Dear Third Grade Families,
We had a fantastic Catholic Schools Week. The students enjoyed a variety of activities planned for them and I had the pleasure of meeting many prospective new Sacred Heart families. Our community is growing!
This week I will continue to teach the core curriculum in the morning with Mr. Doswell reinforcing skills taught in the afternoons. Next week, I will return to full-time teaching and look forward to conferencing with each of you. Mrs. Hahn will send you the schedule as soon as it is available.
Math: We will continue with division learning a variety of strategies for problem solving including drawing it out. We are also trying to make connections between division and multiplication. As of now, my plan is to test on Chapter 8 (division) next Tuesday.
Language Arts:
Spelling— Unit 19: Homophones. This is week two of a 2-week unit. Homophones take a lot of practice. While we are working on them in class, I would highly recommend studying them every day as this is part of your child’s nightly homework. I have noticed that the students struggle most with its/it’s and their/they’re/there, so you may want to place some extra attention here. Plan for a spelling test on Friday.
Vocabulary – The Circus! We will test on Vocabulary this Friday as well.
Writing— We will move on to the next step of writing our own persuasive essays. Currently, we are looking for small things that we could change in our homes, school or classroom that would make a big difference. My example was the fact that we often ran out of time for our planners. As a solution, I moved “planners” from the end of the day to the beginning. This was an ongoing problem with an easy fix. Other examples from class included our classroom library being congested. Our “fix” was making up a weekly schedule. I encourage you to discuss ideas at home with your child. Just remember, keep it small. It should be something that can be fixed, as students will be expected to put forth at least two possible solutions in their essays. This week, we will be working more specifically on the difference between small problems and ones far too big to take on in a letter. Let’s keep it simple and focused.
Grammar— We will continue our unit on adjectives and adverbs with more practice identifying adjectives along with the nouns they describe.
Reading— This week we will read the final chapters of Charlotte’s Web. Our culminating project will be an in-class diorama of the barn. Students have divided up the labor and will be working in small groups. My plan is to give the students a short vocabulary and comprehension test next week. As a preview to the vocabulary portion, focus on the words Charlotte wrote in her web.
Religion: We will be wrapping up Chapter 8 with a quiz on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, we will enjoy a production of Moses and Other Stories by the Grail Theater.
Science: Mr. Doswell is planning to wrap up the chapter this week. I am eagerly looking forward to our next unit: Earth Science – the solar system!
Social Studies: We continue our unit on national symbols, this week taking a closer look at our national seal. We will discuss the eagle as our national bird as well!
All the Best,
Mrs. Espinosa
