February 24 - 28, 2014

Lifeskill or Life-long Guideline of the week: Effort

Math rd 3 - This week in math we are beginning geometry. In third grade, our goal is to identify, classify, and describe two- and three-dimensional geometric figures by their attributes. We will begin with 2-D shapes, and will be reviewing the names of the shapes as well as the geometry terms we use to describe these shapes. *Ask your child to tell you about the different geometry vocabulary they have been learning, along with the hand movements we do in order to help us remember: polygon, quadrilateral, congruent, symmetry, vertex. th 4 - This week in math we are beginning a two week until on fractions. Students are expected to use concrete models, such as fraction bars and Geoboards, to generate equivalent fractions. Students should be able to identify fractions larger than one with improper fractions and mixed numbers. We will be revisiting decimals as we look at fractions that name tenths and hundredths using models. Finally, students will use concrete objects and pictures to compare and order fractions on and off a number line. *Ask your child to share all the fun math manipulatives weve been using to think about fractions such as Geoboards and fraction bars. STAAR Writing Boot Camp Students are prepping for the STAAR Writing Assessment th coming up in April. Only 4 graders will be taking the assessment, but third grade will learn the basics of writing with a specific structure. This is a genre of writing that we find in many jobs in the real world and we find applicable to teach for a short time each year. This week we began drafting expository compositions. You probably have noticed that we have not had spelling words the past two weeks. For the next several weeks, our study will take a different focus. This week we are learning about apostrophes to show possession. Homework this week will focus adding apostrophes to words to show when a person or item has possession. On Friday, we will take an apostrophe assessment. Finally, the last part of Boot Camp focuses on Revising & Editing previously written passages. Three mornings a week students are reading a short 8-10 sentence paragraph and answering revising and editing questions associated with the reading. Topics touched are transition words, spelling patterns, capitalization and comma rules, apostrophes, and the list goes on. Each day we meet to review the Revising and Editing passage. Students will begin to be assessed each Friday to monitor their progress and identify areas we need to readdress. *Ask your child to share what has been happening in STAAR Boot Camp. Help! Brentwood Is Out of Copy Paper! It is only the end of February, and the school is out of copy paper. It may be some time before we are able to order and receive more, so if you have a spare ream of white copy paper, we would appreciate donations. Thank you! Using Context Clues with Amelia Bedelia This week in reading we are working on dictionary skills, and connecting those skills to reading a variety of Amelia Bedelia books and using context clues to help Amelia Bedelia figure out word meaning. Students will be buddy reading Amelia Bedelia books, and finding multiple meaning words. They are then looking up the many meanings of the words and using our context clues to figure out the meaning meant for Amelia to use. After completing two of these activites, students will complete an art activity illustrating the meaning meant, and then Amelia Bedelias interpretation of the meaning. *Ask your child about the Amelia Bedelia books they are reading, and to tell you about her confusion with multiple meaning words. Matter & Energy This week in science we are continuing our unit on matter and energy. To continue our study of energy, we will be exploring forms of energy, including: mechanical, electric, thermal/heat, light/radiant, sound, and chemical. *Ask your child to tell you about the investigation with potential and kinetic energy, and about the outcome. What did they learn about these types of energy? What factors affected the force of the marble on the dragon? Important Notes and Events! Benchmark Testing: All third and fourth graders will take the Math th th and Reading Benchmark Assessments on February 26 and 27 . Once those benchmarks have been graded, we will share the results with you. Only fourth graders will take a Science Benchmark next th Wednesday, March 5 . Spring Pictures February 28 : Class Photos will be taken on the playscape, and individual pictures will be taken on this day as well. *Used Book Sale will take place March 3 to 7. Bring in donations of books (childrens or adult), DVDs, videos, CDs, magazines, puzzles and new or gently used school supplies to the donation boxes are located next to the office and right inside the library. *Please visit our wiki page for information about our class: http://mahlstadtsvrcek2-3class.wikispaces.com/ * Please check the calendar online every week as dates do change. http://mahlstadtsvrcek2-3class.wikispaces.com/Calendar
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