Weekly Update: February 14 - 18

Third Grade Team Website

Announcements and Friendly Reminders:

• NO school on Monday
• STAAR Interim (practice) Tests - These assessments are done. I will have scores (number correct out of the total) and "areas to work on" for next week's Thursday folders. ​
• Grades (Home Access - HAC) - Please check Home Access Center (HAC) to see your child's current grades on assignments, quizzes and test. If you see a "M" in Home Access, it means you child has not completed and turned in that particular assignment. Remember, students can make corrections or redo any assignment, quiz or test that is below 70% for a possible 70% per school district policy. 
• Stay informed - Make sure you have the FREE Class Dojo app on your phone so you can see messages from me. Friendly Reminder messages are sent out a couple times a week! Plus, I usually post 1 - 2 pictures a week in our Class Story on Class Dojo showing some of the activities we do during our school day!
• Scholastic Book Order - If you are interested in getting new books for your child, consider ordering books from our Scholastic Book Club. Order online at: clubs.scholastic.com/ Our class code is: NP79X​
• Reading Unit - Our current unit: Informational Reading and Research. We are focusing on our PBL (Project Based Learning) topic which is "How can we educate others about conserving our natural resources?" Students will choose a topic and research. We'll also go back and focus on some reading comprehension strategies (nonfiction text features, main/central idea, context clues, problem/solution, inferencing, summarizing, fact vs opinion, cause/effect, author's purpose). 
• Writing Unit -  Our current unit: Opinion or Argumentative Writing. We are discussing the difference between facts and opinions, what makes a good argument, how to make a strong claim, reasons for opinion, connecting with the audience/reader, providing facts and examples, strong conclusion. We'll be writing a few opinion/speech pieces in this unit.  
• Science Unit - Our current unit is Soils and Natural Resources. We'll investigate what makes up soil and why its so important. We'll identify and describe erosion, weathering and deposition. Then, we'll talk about our natural resources and what are "renewable resources/energy".  This unit test will be on March 10th. 
• Math Unit  - Our current unit is Multiplication and Division. We'll revisit our multiplication and division strategies that help us to solve these types of problems. These strategies are: number line, repeated addition (multiplication), repeated subtraction (division), array, equal groups, and skip counting. We will work with numbers, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 2 digit numbers. Students need to become comfortable with reading a word problem and knowing what the problem is asking (Am I going to multiply or divide to solve?).