Welcome to December! Just when I think the calendar has slowed down a bit, we finish up another month! November was a busy time in room 102! We welcomed a new student, Tucker and his family to our class. We had a visit from Mr. Jacques and Mrs. Lemmon who presented artifacts and information about the Iroquois and Native American culture. They provided an early introduction to the Native American studies that we will do in the springtime (this was the best time to schedule their visits). In addition to their presentations, students made a clay pinch pot and corn husk doll in the Native American style. We also just finished up our rocks and minerals unit this past week. One of the highlights was putting rocks in a rock tumbler and polishing them up- this took over 3 weeks to do!
Currently we are very busy with many different activities- here’s a brief overview!
*Social Studies- we begin a unit on China this week. We will be practicing how to gather information and organize it into a presentation. This work will be done as a whole class in preparation for the study of another country/culture after the Christmas break. Each 3rd grade class will be researching a different country and will celebrate together at the end of the unit.
*Math- we are still involved with multiplication (and will be for quite awhile). At this point, students are learning the relationship of multiplication and division as well as beginning to memorize their facts. Practice of multiplication facts is very important- use time in the car or during tv commercials to help your child practice their facts or to skip count. To date we have worked with the 0,1,2 and 5 facts but students should be fluent in all facts to 12 by the end of 3rd grade. This week we will focus on finding the missing number in an equation. For example: 72 ÷ ___ = 9, use multiplication find the missing number.
*Writing- we are still practicing writing complete paragraphs. Our focus has been opinion/persuasive paragraphs. We will work together to write our first essay this week, comparing and contrasting 2 versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. We will be moving into informative writing as we begin our culture studies in social studies.
*Reading- the last story we read taught us about what illustrators do. We also practiced comparing and contrasting 2 stories, learned about verbs and verb tenses, and some great vocabulary words.
*Read aloud- we finished reading the 3 book series, My Father’s Dragon, Elmer and the Dragon, and Dragons of Blueland by Ruth Stiles Gannett.
December will be just as busy for us! We will be attending the band/chorus dress rehearsal concert the week of December 16th. Please check your child’s agenda book nightly for any special activities or announcements.
Book orders- because the PTA just hosted the book fair at school, I didn’t plan to send home any book orders in December. However, books make excellent gifts and should you wish to order from Scholastic online, please feel free. If your order is a gift, send me a note or email and I can contact you when the order arrives to arrange a pick up.
Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub
One-Time Class Activation Code: H3YV2
Currently we are very busy with many different activities- here’s a brief overview!
*Social Studies- we begin a unit on China this week. We will be practicing how to gather information and organize it into a presentation. This work will be done as a whole class in preparation for the study of another country/culture after the Christmas break. Each 3rd grade class will be researching a different country and will celebrate together at the end of the unit.
*Math- we are still involved with multiplication (and will be for quite awhile). At this point, students are learning the relationship of multiplication and division as well as beginning to memorize their facts. Practice of multiplication facts is very important- use time in the car or during tv commercials to help your child practice their facts or to skip count. To date we have worked with the 0,1,2 and 5 facts but students should be fluent in all facts to 12 by the end of 3rd grade. This week we will focus on finding the missing number in an equation. For example: 72 ÷ ___ = 9, use multiplication find the missing number.
*Writing- we are still practicing writing complete paragraphs. Our focus has been opinion/persuasive paragraphs. We will work together to write our first essay this week, comparing and contrasting 2 versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. We will be moving into informative writing as we begin our culture studies in social studies.
*Reading- the last story we read taught us about what illustrators do. We also practiced comparing and contrasting 2 stories, learned about verbs and verb tenses, and some great vocabulary words.
*Read aloud- we finished reading the 3 book series, My Father’s Dragon, Elmer and the Dragon, and Dragons of Blueland by Ruth Stiles Gannett.
December will be just as busy for us! We will be attending the band/chorus dress rehearsal concert the week of December 16th. Please check your child’s agenda book nightly for any special activities or announcements.
Book orders- because the PTA just hosted the book fair at school, I didn’t plan to send home any book orders in December. However, books make excellent gifts and should you wish to order from Scholastic online, please feel free. If your order is a gift, send me a note or email and I can contact you when the order arrives to arrange a pick up.
Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub
One-Time Class Activation Code: H3YV2