Chapel: Our class will be doing chapel on October 5th. Our chapel will focus on Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day. You are welcome to attend. Chapel is at 8:45 in the Lower School Gym. I have a direction sheet I will send home on how to make a sailor hat out of newspaper and how to make a telescope out of a paper towel tube. Please help your child make these two props at home and bring them to school on October 1st. Thanks!
Parent/Teacher Conferences: I sent an email inviting everyone to sign up for a conference with a Google Doc. Please sign up at your earliest convenience. I look forward to meeting with everyone to discuss your child's progress on October 15th.
Xtra Math: Please remember to have your child do Xtra Math Monday though Friday. They will get the best results from doing the practice one time per day. If your child missed one day this week, please have him or her do it on Saturday or Sunday so that he or she is getting five days of practice.
I have a challenge for all my third graders. If anyone can get 75 Reading Counts points by October 12th, I will treat them to a pizza party the following Monday. By getting to 75 points by this day, students are on the path to earning the Reading Counts Spend-the-Night party at the end of the school year. ****Caroline, Noah, and Emelia have already met this challenge!!! Yah!
Book Report: The book report is due September 28th.
Open House is Tuesday, September 25th and will begin in the Eckburg Center at 6:30 p.m. Children are encouraged to come with their parents. Afterwards you will be invited to the classroom to tour it with your child. This is not a time for a conference. If you feel you need to speak with me about your child's progress before our October conference day, please send me an email, and I will schedule one with you. Thanks!
Reading: My reading group will be reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8. We will have a vocabulary test over the words in Chapters 1-3 on Monday, September 24th.
Reading with Mrs. Chambers: http://mrscchambers.weebly.com
Reading with Mrs. Slaughter:
http://mrsslaughter.weebly.com
Cursive Handwriting: We will practice all letters. Students need to focus on sitting all words on the line and making tall letters such as all capital letters and lower case b, d, f, h, k, l, and t should touch the top line.
Language: Test 3 will be on Monday, September 24th. It will cover pages 17 through 25. We will then be learning about period and comma rules.
Spelling: Please make sure your child leaves the spelling workbook in his/her binder. We will learn the words in Lesson 6. Students must also know the definitions for the vocabulary words and how to spell the words that are part of the definition. The test will be on Thursday. Under the spelling grade on each test is a grade (S, W, N, or U) for their cursive. You can go to www.spellingcity.com for online practice of the grade level spelling words each week. Just go "Find a List" and then for the teacher type in "Brenda Speir." All the lists for the entire year will appear. Just choose the one for this week.
Writing: Students will learn how to add strong details that describe how something looks, sounds, and feels. They will be writing paragraphs about their ideal pet.
Timed Tests: Timed tests will be on Tuesdays this year. This quarter we will focus on addition and subtraction. Students have 1 minute for 25 problems, 2 minutes for 50 problems, or 4 minutes for 100 problems.
Math: On Tuesday, September 25th we will do Diagnostic Checkpoint 2B. This will be graded. There is a copy of it in the math book and online so you are welcome to have your child do it at home for practice before we do the graded one in class. We will cover lessons 2-8 through 2-11 this week.
Science: We will begin Unit A called "Plants and Animals." We will then begin Chapter 1 about plants. Students will learn about plant cells and leaf shape.
Bible: Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled." Be prepared to write the verse on Friday. Spelling does not count but capitalization does.