September 10th-14th,

Important Reminders- Our third grade is excited to have our PTA President, Mrs. Straub, visit our students to talk about how the PTA is part of our May Watts Community. Thanks for doing this Mrs. Straub!

Curriculum Night is Thursday, 9/14/12.  Session 1 begins at 6:30-6:55 in each classroom. At 7:05, there will be a presentation in the Gym on Math, Champs/Citizenship and an introduction of specials teachers. Session 2 is at 7:35 for anyone who missed Session 1.

Citizenship- This week’s cool tool is responsibility. The students are learning ways to demonstrate responsibility throughout May Watts. We will learn about the importance of making responsible decisions. The students will learn that when we make responsible choices, we are doing our personal best.

Spelling- The test for list 4 is Friday, 9/14. The skill is short  i, short o and short u words.

Reading- The students will read the realistic fiction piece called Pepita Talks Twice by Ofelia Dumas Lachtman. This story is about a girl named Pepita, who stops speaking Spanish because she is tired of being the neighborhood translator. Pepita eventually realizes that speaking two languages is a positive skill through a difficult lesson.  A disaster almost happens when her dog does not respond to the English name that she has given him. Please have your child reread this story at home at least once during the week. There will be an open book test (with vocabulary and comprehension questions) at the end of the week.

Vocabulary: languages, grumble, mumbled, darted, streak, exploded, stubborn

Writing- The students are doing a terrific job of getting in the habit of writing every day. We will introduce quick writes. The students will also examine the writing process. Our writing prompt will be about “How We Spent Our Summer Vacation.”  We will continue to model what Writer’s Workshop looks like and examine the daily routine. It’s been fun to generate ideas through different lists such as authority lists, webs, and heart maps.

Grammar- The students will learn to identify and use verbs to enhance their writing.

Social Studies- Mrs. Straub’s will talk to our students about how the PTA is part of our May Watts Community. This will connect our Communities Unit to real life experience. The students will continue to learn about communities by creating a brochure about Naperville. We will examine places to live, work, and have fun in our suburb. We will also compare and contrast the three different communities- urban, rural, and suburban. Lastly, students will examine how geography affects a community.

Math- We started the year by dividing the students into their various math classless.  Beginning in third grade,  there are both Accelerated Math and Third Grade math classes.  Mrs. Brayton and Mrs. Kiselyk teach Accelerated Math and Miss Anco, Mrs. Baumann and Miss Pedersen teach third grade math.  Each class will be going over the structure of math class and laying the ground rules.  Everyone will be starting the New Common Core math curriculum.  While you will see familiar homework pages from the Everyday Math Program, we will not be using EDM exclusively.  Expect various kinds of homework and some skipping around. The Common Core Math Standards philosophy is to teach deeper.  We will be going more in-depth with our teaching and EDM will be supplemented.

Third Grade Math - Unit 1 is a review of number grids, patterns and time.  Students will be doing number grid stories, recognizing number patterns and solving elapsed time problems. We will also introduce students to bar and pictographs. Students will draw a scaled bar graph and picture graph to represent data. They will also solve one and two step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information presented on a bar graph.