Friday, August 26th

QUICK REMINDERS:

1. NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th - LABOR DAY

2. Individual Picture Day-Thursday, September 8rd  Don’t forget to turn in your order form, if you would like pictures.

Dear Parents,

We completed our first full week of third grade! Your children worked hard and did a great job keeping up with the new expectations. Here is a recap of our week and a look at what is coming up in our classroom.

Literacy:

Next week, we will start Dictado. This sentence dictation activity is one element of our spelling and writing instruction.  The weekly Dictado sentence will contain some words from the BVSD 3rd grade Must Write word list. The list contains 100 words third graders must master by the end of the year. I put a link on my website with all 100 words so you can help your child practice these words at home. https://docs.google.com/a/bvsd.org/file/d/0B539GG5UwPlvSTU3ck45bEgzTlk/edit

Next week, we will also review sentence and basic paragraph structure.  We will use these tools to begin writing small moment personal narratives.  Please ask your child what they are writing about to strengthen their storytelling experiences.

On Thursday, Mrs. Sbrocca will be completing a reading assessment using i-Ready with students. We started using this reading assessment two years ago Kohl, so your child should be familiar with the format. After the testing is complete I will have an assessment report, which shows me how your child is reading, their strengths, and areas to work on.

Math:

This week, I was able to complete a math screener for a few students. I will continue assessing students next week.  This information gives me a snapshot of where your child is in math.  We also started our first math unit on Multiplication and Division. Students will begin nightly math homework on Tuesday, September 30th. Each student will bring a Homework and Remembering book home with pages to complete on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Math homework will always be due the following day. If your child has trouble with the homework, please write a note on the page and let me know what they need help with so that I can work with them in the classroom.

Social Studies:

We will begin our first unit in Social Studies on Monday. This first unit is about Diverse Communities and Local Government.

Homework Reminder:

We will begin our regular homework routine next week.

On Monday students will be assigned a reading log, which will include their weekly Dictado sentence assignment.  They will also be assigned a mystery state.  These assignments are due on Friday. Students will have math homework on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Math assignments are due following day.

Third grade students should be spending no more than 45 minutes total each night on homework. As a general rule, if your child has worked diligently for this amount of time and is not done and you feel they are beginning to get tired or frustrated, please write a note to me on the homework stating this. It should not become a power struggle or an awful experience. Please keep the lines of communication open with me if you are experiencing any issues with homework. I am here to help.

I hope you all have a safe and relaxing weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Aisha Galt