Upcoming dates:

Wed. Aug 27th- Picture Day- Students may dress up or wear their uniforms. Please see the handbook for appropriate attire.
Mon. Sept 1- No School: Labor Day
Tues. Sept 2- No School: Teacher in-service day
Thurs. Sept 4th- Stars Testing in the morning- Please make sure your child has headphones before this date.
Thurs. Sept 4th Curriculum Night
Thurs. Sept 11th- Stars Testing continued in the morning

General News

Welcome Families! It has been a pleasure getting to know your children this week and I am looking forward to helping them on their learning journey. This week we practiced routines and had a taste of trades for a day. We covered A LOT and will continue to review and assist students as we settle into routines. I wonder if the kids are as exhausted as me? We will dive into our academics more next week. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please reach out to me. I promise to always problem solve with you to better meet your child’s needs. 

Assignment notebooks and Green Folders- Your child should bring home their green folder and assignment notebook daily. We will write assignments to be completed in the notebook and any homework should be in their green folder. Homework is usually anything a student did not finish in class. Even if a student does not have homework, I will send the folder and assignment notebook. This is a good routine for students to get into checking and not assuming their workload. I ask that you sign/initial their assignments notebook daily as well. With this communication, I have found that students are more accountable for their work. 

Friday Folders: Blue Friday Folders will be sent home at the end of every week. Please look through the work your child has completed and check for letters from the office. There will be times the office or I will send forms to be completed and returned. Please send the Friday Folders back to the school every Monday with only forms to be returned. The rest is for you to keep at home. 

Math
Our first unit in math covers the meaning of multiplication. We are learning that multiplication can be represented as repeated addition, adding equal groups, and skip counting. Next week students will learn about arrays and the connection between multiplication and division. I try to include hands-on activities to facilitate learning. This week your child learned a card game to help with multiplication fluency.

Religion
We had our classroom blessed by Fr. Matthew today. It was so quick that I didn’t even think to take a picture.
Next week we will learn about our faith community and how to participate fully in the mass. 

Trades News: 

Social Studies-Mancilla:
Hello Families! We will be learning routines and procedures next week as we enter into our first Social Studies Unit. Our first unit will cover geography. Students will learn about the geography of location and features of the United States. Students have a workbook that will usually stay at school. If students do not finish an assignment in class it will become homework. This should not happen very often. 

Science-Lowry:
Welcome to your first 3rd grade science update! I am Mrs. Lowry, and I will be seeing your child on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays this year for Science class. Our first unit in Science is all about science and the scientific process. We will spend some time in our first few classes getting used to the routines and how our class times will run. Next week we will do a fun Mystery Science activity that answers the question “What does a scientist do?” I am looking forward to a fun year of Science with all of the 3rd graders!

English-Niehaus:
Hello!  I am Mrs. Niehaus.  I am your child’s English teacher.  We have class on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Your child has a binder with the first unit we will be covering in English.  There is also a Simple Solution English workbook.  We will be working slowly to learn expectations and procedures the first 2 weeks of class.

Mrs. Caroline Niehaus-3C

April 14-16th & APril 22-25 

No school on Holy Thursday, Good Friday 

or Easter Monday!

Spring has Sprung!  Please remind your child that we are still in school.   Please help your child keep school/learning a priority. I know sports ramp up in the spring, but homework still needs to get done.  I will NEVER assign anything that has to be 100% finished at home.  Homework has always been anything they did not finish at school. 

  I can’t do it without you!

• Star Math Test will be on Wednesday, April 16th, 2025 at 9:15 A.M. Please try not to start your Easter vacation early. 

• Star Reading Test will be on Thursday, April 24th @ 8:15 A.M.  

Reading: Unit 4: week 5

Essential Question:  How can others inspire us?

Genre: Poetry

We will spend the next 2 weeks on Unit 4:week 5

Spelling:  No test week due to a 3 day week.

We will take the pretest Wednesday, April 16th and the test will be on the following Friday, April 25th

Math:    We spend the week comparing fractions.  Next week will look at fractions in units of measure (¼” and ½”) and units of time.  (3:15 & 3:30)

Simple Solutions #93-96 will be due.   There will be a SS Quiz over lessons 88-92 on Monday, April 14th.   

Religion:  We will talk about Holy Week and then celebrate the Easter Season!

English (Mrs. Niehaus)   We are preparing for our 3rd grade writing assessment.  (April 22-24) The 3rd grade assessment is on their ability to write an expository essay.  They are experts on being third graders, so each student will write an informational essay on how to be a successful third grader at SSM.  The rubric for each assessment will be over the following:   ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation.

We will continue to keep up with simple solutions and learn about verbs.  

April 14-16-SS# 74-76 with a quiz after lessons #76

April 22-25-SS# 77-80 and a quiz after lessons #80

Please ask to see your child’s assignment notebook.  I ask them to copy the weekly schedule of simple solutions into their assignment notebooks.

Social Studies (Mrs. Mancilla) Graded Social Studies tests are in Friday Folders. We have been learning about Native American tribes and how they adapted to their geographic environments. When we return from Easter break we will begin our final unit on financial literacy. We will learn about trade, profit, gross income, taxes, budgeting, and so much more. 

Science (Mrs. Lowry)  We will continue our unit on Weather & Climate over the next 2 weeks. We will do a Mystery Science activity next week that will have us exploring local weather patterns and weather prediction. We will investigate the question: How can we predict when it’s going to storm? When we come back after Easter break we will be learning about seasonal weather changes and about the tools we use to measure weather.