8/27/21
Hello 3rd grade Families,
I hope that you all have had a wonderfully warm week! This week was packed full of lots of academic and social learning within our classroom and our school. One of students’ favorite things about this week is that they learned that I call them “my troops” Some of the things that students have learned and participated in this week include:
ELA
This week in ELA the students have been exploring the genre of Narrative Nonfiction through two different stories, both focusing on different cultures and how they contribute to a community. On Thursday, the students analyzed and wrote about how the author used his childhood experiences to become the author he is today. They did an absolutely phenomenal job at this by incorporating text evidence and using sequence words. Next week, the students will be writing their own narrative nonfiction about a life event.
Spelling / Phonics
Students this week took a pre-test and a post-test over words with digraphs and short vowel sounds. They will be graphing the results in their data notebooks next week.
Grammar
The troops have been reviewing basic grammar structure in statements and questions including, punctuation, capitalization, and conjunctions.
Religion
All this week students have completed their annual circle of grace curriculum. Please return the signed parent note that was sent home on Thursday as soon as possible.
Math
This week the students completed 4 lessons out of Saxon that reviewed concepts from second grade such as addends, sums, place value, digits, and etc. We wrapped up this week with a math game called “trash” that helps students have a better understanding of a ten frame which will be helpful in some of next week's lessons.
Art:
This week the students made string flowers where they learned about abstract art, warm and cool colors, and how different cultures use color as a form of expression in literature.
Routines
The troops have been practicing more routines and what a normal week looks like. We have also had several workshops on the difference between a boss and a leader and how they can help in their classroom and in everyday life. Next week we will try to implement our first science unit into our day as well.
Upcoming Dates:
Faith Falcon Family Mass - Friday September 3rd
No School Monday September 6th - Labor Day
I hope you all have a very blessed weekend!
Miss Heather Freund
8/20/21
Hello 3rd Grade Families,
I hope that you all have had a wonderful start to the school year. I want to start off by saying thank you for your kindness, support, and cooperation! I truly enjoyed meeting with each of you at back to school night, and I look forward to a wonderful year with you all and your student.
This school week has been short and sweet. The 3rd graders have been learning classroom routines and expectations, identifying the differences between being a leader and a boss, organization strategies, introducing textbooks, and a little bit of reading and math review. Next week we will continue to learn and implement more of what was listed above in addition to more academics. Here are some of the things families will see next week and continue to practice throughout the school year.
Spelling Words:
Each week students will have ten spelling words. There will be a non graded pre-test on Monday to see how well students understand the phonemic pattern in that week’s words. We will have a post-test on Friday that will go towards their spelling grade.
Spelling Menus:
Spelling Menus are a part of every student’s spelling homework for the week. Each day, students will be able to select one of the three homework options and will have a parent signature. Students will staple all pages at the end of the week on Friday morning together. Spelling menus are turned in on FRIDAY MORNING NOT EVERYDAY.
Math homework:
This year students will have homework mainly through their Saxon math textbook. Since this is a new concept I like to gradually have students become more comfortable with it. Each lesson has 30 problems that can be assigned, however I chose the problems that correlate to the lesson of that day and the ones that need to be reviewed: One can expect this many homework problems throughout the year.
1st Quarter: 8-10 problems
2nd Quarter: 10 -12 problems
3rd: Quarter: 12-14 problems
4th Quarter: 15- 20 problems
I try very hard to be considerate of my students’ time at home with their families. At no time should homework take longer than 20 minutes aside from reading minutes. The only time that it may take longer is if we have a project or if students do not use their class time wisely. They also have 20 minutes from 2:20 - 2:40 to work on their homework everyday at school.
Reading Minutes:
Each quarter the amount of minutes will go up. Below you will find the anticipated required number of minutes for each quarter. This helps children to build their reading stamina throughout the school year.
First Quarter: 50 minutes a week (10 minutes a day)
Second Quarter: 60 minutes a week (12 minutes a day)
Third Quarter: 60 minutes a week (15 minutes a day)
Fourth Quarter: 100 minutes a week (20 minutes a day)
Assignment Books:
Each day students will fill out their assignment books that lists their homework in there for the day. The students are encouraged to ask you as parents to have you sign their assignment books. This lets me know that you know what your child is learning during the week. If an assignment book is not signed, it is not an issue. I strongly teach the students that it is not your responsibility as parents to sign it, it is their responsibility as a student to ask you to sign it so that they learn to communicate with you about their day and about their learning.
If a student forgets their homework at school they can come in the following morning and tell me that they need to work on it and it is not considered late. I’d like students to know that it is okay to make mistakes and that it is never too late to try again.
If students do not have their homework finished more than 1 time a week they are given a late work notice. This will be communicated with parents.
Students will not have any homework on the weekends!
Free reading books:
Please send one or two free reading books with your child next week, as we have a designated time for free reading each day, and we will not have access to the library until after next week.
Weekly newsletter:
I send out a weekly newsletter to your parent email address listed in my gradebook. In each email the topic will be called “Freund’s Features” it will also be posted on my classroom website.
Just a few reminders:
Please fill out your parent surveys and have your child bring them to school.
Please bring an art shirt if you have not yet.
Please bring a mask in a ziplock bag just in case.
Mass will be Wednesday next week along with a FFF mass on Friday.
I understand that this is a lot of information and I appreciate your perseverance! If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to contact me. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Sincerely,
Miss Heather Freund