Your child was fortunate enough to see a powerful presentation today, given by Amy Dalman from the Children's Advocacy Center. She does a fabulous job of talking to kids about keeping their bodies safe.
This week we began book clubs in our classroom. Groups of 3-5 students are reading the same book & then discussing their thoughts on it together. It is a powerful way to deepen their comprehension of literature. Now that we are experts of writing fairy tale adaptations, we are ready to create our very own original fairy tales. We look forward to sharing these with our kindergarten buddies when they're published. Fractions have been the focus of math lately, including the practice of measuring the length of objects to the nearest quarter inch. Tough concepts, but we can feel our brains grow with every new struggle we overcome! Some talking points from our past week:
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A short week calls for a short blog post!
Hopefully your child shared with you the fact that we are going to be partnering with some extra special youngsters during our afternoon recess times. I am including a note from their teacher: Dear Families, My name is Elizabeth Carson and I am the new preschool teacher in the autism room. I will be teaming up with the third grade classes to help bring awareness to autism and to bring some inclusion into my classroom. The third grade classes will send 3 students down each day for 15 minutes of our playtime. Kids with autism struggle with imaginative play, so it will be their job to be a "play model" for our students. I encourage you to ask your child what they learned about the presentation they saw and ask them what they did with my students when they get to visit us. If you have any questions please feel free to let me know! My email is [email protected] and stay tuned for autism awareness month in April!! Miss Liz These third graders are giddy about getting to go to Miss Liz's room!!!! Here are some talking points from room A210:
We have seen an increase in absences this week. Winter tends to do that. I understand the parental struggle when it comes to determining whether or not to keep your child home. One the one hand, your child simply cannot learn when your child is absent. On the other hand, you should not send your child to school when they're truly sick. The SLIS principal shared a good article to maybe help with this struggle. I encourage you to give it a read.
With Valentine's Day around the corner, I am including a class list with this update for those of you who plan on having your child fill out Valentines for their classmates. Please make sure your child has one to hand out to every student in room A210. Some talking points from room A210 this week:
Fortunately it has been a "normal" week. No snow days, half days, unplanned interruptions. And whole class assessments are done. So grateful to get back to the business of TEACHING!!!
Current research shows that kids need to read an average of 90 minutes a day in order to stay on grade level. I am trying my best to provide 45 minutes to an hour of that time here at school. Is your child making up the remainder of that time at home? If not, here are some ways you can help them:
Some talking points for the week:
Well, between two half days, one ice day, and several mid-year assessments, not a tremendous amount of NEW material was taught this week. I suppose that's the bad news.
The GOOD NEWS is that these assessments are such a tremendous opportunity to see the growth your child has made in this first half of third grade. I am extremely proud of the efforts your third grader has made in their learning this year! But, we still have work to do. Plans have been put into place to help your child with the specific skill(s) where he/she might struggle. It is called iTime & will begin next week. I am looking forward to seeing iTime's impact on YOUR child's learning. Some talking points from this week:
As I mentioned in last week's post, our focus this week was science. Specifically we learned about the materials that Earth is made of and some ways humans use those materials.
Thank you to those family and friends who were able to tune in to our live broadcast this morning! Whenever I would read a comment that had been posted, a face lit up. I promise you. For anyone who was unable to tune in live, you can still watch a "rerun." Just click here! Many of you I know make reading at home a priority and I appreciate that! Research shows that children should read an average of 90 minutes a day. I provide as much reading time as possible in class, but sadly cannot provide the full 90 minutes. If you think your child could use a bump in their at home reading time, I'd appreciate your help. Use baggie books to help with this. Let me know if you have questions! Here are some talking points from our week:
We have indeed had one frigid start to the 2017 half of third grade! Thank you for always sending your child prepared for the cold, even if they might not get outdoor recess that day. Better to be safe than sorry is never too early a lesson for them to learn!
We have taken a break from our reading workshop to focus on social studies. Students did a lot of reading and researching about how people use, change, and adapt to Michigan's natural resources. Next week our reading workshop break will continue as we delve into the study of rocks, what they're made of, and how they're classified. Please, please, please remember your child should have a baggy book at home to read EVERY NIGHT. If they don't, please contact me ASAP. It's THAT important. Here are some talking points from our week:
From my family to yours, we wish you peace, joy and everything merry & bright!! ✨
Thank you, again, for allowing me the privilege of being in your child's little corner of the world at Jeffers. ❤ Here's to a healthy and prosperous 2017! The snowy weather has brought new challenges to our class, but as usual, we have met that challenge head on!
One way you could help is by making sure your child has shoes (or even slippers) to wear in the classroom. They could even leave these at school so there's one less thing to remember each day. Not a requirement, just a recommendation. Thanks! Next week will be an exciting one. We have an all school assembly, a holiday movie with the entire 3rd grade, a class store, and of course our big holiday party. Thanks to the many parents who've donated items and time for the store and the party already. All are welcome to join us while we make merry from 1:15-2:00 on the 22nd! Just be sure to sign in at the office prior. Some talking points from this past week:
They say it's the most "wonderful" time of the year. Not sure about that, but I think we all can agree it's arguably the BUSIEST time of the year. Lately I seem to have more and more kiddos coming in without iPads, homework, reading logs, etc. Being a parent myself, I know firsthand how challenging it is to keep our families organized.
It is important to understand that 3rd grade is an appropriate time to start passing much of that responsibility on to your child. I received an email from MY 3rd grade daughter's teacher recently with a "kind reminder" to sign her planner nightly. Oops! So I sat down with her & told her I would accept SOME of the guilt for this oversight (after all, I'm the mom), but I emphasized to her that untimately this was HER responsibility. I would encourage you to have a similar talk with your 3rd grader if you feel it's necessary. If there is anything you need from me to make these daily responsibilities easier for you, do not hesitate to ask. Here are some talking points from our week:
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