Tuesday, March 1, 2016

March Newsletter

Dear Parents,
We continue our exciting and busy learning in third grade. This week we will take a terrific field trip to the History of Colorado Center to continue our learning of our wonderful state’s history.

Student-led conferences are Thursday, March 10 and Friday, March 11. We look forward to this opportunity for your children to share their learning and progress with you around the table. While we believe this is a powerful and celebratory experience, it can also be daunting for some children. We ask that you come prepared to ask uplifting questions and supportive comments for your child. They are excited to share their work with you, and they have all accomplished so much! 

The curriculum has been driving a busy classroom environment. In math, we have been exploring division with remainders and the concepts of using bar models for solving word problems. We will begin working with money and fractions this month. Ask your children questions about these topics when you are cooking, shopping, or traveling. We are always looking for ways to apply their learning to real-life activities. The automaticity of multiplication facts and division facts is critical for student’s confidence and success with long division and fractions. We will continue to work on these skills in class and practice at home will help your child solidify the processes.

Literacy instruction is woven into everything we do each day. In reading, we are learning about many rules that govern our language: suffixes, adjectives, and articles to name a few. We are investigating various author purposes to enhance comprehension. In small groups, we are identifying the cause and effect of events in stories, how to draw conclusions, and also how to read text and graphic features in a passage. Our writing is taking us into our past as students have scribed about an autobiographical event in their lives. From there, we have been working on formulating an opinion and convincing a reader to agree. This is the art of persuasive writing. Third graders truly enjoy succeeding in this art form! Newbery books are flying off of the shelves and students are sharing their book reviews of titles they have read. New genres have been enjoyed and an excitement of reading has been seen in our classrooms. Thank you for supporting this endeavor. Our annual book fair will be held in the Fries Theater and will be a great place to pick up some books for your home library and be perfect for Spring Break reading!

Book Fair Sale Hours
March 9           3:10-4:30 PM              after school sales
March 10         8:00 AM – 4:00 PM     sales during parent conferences
March 11         8:00 AM – 1:00 PM     sales during parent conferences


“Pike’s Peak or Bust!” In social studies, we are exploring the lives of the Colorado gold miners. We are looking at the lure of the possibility of riches and also the extreme hardships of those who pursued the promise. We even become prospectors ourselves and try our hands at gold panning. Ask your child to share some of the fascinating facts that are a part of the foundation of Colorado’s history.

All of this learning leads us up to Spring Break, Thursday, March 24-Tuesday, April 5th. Thank you for your continued support in our teaching and your child’s learning. Welcome Spring!

Sincerely, 
The Third Grade Team



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