9/19 -9/23

Upcoming Events…
Monday, 9/19/11 – PTA meeting at 7:00pm.  All are welcome to come!
Tuesday, 9/20/11–Young Rembrandts begins.
Tuesday & Thursday - After School Enrichment (ASE) begins.

Reflections Program Reflections program has begun and hopefully students are working on an original piece that expresses the 2011-2012 theme, Diversity means….  All entries are due on Friday, October 7th.  For more information please visit the PTA website - www.wattspta.org.     Please encourage your child to participate!

Citizenship
This week the students will continue to focus on problem solving.  Our goal is to help students recognize anger and frustration as normal feelings that often accompany conflict.  The “Cooling-off” strategy will help them find nonviolent ways to release these emotions and deal with the problem.  The students will also have a chance to redeem their paw prints for various prizes this week.  In addition, Mrs. Boldt will pick winners of the raffle drawing on Friday.  Students may put their paw prints tickets into grade level buckets for a chance to win Wii time with Mrs. Boldt.

Spelling
The skill for List 3 is long a and e words.  If you need to refer to the lists, click on the spelling tab above.  The test will be on Friday, 9/23.

Reading
The students did a wonderful job last week during our talent show.  I am impressed with all of the talented performances!  We truly enjoyed the talent show.Turtle Bay by Saviour Pirotta.  It is about a boy named Taro who helps a wise old man, named Jiro-San, clean up the beach for the return of the giant sea turtles.  Our reading strategy for the week is author’s purpose.   Students will be assessed on identifying whether the author is trying to entertain, inform, or persuade.
Vocabulary: eager, trained, litter, patiently, message, wise

Writing
During Writer’s Workshop, the students will need to complete a writing activity using the writing process.  The writing process includes pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.  The students are going to become more familiar with each of these steps and its importance in writing.  They will also pick one of their pieces written in class and create a final, published piece.

Grammar Skill
We are going to focus on different types of sentences for the next few weeks.  This week, we will discover that a statement is a telling sentence and a question is an asking sentence.  Using the correct punctuation is very important when trying to express your ideas and thoughts in writing.

Grade 3 Math
The students are getting close to finishing unit 1.  This week we will work on counting combinations of bills and coins.  They will need to write their totals in dollar and cents notation.  The students will also work with frames and arrows.  It is important for them to remember to identify the rule of each problem.  Please refer to the SRB if you have questions about either of these concepts. We will be handing out the study guide on Monday.  The study guide is due on Thursday, 9/22.  We will go over the questions to review for the test.  The test will be on Friday, 9/23.

Accelerated Math
We have completed Unit 1 and the students have been given their study guides.  The study guide is due on Wednesday, 9/21.  We will go over the questions to review for the test.  The test will be on Thursday, 9/22.  Please help your child study and feel free to use the SRB for more explanation.

Science
The students will continue to review the different names of the bones in our body.  We will do the Hokey Pokey, play Pin the Bones on the Body and Simon Says to help us review.  We will begin discussing the muscular system, including the voluntary and involuntary muscles.  Voluntary muscles are muscles that we choose to move, like raising our hands.  Involuntary muscles automatically work without having to think about it.  An example of an involuntary muscle is our heart.