Week of March 31st- April 4th

Upcoming Event: PTA Bounce & Boogie Night will take place on Friday, April 25th from 5-8!  Information about purchasing tickets will be sent home soon.  Celebrate the end of FCAT by attending!  We hope to see everyone there!




                               We sure hope they get the food trucks to come back again this year!

Tuesday marks the end of the 3rd nine weeks, report cards will be sent home on April 15th.  There will be no school this Friday, due to a planning day!

Math:
We will finish up our unit on Time (Topic 16) and test on Wednesday.  Then we will continue to review past benchmarks in preparation for FCAT.  We will send reviews that we complete in class home, so please be sure to review these with your child.  These reviews will count for a grade--it is important that students do their best.  They need to continue to get on i-Ready at home.

ELA:
                                                         
We will continue to read informational text and use specific strategies which help us comprehend more effectively. We have discussed how previewing the text before we read helps us put it all together. When we preview informational text we:

1. Read and think about the title... make predictions and connect to schema we already have about the topic.
2. Continue to notice important text features such as headings, photos and illustrations with captions, maps, charts, bold words, etc. Looking and thinking about these first can really make a difference in our understanding. The author put the text features there for a reason... to help us!
3. Read informational text at a slower pace, as the majority of the information may be new to us!
4. As we read each section, think about the headings and the main ideas of each section. The text is organized much differently than fiction.

We are also reading meaningful fiction to review story elements/plot structure and theme... the message the author wants to share with us. Last week, we read The Littlest Matryoshka, a story about nesting dolls made in Russia. It was incredible when students made so many connections and comparisons to Edward Tulane... a great moment for me! The next day one of our students brought her own special matryoshka to share with us. It was beautiful and part of her collection of dolls from other countries.

Science:
We will take the Chapter 2 test on the sun and gravity on Tuesday.  This test will go on the 3rd quarter report card.

Resources:
Tiberio:
Tuesday- Media (return library books)
Wednesday- Computer lab
Thursday- Music/ Teacher directed P.E.
Friday- Planning Day


Kluge:
Monday- Media (return library books)
Wednesday- Music/ Computer Lab
Thursday- Teacher directed P.E.
Friday- Planning Day- No school

FCAT Testing:  All tests are 70 minutes long with a short stretch break after 40 minutes.
Monday, April 14th- Reading
Tuesday, April 15th- Reading
Wednesday- April 16th- Math (early release)
Thursday- April 17th- Math

Cabbage Plants

Check out one of our students cabbage plant!  It looks like it is going to be quite large after the 8-10 week growing period!  How are your cabbage plants growing so far?  Are you enjoying the experience?  It sounds like everyone has a green thumb!  Keep up the great work and we look forward to seeing all the progress! :)

Happy Planting! :)

Another awesome cabbage plant, she is also growing some peppers too!  We have such awesome planters in our classes! :)

Cabbage Plant #3 being well taken care of.

Week of March 24th-28th

Welcome Back!  We hope everyone had an enjoyable spring break! We have just 3 weeks until the FCAT. Please make sure your child is at school everyday. We are completing final reviews and activities to help students succeed on the FCAT.

ELA: For the next three weeks, we will be reviewing all of our third grade reading standards in preparation for the FCAT. Students may come home with a passage and questions to complete on some days and this can certainly count toward daily reading on the RAH log. Please encourage your child to complete i-Ready and FCAT Explorer lessons at home. They are an excellent review! Links are below...



Math: We will discuss time to the nearest minute, quarter hour, and half hour.  We will also talk about elapsed time- for example: John goes to soccer practice at 3:00, practice lasts until 5:30, how much time is John at soccer practice?  We will use vocabulary to describe time: quarter til, half past, quarter after, fifteen minutes after, etc.  Please encourage the use of this vocabulary.



Science:  We will discuss gravity and the effect it has on the Earth.  We will have a test on Chapter 2 soon.

Resources:
Tiberio
Tuesday- P.E. (wear tennis shoes)
Wednesday- PLC (wear tennis shoes)
Friday- Computer lab

Kluge:
Monday- Art
Wednesday- PLC (wear tennis shoes)
Thursday- P.E. (wear tennis shoes)
Friday- Computer lab

Spring Break Reading Passages...

Click on the sun below to access several Duval County third grade reading passages with questions for FCAT practice.

It's All About Theme!

Each day this week, we have read a Dr. Seuss book that has a strong message. Many of his more advanced books share a life lesson with readers. Here are the themes we came up with...

Thank you!

Thank you for sending in Box Tops for Education! Some awesome new books will be added to our classroom library tomorrow! Keep cutting those box tops!!! The book I am most excited about is Who was Ernest Shackleton? We may have to have a raffle for this one!

Week of March 10th-14th

Class pictures will take place on Tuesday!  Bring your smile!

We do have early release this Wednesday!

Curriculum Guide Assessments will take place this week Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!  Please make sure your child is at school on time.  Students should eat a good breakfast and get a good night of sleep.

Monday- Reading begins promptly at 8:45
Tuesday- Math
Wednesday- Science (early release)


ELA:  This week, we will finish up our unit on biographies. We will also look at comparing and contrasting elements, settings, characters, and problems in text, along with the different structures of text.

Compare and Contrast Characters Activity

Please continue to read every day. I have assigned specific lessons on i-Ready.  If you can complete extra lessons... awesome!



FCAT Explorer is a great practice tool also!




Math:
On Tuesday, I sent home a math packet to work on over spring break, I sent it home a few days before break in case some of you are vacationing over the break.  Please have your child work on this little by little, and review it once it is complete.  It needs to be completed and turned in by Monday, March 24th.  Students are not allowed to turn it in before spring break begins!

We will wrap up our unit on Measurement and Perimeter this week, we will test on Friday.  When we return from spring break we will begin discussing time.

Resources:
Tiberio:
Monday- Media (return all library books)
Thursday- Music/Teacher directed P.E.
Friday- Art

Kluge:
Tuesday- Music
Thursday- Teacher directed P.E.

Spring Break will take place the week of March 17th-21st. Students will return to school on Monday, March 24th!  Please have students continue to get on i-Ready Reading & Math.

Week of March 3rd-7th

Wow!  We are in the month of March already!  This year is flying by!

Math:
We will wrap up our discussion on congruence and symmetry with a quiz on Monday.  We will then move on to perimeter and measurement.  We will discuss how to use a ruler to measure to the nearest quarter inch, and half inch.



Science:
The students will be creating, testing, and sharing an experiment about heating and cooling a cup of water.  I look forward to their presentation on their experiment.

ELA:
  
We are taking a close look at BIOGRAPHIES this week! Areas of focus will be:

• text structure: how the author organizes the text
• text features: additional features such as photos, captions, maps, headings, charts and how they help the reader understand more about the subject
• traits: looking at the actions, struggles, and accomplishments of the person and choosing appropriate traits to describe him or her
• determining the main idea of a section or paragraph based on the heading and supporting details

Click on the duck below to read many biographies about all types of well know people!

                          

Please see the fluency and vocabulary tabs above also!

Resources:
Tiberio:
Tuesday- P.E.(wear tennis shoes)
Thursday- Teacher directed PE
Friday- Computer lab

Kluge:
Monday- Art
Wednesday- P.E. (wear tennis shoes)
Friday- Media(return all library books)/Computer lab

Next week, we will begin 3rd quarter CGA testing.
Monday, March 10th- Reading
Tuesday, March 11th- Math
Wednesday, March 12th- Science (early release)

FCAT is the week of April 14th!