January Newsletter

Dear Third Grade Families, 

Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful winter break. Students and teachers are already back in the thick of things, and we want to share with you what is happening in the classrooms. 

Our exciting journey through Colorado history continues. We culminated our study of Native Americans with a wonderful presentation by Reed’s mom, Amy Swanson, and a Native American colleague of hers. They focused on the lives of Native Americans today Now we are learning about the trappers and traders who came to Colorado to hunt for beaver. We will also travel to Morrison to visit the Tesoro Cultural Center where the first replica of Bent’s Fort is located. There we will experience the many cultures that traded at Bent’s Old Fort, from the Cheyenne, Ute and Pawnee tribes to French, British and American fur trappers. 

In our Journeys’ curriculum, we are exploring story structure, homophones, comparing and contrasting texts, as well as various spelling patterns that are reflected in the weekly spelling lists. A very exciting third grade reading incentive, called the Newberry Club, begins in January. Students will have the opportunity to read award-winning books to become part of the club. The process involves independent reading of appropriate level books reaching different goals along the way. Be on the lookout for more information about this project to come home soon.

During our Math in Focus work this month we are tackling multiplication, begin division and work with measurement, including perimeter and area. Now is the time for students to master their memorization of multiplication facts. Some students have shared that they believe once they’ve done multiplication work on Moby Max, they are done with it. This is not true. Unless they have rapid recall, they need to repeat the exercises. Flash cards in the car and before bed quizzes are important as well. At this time in the year, we expect students to have mastery of addition and subtraction facts and to be working daily on multiplication. Writing practice for the WrAP test continues monthly. Please be sure that your children follow the directions for brainstorming (15 minutes), developing the rough draft (45 minutes), and editing their work using the checklist (15 minutes). Remind them that brainstorming does NOT mean complete sentences, but rather dash notes about ideas they want to develop in their stories. 

Finally, please send your child to school with appropriate clothing for winter weather. We go out for recess whenever possible, and the children need warm clothing and snow boots. Feel free to leave extra mittens and hats in the lockers. This is an exciting time of year and lots of learning is taking place! 

Warmly, 

The Third Grade Team