3JI Weekly News: September 24-28th

Good Afternoon,

I hope that you all enjoyed the weekend. We were busy this past week in 3JI! In Math we have been working on measuring and estimating the mass of different items around the classroom and some I brought in to measure. In writing students have picked the story they want to finish, revise and edit and finally publish. In reading we are continuing to read just right books and discussing them.

Students continue to work on their typing skills in school and it would be really helpful if they practiced at home as well. As mentioned in previous emails, we use an online program typing.com. We use our blogs to share information with all of you and it requires the students to type, so extra practice would be helpful. These should only be in 10-15 minute increments, keeping it fun! Please remind students to keep their hands on the home row keys and keep returning to the home row.

Coming up:

Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences

Parent/Student/Teacher conferences are coming up quickly. You will be receiving your conference times this week, a letter will come home in your child’s backpack. Please note that these are conferences that your child needs to attend as we will all be discussing how things are going in the classroom and setting goals together. I look forward to talking with you during this time.

Photos

Individual and class photos are this week. In 3JI, we will have individual photos tomorrow, Monday, September 24th. Students can wear smart casual clothing on this day. Our group photo will be on Wednesday, September 26th. Students need to wear their full uniform (not PE uniform) on this day.

This week starts on a day 2.

What’s happening this week in the classroom?

Reading In reading this week we continue to work retelling the main story events in order and then “growing ideas” by adding on to our own thinking about what we have read. Students will continue practicing using their reading strategies to ensure understanding along with making predictions that include evidence from the text.

Writing Many students will begin writing a new piece with more independence. This allows us to review the many tools they have to help, such as the narrative writing checklist and anchor charts made in class. Revision continues throughout with another look at “showing, not telling” as a way to be more descriptive in writing.  We will continue to use mentor texts to help us get ideas and develop as writers.

Math We will be looking at liquid volume and weight as we finish up this math unit. Elapsed time is a skill that students need to practice, so look for opportunities to practice this at home (“If we need to be at soccer at 10:00 and it takes 17 minutes to drive there, what time should we leave home?”).

Social Studies This week we will continue looking at the specific uses of different kinds of maps (focusing on landform, resource, climate, and population). We are looking at how the place influences the people and their lifestyle.