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- Our Family
3rd Grade
LANGUAGE ARTS – Mrs. Ledergerber
A big thanks to all of you who were able to attend the Open House. It was wonderful to see you, and I hope you enjoyed your child’s work that was displayed throughout the building. It’s hard to believe that our last quarter is here and the school year will be winding down. It has been an exciting journey to watch the children grow in so many ways.
Read, Read, Read! That has been our focus during March since it is National Reading Month. Continue to send in those yellow slips each week. We are doing lots of extra reading in the classroom too! At the end of March we will gather to wrap up reading month and some lucky “readers” will be the recipients of some prizes.
April is poetry month, so we will be doing more poetry. We will have more “poetry passes” which the children enjoy. Have your child explain what a “poetry pass” is to you. The children will be adding poems to their poetry anthologies as well.
We have been reading lots of books on “horses”. The children are getting all saddled up and excited to share all that they are learning. Please mark your calendar for Thursday, May 8 to attend, “Horse Night”. We look forward to sharing this special evening with you and your child.
We have worked our way through the capital letters and we should have them all learned soon. I have asked the children to write in cursive all the time, with some exceptions. In the month of May the children will be taking the Gates MacGinite test, which tests comprehension, and vocabulary. The results will be sent home with your child’s final report card. I will let you know the exact dates of the test so that you can make sure your child gets enough sleep the night before, and has a healthy breakfast.
Continue to encourage your child to keep up with their reading. Often as we begin the fourth quarter many of the children start getting spring fever and ease up on their work and the quality of their work is not there. Let’s stay focused because we still have lots of learning to do.
For the last quarter the children will not be doing book reviews. I will be having book conferences with them instead. As they finish a reading they will need to sign up to meet with me to discuss their book.
A very big thanks to the families who have brought in donations for the third grade gala basket, “Horses!” We continue to accept donations.
MATH – Mrs. Anklin
Unit 7: Multiplication and Division -- In Unit 7, children will focus on developing automatic recall of the multiplication and division facts. Children will review multiplication by 0, by 1, and by 10; multiplication facts having square products, such as 5 X 5 = 25 and 2 X 2 = 4; and the turn-around rule, which shows that 2 X 5 = 10 is the same as 5 X 2 = 10. Children will also continue to work with fact families and Fact Triangles as they learn the multiplication and division facts.
6.13
Unit 8: Fractions -- Unit 8 has two primary objectives:
• to review the uses of fractions and fraction notation
• to help children develop a solid understanding of equivalent fractions, or fractions that have the same value
The second objective is especially important, because understanding equivalent fractions will help children compare fractions and, later, calculate with fractions.
Unit 9: Multiplication and Division -- In Unit 9, children will develop a variety of strategies for multiplying whole numbers. They will begin by using mental math (computation done by counting fingers, drawing pictures, and making diagrams, as well as by computing in one’s head). Later in this unit, children will be introduced to two specific algorithms, or methods, for multiplication: the partial-products algorithm and the lattice method.
SCIENCE – Mrs. Knape
Science projects were very impressive for the students’ first time. Some students already have ideas for next year. We hope you had an opportunity to view the projects during Open House. Students continue to share their projects with their classmates during oral presentations. We are learning a lot of new things.
A science unit will connect the third graders with their study of horses.
Topics yet to be covered include simple machines, water, and weather. A special Earth Day celebration will be on April 22 from 3-5pm. Stay tuned.
SOCIAL STUDIES – Mrs. Machniak
The state of Michigan has recently made changes to the content curriculum of 3rd and 4th grade students across the state. We are being asked by the state to shift Michigan history to 3rd grade. The third grade will be highlighting Michigan history up to statehood this last quarter after finishing the Pony Express with their horse studies.
COMPUTER – Mrs. Still
The students will continue to practice their word processing throughout the final quarter. They will receive a brief introduction to Excel, learning some of the important terms used in this program (cell address, active cell, and spreadsheet) and how to format and insert text and pictures. Two of the projects they will create in Excel are “house” flags and tessellations using geometric shapes from the AutoShapes menu. If time permits, the students will learn how to use some of the options in Microsoft Publisher to create a card and their own postage stamp.
SPANISH – Mrs. Machniak
The third grade will be finishing rooms in a house and continue with family members. They will finish the year with a study of Chile. This will include a general study of location, vocabulary, culture and literature.
RELIGION – Mrs. Wisniewski
Our religious education will continue to build upon the Faith Concepts of Christianity. We have been studying the Stations of the Cross. With Easter rapidly approaching, the students will learn more about the 40 day long Easter Celebration. As a community outreach project, students have created cards for the Candidates and Catechumens of St. Joseph Parish and will decorate flowerpots for the Hope Center.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION – Mrs. Knape
Strength building, movement, aerobic exercise, and games make PE a healthy half hour. Listening and following directions continue to be important components of our time together. Warm days will allow us to take our workouts outdoors.
ART – Mrs. Machniak
It was wonderful to see everyone at the open house with their families. The third grade class has finished working with clay and prehistoric art. They have begun weaving as an introduction to pattern. They will also be experimenting with stamped pattern and adrinka and kente cloth of Africa. Other patterned art will include an introduction to G. Klimt.
The third grade will finish the year with principles of repetition and movement. The students will be using animals to study these principles. They will be using wax resist, gyu-taku printing, and oil pastel. They will be introduced to Polynesian fabrics and the Chinese art of printmaking.
MUSIC – Mrs. Wisniewski
Third graders are continually practicing their skills at reading music and playing their recorders. Students continue learning about rhythm, melody, harmony, and qualities of music. Students are being introduced to John Tower Williams among other composers in the upcoming quarter.
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