I can't believe there are only six more weeks of school and only one month until STAAR! We will have three more weeks of STAAR review homework. Thank you for ensuring that your child completes and returns the homework.
Here is a glimpse of our learning this week: Science: We are starting a new unit on structures and functions. In this unit, we'll explore how structures and functions of plants and animals allow them to survive in a particular environment. Every year, I order live animals from a regional living science center for us to observe as part of the unit. Unfortunately, only one animal, (a tree frog), was available on the date I requested, so I resubmitted another order. I'm hoping to get a turtle, tarantula, and anole this Friday. Meanwhile, we'll observe a cactus and flowering plant and determine their structures and functions. We'll also compare the two plants. Reading: We'll continue reading our book club books throughout the week as we look for patterns across the text, analyze characters, and determine important events. As we get closer to the end of the book, we'll look for clues in the text that help us infer the theme. Also this week, we'll learn some reading strategies that will help with test passages including rereading, previewing/predicting before reading the passage, and chunking information to summarize. Writing: Our personal narrative drafts are mostly complete. We will have three more lessons on craft moves that can improve the quality of a narrative. Students will continue to revise their drafts as they learn. Later in the week, as a way to celebrate Earth Day, we'll write letters from the point of view of the earth and create Earth Day posters. Math: Friday, we took the district assessment on perimeter, weight, time intervals, and fractions. I was originally going to wait until Monday, but the kiddos were ready, and we need to move on to our next unit on multiplying 2-digit by 1-digit numbers. This unit also includes multiplicative comparisons, (describing a multiplication expression as a comparison such as 3 times as many), problem solving involving multiplication & division, and applying multiplication to real life situations. This week we will learn how to extend known multiplication facts, use doubling and halving to solve larger multiplication problems, (associative property), and use partial products, (distributive property). Upcoming Events Wednesday, April 18: Spirit Night at Dairy Queen 5:00-8:00 Friday, April 20: Run Wild run-a-thon during P.E. Don't forget to send in donations to help the Environment Club raise money for wildlife. STAAR Dates: May 14 & 15 Please remember not to schedule appointments during the day on testing dates.
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November 2019
Mrs. Swyers3rd Grade Teacher |