Thir d Gr a d e Pe ter s on E le me nta r y S c hool

Third Grade Update

Issue IIII December 2012

A Note from the Third Grade Teachers

Its hard to believe were already looking at wrapping up 2012! The next four weeks will certainly be busy in third grade. Thank you to the parents and family members who have come into our classrooms as our Mystery Readers. The students wait in eager anticipation each week to see who will be visiting our classrooms and what book they will be sharing aloud. If you havent been able to sign up to be your childs Mystery Reader yet, please contact your child s teacher for sign up opportunities. We hope you and your family will have a restful, relaxing, and enjoyable Winter Break and we look forward to a great start to 2013!
The Third Grade Team As we meet with small groups of students for Guided Reading, students will have the opportunity to practice and reinforce the literacy skills and concepts from our weeks lessons at each of the five literacy stations (Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading). This month our anchor stories, focused skills and strategies will be:

Balto: The Dog who Saved NomeNarrative Expository - Skill: QAR (Question, Answer, Relationship)

Wild ShotsNon-Fiction in the format of a Magazine Article - Skill: Authors Purpose - Strategy: Use text structure and format

Important Dates

12/6Holiday Shop 12/24 1/4 No School Winter Break

This month we will begin to explore the genre of memoirs. Through a variety of writing opportunities students will reflect on memorable life experiences. The personal memoir will focus on a specific time we have each learned a life lesson. Our memoirs will be in the format of multiple paragraphs allowing the students to incorporate their paragraph writing skills. Later this month we will also be learning about singular and possessive nouns.

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T H IRD G RA DE U P DA T E

IS S U E I II I

The Family Letter provided at the beginning of each unit outlines specific skills and strategies covered within the unit. Outlined below are the specific skills and strategies we will be focusing on as outlined by the new Illinois Learning Standards (Common Core).

The Family Letter provided at the beginning of each unit outlines specific skills and strategies covered within the unit. Outlined below are the specific skills and strategies we will be focusing on as outlined by the new Illinois Learning Standards (Common Core).
This month our study will focus on:

Unit 4 Assessment on December 6th

Unit 4 Multiplication and division fact families Unit 4Multiplication and division number stories

Big numbers Multiplication & computation

Unit 5 topics of study:

Unit 5 Assessment on November 10h.

Place value in whole numbers and decimals Fractions * Please practice multiplication facts at home on a daily basis!

* Please practice multiplication facts at home on a daily basis!

Social Studies

Why do people live in different kinds of communities?

Early this month we will be wrapping up our study of communities. The essential questions guiding our study of communities will be:

Later this month we will begin our study of simple machines. The essential questions guiding our study will be:

What makes things work? What are the six simple machines? How do we use simple machines in everyday life?

How are communities similar and different from? How does geography affect a community? How do people work effectively with others within their community?

A variety of hands on activities and experiments will aid in our learning of each type of simple machine.

Our communities quiz will be on December 4th.

On January 17th we will have an in-school field trip. The DuPage Childrens Museum Lab Rats will be visiting to help us further explore each type of simple machine through hands on activities!

Great Websites & Resources

Please check our grade level blog at http://thirdgradepanthers.blogspot.com under additional fun websites for activities to support our learning!