• Books Books Books! Thank you parents for supporting our school's Book Fair by purchasing books for your kids and our classroom. The Book Fair was a huge success!!
• New Eslot Enrichment Groups:  Please, ask your child which group they are in on Friday mornings. A supply wish list is posted here. If you are able to purchase supplies for your child's interest group please click HERE. This list will continue to be updated. 
• November Scholastic Book Orders: If you are wanting to place a November book order please do so by Wednesday, November 30th. Books make great gifts!!  The link to order is here Scholastic Book Clubs 
• Spelling and Homework: New words will be given out tomorrow, Monday, November 28th. The next spelling test will be on Friday, December 9th. 
• Wobble Stools:  The wobble stools are a hit in the classroom. Thank you to those parents that have already purchased their child a wobble stool. I wish I had one for each student. They all want one! Please, talk to your child about possibly getting him or her a wobble stool. I know they are not cheap, but the stool is your child's stool. Therefore, your child can use the stool in 4th grade and 5th grade. I would recommend the 18" or 20" stool "Active Learning Stool" Click HERE. The other great option is the 18" wobble chair by KORE Click HERE.
• Bluebonnet Book Program - Check out the list of Bluebonnet books HERE. Our class also has a Bluebonnet Book Wish List - Click Here. The kids are loving this program!!!
• Home Access Center: Make sure to start checking Home Access every week! Link to Home Access Center. 

Upcoming Dates:​​​​​

• November 28th - New Spelling Words
• November 30th - Our Class Scholastic Book Orders are due. Great gifts!! 
• December 2nd - Morning Assembly @ 7:40am
• December 2nd - Guest Speaker - Justin's mom to teach us about maps! 
• December 6th - Picture Retakes Day! - Get a permission form from the office by Monday!
• December 6th - Science DCA test - Force, Magnetism and Gravity
• December 7th - Math DCA test - Fractions and Division
• December 8th - Student Council Meeting - after school 
• December 9th - Spelling Test
• December 13th - Tentative Reading DCA test - Nonfiction Reading Passage with Questions
  
• December 15th - 3rd Grade Winter Parties 
• December 16 - January 3rd - Winter Break 

Class Happenings:
In writing, we finished researching our country that has been given to us for International Children's Festival week (Sweden). The kids finished their Sweden Google Drawing. Ask your child to see his or her cool drawing by logging into their student gmail account. This was a partner activity. We also did a conventions lesson on Plural Nouns and began researching our PBL project. 
 
In reading, we are still in our nonfiction expository unit. This week we focused on reading many different types of nonfiction. This last week we learned how to look for facts verses opinions when researching our PBL project. Understanding that nonfiction text can be "skimmed" to find the information that you are looking for. Unlike fiction story reading, readers can use nonfiction text features to find specific information they seek. We will continue reading nonfiction material next week focusing on the "cause and effect"  reading strategy. 

In math, we wrapped up the Fractions unit with a quiz. The DCA test for fractions will be combined with division, which is our next unit. We gained a basic understanding of division and its relationship with multiplication (fact families) this past week. Next week we will continue to explore division using equal groups, multiplication, arrays (area model), and number lines to find the number of groups, the number in a group and the total number. Kids can practice their division skills by going to ixl.com. There are 3 areas that focus on division skills. 

In science, we wrapped up our Natural Resources unit with a quiz. We will revisit this subject when we cover soils. The next unit we started is Force, Gravity and Magnetism. This last week we focused on magnetism. Next week will be gravity and force. 

In social studies, we focused on our national government and Thanksgiving. 

Our PBL name this year is "Planet Protectors".

• New Eslot enrichment groups started today!  Please, ask your child which group they are in on Friday mornings. A supply wish list is posted here. If you are able to purchase supplies for your child's interest group please click HERE.
• Report Cards Please, sign and return 1 of the report cards and the envelope by Monday. Thank you!
• New Library Day - Our library day is switching to Thursdays. 
• November Scholastic Book Orders: If you are wanting to place an November book order please do so by November 30th. Books make great gifts!!  The link to order is here Scholastic Book Clubs 
• Spelling and Homework: In an effort to save paper, we are asking that the kids just "pull up" the homework assignment on the home computer or laptop and complete the work in the homework spiral notebook. Students should label each problem and strategy. A reading log and math facts log needs to be recorded (Monday - Thursday). The link to the 3rd grade website is on the "Welcome" page. Students are expected to turn in their homework spiral notebook every Friday morning. 
  • ​​Spelling has been added to the homework.  The kids have been placed into spelling groups based upon their performance on a grade level spelling pretest. Spelling words came home on Monday. They are given 1 set of spelling words per 2 weeks. Kids are to do 4 spelling activities from the Spelling Bingo sheet in their homework spiral over the course of the 2 weeks they have their word list. The spelling test for each group will be on a Friday every 2 weeks. Our next test is on Friday, November 11. 
• Bluebonnet Book Program - Check out the list of Bluebonnet books HERE. Our class also has a Bluebonnet Book Wish List - Click Here. The kids are loving this program!!!
• Home Access Center: Make sure to start checking Home Access every week! Link to Home Access Center.
• Optional - Headphones: Your child may still want headphones or earbuds for our classroom. A few of them have already broken. I would ask your child. These can be purchased at Target, Walmart, HEB, etc. The headphones/earbuds will be left here at school.

Upcoming Dates:​​​

• November 8th - Nonfiction Text Features Quiz (students can bring home reading journal on Monday to help study for the quiz).
• November 11th - Veteran's Day assembly (in the morning) 
• November 11th - Math Quiz - Fractions (parts and whole) - Not a DCA
• November 14th - Natural Resource Quiz - Not a DCA
  
• November 11th - Spelling Test 
• November 15th - 17th - Book Fair! 
• November 17th - International Children's Festival Night and Book Fair!
• November 18th - International Children's Festival Performers 1:30 - 2:30pm. 
• November 19th - 27 Thanksgiving break 

Class Happenings:
In writing, we finished up our Poetry unit with a final draft poem and a reading test this week. We also did some conventions/grammar work in our Write Source Book (pronouns). We'll start researching our country that has been given to us for International Children's Festival week (Sweden) next week. 
 
In reading, we started our new unit, Expository or Nonfiction Text.  We examined nonfiction books for nonfiction text features like headings, glossary, index, captions, photographs, bold print, etc. Then, we did a nonfiction text features foldable activity in our reading journals. Lastly, we determined what we already know about main ideas and supporting details with a fun ice cream activity. 

In math, we started our Fractions unit. We learned how to show whole fractions and fraction parts with geometric shapes (hexagon, rhombus, trapezoid and triangle) and cuisenaire rods.Then, we learned 1 area set model today, using grid models (with graph paper) to show portions and fractions. We'll use fraction circles, fraction bars and numberlines (like on a ruler) next week to show fractions.  

In science, we started our Natural Resource unit. The kids learned what renewable and nonrenewable resources were and where these products come from (example: t-shirt comes from cotton which comes from a plant). We also did a padlet response to a PBL related video called "Dear Future Generations". See below. 

In social studies, we focused on local/city and state governments. Plus, our 4th graders came to visit to shed some light on our country's presidential election. We discussed the Voter's Pamplet and cast our votes in a National Mock Election for Kids.