Dear Third Grade Families,
I look forward to meeting with each of you this week. Conferences will be held in the old Scrip office (facing the courtyard) during the afternoons of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On those days, I will be teaching in the mornings with Mr. Doswell taking over in the afternoons. Thursday, I will return to the classroom full-time. Hooray!
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and I am pleased to report that as of now, we have a mailbox for each and every student. Thank you so very much for bringing these in. On Thursday we will have a class party with healthy pink/red/purple foods as well as pass out Valentine’s Day cards. If you plan to bring cards, be sure to bring one for every student so that it’s a pleasant holiday for all.
Math: We will finish Chapter 8 with a test on Tuesday. Then, we will move on to Chapter 9, a continuation of division with a focus on strategies for learning one’s math facts. We will also begin our FactsWise multiplication/division goals. You’ll learn more about these at your parent conference, so testing won’t begin until later next week. Remember to study though as these are part of your nightly homework.
Language Arts:
Spelling— Unit 20: the /j/ and /s/ sounds. The class will be learning various spellings for each of these sounds. Plan for our weekly spelling test on Thursday since school will not be in session this Friday.
Vocabulary – Airplanes! We will test on Vocabulary this Thursday as well.
Writing— We will move on to the next step of writing our own persuasive essays. Now that we have chosen an issue to write about, we will map out our essays focusing on the problem itself and who it effects. Then, we will consider possible solutions using a graphic organizer. We plan to actually begin paragraphing next week.
Grammar— We will continue our unit on adjectives focusing on the adjectives a, an, and the. In groups, the students will also study adjectives of number (for examples, I have two cats.). Next week I plan to wrap up our adjective unit so plan for a short quiz then.
Reading— Now that we have read the final chapter of Charlotte’s Web and completed our dioramas, we will have a reading quiz. This will take place on Tuesday. Our next book is The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles. After that, we will read The Moon by Gail Gibbons. Both should be easy to find at our local bookstore or library.
Religion: Lent begins this Wednesday. We will celebrate Ash Wednesday by going to mass in the morning with the whole school. Likewise, we will attend mass on Thursday morning as there will not be in attendance on Friday.
Science: This week we will begin our study of the solar system beginning with telescopes. We will learn about radio telescopes vs. optical telescopes and then learn about the Hubble telescope. This is an area of high interest for students so I encourage them to talk about what they’ve learned at home.
Social Studies: We will wrap up our unit on national symbols comparing the seal of the United States to the flag, Uncle Sam, and finally the national anthem! Next week, we plan to move on to the three branches of our federal government.
All the Best,
Mrs. Espinosa
