Classroom Messenger

Mrs. Mercer

Third Grade

Lovettsville Elementary School

Monday, January 5, 2015

Calendar

Mon., Jan. 5th—Classes resume

Thurs., Jan. 8th—Game Time reward

Wed., Jan. 14th—Social Studies test on map skills

Fri., Jan. 16th—Word Study tests

Mon., Jan. 19th—Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—school holiday

Thurs., Jan. 22nd—Monday schedule

Fri., Jan. 23rd—End of second grading period

Mon., Jan. 26th—Student holiday,

teacher workday

Word Study

Students will begin a new Word Study unit this week. This week’s homework sheet includes assignments to practice Word Study lists. Some homework assignments are required, and some assignments are optional. Students will receive extra classroom money for completing the optional assignments neatly, completely, and accurately. Students will work on each Word Study list for 2 weeks, so your child’s next Word Study unit test will be Friday, January 16th. Week 2 Word Study homework assignments will be included with next week’s homework. Please let me know if you have any questions. Each group’s words are listed on the following pages.

Blue group

Sort 23: long and short e vowel patterns in accented syllables

1st--long

needle

season

feature

freedom

meaning

1st—short

feather

leather

heavy

pleasant

sweater

2nd--long

succeed

increase

compete

defeat

indeed

extreme

fifteen

repeat

Yellow Group

Sort 16: short e (CVC and CVVC) and long e (CVVC) spellings

C=consonant

V=vowel

CVC

when

CVVC—short e

dead

head

bread

CVVC—long e--ee

trees

street

queen

CVVC—long e—ea

each

reach

seat

dream

lead

east

oddball

great

Purple Group

Sort 36: silent beginning consonants—

kn, wr, gn

knife

knack

known

knot

knob

knit

knight

knoll

wrong

wrap*

wreck

wrist

wren

wring*

gnat

gnaw

oddball

rap*

ring*

*These words are homophones. Each pair of homophones sounds the same, but they each have different spellings and different meanings. Students need to know the meaning that matches each spelling.

Red Group

Sort 5: suffixes –y, -ly, -ily

-y

scratchy

squirmy

velvety

squeaky

wealthy

skinny

swampy

-ly

silently

secretly

rapidly

fluently

eagerly

generously

seriously

-ily

merrily

greedily

hastily

readily

Class Reward

The class has earned a reward for good behavior at lunch and in specials classes. The reward that got the most votes from the class was Game Time. On Thursday, January 8th, students will have an opportunity to play board games or card games in small groups. With parent permission, students may bring in a board game or card game from home, with the understanding that the game will be shared with other students in class who would like to play it. Students will have time to play 2 games for 20 minutes each or one game for 40 minutes. The best games for our Game Time are ones that can be played in about 20-40 minutes. Games such as Monopoly, which typically take longer to play, are not as well suited for the time we have available. Our Game Time is only for board games, boxed games, and card games that are appropriate for third grade. Please do not allow your child to bring a video game to school.

Social Studies

Students will have a unit test on map skills on Wednesday, January 14th. A study guide for map skills was sent home with the December 1st newsletter. It is also available on our class webpage.

Homework

Students are bringing home their weekly homework sheet today. This week’s assignments include math worksheets practicing multiplication, basic math fact practice, Word Study assignments, and, if possible, completing at least one session of DreamBox Learning’s Math Program.

Math

In math class, we have worked on multiplying by 2, 5, and 3. We have also learned the rules for multiplying by 0, 1, and 10. Students should practice these multiplication facts at home. We will soon begin working on math fact timings for multiplication in class.

These are the strategies we have used for multiplying by 2, 5, and 3:

Strategies for multiplying

Students need to be able to quickly recall the answer to basic multiplication facts. In addition to rote practice, there are strategies and “tricks” that may help students learn these facts.

array—an arrangement of objects or symbols in even rows and columns that show a multiplication fact

Example: * * * * * *

* * * * * *

There are 4 rows and 6 columns. It is a 4 by 6 array. This array shows the multiplication fact 4 x 6 = 24.

skip counting—counting by a number other than 1

Example:

counting by 2’s—2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

repeated addition—adding the same number repeatedly is the same as multiplying

Example: 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 12

3 x 4 = 12

Strategies by table

2’s tables:

1. Count by 2’s: 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

2. Use doubles facts in addition.

Example: 2 x 7 = _____ Find the answer to 7 + 7.

5’s tables:

1. Count by 5’s: 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

2. The pattern in the ones place is 0 5 0 5 0 5.

3. When you multiply an even number by 5, the product is an even number (a product that ends with 0).

Example: 4 x 5 = 20

4. When you multiply an odd number by 5, the product is an odd number (a product that ends with 5).

Example: 7 x 5 = 35

3’s tables:

1. Count by 3’s:

369

121518

212427

Try to remember the numbers in “chunks”:

Three 1-digit numbers: 3 6 9

Three numbers with 1 in the tens place: 12 15 18

Three numbers with 2 in the tens place: 21 24 27

2. Do the doubles addition fact (as you would for the 2s tables), then add that number to it. Multiplying by 3 is doing a “triple”.

Example: To find 3 x 6, add 6 + 6, then add 6 to that

sum.

6 + 6 = 12, 12 + 6 = 18 or 6 + 6 + 6 = 18

3 x 6 = 18