Examples include the 'k' in "knife," the 'b' in "debt," the 'g' in "gnat," and the 'h' in "ghost".

scrubs

screams

scratch

scrape

screen

spread

splash

spray

streak

strength

strong

squeak

three

throw

thread

wrote

knife

sign

streamer

scribble

split

📅 Important Dates

Nov. 3-6, 2025 CogAt assessments for those that requested for their child to be assessed for the Gifted and Talented Program

Nov. 4, 2025 School Picture Day make ups

Nov. 5, 2025 Field trip to the Museum of Ancient Life

Nov. 7, 2025 Dress Down Day

Nov. 7, 2025 12:30-1:00 pm-  Ms. Hill’s and Mrs. McIff’s class will have their Tanner Dance Informance.

Nov. 11, 2025 Veteran's Day Assembly

Nov. 13, 2025 5 pm to 7 pm - Culture Fair- National parks and monuments presentations

Nov. 14, 2025 Virtual Wellness Day - No students at school

Dress code reminder- students are not allowed to wear grey or brown bottoms of any kind. If they come to school wearing grey bottoms you will be called to come and bring them a different pair of bottoms. As the weather gets colder, please dress your child appropriately. They will be outside before school starts and at recess. Please label sweaters and sweatshirts with your child’s name.

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of November 10-13, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

We appreciate all our parent volunteers that joined us on the field trip to the Museum of Ancient Life. It was engaging to learn about the life cycle of living organisms. We will continue these lessons later in the year with our science curriculum.

📖 Reading Focus: Historical Fiction and Informational Text

For the next week our classes will be learning how people find solutions to problems. When we must figure something out, what do we think of first? What do we do next? We will read different texts in the genre of poetry. We will also be reviewing digraphs. Help your child write the spelling words and additional words in columns labeled with the letters ch, tch, th, and sh.

✍️ Writing Focus: This week we will be working on a poetry story where they have had to figure something out using an invention to help them. We will be learning about free verse type poems and the components that go into a poem while reading different poems this week so they can see different examples. Talk with your child about an invention they would want to create to help them in figuring something out. 

📝 Grammar Focus This week we will be reviewing subject nouns, predicate nouns and commas. We will also learn possessive nouns this week and understand where we add apostrophes to include that possession. This is a great opportunity to discuss with your child of things that are of their possession and versus others.

🔬 Science Spotlight

This week students will continue with learning about force and motion. They will be exploring with two different topics: what magnets can do as well as how you can unlock a door using a magnet? Students will look at one lesson that encompasses the properties of magnets, how their push and pull occurs and what metals attract magnets. The second lesson students will look at magnetic attraction and repulsion. Discuss with your child what they learned about force and motion this week!

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with properties of multiplication.

This week your child will be exploring the meaning of division. When you divide, you separate a group of objects into smaller, equal sized groups. Other times you know how many objects you want in each group, and you use division to find out how many groups you can make. Multiplication and division are closely tied together so students should be practicing daily to improve their multiplication fluency.  Families, it is IMPERATIVE that you are working on fast multiplication facts at home. It is getting more and more necessary for students to know their facts! Please reach out to your student's teacher if you need ideas for learning these!

-We are conducting multiplication timed tests each morning to practice math fact fluency. Please continue studying with your students. Here is the link for access to Quizlet flash cards. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kQ1jdLL2Qc8TOur9--J8i3SddQaT-yTo2niYB3qzQko/edit?usp=sharing

-To work on math from home you and your child have access to Khan Academy. Please see this document for steps to log in https://docs.google.com/document/d/11c0eFvAk-j0QMoA0N-Jwt1pdgcdlZK2bu3u-0iJ_pDk/edit?usp=sharing

Here are some websites you can use to practice math skills. 

• iReady Flight Fluency available through your student’s portal in Classlink.com  They will use sign in with Google. They use the same log in as they do in school. You may have to add @earlylightacademy.org to their Google login

• Multiplication.com

• https://www.boddlelearning.com/parents-page

• https://xtramath.org/#/signin/teacher_other

• https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/parents

• https://www.boddlelearning.com/parents-page

• https://play.stmath.com/academy/modules/hs_started/ if you sign up as a homeschool student you can get free access to ST math. Your student should be familiar with this math program from years past.

🔠 Spelling Words- Digraphs are two consonants that come together to stand for one sound. Trigraphs are three letters that stand for one sound. Help your child write the spelling words and additional words in columns labeled with the letters ch, tch, th, wh, and sh.

chick

much

pitch

teacher

lunch

hatch

cheese

stretch

thick

truth

pathway

them

fish

whales

what

spray

streak

thread

sandwich

weather

white

📅 Important Dates

• Nov. 11, 2025 Veteran's Day Assembly

• Nov. 13, 2025 5 pm to 7 pm - Culture Fair- National parks and monuments presentations

• Nov. 14, 2025 Virtual Wellness Day - No students at school

• Nov. 21, 2025 Battle of the Books registration due

Dress code reminder- students are not allowed to wear grey or brown bottoms of any kind. If they come to school wearing grey bottoms you will be called to come and bring them a different pair of bottoms. As the weather gets colder, please dress your child appropriately. They will be outside before school starts and at recess. Please label sweaters and sweatshirts with your child’s name.

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of November 17-21, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

We hope you enjoyed your virtual wellness day on Friday. As teachers, we spent the day learning and practicing how to keep our school and students safe. We want to emphasize that attendance every day is necessary for success of your students even as the holidays approach.

📖 Reading Focus: Poetry and Realistic Fiction

This week in our Language Arts lessons, we will review characteristics of poetry and work on our own poems about a problem that needs to be solved. We will be trying our learning to inventions that have been developed to solve problems throughout history. We will also be practicing some test taking strategies to help us with state mandated testing. 

✍️ Writing Focus: This week students will be using poetry to create a story of an invention that can help them in figuring something out in the world. Talk with them about the importance of what goes into poetry-think about those rhyming words and how to set up your poem.

📝 Grammar Focus This week students will be learning about how to use possessive nouns in sentence writing and determining where apostrophes go within that sentence. Challenge your child to think of possessives around them!

🏛️ Social Studies Spotlight

This week we will continue to focus on rights and responsibilities as a member of our communities. We will learn about decisions we have made as a class or a family and what's into that, understanding elected vs appointed, why the government collects tax money, how people and leaders can make a difference in the world. Great opportunity to discuss with your child what they learned this week!

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with properties of multiplication.

As third grade teachers, after reviewing multiplication tests, we determined we needed a review week before starting division.  This week your child will be exploring the meaning of division. When you divide, you separate a group of objects into smaller, equal sized groups. Other times you know how many objects you want in each group, and you use division to find out how many groups you can make. Multiplication and division are closely tied together so students should be practicing daily to improve their multiplication fluency.  Knowing and practicing math facts at home is necessary since they really help now that we are starting division.

It is getting more and more necessary for students to know their facts! Please reach out to your student's teacher if you need ideas for learning these!

-We are conducting multiplication timed tests each morning to practice math fact fluency. Please continue studying with your students. Here is the link for access to Quizlet flash cards. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kQ1jdLL2Qc8TOur9--J8i3SddQaT-yTo2niYB3qzQko/edit?usp=sharing

-To work on math from home you and your child have access to Khan Academy. Please see this document for steps to log in https://docs.google.com/document/d/11c0eFvAk-j0QMoA0N-Jwt1pdgcdlZK2bu3u-0iJ_pDk/edit?usp=sharing

Here are some websites you can use to practice math skills. 

• iReady Flight Fluency available through your student’s portal in Classlink.com  They will use sign in with Google. They use the same log in as they do in school. You may have to add @earlylightacademy.org to their Google login

• Multiplication.com

• https://www.boddlelearning.com/parents-page

• https://xtramath.org/#/signin/teacher_other

• https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/parents

• https://www.boddlelearning.com/parents-page

• https://play.stmath.com/academy/modules/hs_started/ if you sign up as a homeschool student you can get free access to ST math. Your student should be familiar with this math program from years past.

🔠 Spelling Words- In our Language Arts curriculum it is a review week so there are no new spelling words this week. 

📅 Important Dates

• Nov. 21, 2025 Battle of the Books registration due

• Nov. 26-28, 2025 there will be no school due to the Thanksgiving break. There will NOT be an early out day on Nov 25, 2025.

Dress code reminder- students are not allowed to wear grey or brown bottoms of any kind. If they come to school wearing grey bottoms you will be called to come and bring them a different pair of bottoms. As the weather gets colder, please dress your child appropriately. They will be outside before school starts and at recess. Please label sweaters and sweatshirts with your child’s name.

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of December 1-5, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

We are thankful for each of you! We enjoyed our Thanksgiving break and we hope you did too. We reflected on all the goodness that life has to offer us. We are excited to be back for a few short weeks before we head off to the winter break. 

📖 Reading Focus: Expository Text

As we begin a new unit in our Language Arts curriculum we turn our focus to expository text. Our essential question is, “What do we know about Earth and its neighbors?” We will practice using text features, key words and charts to find the author’s purpose, the central idea with relevant details.  

✍️ Writing Focus: 

This week students will be working with opinion writing. They will be writing a paragraph about if robots or people should explore space. We will be using all things that go within writing such as capital letters, punctuation, fingerspacing, correct spelling and writing neatly within our paragraph.

📝 Grammar Focus 

This week students will be learning about action verbs within a sentence and adding in quotation marks and colons. They will have the opportunity to practice writing them within sentences. Ask your child when do we use action verbs, quotation marks and colons within sentences?

🔬 Science Spotlight

This week we are continuing to explore with force and motion as we finish our unit in exploring with ice boards, and assessing our knowledge from the unit about force and motion. We will also be jumping into our next unit with animals and where you can find whales within the desert.

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with properties of multiplication.

In Math this week, we will explore the relationship between multiplication and division as well as patterns. We will also be taking our mid-year iReady diagnostic tests this week. Please be on time and rested to school as these begin right after announcements. We are looking for growth from the beginning of the year!

Multiplication and division are closely tied together so students should be practicing daily to improve their multiplication fluency.  Knowing and practicing math facts at home is necessary since they really help now that we are starting division.

It is getting more and more necessary for students to know their facts! Please reach out to your student's teacher if you need ideas for learning these!

-We are conducting multiplication timed tests each morning to practice math fact fluency. Please continue studying with your students. Here is the link for access to Quizlet flash cards. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kQ1jdLL2Qc8TOur9--J8i3SddQaT-yTo2niYB3qzQko/edit?usp=sharing

-To work on math from home you and your child have access to Khan Academy. Please see this document for steps to log in https://docs.google.com/document/d/11c0eFvAk-j0QMoA0N-Jwt1pdgcdlZK2bu3u-0iJ_pDk/edit?usp=sharing

Here are some websites you can use to practice math skills. 

• iReady Flight Fluency available through your student’s portal in Classlink.com  They will use sign in with Google. They use the same log in as they do in school. You may have to add @earlylightacademy.org to their Google login

• Multiplication.com

• https://www.boddlelearning.com/parents-page

• https://xtramath.org/#/signin/teacher_other

• https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/parents

• https://www.boddlelearning.com/parents-page

• https://play.stmath.com/academy/modules/hs_started/ if you sign up as a homeschool student you can get free access to ST math. Your student should be familiar with this math program from years past.

🔠 Spelling Words- This week our spelling focus is on R-Controlled vowels. These are tricky words to know how to spell. Unfortunately, there is not a rule to know when to use er, ir, or ur. Students will just need to memorize when to each one to spell a word correctly. 

Whirl

third

girls

firm

fern

herds

stern

serve

hurt

nurse

turns

learn

pearl

word

world

stretch

thick

whales

perfect

Thursday

curve

📅 Important Dates

Monday-Friday, Dec. 1-5: Heritage Week: Heritage is the legacy we inherit from those who came before us. This means our school’s traditions, shared memories, and the awesome sense of community we have worked so hard to build year after year! It’s also what we choose to pass on to the students coming to school each day.

Monday,  Dec. 1: Hearts of Gold Assembly

Friday, Dec.5: Dress Down Day