August 27 - August 31

August 27-31

Hello! 
Read below to see what we will be working on this first FULL week of 3rd grade.

Math

We began Topic 1 in math today. Students will be using place value to learn about numbers and different ways to represent them. Some of the key concepts that they will learn this week are:
* Representing numbers
* Ways to name numbers
* Greater numbers
* Counting and identifying numbers on a number line

Students will have homework every night in math. They are expected to complete the "Practice" side of the sheet while the "Enrichment" side is optional. The first assignment was given to them today so they should have their homework sheet in their take-home folder with them.

Reading
Theme 1 was introduced in class today. Students will study Communities while practicing a variety of reading and writing skills. The reading strategy that students will practice this week is 'making connections.'

Students will be expected to read 15-20 minutes 4-5 nights a week in my class. The school will have several reading programs throughout the year in which the boys and girls will need to track the time they read. That will be the only time I send home an official reading log for tracking. Students will write in their agendas daily the 15-20 minutes I expect them to read. When the parent or guardian signs the agenda nightly, that will be my confirmation that your child has completed his or her reading for the day.

Spelling
"Short Vowel sounds" is the pattern for the first spelling list of the year. Students will take a pretest on Fridays. It is a child's score on the pretest that determines which of TWO lists they will recieve.
The Rigby list will contain 15 words with the pattern of the week.
The second list will also follow that pattern of the week, contain 15 words, but will contain words that are a little more difficult.
Your child has the opportunity to fluctuate between the two lists on a weekly basis. We will take a weekly pretest to determine how well each child knows the new pattern.

I will not be assigning nightly spelling homework for the students to turn into me. They will be completing an activity during class time each day instead. However, they are expected to learn study skills at home that require them to practice their words at home which will help them prepare for Friday's test.
You can have your child practice spelling at home by asking them to do an activity each night. This will help them prepare for the test. Here are a few ideas for you to have them do at home: reading and/or writing the words, putting them in ABC order, using them in sentences, finding them in a dictionary, take a practice test, find them in a book they a reading or copy them 3 times.

Science
We began learning about the sun today. We have a fun Solar Energy unit planned for the 3rd graders in which they will actually be building their own solar house. Watch for more about that in the next few weeks.

Writing
The year will begin with students writing a story while making sure to emphasize a Beginning, Middle and End so that it is organized, has flow and makes sense.

In grammar this week students will review nouns and verbs.

That's all for Week 1!!

May 7 - 11

The year is quickly winding down, but we are going to keep working hard and stay as busy as we can to help us stay focused through the last couple of weeks of school.

Here are the plans for the week:
Reading-- We will complete our chapter books that we have been reading in groups. We will be working on monitoring understanding, as well, as reviewing previous strategies that we have learned.

Spelling--
This is the LAST week of spelling!!  The pattern for the Rigby list this week is pronouns.  The Rigby words are bone, how, cookies, goes, half, whoever, himself, danger, join, them, who, ache, anybody, aunt & itself.  The Extension list is the suffix pattern "-ance, ence" which means 'state or quality of'. The Extension words are tolerance, radiance, perseverance, patience, elegance, dominance, diligence, defiance, convenience & annoyance.The test will be on Friday.

Math--Our perimeter unit went very quick and we will spend the rest of the year learning about area. We will also do some graphing before the year is over.

Science-- SCIENCE FAIR-- this Friday from 2:00-3:30. Parents are welcome to come by and check out all the experiments our students have been working so hard on.

The students have done a great job working on "the parts" of their Science Fair Project. Every thing should be turned in by today. I will accept late work through tomorrow because we will be assembling our Science Fair boards today and tomorrow afternoon in class.

Reminder- The board your child is using cost $1.50.

April 16 - 20

As I look ahead through the week, I am noticing a fairly "uneventful" week!!
Here's what we have planned:

Reading
We will begin Theme 12, Explorers in Space, today. Our reading strategy focus for this theme is classifying and categorizing information. Small groups will meet this week as we continue to read books and novels at students' individual reading levels.

Continue having your child read at home and mark it on the reading log. The Reading Logs will go home in Monday folders every week, and are expected to be turned in by Tuesday of the following week.

Spelling
The Rigby pattern this week are the prefixes non-, in-, and dis-. All three of these prefixes mean "not".  The Rigby words are insane, distrust, nonprofit, discover, around, disappear, color, dislike, nonfat, indifferent, disorder, nonliving, invisible, independent & dishonor.
The Extension list this week is hyper-, which means "over, beyond, or high."  The extension words are hypersensitive, hyperventilate, hyperglycemia, hyperextend, hypertension, hyperactive, hypercritical, hyperbole, hyperthyroidism, hyperthermia

Writing
We have been writing persuasive paragraphs. The students are also writing poetry to coincide with April being Poetry Month.

Math
We are continuing to learn more about fractions in Topic 10. This week we will be learning how to compare different fractions.

Science
We will be finishing up matter this week and also learn about ecosystems.

Science Fair Project Due Dates for the week:
Friday, April 20-- your child's Topic and Problem Statement are due!!

Please let me know if you have any questions!
Have a super week!!

April 9 - 13

Hello!

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter with your families! It was such a beautiful weekend....kind of felt like a little tease of summer!

This week we are sending home all the information for the science fair including all of the due dates for it! I am asking that you review the packet with your child and then send the signed sheet by Friday, April 13th. Thank you!

Our last reading program of the year will begin on April 10. It will be our Pawsome Reader program For every 500 minutes read, we will earn a paw. The class with the most paws in each grade level will earn a reward at the end of the program on May 13.

Math -
This week we will finish Topic 9 and will have the test on Thursday. The students will learn how to estimate fractions and will be able to make a table to identify a pattern to solve the problem.

Reading -
We will continue Theme 11, which is our unit on the Solar System. We will be reading and taking notes on different planets. We will also be working on writing a poem to describe a planet.

Spelling -
This week the Rigby list uses the prefix un- which means not. The words are: place, under, unable, unbuckle, uneasy, unwilling, unkind, uncover, unfold, unhappy, untold, unwind, unusual, unequal, and universe.
The challenge list uses the prefix sym-, syn- which means together, same. These words are: symbiosis, symmetry, sympathy, symposium, symptoms, synagogue, syndicate, synonym, synthesis, and synthetic.

Science -
We will continue our study of the states of matter and do more experiments to help describe the different properties of each.I am working on a sign up for volunteers for our Science Week which is April 23rd - April 29th, I will email it out as soon as I have it finished! :)

Writing -
This week we will be drafting persuasive essays and beginning a unit on writing poetry.

March 19 - 23

The 2012 Prairie Ridge Parent Survey is open!　 The school’s Site Council worked to shorten the length of the survey, so it will only take approximately 5 minutes to complete.　 Please note, surveys are set up by grade level, so if you have more than one student at PRE, we ask you complete one per child.　 This will allow you to provide specific feedback for each of your children.　 The survey closes on March 26^th.　 The school uses the survey information as a part of our continuous improvement process, and your feedback is valuable to us!　 Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete the survey.

Third Grade Prairie Ridge Parent Survey 2012

www.surveymonkey.com/s/HFYNVCG


Welcome back to school!  I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather and spring break with your kids.  It was great to see them again today!  :)  This week will be a normal week.  We will be preparing for our math testing next week so be prepared to see a variety of math homework topics.  Please let me know if you have any questions at all. 


Friday's Dr. Suess Day is Wear Red or Blue Day.  It is also a spirit day, Crazy Hair Day!  It's bound to be one wild day!

Math: 

We will be reviewing and preparing for the state math test next week.  Kids will have a play book to review at night with you.  We are currently running our math boot camp where the kids will rotate through each class to cover a different topic.  Please look over their homework each night and go over any questions they may have.  There will be questions similar to those on the state test.  We will be testing next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Personally, I am having the kids show their work even if they think it is incredibly easy for them.  Showing their work simply checks their mental math.  :)

Science:
We will begin a unit of sound and motion later this week.

Social Studies:
We will begin Unit 9 this week.  Our comprehension strategy is a review of making connections and compare/contrast information.

Grammar: 
We will review nouns.

Spelling:
The Rigby list is a list of nouns.  The words are buzzard, piano, boat, clown, airport, farm, cavern, giant, sponge, cluster, fable, author, bamboo, cloud and person.
The Extension list uses the prefix mis, which means bad or badly, wrong.  The words are misunderstand, mischievous, mistreat, mistreat, mislead, misjudge, misbehave, miserable, mistake, misfortune and misspell.

Writing:
We are finishing up the biographies for the Studentreasures hardback books.  If you have not sent in your order form, please do so by Thursday.  We will be mailing the books in to be published on Friday.  Let me know if you need a new form as I do have extra. 

As you can see, it will be a very busy week.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns at all.  :)

February 27 - March 2

Hello!

Hope you all had a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend! Hopefully it will stay around for awhile! :) It's a big week for 3rd grade as we will begin our Kansas Reading State Assessments. They will take place Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 12:00-1:30 (or longer if anyone needs extra time). Please make sure your child receives a good night's sleep and eats a healthy breakfast each day this week. There will be NO homework until Thursday evening.  There will also be NO SPELLING this week due to testing.

Thank you for sending in a white t-shirt. The kids were excited to decorate their "team jersey" for our annual KSA Super Bowl. The class decided on our team name--the Bandits!! GO BANDITS!

Please consider sending in non-perishable items for the 5th grade food drive for St. Mary's food kitchen this week. Thank you in advance.

Math
This week, we will begin Topic 15, focusing on liquid volume and mass. We will cover customary units of capacity, metric units of capacity, units of mass and units of weight this week.

Writing
We will begin writing autobiographies this week. We will be publishing the autobiographies into a hard bound book.  You will recieve one book free and you option of purchasing more than one.

Some of the 3rd graders will be purchasing one of their books and sending them to Ethiopia Reads. Ethiopia Reads is a program that sends books to fill libraries in Ethiopia. You do not need to donate a book to this program.  If you have any gently used books that you would rather donate to this program, we will certainly accept those as well.  It is an exciting opportunity for our children to be a part of something like this and be able to help kids across the world.

If you would like to purchase a copy of your child's autobiography you may do so by filling out the form that I gave to you at conferences. If not, please just sign the form and return it! Thank you and let me know if you have any questions about this. 

Social Studies
We will begin a unit about Economics that should last until Spring Break.

Have a fabulous week!

February 20 - February 24

Hello!

Thanks so much for attending your child's conference!  It's a team effort to make sure your children are learning as much as they can to reach their fullest potential.  I truly appreciate all of the support you are giving them at home to help them prepare for the upcoming state assessments.  I know they'll do GREAT! 

REMINDERS!!
Please send a sack lunch with your child on Tuesday, February 21.  We will be attending the symphony during our lunch time so will eat when we return at 1:00. 

Please send a food dish with your child on Thursday, February 23rd.  Your child should come to school dressed in clothing that portrays their ancestor's country for the all school International Festival which will showcase their hard work over the past few weeks!

Please send a plain, white t-shirt by Friday, February 24.  We will design our own team jerseys for our KSA Super Bowl! 

Reading
We will begin with Theme 10 this week and will carry it out over the next three weeks. Our strategy focus is reviewing author's purpose along with comparing and contrasting information. We are stretching it out over the next few weeks as we are not allowed to do any other reading on the days the students take their state reading assessment.  We will still use our small group time to practice strategies that will help them on their assessments.

Spelling
Our Rigby words this week are brother, food, inside, atlas, sneeze, index, contents, data, edge, lunch, penny, summer, title, source and information.  Our prefix pattern is: trans-, which means across or through.  Our words are transatlantic, transcontinental, transcribe, transect, transfer, translate, translucent, transparent, transpiration and transport.  The test for both lists will be on Friday.

Writing
The students will be writing an autobiography for their published book this year.  We will begin those after our International Festival this week.  Look for more information regarding this soon!  :)

Math
Division!! The students did a fabulous job on our first division test.  We are currently studying fact families with division and multiplication facts.  We will have a test over Chapter 8 next week. 

Social StudiesThis week is the big week!  We have our International Festival on Thursday, February 23.  There will be an all school assembly from 10:00-10:45 in the morning with sampling various food from our countries and a chance for the different grade levels to learn more about our countries in the afternoon.  The students will showcase their hard work from 2:15-3:30 in the cafeteria.  Thanks so much for all of your help with this big undertaking.  We couldn't have accomplished it all without YOU!