Happy Spring!

Happy Spring! I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Spring Break! The kids certainly deserved it after a long week of testing. They did a fabulous job and I am so proud of their hard work and perseverance throughout the week.

Over the break my husband and I were able to spend some time relaxing and enjoying the sunshine down in Arizona! Hopefully some warmer weather for Washington is just around the corner. J We have so many fun things going on as the students begin their final trimester as THIRD GRADERS! What a great year it’s been! I can’t believe we only have 10 weeks of school left! Here’s what we are up to in the upcoming weeks.

READING: I have loved watching students participate in Book Clubs and grow as readers over the last several months. Students continue to be engaged in their books, act as leaders during discussions, and ask thoughtful questions related to the text. When students complete their books, they have the opportunity to complete a Book Club Project! I enjoy seeing kids so excited to create Power Points, comics, epilogues, etc. related to the characters, setting, and plot of their story. After break, students will dive into new book club books. We will also continue our Journeys curriculum in the whole group setting where we read a common text as we focus on comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary goals. I have a very active group of readers. Thank you for your encouragement of reading at home as I know it plays a big role in their love of reading.
WRITING: This trimester we have a variety of fun and exciting writing projects! To start, students will complete a research project on an animal of their choice. Students will research the animal’s habitat, description, diet, and other interesting facts. They will take notes and practice putting these notes into their own words as they create detailed paragraphs around these topics. To end, students will complete a Power Point presentation to share their animal with the class!
MATH: In unit 6 students have been analyzing triangles and quadrilaterals. There is a ton of vocabulary in this unit, but our class did an excellent job classifying these polygons, finding similarities and differences, and even created a geometry land to share their understanding of the shapes! In the coming weeks we will explore perimeter and area. Students will compare areas and perimeters, use side lengths in area and perimeter calculations and problems, and use concepts of perimeter and area to solve real world problems.

SCIENCE: During unit students get to explore the bones, joints, muscles, and coordination systems in the human body! Investigation one is all about bones and the function of the skeleton. Not only will students recognize the name and location of some of the main bones in our bodies. They will also discover that some of these major bones can also be found in animal skeletons as they explore rodent bones in owl pellets (eekk!). Students will determine the number of bones in the human skeleton, will compare bones, and learn the name, location, and orientation of the most important bones in the human skeleton.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We will be taking a short Social Studies break until our Human Body unit is complete. J

Dates to Know:

May 1st: FIELD TRIP! We will be heading to the Seattle Children's Theatre to watch the play Robin Hood. Look for the permission slip in your child's homework folder this week!