"Love is in the air" and
everyone is gearing up for Valentine's Day. Each class will have their own
Valentine's Day celebration on Friday, February 13th. Students will bring valentines for each of
their classmates. These can arrive early
during the week of February 9th, if needed, and stay in the lockers. The Lower School office has decided that candy cannot be
included with valentines. Graland
has a Pinterest account with a board titled “Candy Free Valentines." Please
be sure all classmates receive a valentine from your child. On the 13th, this Valentine's school day will
be kicked off with our 7th grade buddies.
Ask your child about their buddy and the special activity prepared for
that day.
We
hope everyone is staying warm now that we are in the middle of winter. Please
remember to send a coat, hat, and mittens or gloves to school. Students can
leave these items in their lockers, since the weather can be unpredictable. It
is important to label everything with your child's name.
Third graders have a wonderful
opportunity to participate in a Naturalization Ceremony as part of our Service
Learning project. Señora Christi James presented to third graders about the
citizenship process. After studying hard and passing a test, new citizens go to
a Naturalization Ceremony where they receive their official certificates.
Since our third graders are
becoming experts on Colorado, they will be playing an important role in the
next Naturalization Ceremony - welcoming residents of Colorado to their American
citizenship ceremony. During the ceremony, our third graders will be singing a Colorado
song and giving a special remembrance gift to the new citizens. This great event will take place on
February 18th at the History Colorado Center. All are welcome to attend.
This is our big third grade
Service Learning project.
We
are wrapping up our Mountain Man (trappers and traders) unit. Students will be comparing William Bent's
Fort National Historic Site in La Junta, to Graland's campus. Be on the look out for this posting on the
student blogs. Our next social studies
unit will be on Colorado Settlers (pioneers and miners). We will be going to the Four Mile House on
March 20.
In
literacy, we have been practicing a variety of comprehension strategies,
including identifying author's purpose, comparing and contrasting, summarizing,
visualizing, inferring/predicting, and monitoring/clarifying text. Students are
working on reading skills in teacher-led book groups (variety of genres) at
their instructional level.
We
have been studying different phonics skills, grammar, and vocabulary strategies:
Homophones/Homographs
Prefixes
in-, im-
Vowels
controlled by r
Pronouns
and Verbs
Past
Tense
Using
a Thesaurus
Adjectives
Context
Clues
The
writing process can be time consuming, and the homework practice and in class
practice has been so valuable. These
opportunities give the students time to apply the complete writing process:
brainstorming, rough draft, editing, and a final copy. Students are learning
how to focus their attention on specific editing strategies, as well as
expanding their ideas with specific details. We have such a fine writing
program and our students will demonstrate their skills in April during the WrAP
(Writing Assessment Program).
Students
have worked hard on learning multiplication and we will move from multiplying
three digit numbers without regrouping to the more difficult process of
regrouping. We have also been learning
about measurement and area and perimeter.
Our next math focus will be division, including the steps of long
division. For success and confidence during division lessons, automaticity of
multiplication facts are imperative.
We
appreciate all of your support at home! Have
a wonderful Valentine's Day, and we look forward to sharing with you at our
March Student-Led Conference, on March 12-13.
The
Third Grade Team
P.S. Mark your calendar for Third Grade Salutes
Kids. This dance performance is
presented twice - on March 10th and 11th, both at 8:20.
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