Newsletter of February 13, 2012
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Happy Valentine’s Day. Today is Tuesday, February 14, 2012 and guess what, I’m was absent today. I wasn’t feeling good today, and therefore was absent. We had a field trip scheduled, a walking field trip to Kenwood High School to hear a choir performance. As of his posting, I don’t know if the children were able to attend in my absence. If not, I apologize. In eighteen years of teaching, I have never been absent on a field trip day. I’m sure I’ll have an opportunity to make it up to the children before the end of the year.
Thank You’s:
Thank you to those who sent in contributions to support our classroom supplies, especially pencils, tissue and hand-wipes and healthy snacks. Please feel free to continue to send your contribution. They are very much needed.
This week we will be working on the following: Common Core Standard to be addressed: (These standards are what CPS are now using to ensure students are receiving the standards or learning experiences appropriate for their grade level).
Language Arts: CCSS: CC.3.R.I.1 Key Ideas and Details: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
I hope the children have completed or nearly completed their poems about their African-American role models. I sent the guidelines home on Friday. There will be five children selected to read their original poems on Thursday, Feburary, 23, 2012 at 6:30 p.m in Ray School’s Black history month culminating experience. The African-American in Motion” poetry slam will feature students who have written poems based on their heroes and who serve as an inspiration to helping them to achieve their dream. The poems must be in by February 16, 2012. I hope you will be able to attend this event that will begin with a walk-through of classroom projects, a pot-luck of African-American cuisine, and the poetry slam. If you’d like to contribute one of your favorite “soul” stirring dishes to the pot -luck, please let me know.
This week we will continue to work in our ISAT Practice books to hone our test taking skills. I assign the pages to be completed for homework and we review the answers. The practice pages include the standards required for the third grade curriculum. We have been learning these skills all year and the ISAT Practice book merely focus on these skills.
I will be giving practice appropriate third grade level reading test to determine if the children are able/better able to comprehend text at the third grade reading level.
Writing: CC.3.W.3 Text Types and Purposes: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
We will be working on writing good responses to prompts or questions based on reading material in the ISAT Practice Books or other sources. I model for the children an example of answering questions based on their reading material and then ask the children to write their responses to a extended response question. Last week I wrote about my experience of learning how to dive from a diving board, well actually, I never did learn how to dive. This experience focused on the skill of compare and contrast.
As I have written in previous blogs, it is important that children are learning to convey their feelings in a cohesive composition. In this case, the story we read was about a girl named Rosa who couldn’t fish until her father taught her how. She experienced a few failures at first as she caught everything on her reel but a fish, until finally after a while she caught a fish. The prompt ask the children to think about a time they experienced a situation similar to Rosa’s. They might have experienced things that were alike or different from Rosa’s experience. Does the writer write clearly and make their writing interesting to the reader? Does the writer include examples from the story and compare/(alike); contrast; (different), to a similar experience they had? Does the writer write a good conclusion, one that makes the reader laugh or leaves the reader with something to think about? Not easy for third graders, but writing is always a work in progress!
Homework: Assigned ISAT Practice pages and extended response wrtiting
I will be asking the children to complete more extended responses in the ISAT Practice books. Please support your child by having them to read their writing aloud to you and offering constructive criticism, i.e. ” I didn’t quite understand that sentence,” “You didn’t spell this word correctly,” etc.
Math: CC.3.OA.7 Multiply and divide within 100. Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 =
or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of one-digit numbers.
We will also work in the ISAT Practice Books. I assign pages each night for homework, however I do tell the children they can work ahead if they’d like. We do review the work.
Homework: Assigned pages. Children can work ahead if they want to,
Everyday Math:
We will continue to work on Unit 5. We are learning more about multiplication and division patterns. By now the children should be learning their 6 times table.
Homework: Home Link 5.4-5.8 including extended response writing to explain how an answer was achieved
Science: CCSS: 11.A.1e Arrange data into logical patterns and describe the patterns.
We will be learning about the “crystals,” (salt), left behind after we observe the earth materials that make up rocks.
Have A Great Week!






