Newsletter March 9-13, 2006

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of March 9-13, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

We are moving into that time of year when we have made it through the long stretch of February and are looking ahead to Spring Break. While the break is exciting, it’s important that we continue to stay focused. Our learning is still in full swing, and students are continuing to grow in all areas of school.

Please do your best to limit absences and tardies during this time. Because our schedule is very full, we often do not have time to reteach material that students miss. When this happens, students can feel frustrated when they return and find it difficult to understand concepts that were taught while they were away. Your support in helping students attend school regularly makes a big difference.

📖 Reading Focus: Review Week

We are wrapping up Unit 4 of our Wonders reading curriculum. Students explored the essential questions: How can you use what you know to help others? How can animals adapt to the challenges in their habitat? and How can others inspire us?

Students will be taking the Unit 4 assessment, which covers the skills we’ve practiced over the past five weeks. These include finding text evidence, comparing and contrasting, identifying a character’s perspective, explaining character development, using text features, recognizing figurative language, and reading different types of poetry. 

📝 Grammar Focus 

This week we will not be learning new concepts so this is a great time to review concepts we have learned in this unit. Review with your child linking verbs which connect our subject to the predicate, contractions using not and helping them see which letters are replaced with the apostrophe. We also looked at main and helping verbs with a main verb telling what the subject is or does and the helping verb helps the main verb show action. We also explored complex sentences and the difference between independent and dependent clauses. Finally we looked at irregular verbs. This is a great time to review these concepts!

✍️  Writing Focus 

This week in writing we are continuing with expository writing. Students will be creating an expository essay based on what skills firefighters need to do their job and why it is important for them to have those skills. We want to make sure students have a topic sentence, three strong details that have evidence from the text supporting it and a strong conclusion.

🔬Science Spotlight

This week in science we are starting a new unit about weather and climate! In this unit, students will explore weather and climate patterns. They will make predictions about the weather through careful observations of the clouds, wind, temperature, and precipitation. Students will also learn to differentiate between weather and climate and use models to reveal global climate patterns. They will use this information to design solutions that reduce the impacts of severe weather events like windstorms.

✖️Math Corner: Understanding equivalent fractions

This week we will be continuing our work on equivalent fractions! Please keep working on multiplication facts at home and talk with your student's teacher about any Math concerns with fractions! Our students are AMAZING!!!

🔠 Spelling Words- As this is a review week, there are no new spelling words. Have your child practice past spelling patterns.: variant vowels /ü/ and /ů/, oo as in spoon, ew as in chew, u_e as in tube, ue as in due, u as in July, ui as in fruit, ou as in soup. Tell students that the vowel sound /ů/ can be spelled oo, as in book, and ou, as in could., vowel digraphs, or teams, such as ea, ee, ai, ie, ay, ow, ey, oe, and oa, variant vowel /ô/, aw as in straw; au as in haul; al as in salt and walk; all as in ball; ough as in bought; a as in water, and r, the r changes the vowel’s sound.

In a word that has more than one syllable, both the vowel and the letter r appear in the same syllable because they act as a team to make the vowel sound., homophones, plurals, and soft c and g.

📚 Vocabulary Words

1. Adventurous-willing to risk danger for excitement

2. Courageous-brave

3. Extremely- very

4. Weird-strange or mysterious

5. Free verse-poem that does not rhyme or follow a rhythmic pattern

6. Narrative poems- a poem that tells a story

7. Repetition- using the same word several times in a poem

8. Rhyme- words that end with the same sound

📅 Important Dates

• Friday, March 13: Dress-down day

• Friday, March 13: Yearbook Orders due

• March 9-13: College Week 

• March 12: Wear college shirts or hats. You must have uniform bottoms. 

Newsletter March 2-6, 2026

 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of March 2-6, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

We sincerely enjoyed meeting with you during parent-teacher conferences. Thank you for the time you took to connect with us and for the support you provide your child each day

When we partner together, we create a strong support system that helps your student grow academically, build confidence, and continue progressing throughout the rest of the school year. We truly value working as a team to help your child succeed.

Attached this week is the next of our math practice review sheets. Please make sure your student completes this daily. This is a great way to see exactly which concepts your student is struggling with. If these cannot be done independently, please reach out to your student’s teacher for additional support as soon as possible. A completed sheet will earn your child 10 PBIS points if returned on Friday of each week. 

📖 Reading Focus: Expository Text

We are diving into the world of poetry. We will be reading free-verse poetry, narrative poems, and haikus. We work on creating our own acrostic poems. We will also focus on theme and imagery in poems. All while thinking about how others can inspire us. 

✍️ Writing Focus

This week in writing we are creating an expository essay based on two stories from our Wonders curriculum. Students will have to have a topic sentence, supporting details and a strong conclusion to help in supporting the topic of how firefighters have certain traits and skills to do their job.

📝 Grammar Focus 

This week in grammar we are focusing on Irregular Verbs. Students will learn how to write an irregular verb in a sentence while making sure subjects and helping verbs agree within the sentence. They will also have to proofread a paragraph to make sure that they are spelled the  correct way. 

🔬Science Spotlight

We are finishing up our Heredity, Survival and Selection unit with a lesson about "Why do dogs wag their tails?" We will learn about and discuss why some animals form groups to help members survive. We'll finish off the unit with a unit assessment.

✖️Math Corner: Understanding equivalent fractions

This week, we will continue studying fractions and learning about making equivalent fractions. Please reach out to your student's teacher if you need support with Math facts or current Math work. Multiplication facts will be a grade beginning in 4th quarter so it is very important that we make it to the 10s! 

🔠 Spelling Words- soft c and soft g words. The letter c has a hard /k/ sound in cat and a soft /s/ sound in circle. When c comes before the letters i or e, it usually has a /s/ sound. The letter g has a hard /g/ sound in goat and a soft /j/ sound in gem. When g comes before letters i or e, it usually has a /j/ sound.

pounce

placed

dice

cents

price

space

mice

office

wage

age

gyms

giant

changes

message

pages

you

road

peace

giraffe

peaceful

it’s

📚 Vocabulary Words

1. Adventurous-willing to risk danger for excitement

2. Courageous-brave

3. Extremely- very

4. Weird-strange or mysterious

5. Free verse-poem that does not rhyme or follow a rhythmic pattern

6. Narrative poems- a poem that tells a story

7. Repetition- using the same word several times in a poem

8. Rhyme- words that end with the same sound

📅 Important Dates

• Feb 23-March 2, 2026 - PEAK Read-a-thon- See flier that came home with your student

• Thursday, March 5: Open House 

• March 6: No school.

• March 9-13: College Week (details coming soon)

Newsletter February 23-27, 2026

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of February 23-27, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

There are parent-teacher conferences this week. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do so now. We are excited to share your student’s progress with you. 

Attached this week is the next of our math practice review sheets. Please make sure your student completes this daily. This is a great way to see exactly which concepts your student is struggling with. If these cannot be done independently, please reach out to your student’s teacher for additional support as soon as possible. A completed sheet will earn your child 10 PBIS points if returned on Friday of each week. 

📖 Reading Focus: Expository Text

This week we are continuing our lessons on how animals adapt to challenges in their habitat. We have focused on comparing and contrasting different animals and their adaptations. We have used Venn Diagrams to see how they are similar and different. Within the expository texts we have honed in on text features that add to our understanding. 

✍️ Writing Focus

This week we are continuing with expository writing. Students are working on making a strong paragraph based on the writing topic they have been given. We are also working on revising our paragraphs and making sure they are nice and strong with clear sentences and lots of details.

📝 Grammar Focus 

Our focus for grammar this week is creating complex sentences and using subordinating conjunctions. Students will learn how to combine clauses together, add in commas if needed and understanding where they go. They will also determine the subordinating conjunction within the sentence and understand the importance of commas.

🔬Science Spotlight

This week in science we are continuing our unit on heredity, survival, and selection. This week's lesson is "How Could a Lizard's Toes Help it Survive?" Students will be analyzing and interpreting data, creating graphs, constructing arguments with evidence, and using evidence to explain what they learn.

✖️Math Corner: Understanding what a fraction is

This week, we will continue learning about fractions on number lines. We will have a quiz on our fraction concepts and fractions on a number line this week. Continue doing Math review homework and studying your facts at home! Students should be working on 10s this week if you are pacing. See your teacher for help! These facts will become grades soon! Don’t forget to practice the multiplication facts songs with your child. They are a great way to learn via music.

🔠 Spelling Words- Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings.

sale

sail

beet

beat

rode

road

rowed

its

it’s

your

you’re

their

they’re

peace

piece

taught

talked

bought

seen

scene

daisies

📚 Vocabulary Words

1. Shelter- something that covers or protects

2. Alert- to give warning

3. Competition- situation where people or animals are trying to be more successful than others

4. Environment- natural features of a place

5. Excellent- very good

6. Prefer- like better

7. Protection- when something is kept safe

8. Related- belong to the same family

📅 Important Dates

•  January 15-March 6, 2026- WIDA testing for our Multilingual Lingual Learners (MLLs)

• February 23-27, 2026 Book Fair

• February 26-27, 2026- Parent Teacher Conferences

• Feb 23-March 2, 2026 - PEAK Read-a-thon- See flier that came home with your student

• March 9-13, 2026- College Week

Newsletter February 9-12, 2026

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of February 9-12, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

Hope and Kindness Week is a meaningful time to reflect on how our daily behaviors shape our school community. Through intentional acts of friendship and care, we practice being Respectful, Inclusive, Safe, and Engaged. This week highlights the power of small choices and kind actions. Together, we strengthen connections and build a sense of belonging. By living our R.I.S.E. values, we help create a hopeful and supportive school for all.

Attached this week is the next of our math practice review sheets. Please make sure your student completes this daily. This is a great way to see exactly which concepts your student is struggling with. If these cannot be done independently, please reach out to your student’s teacher for additional support as soon as possible. A completed sheet will earn your child 10 PBIS points if returned on Friday of each week.

📖 Reading Focus: Realistic Fiction

As we continue Unit 4, we will still be learning about realistic fiction while asking the Essential Question: How can you use what you know to help others? We will learn more about character perspective, character and plot development. We will revisit the concepts of figurative language with similes and hyperboles.

✍️ Writing Focus

This week in writing we are continuing with expository writing. Students will be using a checklist to help remind them of what needs to be included in their expository writing while also using Utah compose to help them proofread it and make revisions. We are continuing to focus on strong paragraphs with strong topic sentences and concluding sentences along with their strong details that all tie back to the question.

📝 Grammar Focus 

This week in grammar we are focusing on the importance of contractions. Students will learn what makes up a contraction, why we need to change it in a sentence when we proofread it, and why they are so important. Students will have the opportunity to proofread sentences later in the week and fix any contractions that are incorrect. Talk with your child about what contractions they have learned this week. . 

🔬Science Spotlight

We are continuing our unit on heredity, survival, and selection. This week's lesson is "what do dogs and pigeons have in common?" We'll explore traits of animals and the process of natural and artificial selection.

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with 0 through 10

This week, we will continue to study about two-step word problems. We will have a quiz on Thursday. Make sure to complete the Math Homework Sheet each night and turn in. Keep studying multiplication facts at home! 

🔠 Spelling Words- Plural nouns are typically formed by adding -s or -es to a singular noun. To make nouns ending in 'y' plural, you generally change the 'y' to 'i' and add 'es' if a consonant comes before the 'y'. Nouns ending in s, ss, x, ch, or sh form the plural by adding -es to the root.

years

twins

trays

states

ashes

foxes

inches

flies

cities

ponies

bunches

alleys

lunches

cherries

daises

spoon

clues

shook

heroes

libraries

childhood

📚 Vocabulary Words

Achievement-something that your accomplish

Apologized- said your were sorry

Attention- watch, listen, and concentrate on something

Audience- a group of people gathered to hear or see something

Confidence- trust or faith in something or someone

Embarrassed- shy, uncomfortable, or ashamed  

Realized- understood something completely

Talents- natural abilities or skills

📅 Important Dates

February 9-12, 2026- Hope and Kindness Week

 January 15-March 6, 2026- WIDA testing for our Multilingual Lingual Learners (MLLs)

February 12, 2026- Valentine’s Day party the last hour of the day. Children may bring small toys, stickers, or other small items but no candy should be passed out as Valentines to comply with our goal of healthy bodies at Early Light Academy. Your student may create at home a Valentine’s Day box as a receptacle for their Valentines. It should be no bigger than their desk. Students may wear Valentine’s Day colored clothing such as reds, pinks, and purples. If your child doesn’t want to wear Valentine’s colors they should just wear their uniforms.

February 13, 2026- No School - Teacher Comp Day

February 14, 2026- No School President’s Day

February 23-27, 2026 Book Fair

February 26-27, 2026- Parent Teacher Conferences

Newsletter February 2-5, 2026

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of February 2-6, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

Welcome to a new month! As we inch closer to the end of the year, students will be taking practice tests for the end of the year RISE summative assessment. This is state mandated testing and will assess their reading and math skills. We have mapped out our lessons to make sure everything will be taught before testing begins. We will also be doing spiral reviews of concepts already taught so it is fresh in our minds.

Attached this week is the first of our math practice review sheets. Please make sure your student completes this daily. This is a great way to see exactly which concepts your student is struggling with. If these cannot be done independently, please reach out to your student’s teacher for additional support as soon as possible. A completed sheet will earn your child 10 PBIS points if returned on Friday of each week.

📖 Reading Focus: Realistic Fiction

February brings us to a new unit in our Language Arts Curriculum. We will be learning about realistic fiction while asking the Essential Question: How can you use what you know to help others? We will learn more about character perspective, character and plot development. We will revisit the concepts of figurative language with similes and hyperboles.

✍️ Writing Focus

This week in writing students will be continuing to work on expository writing. They will be typing up their writing pieces on Utah Compose and editing their work based on revisions they have seen. We are focusing on creating a graphic organizer first for our writing pieces, then transferring that work to a rough draft. Once they have done that students will practice typing it on the computer while using their checklist given to them to make sure they have all of the requirements. 

📝 Grammar Focus 

This week for grammar we will be learning about linking verbs. Linking Verbs can connect our subject to a verb or adjective that is in the predicate. It helps us in giving more detail to the subject. Students will learn of different types of linking verbs that they can use in sentences and why one verb is better than the other when placed there. We will also be reviewing along in writing ending punctuation and what goes into a complete sentence. Students will also proofread later this week how to have the correct verb and make sure the sentence is grammatically correct. 

🔬Science Spotlight

This week in science we are starting a new unit on heredity, survival, and selection! This week's lessons we will be focusing on traits of fruit and "how to identify a mysterious fruit." Students will use evidence to group certain fruits together based on their traits.

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with 0 through 10

In Math this week, we will begin studying Two-Step Word Problems. Keep working on multiplication facts! The students are starting to notice how helpful knowing their facts is!

🔠 Spelling Words- Our learning target for this week in spelling is “We can read, sort, and use spelling words with variant vowels /ü/ and /ů/.” 

spoon

goose

booth

gloom

rude

tube

due

clues

true

chew

July

look

shook

notebook

could

coins

joyful

round

classroom

childhood

childhood

📚 Vocabulary Words

1. Achievement-something that your accomplish

2. Apologized- said your were sorry

3. Attention- watch, listen, and concentrate on something

4. Audience- a group of people gathered to hear or see something

5. Confidence- trust or faith in something or someone

6. Embarrassed- shy, uncomfortable, or ashamed  

7. Realized- understood something completely

8. Talents- natural abilities or skills

📅 Important Dates

• Wednesday, February 4th is the 100th day of school. Yeah!

• Friday, February 6th, Student Dress Down Day

• Friday, February 6th, Spring Picture Day. Since it is a dress down day, students do not need to be in uniform for these optional pictures. If you would like your child to have their picture taken, please fill out this form. https://www.bellphoto.com/order and use the prepay code earlylightspr26

•  January 15-March 6, 2026- WIDA testing for our Multilingual Lingual Learners (MLLs)

• February 12, 2026- Valentine’s Day party the last hour of the day. Children may bring small toys, stickers, or other small items but no candy should be passed out as Valentines to comply with our goal of healthy bodies at Early Light Academy. Your student may create at home a Valentine’s Day box as a receptacle for their Valentines. It should be no bigger than their desk. Students may wear Valentine’s Day colored clothing such as reds, pinks, and purples. If your child doesn’t want to wear Valentine’s colors they should just wear their uniforms.

• February 13, 2026- No School - Teacher Comp Day

• February 14, 2026- No School President’s Day

• February 26-27, 2026- Parent Teacher Conferences

Newsletter January 26-30, 2026

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of January 26-30, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

We had so much fun with our Day in History last Friday. “The mission of the Early Light Academy is to deliver a high-quality education with a deep, rich, and engaging curriculum utilizing effective instructional techniques and emphasizing history, taking our students from the Stone Age to the Space Age, the Information Age, and beyond.” We hope your child came home with excitement and was able to tell you about their favorite activities from 1776.

📖 Reading Focus: 

We will be finishing up Unit 3 of our Wonders Language Arts curriculum. This will be a week of  review and assessment of all we have learned over the past 6 weeks. We have really enjoyed learning about expository texts and folktales. We have honed our skills in prefixes and suffixes, text features, author’s purpose, personification, and the central idea with supporting details.

✍️ Writing Focus

This week in writing we will be focusing on expository text writing. We will be forming a paragraph based on a change they want to make in the world and why. We will review how to set up a paragraph with a topic sentence, reasons and a concluding sentence. 

📝 Grammar Focus 

Since this week is a review week. Have your student practice taking our predicates together and using a conjunction to simplify the sentence. Also have them practice adding i commas between things like dates and years, and learning about colons within a letter. We will see within proofreading how to correct errors and why they must be a certain way.

Science Spotlight

This week we will finish up life cycles- we will be exploring different kinds of flowers in the world, why saguaros are tiny and taking our unit assessment. Students will wrap up the unit by exploring additional life cycle activities as we prepare for our next unit of science next week!

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with 0 through 6

This week, we will have a quiz on Area on Tuesday. We will begin Lesson 17, solving word problems. Please continue working on facts at home this week. We want to be completely finished with the 6s by Friday! See your teacher for help at home!

🔠 Spelling Words- 

Since last week was a short week and A Day in History we will take the spelling test for oi/oy and ou/ow words on Monday. There are no new spelling words this week due to it being a review week. It is always good to practice previous spelling words. 

📚 Vocabulary Words

1. Agreeable-nice or pleasant

2. Appreciate-grateful for something

3. Boomed- grown suddenly

4. Descendants- people who come from a particular ancestor or group of ancestors

5. Population-the number of people who live in a certain region or country

6. Resources-sources “of aid or support that may be drawn upon when needed”

7. Transportation- the means of carrying or moving something from one place to another

8. Vehicles- a means of transportation

📅 Important Dates

- January 27 - Panda Express South Jordan ELA Spirit Night 3:30-9:00pm

- January 15-March 6, 2026- WIDA testing for our Multilingual Lingual Learners (MLLs)

- February 12, 2026- Valentine’s Day party the last hour of the day. Children may bring small toys, stickers, or other small items but no candy should be passed out as Valentines to comply with our goal of healthy bodies at Early Light Academy.

Newsletter January 20, 2026

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of January 20-23, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

This week we will be celebrating A Day in History on Friday, January 23rd. We will be focusing on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Throughout the day, we will be going low tech and doing fun learning activities to learn more about lives during that time period. Students and staff are invited to dress-up in period appropriate clothing. The day will be filled with activities commemorating this momentous occasion. Please send in toilet paper or paper towel rolls, cereal,  tissue boxes or similar items for a craft that we will be making on this day.

📖 Reading Focus: Folktales

This week we turn our focus to expository(non-fiction)  texts. We will be studying events in history and how each one is unique. We will be continuing focusing on text structure, chronology, text features such as captions and timelines, and the author’s purpose. Keep reading at home at least 20 minutes a day.

✍️ Writing Focus

This week for writing students will be working with our program Utah Compose. This tool helps students learn about things they can correct in their writing to help make it even stronger. They will be walked through a graphic organizer, paragraph rough draft and then transferring that to Utah Compose. 

📝 Grammar Focus This week we will be focusing on combining sentences with verbs. We will be taking our predicates together and using a conjunction to simplify the sentence. We will also be adding in how to place commas between things like dates and years, and learning about colons within a letter. We will see within proofreading how to correct errors and why they must be a certain way.

🔬Science Spotlight

We will be continuing our study of life cycles. Students will work on learning the difference between a science fruit versus a science vegetable and what characteristics distinguish the two. They will also be looking at a science experiment that focuses on the concept of why there are so many different kinds of flowers. 

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with 0 through 6

We will continue adding area this week! Goals for multiplication facts are to be through the 6s by Thursday if possible! Please check in with your student's teacher for assistance!

🔠 Spelling Words- A prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a word to make a new word. The prefix dis- means “not,” and it changes a word’s meaning to its opposite. The prefix mis- means “bad or wrong.” The prefix pre- means “before.” Identifying prefixes can help readers decode and understand an unfamiliar word.

foil

coins

noise

point

enjoy

joyful

down

owl

crowd

plow

round

couch

proud

bounce

loudly

misprint

prepaid

discount

choice

snowplow

oil

📚 Vocabulary Words

1. Agreeable-nice or pleasant

2. Appreciate-grateful for something

3. Boomed- grown suddenly

4. Descendants- people who come from a particular ancestor or group of ancestors

5. Population-the number of people who live in a certain region or country

6. Resources-sources “of aid or support that may be drawn upon when needed”

7. Transportation- the means of carrying or moving something from one place to another

8. Vehicles- a means of transportation

📅 Important Dates

- January 16, 2026 End of second term

- January 19, 2026- NO SCHOOL! Martin Luther King Jr.  Day

- January 23, 2026- A Day in History- Celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence-   Students are invited to dress-up in period appropriate clothing. The day will be filled with activities commemorating this momentous occasion. Please send in toilet paper or paper towel rolls, cereal or tissue boxes for a craft that we will be making on this day.

- January 15-March 6, 2026- WIDA testing for our Multilingual Lingual Learners (MLLs)

- February 12, 2026- Valentine’s Day party the last hour of the day. Children may bring small toys, stickers, or other small items but no candy should be passed out as Valentines to comply with our goal of healthy bodies at Early Light Academy.

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

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of December 8-12, 2025

🌟 Dear Families,

As we near Winter Break, we wanted to celebrate holidays around the world. Teaching "Holidays Around the World" in elementary school helps kids understand diverse cultures, builds empathy, teaches respect, and connects to core subjects like geography, social studies, math, and literacy through fun, hands-on activities, showing that while celebrations differ, shared values like family, gratitude, and light often appear globally. We want to be inclusive in our learning. If your family has a tradition that they celebrate in winter, will you please share it with the third grade teachers? We would love to represent all our students. 

Hearts of Gold is going strong. Please donate! You can send money into school with your child or you can use Venmo at  http://venmo.com/u/Karen-Sewell-PEAK

📖 Reading Focus: Expository Text

We will continue to focus on 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.  As third graders, the emphasis will be on thinking deeper and not just reading for pleasure. The phrase in education is "Kindergarten through 2nd grade: learning to read, 3rd grade: reading to learn" Students will need to work on their critical thinking skills. 

✍️ Writing Focus: 

This week students will be working with opinion writing. They will be writing a paragraph about robots This week students will write a narrative story about being trapped in a snowglobe. They will have to determine the setting, characters, add in some dialogue and figurative language and share what happens if they were trapped one day. We will also be using writing structures such as capital letters, punctuation, fingerspacing and correct spelling.

📝 Grammar Focus 

This week we are looking at verb-subject agreement. We will be determining how to make the verb agree with the subject in a sentence to help our writing become even stronger. Ask your child this week the special rules that go into making a verb agree with its subject.

🏛️ Social Studies Spotlight

This week and next students will be learning about holidays around the world. Each day we will be learning about a different country, key information about it and then doing a craft or activity that goes along with the country. Talk with your child this week and next about the things they learn when it comes to celebrating a holiday throughout the world.

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with properties of multiplication.

Continue working on multiplication facts! We will work on patterns this week and take a quiz about multiplication, division, fact families and patterns. Students will complete a study guide for this. Please review!

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. 

sharp

yard

artist

carve

porch

storm

sport

story

chore

sore

hoard

oars

pour

your

learn

word

turns

orchard

ignore

shore

Thursday

📅 Important Dates

Monday,  Dec. 1-19: Hearts of Gold Fundraiser. Please donate!!

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of January 6-9, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

We are so glad to be back from Winter Break. We hope you were able to rest and enjoy the holiday season. We also hope your student read daily and practiced their math facts. We are jumping into middle of the year assessments soon. If your child completed the Winter Break Reading Challenge they must return their paper with your signature by Thursday, January 8th. If they misplaced their Reading Challenge, here is a link for you https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bHNCoKd7WXjQiRRa8-n0UXaWz4y16pbFRt_qnjAQdY0/edit?usp=sharing

📖 Reading Focus: Folktales

As we start the new year, we are also starting a new genre for reading, folktales. We will focus on theme, character perspective, text structure, and compare and contrast. Students will look for the lesson taught in each folktale. 

✍️ Writing Focus

This week students will take their when they were in a snowglobe writing and use the tool of Utah Compose to write out their stories and receive feedback on their writing. While also working on this students will be practicing an opinion writing about a winter activity and they choose one or the other and back up their opinion with reasons to help in supporting this.

📝 Grammar Focus This week students will be learning about past tense verbs- and writing out verbs based on when they are in the past. They will also learn about abbreviations and name titles while learning about when they need to be capitalized or when they need to be abbreviated to be a shorter form. Talk about some examples with your child of words we would need to capitalize and when we would want to abbreviate things like doctor when we are talking about a specific doctor. 

🔬Science Spotlight

This week students will be learning about life cycles along with our Wonders lessons this week. Students will be generating observations and questions about bats and cacti. They will also be looking at animals that were born on the exact day that they were born while looking at similarities and differences in life cycles. 

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with 0, 1, 2, and 3

Welcome back! This week we will begin studying Area! Please see the attached handout for information on this lesson. There will be a short quiz over this on Friday. Continue studying multiplication facts at home! We will continue timed tests this week. If your students have not yet passed the 0-3s facts, please contact your child's teacher for extra help!

🔠 Spelling Words- We are continuing to practice r-controlled vowels this week. Please practice these at home with your child. You will notice some homophones, two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling, for example new and knew.

"homophones can cause confusion and people often use the wrong one in error"

careful

stared

shared

pair

stairs

wear

bear

where

there

dear

rear

gear

here

career

peer

shore

carve

storm

square

clearly

fern

📚 Vocabulary Words

Unique- the only one of it’s kind

Disbelief- lack of belief about something

Dismay- shock and surprise

Fabulous-amazing

Features- things that are noticeable about something

Offered- presented with something as a choice

Splendid- very beautiful or magnificent

Watchful- watching carefully

📅 Important Dates

- January 9, 2026 Dress Down Day- Students do not need to be in uniforms this day

- January 13 and 14, 2026 Acadience Middle of the Year assessments

- January 23, 2026- A Day in History- Celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence-   Students are invited to dress-up in period appropriate clothing. The day will be filled with activities commemorating this momentous occasion.

- January 15-March 6, 2026- WDA testing for our Multilingual Lingual Learners (MLLs)

- January 19, 2026- NO SCHOOL! Martin Luther King Jr.  Day

📰 Early Light Academy – 3rd Grade Newsletter

Week of January 12-16, 2026

🌟 Dear Families,

We are back in the thick of things. This week students will take their middle of the year (MOY) benchmarks in math and reading. These are standardized assessments to gauge if they are meeting grade-level expectations. See the end of this newsletter for updates to upcoming events.

📖 Reading Focus: Folktales

This week will continue to focus on the genre for reading folktales. We will focus on theme, character perspective, text structure, and compare and contrast. Students will look for the lesson taught in each folktale. This week we will compare and contrast the folktales we have read and discover what makes animals unique.

✍️ Writing Focus

This week students will be practicing with Utah Compose to write out an argumentative story that they can back up with reasoning based on if the world should have self drive cars or not. They will be stating their opinion and backing it up with multiple reasons to help support their opinion.

📝 Grammar Focus This week students will be using prefixes pre, dis and mis in their spelling list for the week. Prefixes can be found at the beginning of words and help in changing the meaning of the word. They will also be learning about future tense verbs and taking a word from the present to the future tense.

🔬Science Spotlight

This week students will be learning about life cycles along with our Wonders lessons this week. This week we continue on with life cycles as we study about whats the best way to get rid of mosquitos and students will have to find a solution to help a town with an abundance of mosquitos around. We will also be looking at why plants grow flowers as we see when bees travel from flower to flower what ends up happening to the pollen during that time.

✖️Math Corner: Multiply with 0, 1, 2, and 3

This week, we want all students to have passed 0-5 timed tests for multiplication! We will be taking our Middle of Year Math Acadience test this week. We will continue learning about finding the area of shapes. We will have a short quiz on Friday.

🔠 Spelling Words- A prefix is a word part added to the beginning of a word to make a new word. The prefix dis- means “not,” and it changes a word’s meaning to its opposite. The prefix mis- means “bad or wrong.” The prefix pre- means “before.” Identifying prefixes can help readers decode and understand an unfamiliar word.

misprint

misread

mistrust

misspell

mistreat

precut

preview

prepaid

preplan

preheat

distrust

discount

dishonest

discover

disable

stairs

rear

where

prejudge

disconnect

clearly

📚 Vocabulary Words

Unique- the only one of it’s kind

Disbelief- lack of belief about something

Dismay- shock and surprise

Fabulous-amazing

Features- things that are noticeable about something

Offered- presented with something as a choice

Splendid- very beautiful or magnificent

Watchful- watching carefully

📅 Important Dates

- January 13 and 14, 2026 Acadience Middle of the Year assessments

- January 14, 2026-Mammoth Day- The Mammoth Hockey team will be taking over our PE classes. Students can wear their uniforms that are light blue, white or black,the Mammoth colors on Wednesday.

- January 16, 2026 End of second term

- January 19, 2026- NO SCHOOL! Martin Luther King Jr.  Day

- January 23, 2026- A Day in History- Celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence-   Students are invited to dress-up in period appropriate clothing. The day will be filled with activities commemorating this momentous occasion. Please send in toilet paper or paper towel rolls, cereal or tissue boxes for a craft that we will be making on this day.

- January 15-March 6, 2026- WDA testing for our Multilingual Lingual Learners (MLLs)

- February 12, 2026- Valentine’s Day party the last hour of the day. Children may bring small toys, stickers, or other small items but no candy should be passed out as Valentines to comply with our goal of healthy bodies at Early Light Academy.