February 20-24

Important Dates:
Monday, February 20th  - No School
Tuesday, February 21st  - No School - Parent/Teacher Conferences
ORDER MARKET DAY PIE!!  Paper orders Wed. 2/22 Online orders due by Fri. 2/24
Thursday, February 23rd - Science Fair and Family Science Night
Monday, February 27th - Box Tops for Education need to be in to get class credit

Reading/Writing
For the next few weeks, we will be doing a variety of ISAT prep activities. The students will be completing both math and reading extended responses.  The students will read a short passage,  answer multiple choice questions and then respond to a question explaining their answer by using details from the text and their own background knowledge.  The math extended response requires  students to solve a math problem, explain what they did to solve and further explain why they did what they did.

Spelling
This week is a short week, but there is a spelling test.  The pattern for this week, list #19, is words with double consonants.  The alternate list is difficult,  so students need to spend some extra time studying their words.  The test is Friday, February 24th.


Grammar
Students have been working on prefixes and suffixes.  Prefixes are word parts added to the beginning of a word that changes its meaning and suffixes are added to the end of a word to change the meaning.  The Original word is called a base or root word. There are some fun websites listed on the blog to help practice using prefixes and suffixes---check them out!

Social Studies 
We have been learning about some famous people who helped to shape our country and shape the lives of Americans.   In the coming weeks, the students will be learning about the three levels of government; local, state and national, and the leaders at each level.  Finally, we will discuss everyday people with everyday jobs who also shape our community.  These are people like firefighters, doctors, librarians, teachers and policemen. Attached on the bottom left column of the blog is a levels of government Powerpoint presentation.  The Powerpoint covers all the information students are expected to learn about levels of government.  Students will use the Powerpoint to study for the quiz which is Wednesday,  February 29th.  You've got to love modern technology! Study materials brought straight to your computer.  Students should know the three levels and the name and position of each leader ( Ex. - National government - President Obama).

Third Grade Math 
We will be finishing up unit 6 on geometry.  We are now moving from 2-dimensional shapes which are flat, to 3-D shapes which take up space.  Students will be learning the names of the various shapes as well as learn about faces, edges and vertices. A study guide will go home Thursday, Feb. 23rd, due on Monday, Feb. 27th.  The Unit 6 test will be Tuesday, February 28th.  


Accelerated Math