September 3 - 6

Welcome to a new month and a new year!  I am so excited to be teaching your kids.  If the first two weeks is any indication as to how our year will be, then we will have smooth sailing and a lot of learning taking place in room 604!  Your kids amaze me with the effort they are putting forth in the classroom and with their respect for others.  It's so nice to see a group of kiddos willing to lend a hand to their fellow classmates.  =)

I will do my best to keep this blog updated each week.  I typically send out a notice when the blog has been updated.  Please let me know if you ever have any questions at all.  I'm here to help!

Here is what we have planned for the week.

English Language Arts/Reading & Science:  We are continuing our study of weather and how the sun directly relates to the weather we experience here on Earth.  We have been using several informational texts to dive into this study.  We will be assembling our solar cookers on Wednesday at 2:00 pm.  Thanks to the parents who have volunteered to help with that and to those who have sent in supplies for our cook out on Thursday.  Be sure to ask your child what he/she thought of the nachos and cooked apples.  YUM! 

We will be starting reading groups this week.  Please know that these groups are fluid and your child may move around to different groups within my classroom from time to time. 

Spelling: We have our first spelling test of the year this Friday, September 6.  Our spelling words come directly from our ELA and our Science/Social Studies curriculum.  Students will need to know how to spell the words and should know the definitions so they can use the words properly in a sentence/story.  This week's words are wind vane, barometer, rain gauge, anemometer, thermometer, forecast, prediction, meteorology, cold front, warm front, debris, gust, radar, Fujita Scale & damage. 
Here is a link to some fun games your child can play to help study the meanings of the words at home.  http://www.classtools.net/mob/quiz_34/Weather_1_VocabSpelling_Words_DizRX.htm   Another great practice tool is Spelling City.  You can find our list and a few games to play by clicking the link https://www.spellingcity.com/kmargheim/

Writing: We try to write a little each day in class.  It may be in our Learning Logs, math notebook or even our subject notebooks.  We also tackle some bigger writing projects at the same time.  This week we will begin drafting a piece of writing about what we did over our summer break.  This will be our first big writing project that we will take through the complete writing process. 

Math:  We will finish our topic on numbers and place value this week with a test on Thursday. 
I am sending a login sheet for you to access our math site at www.pearsonsuccessnet.com  The password for everyone is 3rdpre  With topic 2, we will begin our flipped classroom.  Often times, I will have you view the instructional video from pearson and have the kids do a couple examples in their math learning log.  I will send more information regarding this later in the week.  I'm excited to have more individualized math time with your kids  once we are able to implement the flipped classroom. 

NEXT WEEK WE WILL HAVE OUR MAPS TESTING.  Third grade will be taking the test on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9:00-10:30.  There isn't anything your child can study prior to the test.  Please make sure your child has a good breakfast each day, especially on our testing days. Thank you!

Have a super week!