Can you believe that January has come and gone!?! I cannot! This week, we finished up one week of Wonders and began another. The students took our weekly reading test, which will come home on Monday to be signed and returned. As we begin our new week, the essential question is "What ideas can we get from nature?" One story was about how bats inspired a scientist to create a new type of cane for people who are blind. How interesting!! We will continue to focus on main idea and key details in the expository texts that we are reading. This is a tough skill, but the third graders are working hard to master it! This week, we wrote our opinion about a topic that I found in a Scholastic News. The question was, should dodgeball be banned in schools. The students were very enthusiastic and passionate about how they felt about this topic. Where did your student stand? The paragraph was sent home on Friday.
In math, we finished up Unit 6 which focused on geometry. Our new unit focuses on multiplication and division mastery. This is an area that many students need some practice on. We are going to start something new to help students master their facts. The students marked down which facts they would like to master (example x4 or x6). These are the facts they will practice throughout the week and on Friday, I will give a short assessment to see if the students have mastered these facts. Hopefully, this will encourage students to continue to learn their multiplication facts.
Our inquiry projects continue and we are moving along quite nicely! The students have written 2 paragraphs worth of information about their topic. The next step is to design their poster.
Don't forget! Our Valentine's Day party is February 13th. Please send in valentines by that date so they can be distributed. Thank you!
