March 17, 2017

Dear Parents,

We have one more week to go until Spring Break. We are super busy finishing up a variety of units before the break. Here’s a recap of what’s going on in 3rd grade. It’s a lot of information, but please read to the end to get it all.

PARCC

PARCC testing begins the week we return from Spring Break. 3rd graders will be taking the tests online each morning from 8:30-10:20. Please make sure your student is at school on time and well fed with breakfast each day. Please do not schedule any appointments during this testing time to reduce the number of retakes we have to do at the end. NOTE: This is only the 3rd grade testing schedule. If you have 4th or 5th graders, they have more days than this to test. Please refer to their testing schedule.

April 3	April 4 3rd ELA 1 8:30 – 10:20am	April 5 3rd ELA 2 8:30-10:20am	April 6 3rd ELA 3 8:30-10:20am	April 7 3rd  Math 1 8:30-10:20am
April 10 3rd Math 2 8:30 – 10:20am	April 11	April 12 3rd  Math 3 8:30-10:20am	April 13 3rd  Math 4 8:30-10:20am	April 14 NO SCHOOL

If your child would like to do some practicing at home for the tests, follow this link: http://bvsd.org/assessment/Pages/default.aspx

Students should also be practicing their typing skills at home to be able to complete the writing portion of the test. One of the best ways to practice typing is to type the alphabet over and over until they remember where all the keys are on the keyboard.

Literacy

We have finished researching and writing a rough draft of our informational writing project. This week we learned how to create Google slides for a presentation of our learning. We will continue to work on our slides next week and hope to be finished with them before break. Look for your child’s slide presentation at our Kohl Learning Fair, coming in April.

Math

This week we started Unit 7 in our math books- Fractions. By the end of this unit, students will understand:

• How to write a fraction and a unit fraction for a part of a whole and for a number on a number line
• Write equivalent fractions including fractions that are equivalent to whole numbers
• Compare two fractions with the same denominator OR the same numerator
• Solve real world problems involving fractions

The unit test for Fractions is scheduled for next Friday before break.

Social Studies

We have been learning about the regions of the United States during Social Studies. Students have watched videos (virtual field trips) for each of the regions and are learning about the similarities and differences of the regions of the United States. Students will be assessed next week on this unit. Our next Science unit, Earth Materials, will start after Spring Break.

Please let me know if you have any questions about anything in third grade.

Just as a reminder, the third grade music program is scheduled for next Tuesday, March 21st at 6:00.  Also, next week is our Kohl Spirit Week. Monday: Random Day, Tuesday: Sports Day, Wednesday: Pajama Day, Thursday: Crazy Hair Day, Friday:Kohl Spirit Day.

Enjoy the warm weekend!

Aisha Galt