Week of June 10th and June/July Learning Ideas

Dear Parents,

Here is the final Grade 3 newsletter of the year! It’s hard to believe it’s nearly the summer holidays. We really appreciate all your support over the year. The last week is a busy one, we will be wrapping up our passion projects, reflecting on the year and looking forward to the next.

Here are some of the highlights for the week:

We start the week on Day 2

TUESDAY, June 11th	Poetry Learning Celebration! We are excited for you to join your child in their class at 8:15 - 9:15 am to celebrate their learning.
WEDNESDAY, June 12	Grade 3 Swim! We have planned a special treat for our 3rd Graders. Please ensure your child brings their swimsuit and towel for swimming that day. Looking Forward to Grade 4: We will be taking our students up to Grade 4 so they can see the space and ask questions about what life in Gr4 might be like.
THURSDAY, June 13th	Farewell Assembly for students
FRIDAY, June 14th	LAST DAY and Year Book Handout! Please note that SCHOOL FINISHES AT 11:30 on Friday.  If you plan on picking your child up on that day, please inform the busing office.

For those of you who will be spending some time in KL, the school library will be open 8am- 3pm (closed from 1-2pm for lunch). Here is the Summer Reading page from the library as well to help with some ideas for reading over the holidays.

We want to thank you for all your support this year and we wish you all a wonderful holiday!

In Partnership,

The Grade 3 Team

June/July Learning Ideas

Grade 3

Having a daily routine will help you to find more time for reading (and for any other practice you know your child needs). Summer is a great time for your child to reread old favorites. Have your child always pack a book when you go out- there may be an opportunity to sneak in a few extra minutes of reading while waiting in line or during other "dead time". Encourage your child to talk to you about what s/he is reading, but do not make it a "test", make it a natural conversation. Research shows that your child should read at least six books to prevent reading skill regression over the holiday. That is less than one a week, but there is no reason to limit reading time :)

Also, here are some great tips from Ms. Fernandez, our EAL Support Teacher in Grade 3.

Literacy (Reading/Writing)

• Bring your favorite book on the airplane/car/bus
• Have a family reading time (everyone in the family reads for 20-30 minutes), make it special with lemonade or tea!
• Write about your time off school (journal, creative stories, informational writing, etc)
• Books in many languages here.
• Continue to use blogger over the summer!

Math

• Play math games (circles and stars) and any others your child can teach you!
• Practice math facts! Fun Math Apps
• Prodigy
• If you want to help your child practice telling time to the minute this blog post has many great ideas.
• Bedtime Math has great ideas.

Others:

• Hour of Code
• Play games together
• Sketch
• Wonderopolis is great for science and social studies
• Make observations
• Interview a relative
• Share blogger with a family member to discuss learning in grade three.
• Typing.com
• Make a card for someone
• Prepare a meal with an adult
• Learn how to make your favorite treat!
• Take pictures to share with your 4th grade class
• Podcasts are great too! Wow in the World and Goodnight Stories are two favorites.
• Go outside, often and play.

Week of June 3rd

Week of June 3rd

Dear Parents,

A friendly reminder that we have a short week this week with NO SCHOOL on Wednesday and Thursday. We want to wish all our students and families that are celebrating a Salamat Hari Raya.

Please note that due to the short week. There is no home learning this week.

Save the date: On Tuesday, June 11th  from 8:15-9:15 a.m., Grade Three will host a Poetry Parent Share. We look forward to seeing you then!

Reading This week students will continue to explore all the different types of poems. We will continue to share poems from around the world that our classmates have contributed. Students will continue to read poems and notice the way the author’s craft their poems using figurative language.

Writing Students will continue to write and edit poems trying a few different ways poetic devices such as similes, alliteration, line breaks

Math Students will wrap up their learning in their fraction unit. They will work to put fractions on a number line and continue to identify equivalent fractions.

Science Students will continue to investigate the Maglev Train and how unbalanced forces affect how it moves. They will also look at electromagnets and use this to further explain how the Maglev works.

Week of May 27th

Greetings Parents,

Three more weeks of school...three more IMPORTANT weeks of school. We had a great time at Wet n Wild on Friday morning. The students will remember the slip n slide and the popsicles for sure! A couple of teachers even got in on the slip n slide. Don’t forget the Poetry share in two weeks on the 11th of June from 8:15-9:15 A.M.

Ask your third grader about their Passion Project...they are wonderful projects that are close to the hearts of your children...saving animals and trees, making ISKL more beautiful, and adding green space to our campus. Have a great last FULL week of third grade.

Reading This week students will continue to read wonderful poetry, using their ideas to spark new ideas in their own poems. Poetry is wonderful to read out loud and we will be doing this a lot this week and next.

Writing This week students will continue to write new poems in their poetry journal focusing on daily lessons surrounding poetry conventions. They will be starring their favorite ones...thinking about which poems will make their poetry share on June 11.

Math Students will continue to work on fractions. This week they will work on ways to recognize and show that equivalent fractions have the same size, though not necessarily the same shape.

Science Students will continue to investigate the Maglev Train and how unbalanced forces cause the train to come down. We are finishing up our unit on forces soon.

Poetry

Dear Grade 3 Parents,

In our unit of Poetry, we want to share, value and learn from you! Please share your favorite poem (from your country, any language would do) into a new slide from our class slideshow (Google slides) that we are sharing with you. Copy/paste or type the poem and add a photo that connects with this poem. It can be a poem from your childhood, your child's favorite poem, a current poem, a nursery rhyme, or song. Anything that represents your family!

Please choose a poem with your child so that you can read it together and talk about its meaning to your family before he/she shares with the class. 

Students will take turns in class to share them, appreciate them and find connections with other countries and languages.

Open the link to add your selected poem.  Thank you!

The Grade 3 Team

Week of May 13th

Greetings Parents,

Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate at this time of the year! We had a busy week last week. Grade 3 students ended their research units by sharing all their hard work with their peers! In science, students continued to investigate how the Maglev train works by making a paperclip float! This week we are looking forward to our Music (Tuesday, May 14th) and Arts Celebration (May 14th-May 16th) happening this week.

Save the date: On Tuesday, June 11th  from 8:15-9:15 a.m., Grade Three will host a Poetry Parent Share. We look forward to seeing you then!

Reading This week students will explore how poets see the world through special lenses. Poets see with both their hearts and minds, writing about the world in fresh, unusual ways. Students will continue to read poems and notice the way the author’s craft their poems and try out those moves in their own poems.

Writing Students will write poems trying a few different ways of breaking up their lines, choosing where they put words and how they use white space.

Math Students will continue to work on fractions. This week they will work on ways to recognize and show that equivalent fractions have the same size, though not necessarily the same shape.

Science Students will continue to investigate the Maglev Train and how unbalanced forces cause the train to come down. Students will investigate and conduct trials to look at magnetic force and distance.

Week of May 6th

Greetings Parents,

We had a great short week this past week, we finished up our MAP testing and have been working hard in class. Next week will be busy as we finish up one reading/writing unit and begin Poetry.

Reading This week students will finish up their presentations and share their research and learning with the class. We will begin our Poetry Unit on Wednesday! Share a favorite poem with your child!

Writing Students will finish up their presentations and prepare to present to the class. We will begin our new poetry Unit on Wednesday!

Math Students will identify equivalent fractions and construct visual representations of equivalent fractions.

Science Students will continue to investigate Balanced Forces. We will also be talking about civil engineers and learn how civil engineers apply the science of balanced forces to large-scale projects such as bridges.

Save the date: On Tuesday, June 11th  from 8:15-9:15 a.m., Grade Three will host a Poetry Parent Share. We look forward to seeing you then!

Monday will be a Day 6

Week of April 29th

Dear Parents,

Earth Week was a great success! We had some excellent discussions about how we can help protect our earth and the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling. Students enjoyed creating their own reusable bags and making a pledge to help the earth.

Reminders:

There is no school on Wednesday, May 1st as it is labour day.

Students will be taking the math portion of the MAPs test in the morning on Tuesday, April 30. Please make sure that they get a good sleep on Monday night and arrive at school on time.

Save the date: On June 11th from 8:15-9:15a.m., Grade Three will host a Poetry Parent Share. We look forward to seeing you then!

This week begins on a Day 2.

Reading This week students will be comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences between the two planets that they researched. This will be followed by a summative culminating activity. The activity will provide students with different choices for how they want to synthesize and present their research to the grade.

Writing Students will be learning how to write a compare and contrast paragraph. They will turn their planet brain frames into a paragraph which describes the similarities and differences between their planets.

Math Students will practice placing fractions between 0 and 1 on a number line. They will also practice putting fractions greater than one on a number line. Here is a blog with ideas to help students with their fact fluency practice at home. Check out the link !

Science Students will continue to investigate the forces acting on the Maglev train. They will look into how the Maglev can stay up even when gravity is pulling it down.

Week of April 22nd

Dear Parents,

We had a fantastic week of learning in Grade 3 this past week! Students were busy researching their planets and explored the meaning of the denominator and numerator in a fraction.

3JA students learning from our HS friends about the brain and how we learn! 

Carter and Dzarif sharing pictures from a deep sea fishing trip and a 2km swim in the open water! 

This week is Earth Week. Students will be taking part in activities during morning meeting throughout the week and there will be an assembly on Tuesday afternoon to celebrate Earth Week. Students are invited to wear green or blue on this day.

Get Out in Nature Challenge for Families

We invite all students and families to participate in our Earth Week Get Out Into Nature Challenge! It’s easy. Find a way to spend time in nature with your family during the week and on the weekend. Research shows spending time in nature is great for your physical and mental health and overall well being. Need ideas how to get to nature in KL? Visit one of the city’s many parks, go for a family hike/walk, go to FRIM, or visit a garden. Children are naturally curious and love being outdoors so let your child take the lead…and enjoy!

Lake Gardens

FRIM

Students have been commenting on other Grade 3 blogs and would love if you could comment on their blogs too. I’m sure they would be more than happy to show you how.

Reminder: Students will be taking the literacy portion of the MAPs test in the morning on Friday, April 26. Please make sure they get a good night sleep on Thursday night and arrive to school on time.

Save the date: On June 11th from 8:15-9:15a.m, Grade Three will host a poetry celebration and end of year gathering. We look forward to seeing you then!

This week begins on: Day 5

Reading Students will begin research on a second planet this week. By the end of this week, they will have learned a significant amount about one inner planet and one outer planet. They will continue to engage in discussions with others to help further synthesize information.

Writing Students will continue to develop their note taking skills and will experiment with different forms of notetaking

Math Students will continue to practice partitioning shapes into equal parts. They will explain a unit fraction as part of a whole. They will represent/show different fractions and explain their representation.

Science Students will be looking into what makes the train fall and the concept of gravity. They will participate in experiments and make observations in order to develop and share their ideas.

Week of April 15th

Dear Parents,

Students were very eager to get started on researching their first planet this past week. They practiced looking for important information, synthesizing what they found across a variety of texts, and sharing with their group.

Students also picked a topic that they are interested in for their upcoming passion projects. Be sure to ask them about what they plan to learn about.

This next week we will be starting our final math unit Math unit on fractions.

This week begins on Day 8.

Reading/ Writing This week students will continue with their combined reading and writing unit. They will conduct research on a planet across a variety of texts and digital materials, synthesize the important information about their subtopics, and record it in their own words. Students will share their finding with the group. You can find out more about this unit, including vocabulary and resources by clicking HERE.

Math Our final math unit of the school year will be on fractions. This week, students will develop an understanding of fractions, beginning with unit fractions. They will view fractions in general as being built out of unit fractions, and they use fractions along with visual fraction models to represent parts of a whole. They will also think about and look for examples of fractions and their usage in their daily lives. To learn more about this unit, click HERE.

Science This week students will conduct investigations and gather evidence about gravity, a second non-touching force. They will make chain reactions that involve magnetic force, gravity and touching forces. They will make a physical model and explain their thinking.