October Newsletter

October is a busy month for third graders.  Learning about jury trials, children making a difference, and bridge building figured into our literature study these past few weeks.  Ask your kids about mentor sentences and how we’re learning to mirror the sentence structures of wonderful authors. Cursive and weekly spelling assessments have begun and homework is growing.  Please remember that third grade homework is designed to be completed over the course of the week and not in one night. If you have questions about homework, please share them with your child’s teacher.  Your child’s conference would be a good place to have a homework discussion.  Be thinking about what other questions you might have for your conference on Oct. 15 or 16.

When you head to the store, check out third graders’ estimating skills.  Have them try mental math addition and subtraction problems and ask them to explain the rounding and front-end estimation process they’ve been working on.  When they do math assignments, check-in with them to discuss “reasonableness.” Help your students manage their math fact study time.  Our next math chapters will deal with addition and subtraction up to 10,000.

Technology and the Colorado Life Zone Project have been well integrated with the writing process these past few weeks.  Taking dash notes from on-line and book sources, and then turning these notes into well-developed paragraphs about life zones and animals, were classroom activities for all third graders.  Creating a bibliography, working with a life zone team to design Google Slides, and creating a QR code to bring them directly to their blogs from their dioramas, have been creative learning experiences. In addition to all that, we’re learning how to use blogs to comment appropriately on the work of others.  Dioramas are due to class on October 9, and presentations will take place the following week.  The end of this month we will begin a foray into Colorado geography and topography.

Third graders will meet their buddies for the second time and participate as partners in Field Day.  After this, the next Buddy Activity will take place during the Halloween Parade, scheduled for 8:30 on October 29.

Third Graders will have a special treat this month when they visit the American Museum of Western Art. This premier collection, located at the Navarre, provides an opportunity for students to view Colorado history through a different lens. Mrs. Crane, one of our Graland art teachers, is coordinating this trip.

Sometimes parents or other family members enjoy coming to Graland to visit their student during lunch time.  During these lunch dates, other students often like to join in and sit with the visitor. Unfortunately, some students feel left out, and the teachers do their best to help students resolve hurt feelings.  Moving forward, we ask that visitors and their student treat this special time as a lunch date, and sit together at a separate table.  Other students won't sit with you, in an effort to avoid hurt feelings.  

Thanks to the teamwork between home and school. Our year of learning is right on track.