Week of Sept 10th

Last week was a great week of growth for the students. They are really starting to become comfortable with expectations and many of our 3rd grade routines are becoming habits.  We have been working on building our classroom community a lot. Our school just adopted a new program called Restorative Justice. I will be speaking about it in more detail at Open House but it is an excellent way for our class to come together and talk. We are able to work out problems and learn about each other in a more productive way. It is definitely a work in progress but I think by the end of  the year our classroom will be pros!

In literacy last week we focused on our last Daily 5 routines which were Word work, Writing work, and Listening to reading. We continue to work on our reading stamina and last week we reached 20 min of uninterrupted, independent read time. So exciting! Word work focuses on spelling and learning the rules to spelling patterns. During our writing section we really focus on grammar and how to edit.  As you have probably noticed, we really work on our editing skills during our Learning Wheel letters. This is a great time to work on first draft, editing for grammar and spelling, and then final draft. 

Last week during math we worked on review of time and also elapsed time. Any little extra practice you can do at home will really help. Most students have mastered time to the hour, half hour, and 5 minute. But telling time to the minute has been difficult for many. We've also reviewed estimating and rounding and learned that estimates can help us decide if our answer makes sense. It is always very important to ask your child if their answer makes sense even during homework time. 

We continue to work on our Maps and Globes unit. Last week we learned about the 7 continents and the oceans. We sang a song and read a fiction story about the continents to help the students remember their place on the map. Thankfully 100% of the students now know that we live on the continent of North America, swim in the Atlantic Ocean, and there are 7 continents and can name them all. Phew!!! 

Please don't forget to come to Open House on Thursday night from 6-7:30. The students have worked hard on many pieces of work to share with you and you will learn a little bit more about the 3rd grade curriculum and our classroom routines and expectations.

Enjoy the week!