March 6, 2017

Class picture day is Friday, March 10th! 
An envelope came home last week for those who would like to prepay for a class picture OR who would like an individual picture taken.

Wednesday, March 7 is Early Release.


Friday, March 17 is a teacher planning day. There will be no school that day or the following week of March 20 - 24 which is Spring Break.

Our Reading FSA will be Tuesday, March 28 and Wednesday, March 29. Students need to be at school on time so they can take the test will the class. More information will be coming home soon. We are currently reviewing the five types of reading FSA questions and taking a practice FSA provided by the Florida Department of Education.

Resources this week:

Cox: 

Tuesday: music

Wednesday: pe

Friday: pe

Kluge:

Monday: Jump Rope for Heart

Tuesday: pe

Thursday: music

Our spring book fair is the week of March 13-16th.

ELA: This week, we will compare and contrast two excerpts of our novel, Peter Pan with readers theater. Both the excerpt and the readers theater will tell the same part of Peter Pan. Students will learn how drama is organized and how to read this unique genre. They will discover how readers theater tells a story purely through dialogue. This is a great way to work on our fluency, too! 

We will also be reading two texts on the same topic and comparing the themes, plots, characters, and settings. 

On Wednesday, everyone took a spring reading Lexile levelset. I am so proud of the growth every single student has made since our first levelset in August. Students took it very seriously and we celebrated as we filled in our progress graphs. 

MATH:

The students will compare fractions with the same numerator using fraction strips, number lines, and symbols ( >, <, =).  They will continue developing an understanding that the numerator in a fraction does not necessarily determine the size of the fraction.  The students will explore methods for partitioning wholes into fractional units using number lines as a measurement tool. 

We will begin to discuss how data is collected, categorized and analyzed.  The students will   show data in tape diagrams where units are equal groups with a value greater than 1.  They will explore picture and bar graphs as vertical representations of tape diagrams and apply skip-counting and multiplication strategies to analyze data.

Homework:                                                                     

Module 5 28 & 29

Module 5 Lesson 30

Module 5 Review End of Module Study Guide (End of Module 5 Assessment Friday)

Module 6 Lesson 1 & 2

Things to practice and review at home:

Help your child develop an understanding of fractions as numbers by providing opportunities to discuss parts of whole at home.

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

Continue to review  multiplication and division facts 2 to 10  

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

Please review our “Duval Math Parent Tips newsletter sent home at the beginning of each module for strategies and examples to help with solving homework problems.  

SCIENCE: This week in Science the students will begin to identify and describe the parts of plants and their roles.  They will learn how plant structures affect food production, support, water and nutrient transport and reproduction.  

February 13

Last week we sent home a list of names for our Valentine exchange on Tuesday. Students are welcome to bring a decorated box or bag for collecting their treats!

Next Monday, February 20 is President's Day. There will be no school.

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

ELA: We will continue to read Peter Pan. We will look at the characters of Peter, Wendy, Tink, and the Lost Boys. We will think about their important actions and how they contribute to the story. Students will meet in discussion groups to debate about which character's actions affected the events in the story the most. They will need to defend their opinions with reasons. 

Our story vocabulary this week: 
shrill   excitedly   urge   sternly   pride   thundered   dazed   madly

We have also been learning about the three branches of our national government which incorporates reading and social studies. We will closely read an Achieve article (paper based) on this topic this week. 

Every day in our reading block, we work on individualized center activities based on standards on which each student needs extra work. We also continue to work on Achieve lessons at school. Thank you for support online reading work at home too!

MATH: This week in math the students will compare unit fractions with different sized models representing the whole.  They will specify the corresponding whole when presented with one equal part.  The students will begin to identify a shaded fractional part in different ways depending on the designation of the whole and place unit fractions on a number line with endpoints 0 and 1.  The students will begin to recognize and show that equivalent fractions refer to the same point on the number line.

Example of identifying a fractional part in different ways:

Examples of unit fractions on a number line:

Homework:                                                                     

Module 5 Lesson 12

Module 5 Lesson 13

Module 5 Lesson 15

Module 5 Lesson 16

Things to practice and review at home:

Help your child partition things at home into equal parts and comparing fractional parts of a whole.

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).

Continue to practice rounding 

SCIENCE: The students will continue using their facts and information collected on their specific star to complete their star posters. 

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.