Week of April 1st

Dear Parents,

Hopefully, you and your family had a relaxing and fun holiday. It is hard to believe but we are now set up for our final stretch of the school year. A time that promises lots of learning and growth, and it will go by quickly. We have several new units scheduled to begin either this week or next!

3JA students collaborating and problem-solving during our Ancient Civilizations unit! 

Students have great conversations about geometry. 

HERE are some other pictures from our Ancient Civilization Share before the break. The kids did a great job showcasing what they had learned through creating their own ancient civilization.

This week begins on a day 6.

Reading Students will finish up our character studies reading unit this week. This will also be the last week for book clubs. They will continue to practice making predictions, asking thick questions, retelling important events, comparing and contrasting, and identifying character traits.

Writing Students are continuing the fiction writing unit from before the holiday for one final week. They will not only continue to write adapted fairy tales but also branch out into other fantasy and creative writing choices.

Math This week we are focusing on the attributes of 2D shapes, with particular attention to quadrilaterals. Some shapes can go by many names, for instance, a square is: a special rectangle, a rhombus, a parallelogram, and a quadrilateral.

Science We will be starting a new science unit this week called Balancing Forces: Investigating Floating Trains. Students will begin to figure out ideas about magnetic force, gravity, and how forces can cause an object’s movement to change or stay stable.

Week of March 19th

Good Morning parents,

Book week was a lot of fun last week. From the book swap, to dress like a character day, to March Book Madness, and Matt Smith the visiting author/illustrator, the students enjoyed a successful week of reading celebration.

Yesterday was an in-service work day for teachers, it was a full day of learning for all of us.

We will begin the week on: Day 2

Reading Students will continue to work in their book clubs. They will be making predictions based on evidence, asking and answering thick questions, retelling the important parts of the story. Students will also be comparing and contrasting characters both in their book and other books.

Writing Students will continue with fiction writing. They will focus on adding actions words and descriptive details. They will continue to work to show, not tell what is happening in the story.

Math Students will begin our new unit in math. This unit focuses on geometry. They will learn about how stapes in different categories may share attributes. They will be recognize and draw rhombuses, rectangles, squares and other examples of quadrilaterals.

Science This week will be the final week for our People of the Past Unit. For a final project, students will be busy creating their own made up ancient civilization. They will be using the features of what made ancient civilizations successful: a good location with access to water, a belief system, a social structure/organization, art and architecture, technology and education.

Week of March 4th

Dear Parents,

This week's update looks a bit different as on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we will be finishing up Student Led Conference (SLC) preparation. Student-led conferences are scheduled for Thursday, March 7 and Friday, March 8. Your child will be the most important part of this conference, so they are required to attend. As your child leads the discussion by reflecting on his/her learning, sharing his/her goals, and celebrating his/her successes, please be ready to ask follow up questions. These are the type of questions to ask your child as they are leading the conference:

• How did you make this?
• Why did you choose this?
• What does this work show about you?
• What did you learn from this?
• What was the easy or difficult part of this?
• What do you like best about this?
• What more do you want to improve in, or learn?
• Tell me about this.

There will be other conferences in the classroom going on at the same time. Please note that this conference could take up to 45 minutes (but it won't overlap with any sibling conference time). After this time you will go with your child to any specialist teacher you choose to finish off the conference.

We begin this week on DAY 8.

Week of February 25th

Week Feb 25th - March 1st

What a week we had last week. We are so proud of all the Grade 3s for their performance at the Grand Opening of ISKL. They sang and performed beautifully.

This week is a relatively ‘quiet’ week and students and teachers will begin to prepare for Student Led Conferences. If you haven’t signed up for your conference time yet, please do so on PowerSchool.

This week will begin on Day 3.

Reading Students will continue to study the characters in the books they read. Students will practice making predictions on what a character will do next, taking into account what they already know about the kinds of things he/ she tends to do, say, want again and again. Students will also continue with book club groups. Students will choose which book their club will read and gather at the end of reading time to discuss what they read.

Writing Students will begin writing fairy tales. During the first part of this unit, students will work on adapting a familiar fairy tale or myth. Students reread the selected fairy tales and/ or myths, deciding upon which story element they will adapt.  From this point on, they see that changing one story element has a domino effect and affects the entire story.

Math  This week we will continue our focus on multiplication and area. We will be using square units to measure area, solve real-world problems dealing with area, and continue to reinforce our addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Please continue to help your child practice these at home!

Social Studies We are continuing to look at social structure/government in ancient civilizations and will move on to belief systems and art and architecture.

Week of February 18th

Week Feb 18th - 22nd

We have a very exciting event this week!

All of Grade 3 will be singing at the ISKL Grand Opening on Thursday, February 21st. Please make sure that your child comes to school in their school uniform. If your child has PE that, please send their PE kit in for them to change in to.

On Friday the Elementary School will have Chinese New Year Cultural Day. All students are welcome to dress for the occasion.

Also on Friday Grade 3 will have a session with author Richard Sobel.

This week will begin on Day 6

Reading Students are busy reading with their book clubs. Please help your child to remember to read and return the book to school each day. After looking at the "shape" of stories (we discussed a story mountain where main characters go up and down through the story) and readers are now attending to the role secondary characters play. We are also looking at how characters resolve trouble when they are tested in the climax of a story.

Writing Students are beginning to work on their first fairy tale adaptation. They are storytelling and acting out their story to improve their drafting. Please ask your child to tell you their story. The more times they tell their story the greater detail they will likely include in the written version. Students will work on balancing narration, action, and dialogue.

Math  This week we will continue our focus on multiplication and area. We will be using square units to measure area, solve real-world problems dealing with area, and continue to reinforce our addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Please continue to help your child practice these at home!

Science We are continuing to look at social structure/government in ancient civilizations along with technology. Students will be solving a problem that many ancient civilizations faced in the science lab/ makerspace.

Week of February 7-8

Week of Feb. 7-8

We only have two days of school this week, but we will be working hard throughout those two days. The students all enjoyed watching the rugby on Thursday. Hopefully, they inspired the third graders to compete in IASAS events when they are in high-school.

Have a great short week

This week begins on a day 7

Reminder: Play Day on Friday afternoon.

***This Friday afternoon, grade 3 will participate in Global School Play Day. Students can bring a toy or game (no electronic items) to school that they would be willing to share with others: a board game, blankets for building a fort, toys to share that don't have batteries, anything they want, etc. The purpose of the day is raising awareness about the necessity of unstructured play. Please click on the Global School Play Day website to learn more about it!***

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

-Plato

Reading Students will continue analyzing different fiction books with our class book clubs. We will be focusing on characters and how they change throughout stories. We will begin reading “Because of Winn Dixie,” a wonderful tale of a girl and her dog.

Writing The focus this week will be on the students finishing their persuasive essays and celebrating their writing. Then the students will be convincing the school and their families to: get them a pet, bring shade to the playground, buy them a new phone, a class pet, etc…

Math We will continue our multiplication and area unit. This week’s focus will be on multiplication and area. We will begin using square units to measure area, solve real-world problems dealing with area, and continue to reinforce our addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Please continue to help your child practice these at home!

Social Studies The grade three classes will be looking at how location impacted ancient civilizations. This week the students will be choosing a civilization to study independently.

Unit 4 Math Vocabulary

Dear Parents,

We just started our new Unit 4 in Math: Multiplication and Area.

Memorization is NOT a goal in the case of vocabulary words and multiplication facts. We encourage you to discuss the ideas and concepts through hands-on activities and conversations (in the home language) about how we use math in our daily lives. 

In this unit, students will:

• Understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and addition.
• Find the area of a rectangle with whole-number side lengths by tiling it.
• Multiply side lengths to find areas of rectangles with whole-number side lengths in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
• Construct and analyze area models with the same product. 
• Describe and extend numeric patterns. 
• Determine addition and multiplication patterns. 
• Understand the commutative property’s relationship to area. 
• Create arrays and area models to find different ways to decompose a product. 
• Use arrays and area models to develop an understanding of the distributive property. 
• Solve problems involving one and two steps and represent these problems using equations with letters “n” or “x” representing the unknown quantity. 
• Find the area of rectilinear figures by decomposing them into non-overlapping rectangles and adding the areas of the non-overlapping parts.

Activities you can do at home as a Math learning connection: https://sites.google.com/a/iskl.edu.my/eslearningconnect/lc-math/grade-3/grade-3-unit-3-resources 

(You will have to sign into your Panther Apps)

Key vocabulary word cards from this Unit to talk about in your home language at home are attached at the bottom of this email and ready to print. Should you need a copy of the vocabulary words, please let me know and I will send a hard copy for you.

Online Visual Math Dictionary: CLICK HERE

Scroll down for attached Unit 4 vocabulary cards to check at home in your home language or in English. 

Online RESOURCES to check at home:

Quick Math: Choosing the right operation

Thinking Blocks: model and solve multiplication and division word problems

Meaning of Multiplication: create area models to match multiplication problems

Matching Math: finding unknown factors

Khan Academy: 3rd Grade Math topics

See the ES Parent Learning Connection webpage for even more ideas!

In partnership,

The Grade 3 Team

Week of January 28th

Week of January 28th-Feb. 1

We had a fantastic week of learning in grade 3! As we launched our Ancient Civilization unit, students took on the role of archaeologist and looked at many different ancient artifacts trying to uncover information about the item. What were they used for? How does it help us understand more about the people from that time period? Students were asking great questions, making connections, and creating stories to explain their reasoning. We had a welcome assembly for the 40 new students in elementary school. The teachers danced while the students cheered. We also heard from a very interesting author named Matt Dickinson. He hiked to the top of Mt. Everest and told us all about it. He is a great story-teller.

Our mathematics unit on Multiplication and Division ended and we are beginning our unit on area.

This week begins on a day 3

Reminder: No school this Friday.

Reading Students will be continue analyzing different fiction books with our class book clubs. We will be determining what makes a quality children’s book. In addition to that all of grade three are reading “Because of Winn Dixie,” a wonderful tale of a girl and her dog. We will be learning all about characters by studying the main character, Opal.

Writing Students will continue writing persuasive speeches. The focus this week will be on gathering and organizing information about their opinion. We will also working on elaborating our writing by proving through showing rather than telling their reader.

Math We will continue our multiplication and area unit. This week’s focus will be on multiplication and area. We will begin using square units to measure area, solve real-world problems dealing with area, and continue to reinforce our addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Please continue to help your child practice these at home!

Social Studies As we dive deeper into our ancient civilizations unit we will take a closer look at the different features of successful civilizations. The classes will be looking  at how location impacted ancient civilizations. Then students will be choosing a civilization to study independently.

Week of January 21st

Week of January 21st-25th
Happy New Year! It was so much fun seeing all of the kids this past
week and reconnecting as a class. I hope that you all had a relaxing
and rejuvenating holiday. All of the kids were excited about seeing
their friends, sharing stories, and getting back into a class routine.
With a new year, we talked a lot about setting goals and
resolutions.
We started our persuasive writing unit and the kids are all excited
to convince others in the class, in the school, and perhaps at
home. So please be prepared for all of the persuading that might be
happening this month. We are all very excited for a fabulous
second semester and we welcome many new families to our third
grade community…especially the 5 new students in 3JH. Please
reach out and help them all feel welcome!


This week begins on a day 6

Reading Students will be analyzing different fiction and nonfiction books. We will be discussing all the different jobs there are in book clubs: Summarizer, Questioner, Predictor, Connector, Artist, etc…

Writing Students will continue writing persuasive pieces. We will be looking at different strategies to collect ideas. We will consider our audience to include our most persuasive reasons. As we get back into our writing routines, we will focus on editing and revising as we go to ensure our readers understand.

Math We will continue our multiplication and division unit. We will continue to work with multiplication and division using real world stories and events.  Please continue to reinforce your child’s addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Continue to help your child practice these at home!

Social Studies We are launching our People of the Past Unit, which is a study of ancient civilizations. We will be taking a deeper look into how we learn about the past and how the past continues to influence us today. If any of you have any expertise in this area, we would love to have you share this with the kids!

Week of December 17-21st

Week of December 17th - December 21st

It was a fantastic week this week! We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our parent volunteers for another AMAZING Christmas Around the World! We all loved it.

This week will also be a busy one for G3! We will be testing water using the water filters that we designed, and we will discuss how this relates to human impact on an ecosystem.

Using the design thinking process to filter water! 

On Thursday, December 20th we have the grade 3 learning celebration. This is a time for the kids to share the work they are proud of with you. It will begin at 8:45 and last about 30 minutes. We hope that you can attend. If you would like to bring a nut-free, trash free and healthy treat to share with the class, please do, however, do not feel that it is required.

Save the date for these upcoming events:

Thursday, December 14th- Learning Share 8:45-9:15

Friday, December 21st - Last day of Semester 1

Monday, January 14th - First day of Semester 2 (Day 1)

Worm Holiday Care If you are going to be around over the holiday break and would be willing to take care of our compost worms, please let me know. We promise they take very little care and don’t smell (that bad)!

This week begins on a day 3

Reading Students will continue to read a variety of biographies and teach other what they learn.

Writing Students will be adding the final touches to their information books. They will also be reflecting on their first semester and create blog posts to share.

Math Students will continue to work on multiplication and division problems and thinking of all the different ways they can solve a problem.

Science Students will be testing their water filters in the lab. We will discuss how this connects to human impact on an ecosystem.

This week instead of home learning, here are some ideas of things the kids can do over the December break.

I would like to thank you for a wonderful 1st semester, it has been such a pleasure working with all of your children. Enjoy the holiday, I look forward to hearing all about it in January!