Welcome Fall!!

I hope you are enjoying the cooler weather...we sure are! Our recess is only 20 minutes long, but the kids are enjoying the fresh air and cooler temperatures every day!

We had another great week...the kids have earned many marbles for their exemplary behavior and are working hard to, once again, FILL THE JAR! From my guess, it will be another week or so until it is filled, but you should applaud their hard work.

The one way that I am able to keep you updated on your own child's behavior is through the checklists. I am sending them every TWO weeks and appreciate you getting them back to me so quickly. I really like these checklists because they are set up exactly like the report card, so there will not be any surprises once the report card comes out. I use them for reference to figure out the "average" mark your child should receive in each category. You need to know that I am not very lenient in the "following directions" category. If your child does not follow directions the first (or even second) time given, their work and other behavior categories are affected.

We had a different kind of week because of the late opening on Monday and the addition of four Exploratory Music classes added to our schedule. Every third grader in Frederick County is given the opportunity to explore all of the different instruments that they can play next year in Instrumental Music. A specialist travels the elementary schools in Frederick County instructing students on the different instruments and letting them experiment playing each of them. Your child may have a good idea of which instrument they're interested in playing after this week. They really enjoyed this class!

All that being said...let's get down to curriculum!

This week in Math we worked on ordering and comparing numbers using a game called "Racko"...the kids loved this game and they really put their mathematical skills to use playing it! We also practiced rounding greater numbers (up to 1,000,000) as a way to check if solutions to problems are reasonable. We watched a fun video entitled Math Challenge where the main character, a secret agent, posed problems for the students to solve to help him complete his mission. They did an excellent job! We are going to briefly touch on addition problems with more than three addends, and subtracting greater numbers with zeroes next week...our main focus will be on rounding to estimate sums and differences. They were pretested in this area this week and my instruction will be based on this pretest. Many students will have independent extensions at their seat while I work with others on the reinforcing the skills mentioned above.

This week, in Language Arts, the students began reading the novel Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. This is a collection of short stories (or cases) that involve the main character, Homer. The author has a wonderful sense of humor and we've been enjoying his writing style. We have been using comprehension codes for all of the "during reading strategies" that we've been practicing. They have these codes on a blue bookmark and they use sticky notes to mark each spot them use one of our strategies. Many of them use the code "ha ha" when they read a funny part, but then find out that by marking it and talking about it, they also made an inference while reading. I enjoy listening to their conversations about the book! We will be finishing up this novel next week and moving into a Short Stories unit where we read fairytales, folktales, and fables. We explore all of the different elements of each type of literature and read some wonderful stories! I am very excited about this unit!

In Social Studies the students have been in the computer lab researching a particular state, and compiling information about the physical geography, climate, and natural/human resources found there. We've also been comparing different cities and states around the country in our classroom...the children read about Roseburg, Oregon, Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Gloucester, Massachusetts. Listening to the students chat about why and how these cities are different when it comes to geography, climate and resources was enlightening!

We continue to work on our cursive letters...we are halfway through the lowercase letters and will continue at full speed on the aquisition of these letters. I ask that you look at your child's handwriting when they bring it home as an assignment. If you notice that the letters are being made incorrectly, please help them. You can use the Zaner Bloser resource located on the side bar of this blog. Thanks!

REMINDER...this Tuesday, September 30th, is a day off for students and staff...another short week...but it will be full of learning...mark my words!

Have a wonderful weekend and as always, please email me with questions or concerns.