Dear Parents and Guardians,

Happy New Year. Either I am getting old, or the year 2010 sounds like a futuristic novel! What do you think? I enjoyed my break and found it very difficult to get going this morning, but duty calls and here I am. The children were eager at some points and somewhat dazed at others. We did proceed with the lessons and activites we ended the year with and will continue to work on these and other new and hopefully exciting things.

We will be concentrating on gaining the skills and knowledge that will support the ISAT test to be given in March. As I have stated previously, this is the first year your child will be taking this test and therefore we need to work on test taking behaviors as well as skills. The ability to sustain focus for extended periods is an important part of taking standardized test. Test given in reading, math and writing prompts require that the children are able to comprehend passages that are sometimes two pages in length and then to write an appropriate response to a prompt based on a selection in the reading portion of the test.

 Expository writing or writing that explains how to do something is the third grade writing focus. We have been working on explaining things. We have been practicing writing topic sentences for a paragraph or each paragraph we are writing as well as adding details to that topic sentence that extends or explains the topic sentence by including explanations, making connections, giving examples of what we are talking about and generally making our writing interesting and thoughtful. This takes practice. Please go over any writing assignments sent home for your review with your child to discuss what is good and what needs improvement.

In math the children will be asked to not only solve problems but to also explain in writing how they got their answer. This is known as extended responses in math. We will be working on this skill in class as well as having some homework assignments in which the children will have to explain the thought process they used to get their answer.

We will be completing pages in an ISAT Math practice both in class as well as at home for homework. These pages will be assigned appropriately. We will also have at times practice reading assignements in which understanding the text is necessary in order to answer multiple choice answers correctly.

There is an ISAT practice website that can be accessed and used at your discretion to support and boost your child's confidence in taking this test. This website can be found on my last newsletter as well as on Ms. Zivko's website.

I'd like to say thank you for the well wishes and gifts you and your child gave to me this holiday. They were very much appreciated and well used. I would also like to thank you for allowing your child to participate in the gift to a needy child. I took the gifts at the suggestion of Ms. Gober, Nick's mom, to a church that houses a womans shelter. They were very appreciative and said to tell you thank you. Thank you Ms. Gober for your great suggestion and for being such a wonderfully supportive mom. Thanks to all of you for being the great parents you are.

This week we will be working on the following:

LANGUAGE ARTS:

We will be reading <em>City Critters</em> in our <em>OpenCourt</em> readers. This is a nonfiction selection and lends itself to helping the children to understand the elements or features of nonfiction text. These elements include things such as headings, subheadings, drawings, illustrations, diagrams, maps, time-lines, bold faced vocabulary as well as other features that help us to understand factual information found in nonfiction. We will also be taking practice reading test to hone our test taking skills. I will be recording the results of some of these practice test as the children will be reading these selections on their own and they are on the third grade level.

ACCELERATED READING:

Before break I sent home a contract based on receiving a certain number of points before the end of the marking period your child and I agreed would be appropriate for them. I based the point goal on your child'[s reading level at this time. The children know how to take AR test after reading a book. They have also been instructed on how to choose books that appropriate for their reading level which you should have seen on the reading contract. Please check with your child to make sure they are reading every night and are reading books that are "just right" for them. In other words, it's not very productive for them to be reading a book that is too challenging or a book that is too easy. The objective is to nuture a love for reading in your child by helping them to select books they are interested in based on their interest as well as to continously look for literature rich books.

 

 

WORD KNOWLEDGE:

We will practice identifying compound words, homophones, (words that sound the same but have different spellings and words with the tion and ly endings.

WRITING:

We started working on a writing project before winter break. This assignment focuses on the children explaining the thing they do well and can explain to someone in detail how to do that thing. For example, if the student knows how to fish and the can explain in detail the necessary things one must do in order to catch a fish, that is what the focus of their expository paper will be about. We have already completed a writing organizer that helps to focus our ideas as well as painted pictures based on the details we will include in our writing. The water color paintings the children completed that help to show the thing they are very good at are fabulous and hopefully will be used to inspire thoughtful writing.

MATH:

We will take the Unit test on Unit Three and begin Unit Four. We will move swiftly through this unit as much of it is focused on multiplication. I can't stress enough how important it is for your child to learn their multiplication facts. They should know all the facts by the end of this unit from their two facts through the eleven facts. Acquiring these basic facts requires various strategies, some of which include using flash cards, computer activites at various websites that can be found on my last blog, writing the facts several times and then being quizzed on the set of facts written, speed test and any other strategies to help your child have automatic recall of the multiplication facts. After all if the basic facts are not acquired,  it is almost impossible to be successful with extended multiplication problems and division.

By now most of the children know their two, three, four and five times tables. We will be working on our six and sevens this week and next.

Homework:

Practice multiplication fact tables you don't know. If you know your three's, work on your fours, etc. Review for test.

Home Link: 4.1, 4.2 as well as any assigned Math Boxes and other assigned pages in the <em>Illinois ISAT Coach</em>. Check your child's assignment book for these assignments.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

We will continue to practice writing appropriate answers in our <em>Student Response</em> journals that accompany the<em> Map</em> <em>Essentials</em> text. We will also have assignments that accompany <em>Time For Kids</em> current event magazine. These assignments will be graded.

SCIENCE:

We will be finishing our unit on water this week and will begin a unit on earth materials.

 

<strong><em>HAVE   A     GREAT    WEEK AND A GREAT BEGINNING  AND BEYOND TO A NEW YEAR.. 2010!</em></strong>

<strong><em>MS. JACK</em></strong>