October 29th - November 2nd

This Wednesday is our costume parade. Students are to come to school in their costume. After the parade they will then change back in to their school clothes for the rest of the day. For students that do not celebrate Halloween please still come to school as we have a classroom and teacher that will be watching them during the parade. Once the parade is over it is back to work for the rest of the day.The parade will start at 8:30 a.m. please go to the designated spot for parent viewing.

Parents: I have placed a sign up for conferences on the window of the classroom. Please sign up for a time slot. We will be having conferences starting on Wednesday, November 7th. Reminder note that if you sign up for a morning slot it will be from 7:45 to 8 o'clock. I have morning yard duty for the next two weeks, so I will have to be out on the playground at 8 o'clock. I will send a reminder note home next Tuesday. Please arrive on time to your scheduled conference so it doesn't run into someone else's conference time. Along with it being conference week students will be getting out at one o'clock starting November 7th until November 16th.

READING
This week we will be starting our third unit and first non-fiction unit. Animal Adaptations - How do living things adapt to change?
Text: Animal Disguises and Animals' Tools for Survival
Close Reading Tasks:

✓ Identify key details and main idea
✓ Analyze text connections: Compare and contrast
✓ Use information from photographs 
✓ Analyze graphic features: charts
✓ Compare and contrast two texts on the same topic

WRITING

Research for writing

1. Analyze a guiding research question
   
2. Evaluate print sources: copyright and
   author
   
3. Evaluate online sources
   
4. Use key words to search
   
5. Take notes on index cards 
   

VOCABULARY

behave camouflage prey locomotion

environment survive detect formulate 

MATH
Monday: 5-6 Multiplying by Multiples of 10
Tuesday: 5-7 Problem Solving: Two Question Problems
Wednesday: Practice Topic 5 Test
Thursday: Topic 5 Test
Friday: 6-1 The Distributive Property

SOCIAL STUDIES
Review week with our Unit 1 Regions test. Students made a dough CA, but sadly the states did not keep their shape. We will be making a new paper version this week. Students are allowed notes on their social studies test.

SCIENCE:
We will be starting an Animal research project to connect with our Benchmark unit and topic. Students will have two weeks to complete the project. There will be some in class time, but a majority of it will be done at home. The students are NOT allowed to use the internet for research at home. 

October 22nd - October 26th

This week is Red Ribbon Week at school. Each day has a special theme for students to follow along. We will be learning about staying drug free.

Monday: Turn you back on drugs - wear your shirt backwards.
Tuesday: Wear red in honor of Red Ribbon Week.
Wednesday: Making smart choices, makes me a super hero - wear a super hero t-shirt.
Thursday: Team up against drugs. Wear sports clothing.
Friday: Shade out drugs. Wear sunglasses.

MATH
Last Friday students took the Topic 4 test and it is currently being graded they will get their test back before Wednesday. Next up will be topic 5 - Multiplication Facts - Use Patterns
Monday: 5-1 2 and 5 as a Factor
Tuesday: 5-2 9 as a Factor
Wednesday: 5-3 Multiplying with 0 and 1
Thursday: 5-4 Patterns as Facts
Friday: 5-5 10 as a Factor

READING:
We are in week 4 of Unit 2 and will be taking our Unit test and reviewing the topics we discussed the last three week.

SOCIAL STUDIES:
We will continue to work on Unit 1 with the two regional lessons. Students will continue to learn about the coast, desert, valley, and mountain regions as well as their geographical differences.

SCIENCE:
Students will continue to work on our force unit in the TWIG series.

October 15th - 19th

MATH
Monday: 4-3 The Commutative Property
Tuesday: 4-4 Writing Multiplication Stories
Wednesday: 4-5 Problem Solving: Writing to Explain
Thursday: Topic 4 in class practice test
Friday: Topic 4 Test

SOCIAL STUDIES
Unit 1 
Lesson 1 - What are the land and water like in your area?
Lesson 2 - How have people used the land in your region?
Vocabulary Words: geography, region, environment, resource, canal, protect, flood, and dam

SCIENCE
Driving Question: What happens when several different forces push or pull on an object at once?

READING
Story: Snow White
Identify Key Events and Summarize
Read and Analyze an Opinion Prompt
How illustrations convey a character
How illustrations contribute to a story
Compound Words
Comparing and Contrasting

October 8th - 12th

Welcome! This week we have Picture Day! Tuesday, October 9th is Picture Day! Forms have been sent home weeks ago and a reminder on Monday. If you are paying online please let us know.

MATH
Monday: 3-13 Problem Solving - Draw a Picture and Write a Number Sentence
Tuesday: Practice Topic 3 Test
Wednesday: In class Topic 3 Test

Starting Topic 4 - Meanings of Multiplication
Thursday:4-1 Multiplication as Repeated Addition
Friday: 4-2 Arrays and Multiplications

Students will be starting online testing for math with our Envision program starting with Topic 5.


READING
Essential Question: How do our actions influence our lives?
Story: The Tales of King Midas
Identify and summarize key details

Analyze how character traits influence a story
Analyze genre features: fables, myths, and folktales
Nonliteral language: similes

WRITING

Write an explanatory text.


LANGUAGE

Coordinating conjunctions to form compound sentences
The words and, or, but, and so are coordinating conjunctions.
They show how the two parts of a compound sentence are connected.
Place a comma before a coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence. 

SCIENCE
Pet Umrella Projects
Students are working in groups to figure out the best umbrella for the specific pet they picked as a group. The choices were: dog, cat, pig, horse, parrot, cat, and iguana. On Wednesday they will be presenting their finished posters to the class. 
Then we will move on to the next module in the TWIG program which is Motion in Play. 

SOCIAL STUDIES
We will be going over the Social Studies chapter test later in the week. We will be starting the next unit in a few weeks after focusing on science for awhile. 

October 1st- October 5th

Welcome to October!

Spirit Day: Thursday, October 4th is Twin Day! Wear a matching outfit with a friend.. or two!

MATH:

Monday: 3-9 Subtracting Across Zero
Tuesday: 3-10 Making Sense of Addition Equations
Wednesday: 3-11 Making Sense of Subtraction Equations
Thursday: 3-12 Adding and Subtracting
Friday: 3-13 Problem Solve: Draw a Picture and Write a Number Sentence

We will be having a Topic 3 math test next week.

READING and WRITING
Unit 2 - Ways Characters Shape Stories
Essential Question: How do our actions influence our lives?
Stories: Two Fables from Aesop and Two Famous Poems
Identify Key Events and Details
Read and Respond to Poetry

Students will be working on creating their own fable from brainstorming to a paragraph (or more) and including a visual illustration.


TWIG SCIENCE

This week we will be starting our Force unit in the pilot book for Twig. 3rd grade students will be working on their Ultimate Playground for the unit. We will be starting off with a group project to help them understand how scientists and engineers work as a team. This will include them creating and presenting a pet umbrella.