Third Grade Week 4

One of the many things I am learning to appreciate about third grade students is how they find joy in the most simple things and experiences.  I think adults can learn a thing or two about this.  A dog came to the outside of the fence during recess this week, and you would have thought third grade students had never seen a dog before.  Students were crazily excited that a dog came to visit.

One of the many things I am learning to appreciate about third grade students is how they find joy in the most simple things and experiences.  I think adults can learn a thing or two about this.  A dog came to the outside of the fence during recess this week, and you would have thought third grade students had never seen a dog before.  Students were crazily excited that a dog came to visit.

Here are some of my favorite rocks this week.  Students are bringing in some really neat samples.  Some of them have been quite dazzling.

This was are first large butterfly that came in.

So this week we began learning about division by equal sharing, repeated subtraction, and using number lines.  We continued to learn about multiplication as groups of and repeated addition.  This is a perfect time to start helping students to understand multiplication and division.  As parents go through their daily activities, try to come up with ways to show how multiplication and division can be used in everyday life.

We also learned about context clues or clues in writing that help a reader understand words that they may be unfamiliar with.  After learning about them we did a little karaoke.  You can see part of the karaoke inside this weeks vlog at the top.

Students learned how to get into their Google drive accounts.  Google Apps/Drive is a series of free tools that students can use in their education, such as using it as a word process. Their usernames for Google Drive is their first name and last name at snowflake.k12.az.us.  For example:  brianweir@snowflake.k12.az.us  Yes it is rather long, but can't be helped.  The nice thing is that they will be using the same account their entire tenure at the school district.  Their passwords are their first initial and last initial, both capitalized @ their student ID, like this:  BW@123434  If you as a parent are trying to help the get in but are struggling, don't hesitate to shoot me an email or give me a call so that we can figure it out.  Some of the students have already shared their documents with me which allows me to make comments and give them feedback as well as save paper so you don't have to worry about printing off their documents.

Students are given enough time to write in class, but sometimes don't spend that time wisely so they got behind.  Their first writing sample is due on Tuesday.  In third grade we write a minimum of one great paragraph per week.  Students will need to type a paragraph on a computer when it comes time for AZmerit testing so we are getting an early start to make sure they are well prepared.

Upcoming:

Math:  Multiplication and Division Word Problems

Language Arts/Reading:  Figurative Language (simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, idioms)

Writing Prompt:  Who is the funniest person in your family and why?

Spelling List 4:  Working on the "k", "th", and "sh" sounds.  Example:  Check, Snack, This, Then, fifth

Another great week in third grade.  Like always, don't hesitate to communicate with me.  Thanks for your continued support.