Native American Unit: The Buffalo

Students had a fun Academic Choice activity!  They were to make a buffalo and label five of its parts, detailing how those parts were used by Native Americans.  Many chose to paint, while others chose to make a Keynote presentation or teaching video (you can find this on your student's blog).  Julie chose to build a buffalo out of paper!

Newbery Book Club

Dear Parents,

We would like to announce the beginning of our third grade Newbery Book Club!  This optional classroom club is designed to promote the love of reading through exposure to award winning books. The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.  Every year, since 1922, one book is named as the medal winner with several others notably named as honor books.  Newbery books are written for children with topics in both fiction and non-fiction genres and are written for readers on a variety of reading levels.

Newbery Club reading is intended to be a supplement to our classroom reading curriculum.   Students will keep a personal class reading record where they will list the name of each Newbery book they read. They will receive recognition in class as they add Newbery books to their list. 

Please take time to ask your child about our Newbery Club and as always please contact us if you have any questions.

We appreciate the opportunity to support your children as they grow as readers!

Sincerely,

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The Third Grade Team

Service Learning Project

Third graders have a wonderful opportunity to participate in a Naturalization Ceremony as part of our Service Learning project.  Señora Christi James came to third grade and explained what a Naturalization Ceremony is all about.  She explained that people from other countries immigrate to America for a variety of reasons.  She shared that her family came from Mexico to America for the schools and for their family business.  Señora James then explained to the students that immigrants sometimes decide to become citizens of our country and why (voting rights, sponsor other family members, the love of America). 

Señora James shared the process of becoming a citizen. After studying hard and passing a test, new citizens go to a Naturalization Ceremony where they receive their official certificates.  This ceremony is often attended by friends and family (once Mom or Dad are citizens, then the children in that family are, too).

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.  Third graders will provide gifts and sing a song at the ceremony.

This great event will take place on February 14th at the History Colorado Center. 

Class Valentines

Dear Families,

Our class Valentine’s Day celebration will take place on Tuesday, February 14^th at 8:10. Students will bring valentines for each of their classmates.  They can be homemade or store-bought, but students may NOT include candy with their Valentines. Please help us monitor this. Happy Valentine's Day!

                               

              Barrett                                   Mia

              Celia                                      Olivia

              Chase M                                Oliver

              Chase S                                 Ryan

              Coco                                      Sam

              Johnny                                  Sebastian

              Julie                                      Willa

              Lila                                       William

              Luke                                      Xavier  

January Newsletter

Happy New Year!!!  We hope you had a magical holiday season with family and friends.  We were excited to see your children return to school and are impressed with how eagerly they jumped right into their academics.

In reading, students have been exercising their comparing and contrasting skills, as well as analyzing a text in order to formulate an informed opinion.  As we continue through the month, we will discuss author’s purpose, summarizing, analyzing characters to better understand them, and work on our inferring and predicting skills.  We are also working on homophones and homographs, so when you come across any, have some fun and discuss them with your child. A very exciting third grade reading incentive, called the Newberry Club, begins in February. 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 and reaching different goals along the way. Be on the lookout for more information about this project to come home soon.

In writing, we are focusing on growing our independence and ability to self-assess while moving through the writing process.  In addition to practicing this in school, students will take responsibility for completing the entire process once a month for homework. This is the GO Write! homework assignment.  As we write, we continue to work on organization, sentence fluency and using sensory words in our descriptive details. This month we will also focus on making our stories come to life by ‘showing, not telling’, what is happening.  This means instead of telling you “Janet was happy,” we will show you by writing “Janet’s eyes lit up and a huge grin broke out on her face.”

Our exciting journey through Colorado history continues as we take a close look at the Native American tribes of Colorado. We specifically study the Ute Indians and the Plains tribes. Students record their similarities and differences on a Venn diagram as we discuss the cultures and geography of these Native American people. We also investigate the historical conflicts between the government and the native people. Students take part in exercises that require the skill of understanding perspective. Soon, we will learn about the trappers and traders who came to Colorado to hunt for beaver, the Rendezvous where they traded, and Bent’s Fort.

During our Math in Focus work this month, we are moving from bar models into our study of multiplication. Students will review the concept of equal groups and practice multiplication skills by mentally solving problems involving ones, tens and hundreds.  Ask your student how the problems 8 x 1, 8 x 10, and 8 x 100 are all related.  We will also explore multiplication problems involving two and three digit numbers multiplied by a single digit multiplier.  As you can tell by the increased complexity of our work, mastery of our multiplication facts is extremely important.  Please take time to work on these with your student three or four times a week.  Quizzing them on facts while driving, for a few minutes before or after dinner, or before bed is helpful and important. At this time in the year, we expect students to have mastery of addition and subtraction facts and to be working daily on multiplication. 

We continue to feel fortunate to be able to spend our days with your children and thank you for all the support you provide at home. 

Warmly,

The Third Grade Team

Upcoming Events:

January 16 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (no school)

January 29 – Spirit Day

February 17 – Field Trip, Naturalization Ceremony

Spanish Homework (Scroll and find your name.)

1.  "Right" click
2.  Open link in new tab!