Weekly News 1st - 5th April

Dear Parents,

Hopefully you and your family had a relaxing and fun holiday. We are now set up for our final stretch of the school year. A time that promises lots of learning and growth, and it will go by quickly. We have several new units scheduled to begin either this week or next!

This week begins on a day 6.

Reading Students will finish up our character studies reading unit this week. This will also be the last week for book clubs. They will continue to practice making predictions, asking thick questions, retelling important events, comparing and contrasting, and identifying character traits.

Writing Students are continuing the fiction writing unit from before the holiday for one final week. They will not only continue to write adapted fairy tales but also branch out into other fantasy and creative writing choices.

Math This week we are focusing on the attributes of 2D shapes, with particular attention to quadrilaterals. Some shapes can go by many names, for instance, a square is: a special rectangle, a rhombus, a parallelogram, and a quadrilateral.

Science We will be starting a new science unit this week called Balancing Forces: Investigating Floating Trains. Students will begin to figure out ideas about magnetic force, gravity, and how forces can cause an object’s movement to change or stay stable.

Week of April 1st. Please complete 2 activities and bring in to share on Friday, April 5.

Math: List the different attributes of a polygon. Then draw examples and non examples.	Language arts: Write a story that includes this character. He can either be the main character or a secondary character.	Language arts: Read a fairytale. Write down the characters, setting, problem, solution and lesson learned.
Math: Practice your division and multiplication facts. --online --flashcards --game	Social Studies: How have ancient civilizations influenced our modern day world? What are things that came from the past that we still use today? Think about art and architecture, education, technology. Make a drawing and label it or write about it.	Other: Practice one act of kindness each day this week. Write down what you did.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.

Weekly News - March 18th - 22nd

Good morning parents,

Book week was a lot of fun last week. From the book swap, to dress like a character day, to March Book Madness, and Matt Smith the visiting author/illustrator, the students enjoyed a successful week of reading celebration.

Monday is an inservice work day for teachers, but there will be no school for students.

We will begin the week on: Day 2

Reading Students will continue to work in their book clubs. They will be making predictions based on evidence, asking and answering thick questions, retelling the important parts of the story. Students will also be comparing and contrasting characters both in their book and other books.

Writing Students will continue with fiction writing. They will focus on adding actions words and descriptive details. They will continue to work to show, not tell what is happening in the story.

Math Students will begin our new unit in math. This unit focuses on geometry. They will learn about how shapes in different categories may share attributes. They will be recognize and draw rhombuses, rectangles, squares and other examples of quadrilaterals.

Science This week will be the final week for our People of the Past Unit. For a final project, students will be busy creating their own made up ancient civilization. They will be using the features of what made ancient civilizations successful: a good location with access to water, a belief system, a social structure/organization, art and architecture, technology and education.

Week of March 18. Please complete 2 activities and bring in to share on Friday.

Math: Draw a picture using only closed shapes. Color code your drawing so that 3 sided shapes are outlined in one color, 4 sided shapes in another color, etc.	Language arts: Draw a comic version of part of Because of Winn-Dixie. Make sure to include at least two characters and some dialogue.	Language arts: Compare and contrast Opal to a character in another book you know. How are they the same and how are they different. Use any way you know to compare and contrast them.
Math: Show your parents a multiplication/division table. Explain to them how it works. Show them any patterns that you see.	Social Studies: If you were to go back in time to an ancient civilization, which one would you go back to? Give three reasons why you would go back to that civilization.	Other: How could you drop something breakable from the second floor down to the ground and not have it break? Design a model to keep this object safe. Optional: build and test this design.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.

Math Resources

Dear Grade 3 Parents,

We just started our new Unit 5 in Math: Geometry.

Memorization is NOT a goal in the case of vocabulary words and multiplication facts. We encourage you to discuss the ideas and concepts through hands-on activities and conversations (in the home language) about how we use math in our daily lives. 

- We encourage to make connections with your home language to help understand the concept.

In this unit students will: 

• Further develop understandings of geometric figures by focusing on identification and descriptions of plane figures based on geometric properties. 

• Identify examples and non-examples of plane figures based on geometric properties. 

• Identify differences among quadrilaterals. 

• Understand that shapes in different categories may share attributes and those attributes can define a larger category (example: rhombuses, rectangles, and others have four sides and are all called quadrilaterals). Expand the ability to see geometry in the real world. 

• Draw plane figure shapes based on attributes.  

• Use data collected to make bar and picture graphs. 

• Find the perimeter of polygons; use addition to find perimeters; solve for an unknown length and recognize the patterns that exist when finding the sum of the lengths and widths of rectangles. 

• Third Grade students will describe, analyze, and compare the properties of two-dimensional shapes. They compare and classify shapes by their sides and angles, and connect these with definitions of shapes. 

VOCABULARY:

Visual Mathematics Online Dictionary: This resource includes definitions, pictures, examples, and related words for mathematical vocabulary. 

Congruent: Shapes that have the same size and shape

Parallelogram: A quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides and two pairs of equal sides

Polygon: A closed, 2-D figure with straight lines

Quadrilateral: A polygon with four sides

Rectangle: A 2-D figure with 4 sides and 4 right angles, opposite sides are parallel

Rhombus: A 2-D figure with 4 equal sides and 4 angles (not necessarily equal), opposite sides are parallel

Square: A 2-D figure with 4 equal sides and 4 right angles

Trapezoid: A 2-D figure that has 4 sides and 4 angles, one pair of sides is parallel

Right angle: An angle that forms a square corner

Vocabulary terms to talk at home for discussion in your home language to encourage language transfer background knowledge from language 1 to English concepts.

ACTIVITIES AT HOME:

Use grid paper to create congruent shapes.

Identify, describe, and classify different household objects as solid figures.

Identify angles that are less than, equal to and greater than right angles.

Use tangrams to make plane figures.

Cut pieces of yarn to make line segments. Measure each segment in inches (to the nearest quarter inch) and centimeters.

Go stargazing and make imaginary line segments by connecting the stars (points). Create geometric shapes.

Go on a shape hunt! Look for geometric shapes in your home and community. Create a chart to show your findings.

ONLINE RESOURCES:

Shape Sorter: using properties to identify shapes

Geometric Matching: identifying shapes through matching

Khan Academy: 3rd Grade Math topics

Happy learning!

The Grade 3 Team

Weekly News - March 4th

Week of March 3rd - 8th.

Dear Parents,

This week's update looks a bit different as on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we will be finishing up Student Led Conference (SLC) preparation. Here are some photos from the week.

Student-led conferences are scheduled for Thursday, March 7 and Friday, March 8. Your child will be the most important part of this conference, so they are required to attend. As your child leads the discussion by reflecting on his/her learning, sharing his/her goals, and celebrating his/her successes, please be ready to ask follow up questions. These are the type of questions to ask your child as they are leading the conference:

• How did you make this?
• Why did you choose this?
• What does this work show about you?
• What did you learn from this?
• What was the easy or difficult part of this?
• What do you like best about this?
• What more do you want to improve in, or learn?
• Tell me about this.

There will be other conferences in the classroom going on at the same time. Please note that this conference could take up to 45 minutes (but it won't overlap with any sibling conference time). After this time you will go with your child to any specialist teacher you choose to finish off the conference.

We begin this week on DAY 8.

Please note that with the short week, home learning will be for two weeks and will be shared in class on Friday, March 15th.

Weeks of March 6 and March 13. Please complete 2 activities and bring in to share on Friday, March 17.

Math: Teach a member of your family how to find the area of an object.	Language arts: Think about a book club book or a book you have read independently. What was the climax?	Language arts: What are 3 things you learned about writing opinion pieces?
Math: Teach someone a strategy you use to solve tricky multiplication facts.	Social Studies: Choose a civilization and write about the location of that civilization and why it was important.	Other: Organize a section of your room. Could be your bookshelf, toys, stuffed animals, etc.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.