December 17th - 21st

Friday, 12/21- third grade read in.

12/24- 1/4- Winter Break, school resumes on 1/7.

Reading

We are continuing our author study on Chris Van Allsburg. This week, the students will finish reading The Sweetest Fig and The Widow's Broom. The main strategy that we will focus on is predicting and story endings.  The students will see how different endings change the story.  We will also continue to work on the skill from last week, which was inferring.  The students will use the information from the story and their own back ground knowledge to make predictions/guesses about the stories. Inferencing involves higher level thinking and so we will be spending the week on this strategy.

On Thursday, 12/20, we are planning on watching movies based on Van Allsburg's books. If anyone has a DVD copy of Zathura or Jumanji and are willing to let us borrow it, please contact your child's homeroom teacher.

Writing

Some students are still finishing up on their personal narratives. Then we will move on to writing about the author Chris Van Allsburg and will respond to his books. We will also incorporate some winter writing as students finish their work.

Grammar

The students will examine how figurative language enhances writing. Figurative language is when people or animals represent a human trait or quality. We will practice using similes and metaphors in our writing. Similes use like or as to make comparisons. Metaphors are direct comparisons.

Spelling

The Unit 15 test will be this Friday, 12/21. The pattern focuses on words with "ar" in them. Please make sure to practice every night.

Science

We are continuing our unit on habitats.  The students will learn what a habitat is and all the things habitats need for plants and animals to survive.  The students will see how plants and animals live together.  We will also focus on the food chain: consumers, producers, carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores.  Then the students will see how animals survive in the environment.

Third Grade Math

Unit 3 focuses on measurement, perimeter, and area. Students will be exposed to measuring with U.S. customary and metric units of length. In addition, they will learn the how to find the perimeter and area of a quadrilateral.

Accelerated Math

The beginning of unit 4 focuses on decimals. Students will be exposed to decimal notation for fractions with denominators 10 or 100. They will compare two decimals to tenths and hundredths and will learn how to write the decimals in expanded form. The second part of unit 4 focuses on different types of measurements. We will learn conversions between measurements as well.