Mrs. O'Connor's Third Grade Class: April 2016

After our surprise snow day at the end of March, it seems that spring is finally here! Art is going up in the hallway for all to enjoy, coats are staying in our lockers during recess and our learning continues. We are also approaching ERB testing which will take place April 18 – 21. During this time period, please ensure that your students get plenty of rest, eat healthy breakfasts and arrive to school on time, so they can perform at their best on these standardized assessments.

This month in reading, we are focusing on story structure and creating an awareness of different characters’ points of view. We will also be identifying how ideas are different or alike through use of our compare and contrast skills. Our spelling and phonics will be expanded with an emphasis on the suffixes –ed, -ing, -s, and –es, as well as the prefixes non-, in- and im-. The Newbery program rolls on with many students already earning membership in the Newbery Club. A few students have even entered the Newbery Hall of Fame by completing twenty-five or more books. We thank you for continuing to encourage your students to read these award winning texts.

Having advanced our personal narrative and persuasive writing abilities, we will now turn our writing attention toward fictional writing. Our early efforts will focus on generating creative ideas and using rich word choice, including similes and metaphors.

Who knew that fractions would be such a hot math topic, but our students have been so excited to dive into this concept! We are learning about equivalent fractions, how to compare fractions and how to add and subtract like fractions. You can use the activity below to share a fraction experience with your student. Following our fraction work, we will focus on angles and lines.

Math: Fraction Activity for Home

Have your child record what he or she does in a particular day. For example, the amount of time he or she spends in school, playing, watching television, reading, and sleeping. Help your child to round the amount of time to the nearest hour.

Then have him or her write the amount of time each activity takes as a fraction of the total number of hours in a day. For example, if he or she spent 2 hours playing basketball, the fraction is 2/24 .

Finally, have your child add up all the fractions to make sure they equal one whole. You may want to work with smaller denominators first as a warm up to this activity.

For example, 2/24+3/24 +1/24 +4/24+4/24 +10/24 = 24/24.

Social studies continues to provide opportunities to integrate classroom learning with authentic experiences. We will be learning about how a territory becomes a state and about how a bill becomes a law. Students will experience the process as by working with a partner to generate an idea for a bill. Each class will then select their class favorite, which will be voted on by the grade level to become a law. We will also be learning about Colorado governors and our exploration will include a field trip to the State Capital and Governor’s Mansion on April 29.

Finally, we are looking forward to sharing the day with Grandparents and Special Friends on Friday, April 15.

Happy Spring!

The Third Grade Team

Events:

April 8: School-wide Spring Art Show Celebration and Ice Cream Social (3:15 – 5:00pm)

April 15: Grandparents’ Day (noon dismissal)

April 18 – 21: ERB Testing

April 29: Field Trip ~ State Capitol and Governor’s Mansion