Week of February 25, 2013

Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, 2/27:  Young Author's pieces due
Wednesday, 2/27:  Watt's Whirl
Friday, 3/1: No School: Institute Day
Week of 3/4:  ISAT testing

Reading:  This week the students will continue to practice functional reading. Functional reading means reading that we see in everyday life.  For example, the students will practice reading show programs, a sports schedule, recipes, store signs and many more.  It is important for them to be able to locate important information and infer details from these everyday readings.

Grammar: Figurative Language = a play on words. We will continue to work on metaphors, similes, idioms, and onomatopoeia.

Spelling: This week the students will be tested on list #20 which is using the endings er and est.  The test will be on Thursday, February 28th.  There is no school on Friday.

Writing: We will be finishing up our Frosty writing and then moving on to "Oregon Trail Journal Writing".  To go along with our social studies unit on Westward Movement, the students will
be keeping a journal of their trail experiences.  In addition, the students will be writing responses to reading passages.

Social Studies: "Oregon or Bust!" This week the students will be heading West and traveling on the Oregon Trail!  The students will be playing an Oregon Trail game where they roll dice to determine the hardships and tragedies they will encounter during their 2,000 mile, six-month journey West.  The students love playing the game and learning about how the pioneers endured the difficult journey for a better life.

Math:
Third Grade Math- Third grade math has moved into unit 5 which focuses on fractions.
Students will be learning that fractions parts of a whole and many things can be divided into fractions.  Students will be expected to identify fractional parts of a whole, fractional parts of a number on number line, and fractional parts of a set of objects.

Vocabulary - fraction, numerator, denominator, equivalent 

Accelerated Math- We are beginning unit 6, which focuses on division and angles.  We will start with division by teaching the traditional long division method and the partial quotients method.  Then we will review the relationship between multiplication and division to solve more word problems.

Vocabulary - dividend, divisor, factor, quotient 

Week of February 25th, 2013

Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, 2/27:  Young Author's pieces due
Wednesday, 2/27:  Watt's Whirl
Friday, 3/1: No School: Institute Day
Week of 3/4:  ISAT testing

Reading:  This week the students will continue to practice functional reading. Functional reading means reading that we see in everyday life.  For example, the students will practice reading show programs, a sports schedule, recipes, store signs and many more.  It is important for them to be able to locate important information and infer details from these everyday readings.

Grammar: Figurative Language = a play on words. We will continue to work on metaphors, similes, idioms, and onomatopoeia.

Spelling: This week the students will be tested on list #20 which is using the endings er and est.  The test will be on Thursday, February 28th.  There is no school on Friday.

Writing: We will be finishing up our Frosty writing and then moving on to "Oregon Trail Journal Writing".  To go along with our social studies unit on Westward Movement, the students will be keeping a journal of their trail experiences. In addition, the students will be writing responses to reading passages. 

Social Studies: "Oregon or Bust". This week  the students will be heading West with their school families and traveling the Oregon Trail! The students will be playing an Oregon Trail game where they roll dice to determine the hardships and tragedies they will encounter during their 2,000 mile,  six-month journey West.  The students love playing the game and learning about how the pioneers endured the difficult journey west for the opportunity of a better life.

Math:

Third Grade Math- Third grade math has moved into unit 5 which focuses on fractions.  Students will be learning that fractions are parts of a whole and many things can be divided into fractions. Students will be expected to identify fractional parts of a whole, fractional parts of a number on a number line, and fractional parts of a set of objects.

Vocabulary - fraction, numerator, denominator, equivalent

Accelerated Math - We are beginning Unit 6, which focuses on division and angles. We will start with division by teaching the traditional long division method and partial quotients method. Then we will review the relationship between multiplication and division to solve more word problems.

Vocabulary - dividend, divisor, factor, quotient.

February 11th-15th

Dates to remember:

*Remember to return any conference forms (if a conference was scheduled).

Thurs. 2/14 - Valentine's Day Party 2:30-3:15
Please click on the tab above to read Mr. LeCrone's letter regarding Valentines Day.

Fri. 2/15 - Human Society visit!  (Please notify your child’s teacher if your child has a dog allergy.)

Reading: We will be reading a historical fiction story this week called, Boom Town by Sonia Levitin.  This story is about a family's experience when they arrive in the west during the Gold Rush.  Amanda, the daughter, finds herself with free time after they move to California.  She decides to bake a pie that leads her to starting a booming business.  She encourages people she meets along the way to start their own businesses, and eventually, a town develops.

This is a great story to help us transition into our new Social Studies unit (see below), as well.

Strategy - Fact vs. Opinion.  We will be reviewing facts and opinions throughout the story.
Vocabulary - miners, nuggets, skillet, stagecoach, settle, boom town, landmark

Grammar: Figurative Language = a play on words.  We will continue to work on metaphors, similes, idioms, and onomatopoeia.

Spelling: The next test will be on Friday, February 15th. The pattern in each word is double consonants.

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:)

Social Studies: We will begin a new social studies unit this week!  The students will be learning about the Westward Movement in the United States.  We will review where we left off with the 13 colonies becoming free and establishing the USA.  Then we will briefly explain how we acquired the remainder of the land in the USA.  Our focus will be on the Oregon Trail.  The students will learn what migration is and what life was like during the expansion to the west.  We will be play an Oregon Trail game where the students will learn about the real-life situations and hardships that the families experienced.

Math:

Third Grade Math- We are working on Unit 4 which covers 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 - We are beginning Unit 6, which focuses on division and angles.  We will start with division by teaching the traditional long division method and partial quotients method.  Then we will review the relationship between multiplication and division to solve more word problems. 

Vocabulary - dividend, divisor, factor, quotient.

February 4th - 8th

Dates to remember:

Wed., 2/6 - Rainforest food donations are due for our rainforest party which will be from 1:30 - 2:30. We are really excited!

Please click on the tab above to read Mr. LeCrone's letter regarding Valentines Day.

We are still finalizing the date, but Terri Hancock, Director of Education from the Naperville Humane Society, will be coming to visit with her therapy dog. She will visit for 15 to 20 minutes to discuss the training of a working dog and the proper care for animals. Please notify your child’s teacher if your child has a dog allergy.
 

Thanks!

The Third Grade Team
 

Reading: We will continue to work on our "Dog Unit" this week. We will be finishing activities with the story Rosie, A Visiting Dog's Story by Stephanie Calmenson. The story is about a working dog named Rosie. Rosie is a terrier whose friendly nature makes her a perfect visiting dog. She brings comfort to people in nursing homes and hospitals. This story is a personal narrative. We will also discuss other working dogs and how they help humans everyday.

Strategy - Summarizing- Students will learn how to summarize the key events in the story.

Vocabulary - firm, confident, comfortable, approach, equipment, program, appointment


Grammar: Figurative Language = a play on words.

Spelling: The next test will be on Friday, February 8th. The learning target is words that have an  /or/ sound.

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 continue 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.

Rainforest Party- The students will be celebrating the Rainforest Unit with a party on Wed., February 6th from 1:30-2:30. We will be playing Rainforest Jeopardy, sampling foods from the Rainforest, and dancing the Limbo! We can’t wait!

 

Math:

Third Grade Math- We are working on Unit 4 which covers 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 - We are working on Unit 5 which focuses on place value of very large numbers and multi-digit multiplication. This week, we will go over different multiplication methods. We will start by teaching partial products to solve a single digit by multi-digit multiplication problem. Then we will move on to multi-digit by multi-digit multiplication. By the end of the week, we will cover traditional and lattice multiplication. Encourage your child to bring home their SRB's to review the partial products method.