Week of October 1st

Greetings,

This week, the playground opened up and the kids were so excited to explore this new area!

We were also busy measuring which included figuring out the difference between mass and volume. Students also spent time reflecting on their learning this far into the school year. They will be sharing these reflections with you at our Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences next week.

This week starts on day 7

What’s happening this week in Grade 3?

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, students will be taking the ISA, International School Assessment. Please make sure that they come to school well rested and have had a nutritious breakfast.

Wednesday, we will have a regular scheduled day. Students will continue their work on their personal narrative writing, asking questions and making predictions while reading, and analyzing different maps to determine where people live.

Thursday and Friday we will have our Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences. Please make sure to be here at your scheduled time with your child. We look forward to reflecting on our year together so far.

Coming up after conferences, grade 3 will participate in the Global Cardboard Challenge. We are asking students to bring in cardboard that can be shared with all of the grade level. Thank you in advance. If you would like more information about the challenge, take a look at the website here.

Week of September 24th

Greetings,

I hope that you all enjoyed the weekend. We were busy this week in grade 3! Kids have been super engaged in our Geography unit as they follow directions to find hidden treasures, read maps to get information, and also draw their own landform maps!

Students continue to work on their typing skills in school and it would be really helpful if they practiced at home as well. As mentioned in previous emails, we use an online program typing.com. We use our blogs to share information with all of you and it requires the students to type, so extra practice would be helpful. These should only be in 10-15 minute increments, keeping it fun!

Coming up:

Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences

Parent/Student/Teacher conferences are coming up quickly. You will be receiving your conference times this week, a letter will come home in your child’s backpack. Please note that these are conferences that your child needs to attend as we will all be discussing how things are going in the classroom and setting goals together.

Photos

Individual and class photos are this week. In 3JA, we will have individual photos on Tuesday, September 25th. Students can wear smart casual clothing on this day. Our group photo will be on Thursday, September 27th. Students need to wear their full uniform (not PE uniform) on this day.

This week starts on a day 2.

What’s happening this week in the classroom?

Reading In reading this week we continue to work on using contextual clues to read through difficult words.  We are working on retelling the main story events in order and then “growing ideas” by adding on to our own thinking about what we have read. Students will continue practicing using their reading strategies to ensure understanding along with making predictions that include evidence from the text.

Writing Many students will begin writing a new piece with more independence. This allows us to review the many tools they have to help, such as the narrative writing checklist and anchor charts made in class. Revision continues throughout with another look at “showing, not telling” as a way to be more descriptive in writing.  We will continue to use mentor texts to help us get ideas and develop as writers.

Math We will be looking at liquid volume and weight as we finish up this math unit. Elapsed time is a skill that students need to practice, so look for opportunities to practice this at home (“If we need to be at soccer at 10:00 and it takes 17 minutes to drive there, what time should we leave home?”).

Social Studies This week we will continue looking at the specific uses of different kinds of maps (focusing on landform, resource, climate, and population). We are looking at how the place influences the people and their lifestyle.

Week of September 18th

Good Afternoon Parents,

I hope you enjoyed another long weekend! Even though our last week was short, we were busy! Students celebrated Hari Raya and Merdeka Day at school on Friday. In writing, students worked hard on their descriptive language and participated in a writing celebration with all of grade three.

PE Swimming begins next week. Please check here to see what day on the 8 day cycle your child has PE swimming. Our next Free Dress Day will be next Friday, the 21st of September. If your child wants to participate, don't forget the 5 RM donation. 

This week we begin on Day 6.

Reading: We will continue to work on making connections based on our prior knowledge, making predictions based on evidence from the book, and asking questions before, during and after we read. We will look at problem solving strategies when words or passages are tricky and how we need to really work hard to make real meaning from what we read.

Writing: Many third graders are working toward revising and editing their first “small moment” personal narrative. We are looking at how dialogue is punctuated and closely examining some mentor texts to strengthen our work. We are beginning to use paragraphing when time moves forward, a new speaker talks, or when a new subtopic starts.

Math: While we continue to work on elapsed time we are also introducing units of mass and liquid volume. Next week students will learn about mass and the importance of a standard unit when finding out how heavy something is. In this unit, we will be using the metric system: grams and liters.

Social Studies: We are beginning to look at different types of maps and how we use them.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please email me right away.
Thank you,
Jamie

Week of September 3-7

Week of September 3rd

Good afternoon parents,

I hope you all had a great weekend. Last week we began to brainstorm ideas of where writers get their ideas and started writing our first personal narrative. Students continued to show that reading is thinking by asking questions while they read and making connections to other books or their own life. We also talked a lot about what makes a good fit/just right book and the importance of reading these books to become better readers. We continue to build our classroom community to ensure it a place where every child feels heard and safe to share their ideas.

This week will begin on a Day 6. 

After School Activities (ASA's) begin on Monday. Please check your email for a detailed email from Gail Smith regarding your child's ASA. 

Home Learning- This will be our first week for home learning, students will bring home a notebook on Monday and they should return it on Friday to share with the class (keep it fun!).

The MAP test (Measure of Academic Progress) will be on Tuesday and Thursday morning this week for grade three. Please make sure your child gets a good night's rest and arrives at school on time. We will be starting the test first thing in the morning on those two days.

Reading

Students will begin to set clear reading goals such as the amount of pages to read during independent reading time and track their progress towards these goals. Students will also continue to build up their reading stamina, as well as talk about and reflect on what they are reading.

Writing

Students will learn about the importance of writing about small moments and continue to develop a bank of writing ideas of small moments to draw from during this unit. Students will also begin to learn that writers use descriptive details of movement, sounds, actions, etc. to show the story rather than tell it.

Math

Students will continue to practice time to the nearest minute as well as solve elapsed time word problems. One strategy is to use a number line with the start and end time.

Social Studies

Students will learn how to use map keys and the compass rose to interpret and gain information from various maps.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please email me right away.

Best,

Jamie