Hello! Welcome to the third grade website. I'm so excited to be teaching your child this year! I really believe we are going to make great strides!

So far, I wanted to let you know of some of the things we have been focusing on.

Religion: In religion, we have been learning about the Holy Spirit as well as Jesus as a young boy. We have been focusing on Mary and the many ways her examples lead us to Christ. God’s love is big topic for us as we are understanding the many acts of kindness we do for others, show God’s love. We have also zeroed in on how our rules at home are a lot like our rules for being a Christian and we have xpressed how our Christianity can radiate from us.

Reading: In reading, we are working on various comprehension strategies in order to increase our understanding of the stories. We are focusing on the genre, main idea and details, summaries, character traits and many more to come! The best part is, these strategies can be reinforced at home through
movies, TV shows, etc!

Grammar: In grammar we have been concentrating on sentence structure. This includes, capitals, types of end punctuation, correcting run on sentences, (ask them about TMI) etc. We also correct incorrect sentences as well! They seem to be picking up on these concepts and it's starting to come out
in their writing!

Writing: This brings us to writing! We have been really hitting hard opening and closing sentences and the importance of having at least three details that go with our sentences. We have written some paragraphs together and we also practice these skills every morning with a writing prompt.

Math: We started the year doing a large review packet. This was to warm us up for our 3rd grade math. We have successfully worked through the packet and have started our first chapter in math. We are working on place value, comparing numbers and skip counting and searching for patterns. We have
challenged ourselves with some word problems and reviewed our time telling skills as well. We hope to be masters at time telling any day now!

Social Studies: In social studies we are talking about communities and the ways communities are alike and different but how they all have the same basic needs. We have talked about suburban, rural and urban communities and how our classroom and school are communities as well.

Science: In science we are talking about the parts of plants and their importance. We have identified plants as living things even though they are immobile. We will continue to study plant life and add information to our plant chart.

As you can see, we have been very busy and it's only just begun! I want to assure you that your child is getting the education he or she deserves and Mrs. Simmons and I are constantly differentiating instruction. I have high expectations for these students but I am confident they will rise to these
expectations. I value reading as a top priority, as it is crucial in every subject. I hope to see my students enjoy reading and therefore enjoy school as well.

Thanks for checking out our newsletter and feel free to send any questions, comments or concerns my way!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Return to the previous page.