January 26th

This week is Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida 2015! 
Monday: Author Visit
Tuesday: Million Minute Marathon
Wednesday: Ladies Love Literacy
Thursday: FUN RUN / Flashlight Reading
Friday: Readers Theater


Resources this week:
Monday: ART
Wednesday: EARLY RELEASE
Thursday: FUN RUN / MUSIC

READING: We are jumping into two new books this grading period. Our novel will be The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, one of my all time favorite books, and our informational chapter book will be Who Conducted the Underground Railroad?

We will focus on the following standard: I can answer questions to demonstrate my understanding of a text and refer explicitly to the text as the basis for my answers... in a nutshell, students should be able to look back in the text to prove an answer to a question. In third grade, passages and articles have become longer and more complex. Students can no longer depend just on their memory to answer questions, but instead need to search for answers in the text. See below for the steps we follow as readers answering a question that requires a written response. At the top you can read the question and it is followed by a strong response based on the text.

MATH: This week in Math we will continue to focus on Data.  We will be collecting, organizing, and displaying data using picture graphs, bar graphs and line plots to represent the data collected. The students will read and interpret data from various types of graphs.

Homework:

Monday: Lesson 3 homework

Tuesday: Lesson 4 homework

Wednesday: Lesson 5 homework

Thursday:  Lesson 6 homework

 

SCIENCE: This week in Science we will begin our unit on stars and space.  Students will learn about the sun and radiant energy, how Earth is affected by gravity, and the kinds of telescopes scientists use to find out about the universe.

FUN RUN UPDATE:

Thank you for supporting this year’s Boosterthon Fun Run! We are halfway through the program and the Boosterthon Fun Run event is quickly approaching. 

The students are having a blast learning about COMMUNITY through the Rock’n Town Live theme! So far this week, we learned about how as a community we must Plug In To Serve by putting other’s needs in front of our own, and we learned how important it is to AMPLIFY OTHERS, because we have the power to make others stronger with our words.

Please remember to register your student on funrun.com, so you can log on pledges. If you register your child, they will receive a FREE GIFT the next school day! Funrun.com also has all the music and character videos from each Community Challenge. Be sure to check them out. They’re really good!

This weekend is a special challenge—the “Weekend Challenge.” Any student who gets $2 per lap OR $60 flat donation over the weekend will receive the bonus reward the ALL DAY FLEX FRAMES on Monday. The students are super excited to rise to the challenge!

Thanks again for your help and supporting our classes! Let’s work together to finish strong and reach our goal as a team! I’ll see you at the Boosterthon Fun Run event next week!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Kluge and Mrs. Cox

Week of January 19th

This week we will take our Curriculum Guide Assessments.
Wednesday, January 21: reading
Thursday, January 22: math

Please help your child do his or her best by getting a great night of sleep and eating breakfast! Our students have been working hard and we want them to be able to do their personal best!

There will not be any spelling, vocabulary, or daily math quizzes this week due to testing.

Resources this week: 
Tuesday: Computer Lab (Achieve 3000)
Wednesday: MUSIC
Friday: PE

Our annual Boosterthon Fun Run Kick Off will be Tuesday! You will be receiving information that day.

January 12th

We started off 2015 really well. Thank you for falling into our regular routines so quickly! The second 9 weeks is coming to an end this week.

Our end of quarter CGA assessments will be:
Wednesday, January 21: READING
Thursday, January 22: MATH

Please try to go to bed on time before these days and eat a healthy breakfast. The assessments will cover what we have been working on for the past nine weeks.

NEXT WEEKEND WILL BE A FOUR DAY WEEKEND FOR STUDENTS BECAUSE OF THE TEACHER PLANNING DAY ON FRIDAY AND THE HOLIDAY ON THE FOLLOWING MONDAY.

Resources this week:
Monday: MUSIC
Wednesday: PE
Thursday: ART
Friday: No School

READING: We return to our novel, Charlotte's Web this week... chapter 5.

We begin working with a new reading standard this week. Students must be able to distinguish their own point of view from that of the author, narrator, or the characters. We will first read several short pieces of text to find evidence which shows us as readers how to determine who is telling a story. Sometimes a narrator tells the story and sometimes we read a story through the eyes of a character.

As we read, we  learn how the narrator and the character feel about certain things or what their opinions are. We base this on what the characters do, say, and think about. This week we will call attention to whether we have the same point of view as the characters or feel differently. This can also apply when we read informational text, although we usually focus on the point of view of the author when reading informational text.

LANGUAGE: Some of the conventions of grammar we will focus on this week are:

• plural forms of nouns:       city     cities
• simple and compound sentences:   simple: Sarah had some money.  compound: Sarah had one dollar, but she only spent fifty cents.
• comparative and superlative adjectives:  Which is correct?  Is Jimmy's bike bigger than mine? Is Jimmy's bike biggest than mine?
• figurative language: The test was pretty easy.  The test was a piece of cake. 

WRITING: We continue to complete our opinion writing this week.

MATH: This week in Math we will be completing our unit on fractions.  We will be reviewing using a number line to compare fractions, comparing fractions using landmark/benchmark numbers. We will review comparing fractions using fraction strips, finding equivalent fractions using a number line and cross multiplication method (butterfly method).  Please practice these strategies with your child at home to help with upcoming assessments.

Homework:

Monday: Topic 10 - Practice 10-7

Tuesday:  Fraction Review

Wednesday:  (Assessment) /Begin Data Unit

January 5, 2015!

We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday! We hope you all had a fun filled break. It's hard to believe it is January already!

BSE's "Ladies Love Literacy" day is approaching! If you would like to come to read to our classes during January Literacy Week, please see below! Forms were sent home in December.

Who: moms, aunts, grandmothers, business partners, or family friends

Where: Bartram Springs Elementary

Time: 9:00am – 11:00am

When: January 28, 2015

Resources this week:
Tuesday - PE
Wednesday - Early Release
Thursday - ART

Reading: Before break, we closely read several informational articles about spiders. This week, we will begin reading several African folktales involving a well known spider... Anansi.

Using several Anansi tales, we will discover how to retell using key details and explain how the author uses those details to convey the lesson or moral of the text. We will use a graphic organizer to guide our thinking before we recount the Anansi stories and share the moral.

Writing: We continue to revise, edit, and publish our opinion pieces.

Math: This week in Math we will be using models to compare fractions with the same denominator and fractions with the same numerator.  We will compare fractions using benchmark numbers and number lines.  The students will learn about equivalent fractions and use models and number lines to find equivalent fractions.

Homework:

Topic 10 - Practice 10-2

Topic 10 - Practice 10-3

Topic 10 – Practice 10-4

Topic 10 – Practice 10-5

Science: This week in Science we will discuss and explore radiant energy.  The students will explain different ways to change the temperature of objects.