December Newsletter from Third

Grade
Dear Families,
Thank you to everyone who donated time and items for our wonderful
Thanksgiving breakfast. We appreciate your generosity!
Illnesses are on the rise. If your child is ill please keep them home
from school. Your child should be fever free for 24 hours without taking
any fever reducing medications before returning to school. We are also
taking steps in the classroom to minimize the spread of illnesses by regularly
wiping down the surfaces the students are using. If you would be willing to
contribute some containers of clorox wipes to our classroom, it would be
greatly appreciated.
Math: Students will soon complete Unit 3: Operations. In this unit,
students used place value to develop and practice strategies for addition and
subtraction of 2- and 3- digit numbers. They represented multiplication
using arrays, and use representations to develop strategies for solving
multiplication facts.
Students will then move on to Unit 4: Measurement and
Geometry. In this unit, children will measure to the nearest half inch.
Next, after children explore geometric attributes of polygons and classify
quadrilaterals into categories based on their attributes, they will identify and
measure the perimeters of polygons and distinguish between perimeter and
area. Students will develop multiple strategies to determine the areas of
rectangles and extend those ideas to determine the areas of rectilinear
shapes.
Writing:
Our third graders have now begun work writing their own feature
articles about the individual they are studying about in reading groups. The
students have been hard at work taking the details they have taken notes on
through out reading and transforming them into organized paragraphs
centered around one topic. In creating these feature articles, we are
following the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing,
publishing, and sharing. The articles will be displayed at the Wax Museum
Fashion show this month.

Science: Our students are learning about Magnets. They are learning
that magnetic forces work through air and most other materials. Students are
also identifying materials that are attracted by magnets.
Reading:
The students study on biographies is coming to a close. Through out
this unit they have worked on using context clues, identifying character
traits, making predictions, comprehension skills, and making connections to
the text. We focused on how to pick out important information from the text
to separate into different categories of notes taken by the students. The
students note taking packets focused on childhood, education, career,
dreams, obstacles and turning points, and accomplishments. We also talked
about the important aspects about making a timeline of a persons life
including chronology and importance of events.
This month we will begin reading books on the different biomes of the
world. In this study, the students will focus on asking and answering
questions, main ideas and details of passages, identifying cause and effect
text structure, comparing and contrasting, and taking notes.
Ways to help at home: 1. Talk to your child about what they read.
Ask them to discuss the main characters traits, explain the problem and
solution, retell the main ideas, or describe the setting. 2. Practice taking a
small moment and describing it with sensory details and vivid verbs. For
example, describe a leaf falling from a tree or a bird flying south flying
south for the winter.
Now that snow has started and winter is nearing, please make sure your
child is dressed appropriately to go outside for recess. The children go
outside for lunch recess as well as classroom recess. Also, it may be helpful
for your child to dress in layers because it seems like the classrooms are not
completely warmed up at the start of the day.
Important Dates:
12/7 Note Taking Sheet, Museum Fact Card, and Costume/prop for the Wax
Museum are Due.
12/10 Wax Museum 215-3:15 pm
12/18 Last day of School before the winter break begins
1/4 Students Return to School