Dear Families,
Here is our first 3rd grade update! I will periodically post an update (like a newsletter) informing  you on all the wonderful and fun things happening in our 3rd grade class. Here it goes!

Classroom community: We have spent some time talking about our classroom promise and we have learned about our ‘cool tools’ that help us make good choices and give us reminders about how to treat others. Our third graders are great at this! We have also discussed our classroom jobs and how important it will be to work together and be responsible this year.

Writing Workshop: We started out the year by thinking of a small moment seed story from the summer. We took a couple days to write about it. Now we are getting started on personal narrative writing. We have started out by thinking of what makes writing interesting. We decided that detail and thoughts and feelings make writing interesting. We have been working on adding snapshots (detail and describing words) and thoughtshots (thoughts and feelings) to writing to make it interesting to our readers. We will use this in personal narrative writing.

Reading Workshop: Our third graders love reading! It is so awesome to see. We took some time last week to talk about our classroom library and we also made our I-Chart for Read to Self time. Today we discussed the different genres we hope to read this year. Soon we will have reading response journals to help us discuss our thinking as readers. I love our reading workshop time as I am able to conference with many great readers!

Social Studies: In third grade we will study Michigan. We are starting our Geography unit and will learn about the characteristics of Michigan as well as the landforms and bodies of water. We started today by reading M is for Mitten.

Math: Last week we spent some time reviewing addition and subtraction and fact fluency. Please continue to practice subtraction with ungrouping at home. We have started our first math unit on place value.

Spelling: We will begin spelling this week. Please look for a word list to come home later this week. We will use these words for about two weeks as we do different word work activities. Then we will have a sentence dictation test. Practice the words at home by using them in a sentence. As we move on with spelling units, I will also be using spelling groups.

Snack: Please remember to send a morning snack for your son or daughter. One small snack is most helpful as we usually take just a quick snack break. Please no candy.
Reminder: If your child will be going home a different way than normal, please send a note or call the office. I like to know that each student gets home safely.
Homework: Most homework is given on Tuesdays and Thursdays unless needed on other days. Homework usually consists of math, but can also be spelling, social studies,  or science. Homework that will be given every day is to read for 30 min. As of right now, I will not be giving a reading log for this. In order to be good readers and writers, it is important for our third graders to read, read, read!

Thank you, Miss Van Arkel  🙂