Animal Classification Study Guide

Many parents were concerned about the Science study guide. We will complete this as a class tomorrow so that your students have a certain, corrected version of the study guide to use tomorrow night. We will also use tomorrow for a review day.

Classroom Liason Needed

We are in need of a second classroom liason. If you are interested, please contact Melanie Hunter via her contact information available on this blog. We appreciate any and all help that comes into the classroom. The donation of your time has a direct effect on the environment of our classroom and as such, student achievement. Thank you.

Picture day is this week! Our class is signed up for the slot just after lunch (12:30) on Friday, September 21^st. Please send your child with a tidy lunch that day so that no students are photographed wearing stained clothing!

Students are working together well in Chess. I love to see students teaching and learning with each other. We will play chess every Wednesday.

Study groups will begin next week. I will host a Language Arts tutoring/study group Tuesday mornings and a math tutoring/study group Wednesday mornings. They will be hosted in my classroom from 7:15 to 7:45. The topic will vary according to student need.

Starting this week, I will host a weekly lunch with the teacher. Working in alphabetical order, I will have lunch with one group of three boys or girls every Tuesday. Students do not need to bring anything special to this lunch. I am setting aside this time in hopes to develop stronger relationships with students. I am also hoping new friendships among students will stem from these lunches throughout the school year.

Science: This week, we are continuing our study of taxonomy and classification with the study of our final warm-blooded vertebrate, the mighty Order Mammalia! Today in class we discussed how vertebrates make up only 3% of the entire Animalia kingdom. We will discuss the overarching properties of the mammal as well as compare and contrast three seemingly different mammal species: the human, the dolphin, and the bear.

Language Arts: Riggs words can be found through a link on this blog or directly through the school website. We are finally getting into our Shurley textbooks. Today, we practiced our first jingles about nouns and verbs. By the end of the week, we will be classifying sentences with subject nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. In literature, we will read Shiloh chapters 9 and 10. We will finish the book by the end of the quarter. Students are really getting interested in the plot. We are making predictions and learning about cause and effect and making connections with the text as we read.

History/Geography: Students will take the Canada test tomorrow. The short unit about our neighbors up north comes to a close as we start to discuss rivers starting Wednesday. In the Rivers unit, we will learn about rivers around the world, touching on topics such as how rivers bring life to farms and cities and learning about historical and geographical significance of major world rivers, including the Yellow, Nile, Yangtze, Mississippi, Indus, Amazon, and Ganges Rivers.

Finally, please give your student an extra hug this week! Your children are working so hard and I am proud of them as their teacher. I hope you are also proud of the work of your children.

Amendment to Yesterday’s Update

I apologize for the misinformation. We will not have a Canada test on Friday. That test will not be until next Tuesday.

This Week in 3B

Language Arts: We are continuing to delve into the Shiloh text. Students are enjoying comparing their own lives to that of Marty, the young protagonist. Thank you to all parents who come in to help with our literature circles! Our vocabulary words for Shiloh this week are Monday’s Riggs words. These words are: nudge, meadow, creation, manage, and relative. Related to Riggs, please note that the markings in your child’s Riggs notebook will not necessarily match up with the markings on the “official” version that is posted. This is due to differences in the pronunciations. Rather than demanding that all students use the same markings, the third grade teachers and I ask that the markings the students use are reasonable. We believe that this helps students feel ownership and feel motivated to consider the unique qualities of the English language. In grammar, we will investigate subject nouns and the five parts of a complete sentence. Your child will come home on Monday with their copy of Shurley English. I am asking that you help your child cover the book with any sort of protective material. We are going to have a review for homework and an in-class study session prior to our grammar test on Friday. Students will come home with review homework on Wednesday. Finally, our Socratic discussion this week is “A Case Study in Medical Ethics” from our Touchpebbles text. We will uncover and discuss the question of whether it is ever appropriate to lie.

Geography: This week, we are continuing to study our neighbors up north in Canada. We will discuss Canadian history, geography, and culture. We will compare and contrast Canada and the United states as a whole group using graphic organizers. Friday, we will have an in-class review and a short test over the material learned in the Canada unit.

Science: We are moving onto the warm blooded class of vertebrates this week. Particularly, we are studying the birds order. To aid in our understanding, we will create a lap book that focuses specifically on ostriches.  

Week of Sept 4

What’s New in 3B

General Announcements: In response to some questions raised during curriculum night, here are some answers to parent questions. First, we will celebrate student birthdays on the last Friday of every month. Please email me to let me know if your child will be bringing in a snack and I will keep track of your responses. Please note that the number of snacks your child will bring in will be determined by how many children wish to participate. This is in an effort to cut down on the loss of instructional time and cut down on the amount of food consumed by children in class. Additionally, please see the new birthday snack policy which was in the folder from Curriculum Night. Secondly, Riggs Spelling Lists are now available on the website through a link on the top left side of the blog page. Follow this like to the spelling lists. All third grade students use the same list which contains words pulled from curriculum. On a separate note, students will receive direct writing instruction through our grammar program, Shurley. Finally, look out for a detailed curriculum map posting later this week. If you sign up to follow by email, you will receive an email once this is posted.

Science: This week we are studying amphibians. Amphibians are the third class of cold-blooded (or ecothermic) vertebrates we have studied so far. By Friday, students will have a deepened understanding of the similarities and differences between frogs and toads. Next week, we will move onto warm-blooded classes of vertebrates. We will specifically study birds and mammals.

Language Arts: Students completed their first graded spelling test today. Students will take a spelling test each day and be graded on the top five words (the words that they have had the longest). Then, students write the other fifteen. These are checked for accuracy—but not corrected—and students will bring home their quizzes to complete the corrections on the opposite page. In literature, we had our first literature circles of the week. Thank you parent volunteers! If you would like to join us, please sign up through Sign Up Genius. On Thursday, we will read Chapter 6 of Shiloh. We have been discussing as a group the choices that the main character makes and the effects that his choices have in his life. This week in grammar, we are reviewing synonyms, antonyms, and analogies. Finally, the Touchpebbles story on Friday will focus on judgment and the role of a mediator.

History/ Geography: Our studies of map skills are continuing this week by studying landforms. Students will learn new material including how to identify the following landforms: bay, channel, desert, island, isthmus, peninsula, valley, plateau, prairie, and strait. By the end of the week, we will begin our study of Canada.

Other: Chess officially begins this week! Students are paired up based on ability and whether they volunteered as a teacher or opted to be taught. Students will play chess for 15 minutes between recess and lunch.