Wow!   It's hard to believe that we have already completed three weeks of Trimester 2 and now ready for Winter Break!   The kids have been working so hard and are starting to get deep into the routines of being 3rd grade learners.   

Today all students were able to participate in our All School Holiday Sing.   In the afternoon, our class was able to gather in the Commons to eat holiday cookies while listening to several stories read by our administrators.  

I hope that you have a wonderful, safe, and restful holiday season and Winter Break with your families!   I look forward to continuing to work with your child in 2014!  :)  See you all back on Monday, January 5th.    


Here's what has been happening in our class:

Literacy Time:

Over the past month, we have been working with the literacy strategies of monitoring our inner voices to focus our thinking when we read.  We have also been learning how to fully comprehend what we read through a text by stopping, thinking, and reacting to what we read.   In addition, students have been exploring and noticing the various text features when they are reading non-fiction books. Individually the students have been practicing how to track their non-fiction thinking with their guided reading books..  

Grammar:

The students have been working with distinguishing between common and proper nouns, the rules of making a noun plural, and present and past-tense verbs.  

Writing:

Our class just completed our Personal Narrative Unit in writing this past week.  During Writer's Express (WEX) time, we continued to work hard learning about the important elements to include in a personal narrative. Together, our mini-lessons have focused on writing our paragraphs in a more logical and organized manner. In addition, we continued to make sure that our work focused on a single moment in time. Our lessons also stressed the importance of having a logical structure that focused on one event, utilized strong verbs, had good sensory detail, and had proper sentence mechanics in our writing.  

This week, the students picked a final piece from all of their daily writing that they wanted to perfect and enhance.   As a result, the students typed their pieces into Googledocs. Afterwards, they conferenced with me for suggestions of corrections and enhancements.  

Math:

The students just finished Unit 4 in math that focused on introducing multiplication and division fact strategies, using arrays to demonstrate the meaning of multiplication, working with multiplication and division word problems, determining the area of rectangular shapes, and collecting data to discuss the topic of probability and chance. This week the students had fun practicing their multiplication facts by creating multiplication array cities.   

The students have been doing a spectacular job of practicing their math facts on Xtramath.org! I have certainly noticed quite a difference with quicker recall and memorization of their facts because of this practice.   I appreciate all of you parents making sure that they are practicing their facts at least 3 sessions a week.  Our goal is to have all students have their addition and subtraction facts mastered by the end of February so that they can begin to memorize their multiplication and division facts.  Your student is welcome to practice their facts over Winter Break, but please know it is not a requirement.

Social Studies:
Our class just completed our Chicago Unit with Mrs. Cerniglia and Mrs. Kleist in the LMC.   The students were able to be involved with center time activities that included higher order thinking skills that involved analyzing Chicago photographs and videos, comparing Chicago historical texts and statistics, and listening to old time Chicago songs.

Currently, in the classroom, our class is getting our exhibition displays ready to show at our 3rd Grade Westgate World's Fair.  Information was sent home last week.  We hope that you and your families can join us in the Commons on January 15th from 6:30-7:30 pm.  We cannot wait to see you all there!   

A BIG THANK YOU goes out to all of our parent classroom volunteers!

• We would like to thank Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Davenport, Mrs. Corwin, Mrs. Kuhn, and Mrs. Wengronowitz for coming in during months of November and December to help conduct our Reader's Theater groups..  
• I also greatly appreciate Mrs. Leu, Mrs. Owen, Mrs. Wengronowitz, and Mr. Stahr for for coming in to do all of our copying over the past month.
• Thank you Mrs. Georg and Nathan's grandmother for conducting a wonderful Art Appreciation lesson on mosaics for the students.