| From the Teacher's Desk | | Dear Parents, Spring Fever has struck! The troops are getting restless. With only ten weeks left in third grade, it is important for the children to continue to stay focused on doing their best work. Please take the time to discuss putting their best foot forward and making appropriate choices during our last weeks together. We are so proud of their accomplishments.
ERB testing will take place the week of April 11th. Each morning will be dedicated to a particular section of the ERB test. There will be no homework this week, so hopefully the weather will be beautiful and the children can go outside and explore. Please make sure your child gets a good night's sleep and eats a healthy breakfast. Getting to school on time this week is extremely important, so we can begin our testing on time. Also, please do not schedule vacations or appointments for this week, because making up the test can become stressful for your child.
Sincerely, Melanie Gekas Natasha Nikitina Jordan Chaffman |  |
| Language Arts | | Animal
habitats have captured the children’s interest.
They will continue to explore and further develop their understanding of
animal habitats and the animals’ interaction with people. While doing so, they are becoming more
proficient readers who can apply the strategies of compare and contrast, making
judgments and evaluations, and summarizing more successfully. Additionally in the upcoming month, the
children will continue using a variety of nonfiction material to help them with
their research. Our reading strategies have
become part of a cross-curricular connection with our social studies units as
the students learn to use library resources such as encyclopedias and other
reference materials. We look forward to
incorporating the new skill of note taking with our research project, African
animals, and later, with explorers.
In writing, we continue to focus on the
development of a good paragraph. We will
begin to emphasize more factual writing suitable for research reports. The writing goals that we are setting include
a well-researched, factual report with a clear topic and age-appropriate
bibliography, strong topic sentences, supporting facts, an effective conclusion,
and different types of sentences that flow smoothly. We are looking for a report that is written
in the child’s own language and is interesting to read. We expect the word
choice to be exact and descriptive and the finished project to be neat,
legible, and contain very few, if any, errors.
Grammar and vocabulary development will
include verbs and verb tenses. We will
continue to review nouns, adjectives, uses of the apostrophe in contractions
and possessives, and sentences. Children
will practice their editing skills to become more aware of the mechanics of
writing as well as to appreciate a polished piece of work. | |
| "Dr. Livingstone, I Presume!" | | The children’s
enthusiasm for Africa was enriched through our
trip to the African Voices exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Their exploration of cultures and sketches of
artifacts have prepared them for their further study of different ethnic African
groups. We are looking forward to their
group presentations in mid-April. The
children will then shift their focus to begin studying explorers who traveled
through Africa. We will examine their motives and reasons for
exploration and relate them to earlier European explorers. | |
| Math  | | Geometry continues to be our main focus as we begin the month of April. We will quickly return to more multiplication and division concepts as we head into Unit 7. Using parentheses, more complex problem solving, multiplying involving multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000, learning division with remainders, and using mental arithmetic will be some of the skills presented this month. We will also review the use of decimals and decimal notation in preparation for our study of fractions.
Congratulations to all 3rd graders who have learned all of their 0-5 multiplication facts for quick and accurate recall! Knowing all the facts by the end of the year is a goal for all third graders, preparing them for the fourth grade math program.
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| Science | | | Animals are all over our planet. They live on land, in the water, and in the air. In Science, we learn everything about animals: their descriptions, habitats, adaptations, and conservation. We classify animals according to their characteristics (e.g., body coverings and body structure) and analyze how animals can live in such different places in the world. We also continue studying plants, making observations of our adopted oak tree, and recording any changes. |
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| | Coming Events | |
- April
11-15th-ERB testing week (AM only)
- April 21st-1:30 Dismissal
- April 22nd-Good Friday, school closed
- April
29th-Noon Dismissal for conferences
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| Spanish | | This month, Third Grade will keep reviewing greetings and start with the alphabet in Spanish. We will be identifying each letter of the alphabet and associating it with a word that starts with it. | |
| Art | | The third graders will continue learning about how African art influenced Picasso and Matisse this month. Hopefully we will go on our trip to the African Art museum as well . | |
| Physical Education | | Third Grade showed that they can flip higher than ever in the gymnastics unit! This past month, they have been flipping, rolling, vaulting, and balancing all over the gym. They spent time working on floor exercise, the vault, the balance beam and the wedge mats. Each student had time to practice a combination of over 50 different gymnastic skills!! Third Grade gave a gold medal performance this month!! | |
| Music | | In Music Class, Third Grade students are listening to parts of two quintets: the finale of Dvorak's Piano Quintet in A Major, Opus 81, and the third movement of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A Major. They have been playing their recorders, and have progressed to playing more advanced tunes and songs on their instruments! In order to raise awareness of the importance of taking care of our environment, and avoiding pollution, they are singing such songs as, "This Pretty Planet" and "The Fish Of The Sea." They are learning some fun Irish songs and rhymes and children's play-verse in honor of St. Patrick's Day.
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