Tag Archives: Social Studies

Week of February 17

Hi Parents,

Parent/Teacher conferences will be held Monday, March 9 and Wednesday, March 11. Your conference time will be sent home with your child today. Please look for that in your child’s homework folder.

Homework: Study Island homework assignment should be completed by Tuesday evening. An email was sent last Wednesday giving directions about logging into Study Island.

Economics Test: We will have our test tomorrow, Tuesday 2/18. A review page went home last Thursday.

This Friday, February 21 is an early release day. Dismissal is at 12:15pm.

 

On Friday, we enjoyed a few Valentine activities. We read about Milton Hershey and his creation of milk chocolate and we used candy hearts to play games and build towers.

Social Studies Update

In third grade we study Michigan. We have started our Geography unit and have been learning about relative and absolute location and natural and human characteristics.  We have also started to learn about the landforms and bodies of water in Michigan.
Today we got out the maps to identify these places:

LANDFORMS in Michigan:
– Peninsulas: Upper and Lower Peninsula
– Islands: Mackinac Island, Beaver Island, Isle Royale
– Mountains: Porcupine Mountains, Huron Mountains
– Sand Dunes: Sleeping Bear Dunes

BODIES OF WATER in Michigan:
– Great lakes: Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, Lake Superior
– Rivers: the Grand River
– Waterfalls: Tahquamenon Falls
– Bays: Grand Traverse Bay, Saginaw Bay

We had fun looking at the Map of Michigan:

Working Hard in 3rd Grade…

Here’s what we have been up to in our classroom:

Writing: We are working on revising, editing, and publishing our realistic fiction stories this week. We started thinking of small moments in our life and have used those ideas to create fiction characters and a new story line.

Social Studies: Before we begin our Government unit this week, today we reviewed what it means to be a mindful learner. We talked about making good choices even when no one is watching. We were reminded what it means to have good character. We read a book titled The Jelly Donut Difference and then we wrote about a way we could spread kindness to others just like the characters in the story did.

Math: We are working on word problems and have started practicing comparison problems.

Reading: Our Series Book Clubs are finishing up. Students are working on their second book in the series. Book clubs will meet to discuss the similarities and differences they noticed in their books of the same series.

 

Social Studies Homework and New Math Unit

Parents,

Social Studies homework:
Economics homework will be coming home tonight. It is due tomorrow (Friday). We have been studying specialization and interdependence as well as import and export. Students are to find five or more objects around the house and write where it came from.

New Math Unit:
We have started our new unit in Math. We will study measurement. Please click on the family letter below to read more information about what we will be learning.

News This Week!

Parents,
A few things to know about this coming week:

  • Multiplication Flashcards: We have started learning multiplication and have begun with the 5s facts. We have been learning different ways to understand multiplication- drawings, repeated addition, and arrays. Your child has a flashcard folder. This will come home each night for practice and should be sent back each day to school so they can be used in class.
  • Library: We have library on Wednesday. You may have seen books come home last week. Your child’s goal is to make sure they choose at least 2 good-fit books and they may choose 1 for fun. Please help your child remember to return books to school when they are done.
  • Homework Packet: A homework packet is coming home today (Monday). It will be due next Monday. The packet consists of 2 math pages and a reading and math fact log.
  • Social Studies: Our first unit is Michigan Geography. We have been studying relative and absolute location. A study guide will come home today. We will have a quiz on Wednesday.
  • Spelling: Spelling and Word Study will start next week.

Thank you!
Let me know if you have questions.

Ms Van Arkel  🙂

Public Issue Homework

We have been studying public issues during our Social Studies and Writing times. We have been studying a public issue, forming an opinion , and writing an essay. Last week we studied wind farms in the Great Lakes.

This week, we will be studying a new public issue. Your third grader will be reading an article and forming their own opinion to write about. The homework involves you sharing your opinion on the issue the article addresses. They will need to read the article, identify the opinions in the article (agree/disagree), and gather a few more opinions from a parent and other adult.
There will be a green paper coming home today to help record the information.

The green paper should be completed and returned on Monday, March 6.