Weekly Update: January 30 - February 3

Announcements:​

• Valentine's Day Party  You might have gotten an email from our class's room parent, Ting Zhang (Lorraine's Mom) about the Valentine's Day party. We are in need of supplies and volunteers for the 3rd grade party. Please check out the Signup Genius Please have your child bring in supplies next week. 
  
• Valentine's Box and Cards/Treats: Students should create a Valentine's Box and 20 cards/treats for our Valentine's Day party. Check out this flier for more information.  This homework activity is due by Tuesday, February 14th. ​
• Become a PTA Member: Our school needs parents like you to sign up for PTA. Critical learning tools, field trips, and resources are paid for by our wonderful PTA, but that means we need you!  Please, become a PTA member today. England PTA website
• Home Access Center: Please, check weekly to stay up to date on your child's academic progress. Link to Home Access Center.  Continue to discuss with your child the importance of listening to directions, staying focused on school work and doing his/her personal best on all assignments. Remember, if a student earns below a 70% on any assignment or test, the student can make corrections to earn a possible passing grade (70%) per school district policy. 

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​Upcoming Events:​​​​.​ ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 

• Feb 2 - Valentine's Day Box and Cards information sheet emailed home
• Feb 6 - Economics Fair Project - Information sent home in Thursday folders
• Feb 7 - Math Unit Test "Place Value" for Swyers and Lilleboe students
• Feb ? - Last day to read 20 bluebonnet books and compete in Battle of the Bluebonnets
• Feb 13 - Science Unit Test "Weather, Soil and Earth's Forces - Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Landslides"
• Feb 13 - Economics Fair Project idea must be approved by Mrs. Lilleboe (last day to get approval)
• Feb 13 or 14 - Bring Valentine's Day box and cards to school for classmates
• Feb 14 - Valentine's Day Party (Grade level party) - Volunteers needed. Signup Genius Link

What are we learning?  
Writing: We started our new unit on Monday - Informational (nonfiction). Students will first write a piece on something they feel they are an expert on (swimming is the best sport, dogs are the best pets, etc). Then, we'll begin our research project (Project Based Learning Project) on ways we can help conserve our natural resources and protect our environment. 

Reading:  Our next unit is: Author's purpose and message.  Students will be able to:

• The learner will read across genres, explain the author’s purpose or message in a text, and analyze the author’s choices of text structure, print, graphic features, and language, in order to explain how these choices influence meaning. (3.10ACDG)
• The learner will use comprehension skills (evaluating details to determine key ideas and synthesizing to create new understandings) and response skills to deepen their understanding of a text as they consider the author's purpose and craft across a variety of genres. (3.7CDE, 3.6BGH)
• The learner will interact with and react to ideas in texts they read, respond to what they read, and compose clear, well-developed, evidence-based, and organized informational essays that demonstrate their thinking about a text. (3.7BC, 3.12B)

​Math: 

• ​Swyers and Lilleboe Students: We are currently in our Place Value & Rounding unit.​
  • ​In this unit students will extend their understanding of place value to 100,000. As numbers get larger, the ability to model them concretely becomes increasingly challenging.
  • The goal is for students to generalize the structure of the place value system to understand that every time a new place is added to the left, it is composed of 10 units of the immediately preceding place value unit. So in this case, 1 hundred thousand is composed of 10 ten thousands and 1 ten thousand is composed of 10 thousands. 
  • TEK 3.2A compose and decompose numbers up to 100,000 as a sum of so many ten thousands, so many thousands, so many hundreds, so many tens, and so many ones using objects, pictorial models, and numbers, including expanded notation as appropriate; – R RC1
  • ​TEK 3.2B describe the mathematical relationships found in the base-10 place value system through the hundred thousands place; – S RC1
  • TEK 3.2C represent a number on a number line as being between two consecutive multiples of 10; 100; 1,000; or 10,000 and use words to describe relative size of numbers in order to round whole numbers; and – S RC1

• Bae/Jones/McKenzie students: Math unit - More Multiplication and Division. Students will be able to:​
  • Determine the total number of objects when equally-sized groups of objects are combined or arranged in arrays
  • ​Represent multiplication facts by using a variety of approaches such as equal-sized groups and arrays
  • Represent and solve one- and two-step multiplication and division problems within 100 using strip diagrams and equations
    
  • Describe a multiplication expression as a comparison such as 3 x 24 represents 3 times as much as 24 
    
  • Recall facts to multiply up to 10 by 10 with automaticity, and recall corresponding division facts
    
  • Determine if a number is even or odd using divisibility rules
    
  • Solve one-step problems involving multiplication and division within 100 using strategies based on objects, pictorial models, including arrays, area models, and equal group 
    

Science: We have started our next unit "Weather, Soils and Earth's Forces". This week we wrapped up the "weather" portion of this unit with a quiz and a writing response. We are currently  studying some of Earth's forces (volcanoes, landslides and earthquakes) and how these are rapid changes that take place on the Earth's surface. This week our focus was on volcanoes! Next, week we will focus on landslides and earthquakes!

Social Studies: We will learn about how humans adapt to their living environment depending on where they live (cold region, hot desert area, on an island, etc) and begin our economics (financial literacy) unit as well.  We also spent some time learning more about civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. The economics (financial literacy) unit will stretch into March as we prepare for our Economics Fair on March 8th.