<p><br /></p><p>Dear Parents and Guardians,</p>
<p>We have survived the first week after winter break and we are working toward making this year productive and fun.</p>
<p>We will continue to improve our skills in all subject areas particulary,&nbsp; reading, math and writing. ISAT testing will be&nbsp;administered&nbsp;the first week of March. Homework assignments will &nbsp;include ISAT practice. The goal is to boost our children's confidence in test taking as third grade is the first year they are taking this kind of test.&nbsp;There are websites that have been posted on Room 204's blog that can be used to practice skills in reading and math. Thanks to Ms. Zivko for these websites! Please check your child's assignment book to know what pages they are to complete for homework in the<i> ISAT</i> math and reading practice books as well as our regular curriculum.</p><p>I will also be sending home a participation rubric in which I will be recording behaviors that impede learning for the student as well as others. Listening, staying on task, which means things like not reading other materials when specific work is assigned or drawing. Following directions is a very important behavior to practice because&nbsp; if students don't listen or read directions carefully, they might not answer questions correctly that they probably really know the answer to. </p><p>You'd be surprised, or maybe not, how many strange noises float across the room. Sometimes I think this may due to extra energy, sometimes it's because Ms. Jack doesn't have eyes in the back of her head!(:) Being prepared to answer questions is not expecting the children to always come up with the correct answer, but at least to be able to answer questions logically based upon the material being covered. </p><p>In the end I am hoping this chart will help student's to gain skills staying focused so they can do their best work in school as well as at home. I will send this chart home&nbsp; at the end of the week if a student has had points taken away. If your child doesn't receive a chart, this means that as a rule they are doing fine! If your child does receive a chart, please sign and return it to me the next day. <br /></p>
<p>This week we will be working on the following:</p>
<p>LANGUAGE ARTS:</p>
<p>We will take the unit test on <i>City Critters</i>, the nonfiction selection in our OpenCourt readers this week. This test may be delayed this week as we will be taking the <i>Learning First Assessment</i>. This assessment is&nbsp; not used to grade students but is used to help teachers assess areas of strengths and weaknesses in students skill abilities.</p>
<p>We will continue to take practice test in the ISAT practice books.</p>
<p>WRITING:</p>
<p>We are practicing expository writing, i.e. writing that explains something. There will be extended response writing based on selections in the ISAT practice books as well as assignments I assign.</p><p>I will also be sending home copies of ISAT writing samples. These samples were written by third graders and have been given a grade based on a scale of (1- lowest score), through (4-highest score). I will attach the rubric that is used to score student writing by ISAT testers. </p><p>It is my hope that you will review and discuss these samples with your child as I will be doing in class. The goal is for the children to do their best! Many of our student's could be better writers but I think they like to keep it short and sweet. In third grade as I have stated before, we are learning how to expand our sentences to include more details that include reasons, examples, making connections to things we have experienced or knowledge we already have about the topic.&nbsp; </p>
<p>MATH:</p>
<p>We will continue to work on our basic multiplication facts. Please continue&nbsp; to quiz your child in the basic multiplication facts, (2's through 9's), every day. If your child demonstrates they know all of one fact, i.e. all their 3's times tables, then they have been instructed to work on their 4's times tables.</p>
<p>There will be ISAT practice in the <i>ISAT Coach</i> book. Please check your child's assignment book for specific assignments. We will also continue to complete assignments in our <i>Everyday Math</i> books. Unit Four's focus is on basic multiplication and division.</p>
<p>HOMEWORK: MATH BOXES, 4.2, -4.5, HOME LINK 4.2-4.5</p>
<p>SCIENCE:</p><p>We will begin the next unit of study in Science. We will learning about earth materials and what natural materials are found in our envirnoment. In our first investigation we will examine "mock rocks." Mock rocks are rocks that have been made using natural materials found in rocks such as sand and gravel.</p>
<p>SOCIAL STUDIES:&nbsp; <i>Map Essentials</i></p>
<p>We will learn about how we can live in many&nbsp; different places at one time. We can live in a neighborhood, a city, a state, a country, on a continent or in a global world all at the same time. Please ask your child what this means. We will answer questions in the <i>Student Response Journals</i> based on the the information in Activity Four in <i>Map Essentials.</i></p>
<p>We will also use <i>Time For Kids to</i> learn about current events that help to shape our view of the world.</p>
<p><i><b>HAVE&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;GREAT&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; WEEK! &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </b></i></p>
<p>sv</p>