Weekly Updates 9/29-10/3

Dear Families of 3-509,

I hope that you had a nice long weekend! This is a very busy week, so please read below for more important information.

News/Events:

• Tomorrow night (9/30) from 6-7:30 it is Literacy night! Several third grade teachers are leading workshops about the reading and writing process, and what this looks like in third grade. 
• Wednesday is 3-509's first day in the pool! Please be sure that your child is sent to school with necessary materials.
• Friday is family Friday! From 8:50-9:30 parents are invited to join us for a special class activity. This week students will select a math game learned from our recent unit, teach it to his/her parent, and play. I look forward to seeing you!
• If you haven't had a chance to fill out our important information survey please do so. I am in the process of collecting all parent emails, and it will be incredibly helpful if you could assist by inputting this information. Thanks!

Homework Routines

Each night students from 3-509 will be assigned nightly homework. Now that we have introduced word study, all students will be focusing on words assigned each Monday. Typically each night students will be asked to:

1. Read for 30 minutes, and jot about their reading in their reading notebook as they read. Tomorrow jots will be discussed at Literacy Night.
2. Complete a math assignment.
3. Complete a word study exercise.

Each day I will check student work to see if homework has been completed. Please look for my initials (or Ms. Steinberg's) in student planners, and please also initial to indicate that you have seen your child's completed work. Some days I will collect assignments, and some days we will go over work as a group (and at this point the kids will check their work).

Curriculum

Reading: This week marks the last week of our "Building a Reading Life" unit. Students are learning strategies to discuss and develop ideas about their stories with partners this week, and we will wrap up the unit with a celebration on Friday. Next week we will start our next unit, "Characters in a Series."

Writing: Now that students are in the drafting process, this week we are focusing on revision techniques such as revisiting mentor texts, finding the heart of a moment and elaborating, as well as using paragraphing as a means of sequencing. Towards the end of the week students will repeat the drafting process, but this time with more independence. Next week we are selecting one of the drafts and moving through the publishing process.

Math: This week we are exploring different strategies to add four digit numbers with and without regrouping. 

Social Studies: This week we are continuing to study lines of longitude and latitude, as well as how a key/legend can help provide information about places.

Have a great week,

Ms. Bouchard