Weekly Check-ins

May 20

We are wrapping up our heritage projects this week. Some students have brought in pictures to include in the portfolio, these have been wonderful additions but are not mandatory. We will continue using articles correctly. Also, we will be completing math mini-lessons.

Pop into Summer Activities: Friday students can wear spirit wear! Next Wednesday, the students will wear colors of the rainbow.

May 13

Students will continue to work on their heritage projects. We will work on the chapter 9 review in math. The test will be Thursday. We are going to start reading The BFG and will have activities that coordinate. In grammar, students will correctly use articles. The grammar quiz will be next week.

May 6

A brief note that this Friday is May Crowning. I do anticipate mass to be a little longer than usual. Second graders leave after mass.

I will be out Tuesday-Thursday. My husband has appointments at Mayo. Mrs. Bosco will be in the classroom.

Students will not have a spelling test this week. However, they were given a list of words following the same pattern as last week. We are continuing to reinforce this skill. We are going to continue with verb tenses. We will be looking into specific spelling patterns.

We should get through the end of Chapter 9, in math. I tentatively planned the test for the end of this week, but it will be next week instead. I want to be sure I have enough time to go over a study guide.

The students will be working on their family heritage projects. We will be researching the countries from which our ancestors came from. So many students have shared stories about their grandparents, great grandparents, great aunts and uncles. I am going to send home a page or two for the students (or parents can type or write) these stories down. They will be added into the heritage projects. I understand it can be cumbersome to write up these family stories, but I think it is great that the students want to know these fun family stories. Jotting down these stories and keeping them in this portfolio will hopefully be something everyone can cherish. I am fine with the stories being in bullet point form.

They will also be working on mother's day projects.

April 29

This Friday (May 3) is a half day and Fun Day!

This week we will start our family heritage projects. These projects are meant for students to talk with family members about history and family. We discussed in great detail how sometimes within families, history gets forgotten. I would love for students to contact other relatives in hopes to learn unknown family history, but it is not necessary to know it ALL. The first assignment to this project is competing the family tree (and coloring). Everyone's family is different. Some students might need to add additional lines for siblings, if family members remarry, additional information on the back; I'm open to ideas for whatever works best for you. Some students already expressed interest in a second copy of a tree, so they have been sent home with two. If you need a second family tree, please let me know.

This week students will study spelling words with vowels + /r/ sounds, as an extension of the last list. The last list only had -ar and -or. This list will have -ur, -or, -ir, and -er. The spelling and phonics tests will be Thursday. All the students have the same words. The spelling list has two words that are labeled "challenge words", but I am expecting the students to know these also. So there will be 18 words this week.

In grammar, students will be be correctly identifying and using correct verb tenses. The students will have a grammar quiz on Friday. The students already know the quiz will be first thing in the morning before the fun starts!

We are continuing to study and understand comparing fractions. The tentative test will be towards the end of next week, but this is not set in stone. I am constantly encouraging the students to check their answers using the fraction strips they were given.

April 22

Students were given a blank piece of paper to create a poster persuading others to adopt a shelter pet. This poster is due this Friday. I expect extremely nice quality, since the students will have had just over a week to complete it. The poster should include pictures and persuading facts to adopt an animal. I am not looking for an essay, nor do I want only pictures. Be sure students are going on Typing Web and practicing math facts. Since this week is short and broken up, there is no reading story.

The students did take their grammar and reading tests today.

April 15

This week students will be practicing words with vowel + /r/ sounds. The spelling test will be Thursday. We are reading Aero and Officer Mike this week. The reading test will be on Monday. We are not here on Friday, and since next week is broken up, so the students will carry over this story (and grammar lesson) into next week. I will allow it to be an open book test.

During Math, students will continue to compare fractions. Please be sure your child is also practicing multiplication facts, too. We are still taking timed tests.

The grammar lesson will be pronoun-verb agreement. The quiz will be Monday.

I have some Holy Week activities too!

April 4

This week we have Aspire testing. The students should bring healthy snacks, as usual, and make sure they are getting good sleep. Homework will be light, mostly due to the instruction time not being as plentiful as a regular week. Today the students took the Reading test. I am very proud of how the students were taking their time! Tonight's homework is to practice typing web, reading at least 20 minutes, and continue to practice their math facts.

We will continue this week with reading informational texts and comparing fractions.

Friday, the 8th Grade will be hosting the Stations of the Cross and it will be Reconciliation.

April 2

Good morning!

This week students will be starting to compare fractions. They are using fraction strips to determine which fraction is greater than, less than, or equal to. Students will compare fractions with the same numerator and the same denominator.

I know that we started a spelling list, but I am going to hold off until after Aspire testing to test the students on their words. This week instead will focus on reading informative texts and answering questions. They will be completing assignments that correspond with the articles we read in class supporting different reading strategies.

We will also be working on reflective narratives. The writing portion of the Aspire is done by typing. Concern has been expressed because often students are not practicing typing on their own. So the focus will be typing these narratives. Mrs. Yakes has asked that the students be sure to practice at home too.

We will be completing our Kids Kreation too!

Kindergarten has their chapel mass on Friday.

March 19

Due to the half day Wednesday and it being the week before break we are studying area and perimeter, in Math. When we come back from break we will start Chapter 9 which is comparing fractions. We have also been continuing our timed tests. Students that have mastered the multiplication facts of 0-12 will proceed to division. Several of the students have been doing a fantastic job of connecting multiplication and division. I was beyond pleased with the Chapter 8 assessments.

The students will be spelling words that begin with be or a. The spelling test will be on Thursday. In grammar, we are continuing with our "grammar goofs". These are the words that are frequently confused in students' writing. There will not be a quiz on these, just further practice.

Students are continuing through Stone Fox!

March 11

We will begin Stone Fox. The plan is to complete 1-2 chapters per day with corresponding activities. Students are studying when to properly use pronouns and their homophones. The grammar quiz will be on Friday. As we wrap up fractions, this test will also be on Friday. It is a good day to have their math test since it's a chapel mass for 5th grade. We have majority of the morning together. Phonics/Spelling will be the next 15 words on the Third Grade High Frequency List. The students brought home that list today. The spelling test will be Thursday.

March 5

Mr. Lundberg informed me on Friday that he has 3 assessments planned for this week. So I pushed back our reading story, and I moved up one of our novels. We will be studying Stone Fox. Students will start by joining my Google Classroom. Students will research about the Iditarod, mushing, dog sled racing, etc. They will create a Google slideshow to share with the class. Tuesday evening the students will be expected to continue their research at home. This is the only homework from me. The students were given an entire class period to research and work on their presentations. On Wednesday, the students will finish the slides part of the work. They are not to work on the slides at home, only research.

There will be an additional activity, during the novel study, for students that finish work early. It is a scavenger hunt about Wyoming, since the story takes place there. It is not mandatory.

We will read the novel together practicing comprehension skills. In the past, I have assigned comprehension questions through Google classroom. I would like to do this again based on how well the student handle using the Chromebooks.

In Math we will continue understanding fractions. We should be done with the chapter by the end of the week/early next week. The tentative test date will be next Thursday or Friday.

Through this week and part of next week, we will be studying the proper use of I and me, its and it's, your and you're, and there, their, and they're. The quiz won't be until next week. Phonics/spelling will be continuing the high frequency words. This quiz will also be next week.

Wednesday we will have an all school Ash Wednesday Mass.

Thank you for your patience while I was at Mayo, last week. We are praying there will be no more needed trips until May. I have many papers to add to PowerSchool because there were many students absent last week, too.

Feb. 20

I apologize for the delay. The household is sick.

We are continuing theme this week. Students have been reading different scenarios to discover theme. We are also working on idioms. The students are having a blast! We are still practicing using quotation marks correctly, and the phonics lesson is words ending with -er and -le. Primarily we will be practicing the lessons in class since there is no spelling test this week, due to the shortened week. There will be a quiz on Friday for both phonics and grammar.

In Math, we are continuing through fractions and timed tests. I have all the students set to start on multiplication for extra math. This is a great resource to use!

Feb. 11

I am going to start by letting you know we did not take the formal assessment for Technology Wins the Game. On Friday, Mass took two periods, and then the students go straight to Spanish class. They came back into the room with 40 minutes before recess. We graded grammar homework as a review for the quiz, and then the students took the grammar quiz. Many students finished the vocab.com quiz for this week's words and also wrapped up a "how to" writing assignment. I do not intend on making up this assessment. Last week, the students read two separate articles as part of the Daily 5. They were each worth 10 points. These two articles (which assessed the same skills of comprehension and sequencing of events) will be in place of the test.

This week and next will be just slightly different. The story is Tops and Bottoms. I am studying this story both weeks. There's a lot of "good stuff" packed into it. First off, each lesson typically has a spelling and phonics skill that go hand-in-hand. For whatever reason, the spelling lesson is different from the phonics lesson...that's added work for students trying to learn one skill! So this week will be studying homophones. The spelling and phonics test will be on FRIDAY. I want the students to have an additional day to study since there are 18 words.

I plan on having the reading test THURSDAY. (I am flipping theses assessments. Reading test Thursday, and the spelling/phonics will be Friday.) I feel with the amount of times we read the story in class and at home, the students will be prepared by Thursday. I just don't want reading, spelling, and phonics all on the same day. I hope everyone understands.

This story focuses on theme. Theme is a big concept which is why I am extending it into next week. This week will be studying theme in Tops and Bottoms but also in other stories. I am hoping to have the students complete a theme project next week.

This story also addresses idioms. Figures of speech is typically a struggle for students, so I like that we will have next week to spend time on a skill such as understanding idioms.

I will be running the Daily 5 this week and next. In my guided reading groups, students will continue to read articles at their lexile levels pertaining to the skills relating to the story. Between these two weeks, students will be addressing basic comprehension questions, stories containing figures of speech, and understanding theme.

The grammar skill is all about using quotation marks. We will practice this over two weeks. The grammar quiz will be next week.

We are starting fractions. Students will understand parts of a whole. I'm looking forward to starting this chapter. It is still very important that students are practicing their facts at home, since we won't be spending time in class on multiplication.

Feb. 5

We are back to an almost normal routine, outside of pajama day being Thursday! It is my intention that this is the last week we will be spending specifically on multiplication. More than half of the class is on the factors 0-5 or higher. We will continue to take the timed tests, as I am still holding the student accountable to know their facts. I will administer a formal multiplication assessment, but that will be when the students have mastered the facts and can problem solve through word problems without getting caught up on the facts. Our next chapter will be understanding fractions. The reading story this week is Technology Wins the Game. The comprehension skill we are focusing on during this story is sequencing of events. The vocabulary strategy is words with the suffixes -ful, -ous, -less. The spelling test and phonics quiz will still be on Thursday even though it's pajama day. The phonics skill is the vowel sound like in joy spelled with oi and oy. The grammar lesson is about plurals. The first part of the lesson is understanding when to change a y to i and adding es. The second part of the lesson is irregular spellings of plural nouns. We are back into the Daily 5 too. The first part of the year, the small groups would meet to complete activities that focused on the comprehension skill. I would guide the groups and assess their understanding of the skill. Now the skills will be in articles and short stories at their reading levels. The passages will be based on the skill being assessed in the reader but also passages that will help reinforce the skills the students struggled with on the STAR reader tests and MAP Growth tests. The reading assessment and grammar quiz will be Friday.

Jan. 29

Since we do not have school on Wednesday and Thursday, we are reading short stories both fiction and non-fiction. We are continuing our comprehension skills. Students are doing very well mastering their multiplication facts. Be sure to remember Friday is an all school liturgy, and the students are to be in school uniforms. Celtic accessories can be worn after mass.

Catholic Schools Week 2019 .pdf

Jan. 23

This check-in will be brief since we were off Monday, had a field trip Tuesday, and spent more than half of our morning attending the spelling bee. We are wrapping up our persuasive essays. Most students have been doing an outstanding job researching evidence to support the reasons why they feel the way they do about their topic. There have been some instances of students not wanting to do the work because it means investing their time. I have worked with several students one-on-one. Students are well aware of how their grades will be impacted by choosing not to complete all the requirements. We are continuing with multiplication facts. Due to the change of schedule this week, there will be no spelling or grammar tests. We will work on reviewing the already learned high frequency words.

Next week is Catholic Schools Week. I will post more about this, later this week.

Jan. 15

I loved that many students kept their checklists in their folders and then put them on their desks these past mornings!

This week students will continue to practice comprehension skills from informational texts. These are really great to reinforce the practice of LOOKING BACK AT THE TEXT! Many students feel that the articles are short and easy to understand. However, when expected to answer comprehension questions, students have difficult recalling answers. They do not want to take the time to look back. These are also great preparation for Star Reading, MAP, and Aspire assessments.

We will have a spelling test on Thursday, it will be the next 9 words on the High Frequency List. So at this point, we will have the first two columns completed. Students will start having practice with reviewing all the words we have done. There will not be a formal assessment on all the words, but I do not want these words to simply be learned for the tests and forgotten. I expect them to be applied correctly in their everyday work.

Grammar consists of subject and object pronouns and pronoun-antecedent agreement. There will be a grammar quiz on Friday.

As we continue through multiplication, I am finding this new approach is proving more beneficial to the students. I have been able to assess where each student is able to succeed and assign assignments accordingly. I am so happy with the students looking to achieve personal bests and not comparing to others! They are becoming very proud of their accomplishments. It is important students routinely practice their facts at home. I explained to the students today how multiplication and division go hand-in-hand. Technically the next chapters in our book are Understanding Division and Division Strategies. Well, if students are still in progress of learning multiplication, then division will be a struggle and confusing. So at this time, we will continue to master multiplication and apply it to word problems. We will take an official assessment on multiplication but not yet. Students that become more fluent in multiplication will begin connecting it to division. But when we finish multiplication, we will go to fractions. Then we will formally work on division later in the year when the multiplication facts are mastered. While I know this is a lengthy description, I hope you understand my logic behind these decisions.

Lastly, we are conferencing one-on-one with different writing assignments we have been working on. We are diving into persuasive writing. We have discussed the concept of persuasive writing and reviewed a short essay. Students are to chose a persuasive topic they can research and write about. The homework assignment tonight is to think about and write down their topic. I do ask that you guide your child in choosing a topic. We will begin drafting tomorrow (Wed.), and students will be expected to research facts to help make their claims more convincing. I do not expect to have these completed by the end of the week. If we run into next week with this writing assignment, we might do another week of informational texts. I will be sure to keep you posted.

Lastly, a reminder that if you wish to place a Scholastic Book order, please do this by tomorrow. Thank you!

Jan. 9

Today we went over the student checklist. The students wrote a goal for themselves for the 2019 year. I will laminate these, and they will go in their home folders.

THINK!

How will I handle myself today? How will I treat others?

Am I unpacked?

Is there a heading on my assignment? Is it in the correct place? Are the holes on my loose leaf paper on the left?

Did I follow directions on my assignment? Is it complete?

Did I turn in my homework or classwork?

Did I put my assignment in the correct place? Where does it go?

Can the teacher read my work? Is this my best work?

Am I listening/pay attention to the teacher? Am I practicing self-control? Am I practicing my best student behavior? Am I doing what I should be doing?

Is my desk cleared off and organized? Did I shove papers in my desk or place them in my folders correctly?

Did I fill out planner?

Is my planner and assignments in my backpack?

Is there anything I can help clean up before I go home?

Did I do my homework?

MY 2019 STUDENT GOAL:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a reminder that the spelling test is Thursday. There will be a grammar quiz on Friday. Students will be taking multiplication quizzes each day (not going in the gradebook just yet). I want the students to become comfortable with their facts without the stress of "you have 3 minutes, go." So the students will be taking these 50 questions "tests", every day or every other. The goal is to get them all correct in about 5 minutes or less. I will write how long it took the student to answer the facts, at the top of the page. Currently we started on factors multiplying by 0-4. Students that got them all correct with go with 0-5. The practice tests will come home the day we do them unless your child passes them. Then the tests will be in Friday folders. Students need to be practicing at home. Math homework will vary depending on what we cover in class. Such as today, we practiced the routine of taking these tests. We corrected them. We talked about them. They are in home folders. So tonight's homework is practicing facts. Tomorrow we will be working on applying multiplication to word problems, so the intended homework is word problem practice.

Jan. 7

Welcome Back!

This week we will reinforce routines and good habits. Students will receive their checklists on good student practices. We'll be working on informational texts and reading strategies. Students will write commas in a series and in an address. Spelling will consist of the next ten high frequency words. Math Chapter 4 was all about using different strategies to help with multiplying facts. We are going to start our multiplication timed tests. I am going to use this opportunity to evaluate where each student is in knowing their facts. This will help determine the next activities I will choose for the child.

Dec. 17

I am currently at Mayo for a couple of days. Praying everything goes as planned and I will be back by the end of the week. We will be finishing up The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I truly enjoy this story and hope the kids have been enjoying it too! Many of the students are doing a great job citing evidence from the text! The chapter summaries have been a task we started doing in class instead of doing it for homework. In grammar, we're going to be diagramming sentences. Students are still uncomfortable with basic parts of speech. I thought this is a great week to reinforce subjects/predicates/adjectives/adverbs. In math, we will practice strategies when multiplying by 7 and understanding the Associative Property. Spelling will involve the next 10 words on the high frequency list.

I ask that you review school supplies with your child to prepare for a great start after break! There are some "home" folders that have really taken a beating. I spoke with many parents during conferences about creating a check list the students can use to ensure they are practicing proper routines independently. I will have these for all students after break. A fresh start!! If your child has a thin binder to place his/her home folder and planner in, we can slide the checklist in the front of the binder. Otherwise, the checklist will attached to the home folders. I have a list of "things to remember" that I expect the students to do independently. If you think of something that would be helpful for your child, feel free to send an email and I'll add it on the list.

Thanks!

Dec. 10

Thank you for having patience while I took an unplanned trip to Mayo with my husband. I have all the Nick Allen essays waiting for me to read through them! The students have been practicing the vocabulary for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We are starting the novel today. The first chapter I read to the class, and we discussed it. We are working on the chapter assignment together, so the students know my expectations of their work moving forward through this novel. They are not expected to do the chapter 1 summary tonight. I want to still go over it tomorrow. I am very pleased with the students proofreading and editing skills last week, we are going to continue this practice and hopefully will edit more challenging assignments! We will work our way through the High Frequency List. The next ten words will be studied this week, and the spelling test will be on Thursday. We are continuing with multiplication this week. We will be talking about and understanding the distributive property of multiplication too!

Dec. 3

We have officially finished Frindle. I will have the students reflect on the main character, Nick. I want the students to decide whether or not they care for his character, but they will need evidence to support their feelings. If you would like to talk about this at home, that would be an awesome start for them! We are getting introduced to the vocabulary for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Students have created a list on vocab.com and will be mastering the words. We will have questions for each chapter. We will discuss characters and practice summarizing. The tentative plan will be for the students to do chapter summaries for homework. The summaries will be on post-it notes that we will put on a graphic organizer. We will be continuing with high frequency words. It will be the next ten words. A new list is coming home today. We are working hard on proofreading/editing skills. I want students to take their time so they learn how to catch their own mistakes. We've been writing short essays. We will put our editing skills to the test by proofing those throughout the next weeks. We will start Chapter 4 in math, it will focus on individual factors in hopes for students to master the facts and learn strategies to help along the way.

Shopping with the Elves is this Friday.

Scholastic Book order forms were sent home on Friday. The orders need to be placed either online or sent with a check to me. If you would like to order a book as a gift, let me know, and I will get the book to you secretly.

A reminder that the Chapter 3 math test was sent home on Friday, if you wish to have your child make corrections, please return those by Tuesday. The corrections should be on a separate piece of paper, stapled to the top of the original test.

Nov. 28

The third graders will be finish Frindle, hopefully soon. I have changed direction a little bit with how I was approaching the novel. Originally I was having the students complete questions for each chapter, but moving forward we are spending more time discussing the questions as we read. The class time will be spent with more major concepts and skills such as perspective, cause and effect, sequencing, etc. We will move into another novel in December. The students seem to enjoy the novels a little more than the reading book, so I would like to nourish that feeling towards reading. We will read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It's so great for Christmas! Our spelling words for the next handful of weeks will be high frequency words in third grade. Some of the words might seem "easy" to read, but honestly students struggle with spelling these words in their everyday writing. We have been working on writing and constructing "juicy" paragraphs. I expect students to begin applying grammar skills into these assignments. So we will be reviewing previous grammar skills as well as new lessons. Working out of a novel gives us a little more freedom during the class day.

Students took their Chapter 3 math test today. I am hopeful to have those back to the students by Friday. Our next chapter focuses on the different factors. We will begin working on multiplication timed tests. These are not taken as grades for PowerSchool. I do grade them and determine whether or not the student has mastered the facts, but they will not affect the child's grade.

So a quick review: Frindle will be wrapping up this week. Spelling test on the "a" high frequency words will be Friday. Chapter 3 Math tests will be home shortly. (All students are allowed to complete a fix and return). We will start Ch. 4 in math. Grammar and writing will intertwine as we practice applying skills to everyday work. Shopping with the Elves is next week. Reconciliation will be next Friday.

November 5

Hello everyone! I am back, however we will be back at Mayo for the later part of next week. My husband has follow ups and is meeting with some new doctors for intestinal failure. I am going through paperwork and notes that have been left, so I hope to get everything in line throughout this week. Thank you for your understand while I was out.

I have Chapter 1 & 2 Math test corrections to enter into the gradebook. We are continuing through Chapter 3 which is all about understanding multiplication. I have hopes to start multiplication timed tests after Thanksgiving. Don't fret! We do one factor at a time.

We will be reading and understanding Frindle. This should take us right up to Thanksgiving. So there will not be our formal spelling/phonics and grammar and reading assessments, like usual. We will be spending time analyzing each chapter. Students will be expected to answer basic text comprehension questions. We will also study other reading elements together such as cause and effect, figurative language, point of view, etc. We will be practicing different phonics and grammar skills during this time.

October 1

Thank you for how smoothly last week went in my absence. I appreciate it greatly. A note will be coming home, but I wanted to address it briefly that my husband will be having surgery October 5th. We will be meeting with the surgical team on Thursday, Oct. 4th. His in hospital recovering can be anywhere from 5-7 days or 2 weeks. Mrs. Bosco will be my sub during this time of his medical attention. We are working to activate her St. Al/St. Pat's email address, so she can be reached during my leave.

This week third grade will be reading What Do Illustrators Do?. The story goes behind the scenes to show how different artists illustrate their own versions of "Jack and the Beanstalk." The comprehension and vocab assessment will be Friday. The vocabulary strategy this week will be using synonyms. The reading strategy focus is text features and sequence of events. Third grade is trying something a little different these next few weeks. We worked with the 8th graders to use vocabulary.com. The students will be creating lists of their reading story's vocab words and mastering the words through online challenges, in addition to the in class practice. In Language Arts, students will correctly use the verb tenses. The Grammar quiz will be on Friday. Lastly, in Spelling and Phonics, students will correctly spell words with three letter clusters. The phonics skill is three letter cluster, scr, spr, str and thr. Quizzes will be Thursday.

Students will take the chapter 1 math assessment this Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday will be spent reviewing. Students should have brought home their chapter 1 math packets today (Monday). These can be used as additional resources for practice problems. I like to remind the students how similar the study guide is to the actual assessment. Just as a reminder, ALL students are allowed to fix and return their math assessments. I ask that the corrections are done on a loose leaf sheet of paper, clearly labeled, with a proper heading, and stapled on top of the original test. These will be due the Wednesday following Columbus Day. Chapter 2 will be about interpreting and organizing data.

The week of Columbus day, we will not have a reading story. The class will be reading informational texts and focusing on different reading skills and applying the skill for that day. We will use this time to wrap up our reflective narratives. Students are really struggling understanding that writing is a process! Hopefully as the year continues they will begin to enjoy the writing journey a little bit more.

September 17

This week the students will be taking the MAP Growth assessments. Mr. Priest included information about the testing in the E-Thursday.

Students will be practicing words with the long o sound spelled with just o, ow, and oa. This week students will have a spelling tic-tac-toe board. They are expected to complete one assignment per night. So by Thursday, each student will have three assignments completed. Students will review subjects of a sentence. They are expected to recognize nouns correctly. Students will be able to identify common and proper nouns. The story this week is Pop's Bridge. The target strategy for the story is to infer and predict. The target skill will be to compare and contrast.

I am hopeful to get the students into their different reading groups and begin the Daily 5 this week.

Daily 5 is a literacy framework that instills behaviors of independence, creates a classroom of highly engaged readers, writers, and learners, and provides teachers with the time and structure to meet diverse student needs.

We will be practicing the final notes of adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers. We will review and be taking a test. The math tests are usually rather long, with me being there only in the morning, I intend on treating the third grade math assessments the exact same way I used to have the 4th grade tests. I will most likely shorten the assessment, and give the students two days.

Scholastic Book orders are due tomorrow.

September 12

This week the students will have their usual spelling and phonics assessments on Thursday, and they will have the reading and grammar on Friday. Mr. Lundberg had a Religion test on Tuesday, and he has a Science test scheduled for Thursday.

The magazine drive fundraiser kick-off is Thursday!

Students will be practicing words with comm vowel pairs, ai, ay, ee, and ea. Students will be identifying simple and compound sentences. They will be able to combine two simple sentences to make them into a compound sentence. Students will correct run-on sentences and fragments. We've read through Destiny's Gift, discussing the vocabulary and understanding characters. Students should be able discuss internal and external character traits.

We will be coming close to wrapping up Chapter 1, in math. I have been using this chapter to gauge the students understanding of adding and subtracting, especially with three or more addends.

Last week the class began the writing process for a reflective narrative. We will continue this writing process. Students are learning the importance of taking their time through each step and continuously editing.

Scholastic book orders will be due Tuesday, September 18th.

September 4

Due to the shortened week, we will not be having our routine spelling and phonics quizzes or the reading and grammar tests. You will find that when our weeks are shortened, I work outside the textbooks. I will either review skills that were a little more challenging for the students or find skills that I feel are important for them to learn. Mr. Lundberg will be having a Social Studies assessment this week (Thurs.). I want the students to get a feel of how to prepare with Mr. Lundberg for his tests without the concern of other assessments.

In Math, we are working in chapter one. In this chapter, the students will be identifying patterns (such as adding odd and even numbers). They will be rounding. Rounding is always a difficult lesson for students. I spend about 3 days practicing and taking notes. Rounding will lead us into being able to estimate sums and differences. The books suggests using compatible numbers. That concept is usually too general to understand, at their age, so when we estimate sums and differences, we only use rounding. We will be talking about the Identity Property of Addition, the Commutative Property of Addition, and the Associative Property of Addition. The students will see a couple of different strategies they can use when adding and subtracting. I do not expect the students to master each strategy. They should find which one works best for them. I do not have a date for the chapter one assessment yet. I will post with a tentative date soon.

In Reading, we will be reviewing drawing conclusions which was one of the skills from The Trial of Cardigan Jones. We will go back to A Fine, Fine School to talk more about story structure. The Trial of Cardigan Jones assessment will come home in this week's Friday folder. I am very pleased with how well the students did on the test. Grammar will consist of more subject and predicate practice and types of sentences. We will be taking extra time preparing for my expectations of writing in third grade. We will be looking at and practicing proofreading/editing marks. The students have entered third grade very well prepared for writing journal entries. We will work on narratives.

I am also hoping to find some time in this week to create our grandparents'/special person project. This week is more flexible than our "normal" weeks and should allow for this. I am also planning to get the students logged onto their Chromebooks and getting them familiar with them.

At Back to School Night, I mentioned there will be a signing sheet for parents to acknowledge they received and saw their child's work. I have not stapled them into your child's folder. I wanted to note this in case you were thinking it already got lost in the shuffle.

PowerSchool is up to date with the exception of any fix and returns that were given to me today. Students may have assignments marked as "late", but they did not lose credit since it's still the beginning of the year. Some students have assignments that are missing. Before anyone panics, have your child check folders at school. Some of us really struggled with organization the first couple weeks of school, and I have a good feeling it's just in the wrong folder. Some assignments might be marked as a fix and return, but they have not come home yet. I recorded in the comment section the date which it will be coming home (ex: Returned in 9/7 Friday folder).

For now...I think that's all she wrote.

Mrs. Salomone