Friday, March 4, 2016

Friday, March 5th

Dear Parents,

I enjoyed meeting with each of you during our parent teacher conference last week. Although conferences make for long days, I feel energized by these meetings.  You are an incredible group of parents, raising amazing kids.  I commend you for your dedication and hope that you will continue to communicate with me throughout our last trimester to ensure your child’s success in third grade and beyond.  

Students will be completing the PARCC, state standardizedtests when we return from spring break.  The language arts tests will be completed on March 29th, 30th, and 31st.  The math assessments will be completed on April 6th, 7th, 8th and 11th.  Attendance is very important during these times.  Our tests begin at 8:30 and go until 9:30 to 10:20 depending on the day.  We will complete a few PARCC practice activities over the next couple of weeks to familiarize our students with the format of the online assessment.

Math
Our geometry unit test will be early next week.  Please ask your child questions about what they are learning and review your child’s homework to check for their understanding.  The following are some key vocabulary for this unit: right angle, polygon, quadrilateral, opposite, parallelogram, rectangle, rhombus, square, trapezoid, area, perimeter, square unit, decompose, and dimensions.

Writing
Students have been working very hard to complete their informational animal Google slide shows.  It is impressive to see them navigate the Google slide show program to create a dynamic presentation to share what they know about the animal they chose to research. Students will start sharing their work with the class next week.

Reading
Our class is reading many short stories and non-fiction texts together. We are focusing on identifying details from the text to support student answers. Please continue to take the time to review your child’s reading log to ensure they are thinking more deeply about the texts they are reading at home.  Thank you!

Social Studies/ Science
We are coming to the end of our economics unit.  Students have been learning about the role of needs, wants, producers, consumers, supply, and demand  in our economy.  We will continue our class money system for the next few weeks. This system is helping our students build understanding around the importance of long and short-term financial goals.  Our next science unit is Earth Materials.  Students will complete many hands-on activities to explore the rock cycle and how rocks and minerals are resources for humans.

Important Dates to Remember  
March 21st-25th-Spring Break
March 29th, 30th and 31-ELA PARCC tests
April 6th, 7th, 8th, and 11th- Math PARCC tests

I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Aisha Galt