Happy New Year and Welcome back!

The third grade team welcomes you back and hopes you had a wonderful, relaxing break.  Here is what's happening this week.

Dates to remember:

1/8  and 1/10  CBM Testing
1/14 -  NO SCHOOL - Teacher work day
1/18  - End of Quarter
1/21 -  NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
1/23 - Did you Know... Projects Due
1/22 - 1/25 - Interim Assessments
1/30-  Open House

Reading:  The students will be reading the story The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry.  The story is about a man hired to go into the rainforest and chop down one of the mighty Kapok tree's.  When he grows tired and falls asleep, many of the animals that make their home in the tree whisper in his ear.  They tell him why he shouldn't chop down the tree.  What will happen when the man wakes up?  We will have to read the story to find out.

Strategy - Cause and Effect-  The cause is the reason something happens.  The effect is the result of  something else.  

Vocabulary -  canopy,  dangle,  dappled,  fragrant,  pollen,  pollinate,  slithered,  wondrous

Grammar:  Onomatopoeia = words that represent a sound,  BANG! ZOOM! CHOP!

Spelling: No list this week :)

Writing: This month we will be working on a variety of writing projects with a winter theme! Here are the highlights...

• Mitten writing (descriptive writing) - Students will design a mitten and then write a description of their mitten.  Will their description be good enough for someone to pick their mitten out of a bunch of mittens?  Close attention to details and creative use of adjectives will be necessary. 
• The Snowman Caper! (point of view writing)-  In this assignment, students will practice writing from different points of view.  The students will develop a story about a  child's missing snowman.  They will tell the story from either the snowman's point of view, the child's, a newspaper reporter covering the story of the missing snowman or a detective investigating the crime.  It will be tons of fun listening to the various points of view!
• Frosty gets a Makeover! (creative/persuasive writing)- This will be a group effort. Students are given the task of updating Frosty's look. What kind of hat will Frosty don in 2013?  Groups will design a new, hip, up-to-date look for Frosty in the form of an advertisement. In addition, the students will compose a new song to go along with Frosty's makeover.  Each group will present their proposed look to the class and everyone will vote on which is the best new look and song for Frosty!  Creativity at it's best:)

Science: We will finish up our study of habitats and begin our in-depth study of tropical rainforests. Students will find out where they are located and identify the 4 layers.  In addition, students will have computer lab time to work on their animal slide presentation.  

Did you know projects- By now the students should have selected something that interests them about rainforests and began work on their "at home" project.  Students will present their information to the class on Wednesday, January 23rd.  There are many websites on this blog to help students with their rainforest research.

Math:

Third Grade Math- We will be starting Unit 4 on multiplication and division.  Students will be expected know that multiplication is repeated addition and division is repeated subtraction.  In addition, students will be expected to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays and measurement quantities.  Should learn to solve these problems in a variety of ways such as drawing pictures, an equation with a symbol for the unknown number, using math facts and drawing arrays. 

Vocabulary - array,  associative property,  commutative property,  distributive property, dividend,  divisor,  factor,  product,  quotient.

Accelerated Math -