September 2013

Hello Families,

       This is our new third grade website! We are having so much fun this year. We are learning a lot of new information.  

      In literacy we are learning how to do reader's responses. A good reader's response starts with a summary of what we have read and then we respond to what we have read.  To respond, we use our metacognition stems.  You should ask us about those! We are also learning about what it means to be a real reader. A real reader does more than just reads the text fluently, they think and infer.  A real reader thinks deeply about the text.  When we read at home, you could ask us some deep thinking questions.

     In math, we are working on our addition fact fluency. We need to know how to add numbers quickly in our heads! We are also working on how to solve problems multiple ways. We need to be able to explain and justify what we have done too! We need to continue practice our addition and subtraction facts at home to help us at school.

    In Social Studies, we are learning all about the 7 continents and the major oceans! We sit at tables and carpets labeled by continent and ocean. This helps us to remember their names.  We have also learned about the cardinal directions and how that can help us to read a world map.
     We are working VERY hard on our cursive too.  We are all the way up to lowercase letter r.  Please challenges us by having us write the letters we know at home.  You could even start writing in cursive and challenge us to read the words.

    We have also been working on the 7 Habits of Happy Kids!  So far we have learned that we need to be proactive, begin with the end in mind and that we should put first things first.  Using these tips has helped us to take ownership over our learning in our classroom.  We realize we are in charge of our decisions and are excited to use this language throughout the whole school.

Love,

Your Third Graders