February 6

This Wednesday, February 8, is an early release day!

Click the Peach Jar e-flyer link to the left for more information about the Sweetheart Dance on Friday, February 10th!

Resources this week:
Cox: 
Monday: art
Wednesday: music - Bring your recorder and music book!
Thursday: music - Bring your recorder and music book!
Kluge:
Monday: art
Wednesday: pe
Thursday: pe
Friday: music - Bring your recorder and music book!

ELA: Congratulations this month for your awesome success with Achieve3000 and iReady Reading! There was incredible growth because of frequent use and quality work! Way to go!




This week we will continue reading Peter Pan. We will be introduced to the concept of characters and their motivations... why they do certain things, For instance, Peter returned to the Darlings' house in chapter 3. His motivation for returning was the fact that he missed his shadow and wanted it back.

We will use the questions:

     What reason did the character have for doing, or saying something?

     What was his/her motivation? What did the character WANT?

     What goal did the character have? What did he/she do to meet the goal?

These questions can often be applied to characters in almost any book. 

We will continue to build our character trait knowledge by noticing how the characters act and what they say. We are discovering there is a difference between feelings and character traits.  Feelings are usually temporary; traits are more permanent because of the actions of a character.

MATH:

This week in math the students will specify and partition a whole into equal parts, identifying and counting unit fractions by drawing models.  They will represent and identify fractional parts of different wholes.  The students will begin to build non-unit fractions less than one whole from unit fractions.  The students will represent parts of one whole as fractions with number bonds and build and write fractions greater than one whole using unit fractions. We will also compare unit fractions by reasoning about their size.

 Example:

Homework:                                                                     

Module 5 Lesson 4

Module 5 Lesson 6

Module 5 Lesson 8

Module 5 Lesson 9

Things to practice and review at home:

Help your child partition things at home into equal parts (exa.  Pack of crayons, pieces of food, paper)

Practice identifying number patterns using multiplication, addition or subtraction strategies.

Continue to review  multiplication and division facts 2 to 10  (We will be testing our facts weekly.)

Practice solving two step word word problems involving all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

SCIENCE:

The students will continue researching their stars and begin to share their star information.  They  will create star posters with all information collected on their specific stars.

January 30

Resources this week:
Cox:
Monday: art
Wednesday: music
Thursday:  media (Please return books by Tuesday.)
Friday: pe
Kluge:
Monday: art
Wednesday: pe and media (Please return books by Tuesday.)
Thursday: music

ELA: This week, we will begin our third module centering around the classic tale, Peter Pan. We will read this closely and focus on the characters, their emotions, traits, and motivations. We will also focus on some new concepts directly related to reading literary text. 



We will track literary elements such as: 
WHERE: the setting of each chapter 
WHO: the most important characters and traits that describe them 
WHAT: the main events that take place 
We will use Where / Who / What throughout the book to help us keep the elements organized. What we read in class is great to talk about at home to work on summarizing and retelling skills.

In reading centers, I have planned activities directly related to standards that require additional instruction. This is based on the mid-year reading scrimmage. Please encourage your child to complete 1-2 Achieve 3000 articles online per week. These should be recorded on the RAH log. The log on to Blended Learning is in the column to the right.

MATH:  In math we will begin to develop an understanding of fractions as numbers.  The students will partition or break apart a whole into equal parts, identifying and counting unit fractions using models or fraction strips.  They will describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and eighths, and recognize that equal shares of identical wholes may not have the same shape.

Example:

Total number of equal parts	Total number of equal parts shaded	Unit Form	Fraction
6	1	1 sixth	1/6

Homework:                                                                     

Module 4 Lesson 15

Complete Module 4 study guide (we will go over answers and strategies on Wednesday) 

Study for End of Module 4 Assessment

Module 5 Lesson 1

Module 5 Lesson 2

Things to practice and review at home:

Help your child partition things at home into equal parts (exa.  Pack of crayons, pieces of food, paper)

Practice adding and subtracting numbers within 1000.

Continue to review multiplication and division facts 2 to 10  (We will be testing our facts weekly.)

Practice solving two step word word problems involving all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

SCIENCE: The students are beginning to gather information on specific stars to help them create a star poster in class with information about the size, color, brightness and interesting facts about their particular star.  (This research will be done both at home and in class.)  We will continue  learning about the sun’s energy and observe what effect sunlight has on objects.         

                                                                                                                                      

January 23

Please join us Thursday evening for our BSE Literacy Night! Students who plan on attending, can bring a book to class this week and then choose a "new" book that night at the book swap!

Other activities include...

* Grade level LITERACY activities for the whole family to enjoy!

*  Guest Author: Book Signing and Reading Session (Moxie McGriff )

*  Reading Dogs

*  Reading Corner

*  Book Swap

*  Jacksonville Public Library

*  Literacy activities using Technology

Report cards will come home on Monday, January 23.
This Wednesday, January 25 is an early release day.

Resources this week:

Cox:
Tuesday: music
Friday: pe

Kluge:
Tuesday: pe
Thursday: music

ELA:  There will be a RAH log this week, but NO spelling. Please make every attempt to complete 1-2 Achieve 3000 articles at home and record them on your RAH log. If you attend Literacy Night, please write it on your log for your Thursday entry!!!

We are currently in the middle of researching four "freaky" frogs! See them below!!! We are becoming experts on these four frogs by closely reading text from our book, Everything You Need to Know about Frogs and Other Slippery Creatures. We are using text features to find information efficiently, determining the meaning of important frog vocabulary, and connecting information found in illustrations and text together. 

GLASS FROG

AMAZON HORNED FROG

WATER HOLDING FROG

POISON DART FROG

MATH: In math the students will find areas by decomposing into rectangles or completing composite figures to form rectangles.  They will apply their knowledge of area to determine areas of rooms in a given floor plan. The students will continue solving word problems to find the possible side lengths of rectangles using the associative and distributive properties.

Examples of decomposing into rectangles or completing composite figures to form rectangles:

Students will choose appropriate methods for finding the area of composite shapes:

Homework:                                                                     

Module 4 Lesson 11

Module 4 Lesson 12

Module 4 Lesson 13

Module 4 Lesson 14

Things to practice and review at home:

Explore number patterns:  For example: 267, 247, 237, …  what is the 5^th number in the pattern?

Developing fluency in skip counting by 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, and 10’s.

Continue practicing adding and subtracting numbers within 1000.  Practice addition and subtraction problems with regrouping. 

Practice multiplication facts 2 to 10 and division facts (We will be testing our 8 multiplication facts this week.)

Practice solving two step word word problems involving all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

SCIENCE: The students will begin to investigate that the Sun is a star based on its properties.  They will explain how energy from the Sun can be beneficial and/or harmful.  The students will learn that stars give off heat and light, however, all but the Sun are so far away that we cannot feel their heat.

January 16

BSE PTA Rebounderz Night is this Thursday, January 19th! It will be from 5pm - 8pm. You can order tickets on line. Click the photo to order:

Resources this week:
Cox:
Tuesday: music
Thursday: pe
Friday: art
Kluge:
Tuesday: pe
Wednesday: music
Friday: art

ELA: There will be no RAH log or spelling test this week. Instead, students will read an informational book they chose from our classroom on Friday and complete a sheet focused on text features in the book. The book and the sheet came home on Friday.

We will continue our study of different types of frogs, their different habitats and the adaptations they have which enable them to survive in those habitats. We will look closely at text features and determine why the author used them to help the reader understand the topic. Text features are very important in informational text as they support the reader in learning about more complex content. The pages below from our current text show headings, bold words, close-up photographs, and detailed captions explaining the photographs.

Important vocabulary for this week:

habitat   dweller   amplify   gaps   canopies   

hatch   transparent   rain forest   blend

These words are excellent ways to start conversation at home about what we are reading about in class this week!

MATH: This week in math the students will analyze different rectangles and reason about their area.  They will find the area of a rectangle by multiplying the side lengths.  The students will apply the distributive property as a strategy to find the total area of a large rectangle by adding two products. They will solve problems to find the possible side lengths of rectangles with areas of 24, 36, 48, or 72 square units using the associative property.

Example Problem:

Homework:

Module 4 Lesson 8

Module 4 Lesson 9

Module 4 Lesson 10

Things to practice and review at home:

Explore number patterns:  For example: 47, 55, 63, …  what is the 5^th number in the pattern?

Developing fluency in skip counting by 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, and 10’s.

Continue practicing adding and subtracting numbers within 1000.

Practice multiplication facts 2 to 10 and division facts (We will be testing our facts weekly.)

Practice solving two step word word problems involving all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).

SCIENCE: The students will learn about different telescopes used by scientists to help in observing objects in the sky.  They will learn that the number of stars that can be seen through telescopes is dramatically greater that those seen by the unaided eye.  The students will learn about the Keck telescope one of the world’s largest land telescopes.

January 9

Wednesday, January 11 is an early release day.

Thursday, January 18 is BSE PTA'S Rebounderz Night. A lime green sheet was sent home on Friday to order tickets and socks in advance.

Resources this week:

Cox:

Tuesday: pe

Wednesday: art

Thursday: art

Kluge:

Monday: music (Bring your recorder!)

Wednesday: art

Thursday: art

ELA: Spelling lists and new RAH logs were handed out on Friday. We are back to our regular routines. Please use Achieve 3000 at least once a week at home and log it on your RAH log. For the past 18 weeks, students have been working on meeting the 18 book reading goal. Those who have met this goal will take part in a celebration later this month!Ask your child how many books they have read!

This week, we begin reading a new informational text... see below! It is filled with cool information about all types of frogs! This week, we will complete a text feature scavenger hunt. We will explore the text and look for text features such as photographs, close-ups, captions, bold words, an index, a glossary, and a table of contents. As third graders, students need to be able to determine why an author would include theses text features and how they help a reader to better understand a topic. We will also study the life cycle of the frog with a focus on the following vocabulary words: clumps, external, version, and froglet.

MATH: This week in math the students will begin to understand area (the amount of  space inside the boundary of a flat two-dimensional object) as an attribute of plane figures.  They will decompose and recompose shapes to compare areas.  The students will model filling in a shape with centimeter and inch unit squares as a strategy to measure area.

Example Area Problem:

Homework:

Module 4 Lesson 2

Module 4 Lesson 3

Module 4 Lesson 4

Module 4 Lesson 5

Things to practice and review at home:

practice adding and subtracting numbers within 1000.

Practice multiplication facts 2 to 10 and division facts.

Use the example area problem above to create practice problems at home.

SCIENCE: The students will begin to learn about stars and discuss how stars are different and what makes up star patterns.  They will also begin to discuss  tools scientists use to observe objects in the sky.  The students will discuss how telescopes help scientists learn about space and what features of stars might a telescope allow scientists to see.

December 12

We are looking forward to our Winter Party on Thursday, December 22.

Students will not need to bring a lunch that day. 

Please let us know if your child will not be there that day.

We ask that students bring board games for a game time and they are welcome to wear pajamas too!

Wednesday is Early Release.

Resources this week:
Cox:
Tuesday: pe
Wednesday:pe
Thursday: art
Kluge:
Monday: music
Thursday: art

ELA: Please work on your assigned online reading this week: iReady reading or Achieve3000. Remember it should be logged on the RAH log. Thank you parents for encouraging reading at home. It is very valuable for your child's growth in reading.

Below is a chart of all of the new vocabulary words we are working with... One of the most effective ways to learn new vocabulary is to use it frequently in conversation, so this would be a great activity to do at home!

We will continue working with our core text, Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle.  Our main learning standards for this text are determining main idea, finding key supporting details, using context clues to find the meaning of new words, and using text AND illustrations to find evidence about a topic. See below for an example of this:

MATH: This week in math the students will continue solving two-step word problems involving all four operations and assess the reasonableness of solutions.  They will solve two-step word problems involving multiplying single-digit factors and multiples of 10.  The students will multiply by multiples of 10 using place value chart and use place value strategies and the associative property n x (m x 10)= (n x m)x 10 (where n and m are less than 10) to multiply by multiples of 10.

Multiply by multiples of 10 using a place value chart.

Homework:

Module 3 Lesson 18

Module 3 Lesson 19

Module 3 Lesson 20

Module 3 Lesson 21

Things to practice and review at home:

Practice adding and subtracting numbers within 1000.

Continue practicing multiplication facts 2 to 10

Continue practicing division facts

Practice using rounding strategies to round 2, 3, and 4 digit numbers

Practice interpreting word problems to determine solutions

SCIENCE: The students will begin to recognize that when an object rubs against another the movement produces heat. They will identify examples of objects rubbing against one another and producing heat and understand that heat is produced when one object rubs against another.

December 5

This week, we will take the math mid-year scrimmage on Monday and Tuesday. Last week, students completed the reading mid-year scrimmage and the Achieve mid-year levelset. We are so proud of their growth and look forward to their accomplishments in math. It is amazing to see the progress they are making and how much effort they are putting into showing what they know!

Resources this week:
Cox:
Tuesday: pe
Wednesday: art
Friday: music
Kluge:
Monday: music
Wednesday: art
Friday: pe

ELA: New RAH logs and spelling words were passed out on Friday. The RAH log is due this Friday and we will also have a spelling test. I changed the format of the spelling list so students could easily cut out the words to work on their sorting activities at home. The list is always posted on the spelling tab above.

We will continue to read sections of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle. The main gist of this book is how the adaptations of the bullfrog help it to survive in it's habitat. Key vocabulary words students must be able to understand and apply are:
adaptation     physical adaptation     behavioral adaptation     habitat predator     prey    survive
This book is filled with great vocabulary and vivid words. We will connect the text with the illustrations to aid in comprehension. We will also work on describing how events, ideas, and concepts in the text are related.  

In writing, we are exploring poetry about frogs. We will read several types of poems and learn that all poems don't have rhyme and rhythm. Below is one of the poems we are reading right now.

“Frog” by Valerie Worth

The spotted frog 
Sits quite still 
On a wet stone; 

He is green 
With a luster 
Of water on his skin; 

His back is mossy 
With spots, and green 
Like moss on a stone; 

His gold-circled eyes 
Stare hard 
Like bright metal rings; 

When he leaps 
He is like a stone 
Thrown into a pond; 

Water rings spread 
After him, bright circles 
Of green, circles of gold 

MATH: This week in math the students will apply the distributive property and the fact 9 = 10 - 1 as a strategy to multiply as in the example below.  They will identify and use math patterns to multiply and continue to interpret the unknown in multiplication and division to model and solve problems.   We will focus on the study of patterns as they relate to the fact 9 = 10 – 1.  Students discover that the tens digit in the product of a nines fact is 1 less than the multiplier, and that the ones digit in the product is 10 minus the multiplier. 

For example,

9 × 3 = 27, 

2 = 3 – 1, and 7 = 10 – 3. 

They also see that the digits of nines facts products produce a sum of 9, as in the example above

2 + 7 = 9

Students analyze multiplication and division problems drawing models and writing equations using a letter to represent the unknown.  The students will also reason about and explain math patterns using units of 0 and 1 as they relate to multiplication and division. 

Example of 9=10-1 strategy:

9 × 8 = (10 × 8) – (1 × 8)

9 x 8 = 80 -8

9 x 8 = 72                                                       

Things to practice and review at home:

Use problems in mid-module 3 study guide to help prepare for test on Wednesday 12/7.

Practice adding and subtracting numbers within 1000.

Tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes.

Continue practicing multiplication facts 2 to 10

Continue practicing division facts

SCIENCE: This week in science the students will identify that light can come from different sources, such as the sun or an electric lamp.  They will recognize that light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object or travels from one medium to another.