Dear
Families of Room 23,
Happy
New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful break. I enjoyed my time off with
family and friends, but it feels good to be back at school with my third
graders and into the swing of things. I’m so lucky to work with your children
every day.
Thank
you to all of you for the generous holiday gifts. You made me feel very special
and appreciated. I hope you received my thank you notes. Thank you, thank you,
and thank you!
Also,
thank you to the parents who contributed to making our holiday celebration so
much fun. The students loved the projects and definitely enjoyed the trail mix
during our movie. We couldn’t do these amazing things without you!
Please
read below for details by subject and let me know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Teresa
Shern
Reading: We continue our Character
Studies unit. Students have been busy writing paragraphs about one character’s
traits and comparing two characters in one text. We will work toward comparing
characters across texts. Students are learning the basic structure of a
well-written paragraph using a topic sentence, including evidence from the
text, and writing a strong concluding sentence. We completed our reading of Because
of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo and are now enjoying Make Way for
Dyamond Daniel, by Nikki Grimes. We’re having fun learning this new
character and comparing her to Opal from Because of Winn-Dixie. Students are
also doing similar work in book club groups. Our read aloud of Quinny and
Hopper, by Adriana Brad Schanan continues.
Writing: Our holiday traditions
project will end this week. Students practiced examining, learning to read, and
learning from, a variety of nonfiction texts. They took notes, synthesized
their information into key paragraphs, and have created a final project. Most
students chose to create posters, a few have created Google Slide
presentations. Students will practice and finalize presentations tomorrow and
present to the class on Friday.
Social Studies: We will begin our “Rules
and Laws” social studies unit next week, using Martin Luther King, Jr. as
inspiration to understanding citizenship, community, how our government works,
and how people have worked for freedom. We will move into a U.S. Government
classroom simulation as well. Our work in library class will focus on U.S.
Symbols to complement this unit.
Math: We began Unit 4 this week, focusing
on measurement and geometry. We’re talking about polygons in terms of their
classification and also learning about perimeter and area. Students need to continue to memorize their multiplication tables so
that multiplication facts become automatic. Students are currently working
on x3, x4, or x6.
Science: We will conclude our mini
unit on weather today. We have examined phase changes, the water cycle, weather
maps, and severe weather. We’ve enjoyed tracking the weather and trying to
predict weather that is coming based on the data that we collect such as
temperature, air pressure, humidity, and wind direction. Students will begin the
“Weather and Climate” unit with Ms. Diamond this week where they go into detail
about how weather and climate effect ecosystems and the organisms within them.
