Third Grades A Hoot!

Whats Happening In Our Class?

Its hard to believe that weve already been in school for 3 weeks and September is almost over. I have enjoyed getting to know your child and look forward to learning more about them as the year goes on. As you know, your child has been filling out a Homework and Highlights sheet every night. This sheet will tell you what weve done in class, if theres any homework and how your childs behavior has been for the day. Remember green is a good day, blue is a warning with no consequence, yellow is caution and missing 5 minutes of recess and red is stop and missing 15 minutes of recess. Please help your child by looking this over with them, initialing it, and reminding them to put it back in their folder. This should come back to school every day for that week. On Monday, I collect these and look them over. We are working hard at following our classroom rules. As the year goes on I will revisit these with the students so that our learning community remains strong. We are also having weekly classroom meetings. This will allow the students to discuss their feelings in a safe and supportive environment. We have also been working on math Unit 1. As explained before, we are reviewing the second grade concepts of telling time, number sense, addition and subtraction, and money. Please go over your childs homework with them and have them correct any errors. This will help to reinforce concepts learned in class. Thanks! In Social Studies we have been learning about the 7 continents and 4 oceans. A review sheet will come home this week for our test on Thursday. We will then start on Michigan mapping. In Language Arts we have started our Daily 5 and Caf Menu. The Daily 5 is a way for students to take charge of their own learning. They learn how to pick good fit books, and how to use strategies to help them understand what they are learning. There are 7 Keys to comprehension; Visualizing, Mental Images, Schema, Connections, Fix Up Strategies, Inferring and Determining Importance. More information will come out later as we learn these strategies in class. I have also been assessing each student to determine their strengths and challenges in reading are. This will help me to guide them as they become more fluent and comprehensive readers. If you ever need to contact me with questions, please dont hesitate to call or email me. Together we can make this a great year for your child! A lot of you have been asking to volunteer. Thank you! I will be sending home a volunteer calendar in October. If you are interested, please make sure that you have filled out a volunteer consent form.

Mrs. Bates 3rd Grade Class

September, 2012 mbates@rockfordschools.org

Please remember to write me a note or email me if you are picking up your child early. Also, please remember to arrive a little early so your child has time to gather their things.