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.