Good afternoon!
I hope you all had a wonderful week. It's hard to believe that we just finished our 4th week of school. I apologize for not sending a Flock note the last two weeks. I caught Covid at the end of the 2nd week of school and was out all last week with that. I am feeling much better now and am glad to be back at school with the students. Below you will find reminders, a recap of this week, and what we will be focusing on in class next week.
REMINDERS: It's Homecoming Week! (see the dress up days below)
Monday 9/19: Sports Attire Day; Library
Tuesday 9/20: Disney Attire; PE, Faith Formation, and Music
Wednesday 9/21: Pride Day Dress; Mass 8:25 a.m.; Faith Formation
Thursday 9/22: Pajama Day; PE and Music
Friday 9/23: Demon Attire (or black and orange); Visit from high school band and PE; Early Out: 1:05 Dismissal
RECAP OF THIS WEEK:
Math: Our math focus for both grades this week was on adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers (3rd Grade: up to 1,000 / 4th Grade: up to 1,000,000). Both groups did extremely well with addition. Subtraction required a little more practice. By today, both groups were able to subtract using regrouping independently.
Reading: Both grades focused on summarizing fiction stories. The students were divided into mixed-aged groups using leveled passages and stories to practice this skill. The students used the strategies of story strips (sequencing), BME (beginning, middle, end), and the 5 W's (Who, What, When, Where, Why) to summarize different texts throughout the week.
Phonics/Spelling: Each group was introduced to their next set of words. Different groups worked on vowel sounds (long vs. short), different ways to spell vowel sounds, and different syllable types. Your child's spelling list came home this week. Please practice with your child at home. Test days will be next Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday (see your child's spelling list for his/her test date). Students practiced their words in a word search, using Word Work materials, and by sorting words. Today, they completed a new type of sort - an "Oops" Sort. It was a fun way to practice their words in their groups.
Science: This week, we continued our STEM unit by working on our paper roller coasters. Students have been working on these for a couple weeks and are currently revising their designs after testing with marbles. Please read/see the Knightly News. Mrs. Clarahan joined our class on Thursday to see the students working and took pictures. She included them in this week's Knightly News.
Grammar: We continued with our unit on nouns. We reviewed common and proper nouns. Then we practiced making singular nouns plural by adding "s", "es", or changing "y" to "i" and adding "es".
Next Week in 3rd and 4th Grade:
3rd Grade Math: As our chapter comes to an end, the students will be working on using their addition and subtraction skills to solve word problems. Students will also be reviewing for their first math test of the year. We will complete a chapter review as well as play a math game to prepare for this test. As of right now, our Chapter 1 test will be on Thursday.
4th Grade Math: As our chapter comes to an end, the students will be working on using their place value, addition, and subtraction skills to solve word problems. Students will also be reviewing for their first math test of the year. We will complete a chapter review as well as play a math game to prepare for this test. As of right now, our Chapter 1 test will be on Thursday.
Reading: We will begin a deep-dive into characters next week. Students will be placed into mixed-aged groups to practice identifying a character's feelings as well as internal and external character traits (inferencing will be required for the internal traits). By the end of the week, we will also be looking at how characters change from the beginning of a story to the end.
Phonics/Spelling: We will continue to work with the word lists we received this week. Our focus will still be on long vs. short vowel sounds, different ways to spell certain vowel sounds, and different syllable types. Students will be assessed on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday (see your child's spelling list for his/her test date). If your child is assessed on Wednesday or Thursday, he/she will receive a new list of words the following day. If your child is assessed on Friday, he/she will receive a new list of words the following Monday.
Grammar/Writing: We will begin our focus on writing strong paragraphs. We will learn the basic structure of a paragraph and will practice using that structure to write an opinion paragraph about which pet each student feels would be the best pet to have. Students will plan their responses, develop a strong topic sentence, provide reasons to support their opinions, and provide a concluding sentence.
Science: The groups will continue to work on their paper roller coasters. By the end of next week, we hope to have 4 completely functioning roller coasters! The students have done a wonderful job of persevering throughout this task and have been experimenting with different physics concepts. Please see the Knightly News for pictures and a short write-up about this project.
Cell Phone: (309) 635-5876