News and Reminders
From Mrs. Nueske’s
3rd Grade Class
September 30, 2013
Teacher Website
Please be sure to take advantage of my teacher website for the class! I do me best to keep the calendar updated with upcoming events and reminders. Your child is also getting quite familiar with the Favorite Third Grade Websites page as well.
Keyboarding
Keyboarding instruction begins in third grade in our district. This is a critical skill that students will need for the rest of their lives. Using good keyboarding habits from the start will help your child be more successful in this world of technology we now live in. If you have internet access at home, please encourage your child to practice the online keyboarding lesions we are working on at school (lessons 1-4) please do not have them play the games – at this point the games will only tempt your child to look at their fingers and use incorrect fingering. Once the home row is mastered at a mixed level, then we will be ready to start the games. I will have students do a home row test in November before beginning the home row games. Please see our class website for the link to the keyboarding website we use.
Math News
We have been working on place value and mental math strategies. Our Place Value test will be on Monday, October 7. Please go through the study guide with your child to help him/her prepare for the test on Monday. Next we will be using our place value skills to practice addition with regrouping (sums up to 1000). We will also continue to work on mental math strategies.Rocket Math – please be sure to look at your child’s Rocket Math sheet for the day. If he/she did not pass, use the sheet to do a 5-minute practice at home. This will make a big difference in helping your child be successful!
Literacy News
In reading we have been working on building our Read to Self stamina. We have also been practicing comprehension and accuracy strategies. Our current strategy is to track our thinking by leaving sticky note “tracks”. You can encourage your child to do this during their daily home reading. Writing our thinking on a sticky note and marking the spot helps readers remember their thinking and creates a deeper understanding about a book. It also helps generate deeper conversations about books in groups and with a partner. In third grade we dig deeper into comprehension.
Reading Logs
PLEASE be sure that your child is reading nearly every night and keeping track of title, pages, and minutes in the reading log! Your child will need a lot of support from you to be successful with this. Reading everyday is SO critical to your child’s success as a student. Together we can help them grow leaps and bounds this year!
Writing News
During Writing Workshop time we have been working on writing personal narrative stories in our writer’s notebooks. These are the true stories of our lives. We do this by “reliving” the moment in our minds and writing it exactly as it happened, bit-by-bit. We try to use our “storyteller’s” voice and include lots of details andsome dialogue (what people actually said).
Science News
We will continue our study of the solar system. I expect our test to be the week of Oct. 14-18. We will also begin our observation of the moon next week. We will begin our observations at school. By Wednesday or Thursday your child will then continue moon observations at home as homework – watch for information on this assignment next week!
Field Trip!!!
Wittenberg third graders will be going on a field trip on Monday, October 21st. We will spend the morning at the school forest and then head over to Schairer’s Autumn Acres for a picnic lunch followed by other activities, including the corn maze! We will be looking for parent chaperones – watch for more information to come home soon!
Other Date to Remember
Oct. 24 – Late Start (10 a.m.)
Oct. 25 – PTO Family Pumpkin Plunge (pool)
Oct. 29 – Family Literacy Night (@B’wood)
Nov. 1,3 – Annie the Musical (@High School)
Nov. 7 – Picture Retake Day
Lunch in the Classroom
Congratulations to the following students for reaching the September Accelerated Reader Goal of 4 points!
Alex Abby Harry
Reese Lilly Ethan
Sabine Tyler Drake
Way to Go!
The AR goal for October is 4 points.