Happy Holidays!

Hi Families,

Happy Holidays to you all! I hope you enjoy this winter break and are able to spend some extra time with your loved ones. It's hard to believe that 2017 is coming to a close and 2018 will soon be upon us!

  

  

  

  

 

 

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 6.
• Think your student is going to get a little bored this winter break? Feel free to direct them to these resources to relieve their boredom!
• Typing Club: They can go to feldkamp.typingclub.com and enter in their username and password (Their username does NOT include the @kaukaunasd.org. Their password is their 8-digit birth date.) Remind them that they can only move on to the next level if they get 5 stars!
• Math Games: Students can go to Think Central by clicking on the link or through Google Classroom. Their username does not include @kaukaunasd.org. Their password is their 6 digit birth date. They can go to "My Library" and click on "Math Activity Center G3 Student." After clicking on the "Games" box, students can select a game to play. The "Operations" game is most relevant, but they can play any one!
• Side note: there are more resources on Think Central for your student as well. You have access to homework pages for any lesson in each unit. Any app with "G3" in the Library means Grade 3. Feel free to see what's all there!
• Read a holiday book! Maybe one they got from their teacher :)

Upcoming Events

December 22-January 1: NO SCHOOL Winter Break! :)
January 16: NDLC Parent Info Session 6-7
January 19: Students dismissed at 11:30
January 22: NO SCHOOL
January 23-26 Celebrate NDLC Week
January 23: Game Day (characters, twister, Mario, etc.)
January 23: Family Night
January 24: Backwards Wear Day
January 25: Active Wear
January 25: Gym Night
January 26: Camping Day
February 1: NDLC Parent Info Session 6-7

Curriculum Update

Math: We have been working on solving some Santa and gumdrop-themed story problems! We reviewed two-step story problems and practiced word problems with place value drawings. Even though we're not in our multiplication unit anymore, we will continue to practice our math facts. You can help your student with this at home by practicing their math facts or count by's (3's, 4's, 6's, 7's, 8's, or 9's count bys.) When we get back from break, we'll introduce rounding to the nearest hundred and ten. This is such a useful skill for students to have to estimate and decide on reasonableness of an answer. After that, we'll dive into different strategies for adding three-digit numbers. 

Writing: Our writers have been working to finish up their information books by revising and editing. Students used their checklists to find things they can work on, like adding facts, observations, details, AND definitions! We also selected text features that made sense to add to our books. In the first week of January, we will publish our books so they can be read by many! We'll celebrate by teaching one another about our topic. 

Word Study: We spent some time going over the difference between they're, there, and their and made sentences with each one. When we come back from break, we'll start our next unit, Unit 5, by reviewing some more vowel teams and our trick words: knew, know, and against. 

Reading: This past week we started looking at narrative nonfiction. We were reading biographies and we even realized that narrative nonfiction doesn't have to be about a person. It can be about a thing. For example, we read the book Cactus Hotel! Ask your child all about it! :) We even had our end of the unit celebration! Students wrote something they do a great job with in nonfiction reading and wrote a goal that they still have. When our next nonfiction unit begins we will look at these again! When we come back from break we will take our post-unit assessment and start looking at our next unit! We won't officially begin our next reading unit until the following week. Our next unit we will be studying characters!

Content: After learning a little more about the world and our continents, students will be choosing a continent that they want to learn more about! Students will research a continent to find out more about that continent's climate, culture, and more! We will then share our knowledge through Google Slides to present on all that was learned about the continent.



Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

Week of December 18-22

Hello Families,

I can tell students are getting ready for the holidays and winter break...especially with our first substantial snow fall! We also have had Jingle Bell Rock on repeat to help us with our song that we'll sing on Thursday for our school sing off. If you'd like to practice with your child at home, feel free! I have our lyrics below :)


Tune of Jingle Bell Rock
NDLC, NDLC
NDLC rocks!
We like to read
and we like to write.
Solving and marking
up math papers of fun
Now the real fun
has begun

NDLC, NDLC
NDLC rocks
We like to play
and we like to learn.
Walking in silence
in NDLC halls
Where we go on our way

What a fun time
in our school day
to learn all day long.
NDLC time
is a swell time
to go learning
in all sorts of cool ways!

Bring your books and dive in your
stories galore.

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 2.
• To go along with our Pajama Day on Thursday, we will be watching a movie with all of NDLC third grade. We will be watching Finding Dory, which is rated PG. Please let me know if you have any concerns about the movie's rating and we will make arrangements. 

Upcoming Events

December 21: Pajama Day
December 22-January 1: NO SCHOOL Winter Break! :)

Curriculum Update

Math: We started Unit 3! Students seem to be more comfortable in this unit so far since it is not such a new concept as multiplication and division were. So far we have looked at place value drawings for numbers and writing numbers in expanded form. For example, 328 can be written in expanded form as 300+20+8 or 3 hundreds + 2 tens + 8 ones. This helps students to see what each digit in a number actually represents. Next week, we will put our story problem skills to work with place value word problems. We will also discuss rounding to the nearest hundred and ten, which can be a challenging concept for students. However, this is such a useful skill for students to have to estimate and decide on reasonableness of an answer. 
*If your student (or you!) are still struggling with the concept of division, please feel free to check out my post "What Does Division Mean?" 

Writing: Students have been working to sound like the expert that they are in their information writing by including vocabulary, definitions, and text boxes. We also added in interesting introductions and conclusions to hook our readers. As we are getting closer to the end of this information unit, we will be editing our writing as well as looking at checklists to decide what we need to do to make our writing EVEN better! After all, our class motto is, "I can make this better, but how?" Our third and fourth grade writing checklists will help us to answer that question of "how?"

Word Study: This week we practiced writing words with suffixes...and even challenged one another to see just how many words we could make with suffixes! We finished up this unit by taking the test; look for the tests to come home early next week. 

Reading: This past week we thought a lot about author's perspective in nonfiction texts. We learned that we can look for the punctuation, pictures, and word choice the author uses to help us think of what the author truly thinks about the topic. This coming we will wrap up our nonfiction unit! We will be looking at a different type of nonfiction, narrative nonfiction. This is when a nonfiction book is written as a story. Often times biographies are good examples of this type of genre. Friday we will have our celebration and discuss everything we have learned and write goals for what we would like to accomplish when we come back to nonfiction later in the year! :)

*Scholastic book orders were submitted this past Wednesday. I am hoping they will be in by Thursday! Please let me know if you would like this to be a surprise for your child (if you haven't already).

Content: Students have been growing their knowledge of the world through closely examining maps, statistics, video, images, models, and articles. We will continue with our centers next week so each group has a chance to learn through reading, watching a video, comparing a map to a globe, and more. I have been posting pictures of groups as they complete their model of the world on Seesaw!



Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

What Does Division Mean?

Division can be tricky! What does it mean, anyway? 

A division equation can be read two ways: either dividing a total amount into a certain number of groups, or dividing a total amount into groups of a certain size. 

Here are some division strategies that we have practiced in class:

And here are some strategies that our students use: 

Week of December 11-15

Hello Families,

This week we started doing announcements for the school. Some students were nervous (and understandably so!), but I could see they all felt a huge sense of pride after they were finished! If your child feels anxious about doing the announcements, just let me know and I can send home what they'll be saying so they can practice at home.

We talked a lot this week about what a good partner and group member looks like, sounds like, and feels like. I have noticed our talking in partnerships has been much more focused and purposeful! Students have also commented that our turn and talk time feels so much better as well. :)

It was great seeing families for our Pizza, PJ's and Publishing Family Night! Our students...I mean YouTubers...got a chance to teach their viewers what they've been writing about and leave some compliments for their classmates.

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 4.
• As it starts to get chilly and snowy outside, please remind your child that they need to have their winter gear of hats, mittens, snow pants, and boots!
• Half birthdays are starting to come up for those students with summer birthdays. We do celebrate half birthdays! If your child's birthday is during the summer months, feel free to bring in a half birthday snack if you'd like. 

Upcoming Events

December 12: NO SCHOOL
December 13: Holiday Wear
December 21: Pajama Day
December 22-January 1: NO SCHOOL Winter Break! :)

Curriculum Update

Math: We finished up Unit 2 this week and took the Unit 2 test. Next week, we will fix up our incorrect answers on our test so we can learn from our mistakes! We'll also begin Unit 3, which focuses on place value, rounding, and addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers. We will work to understand place value next week by making drawings of numbers (representing ones, tens, and hundreds), identifying each digit, and understanding place value in word problems. A letter should be going home today with your student explaining more about the kind of work they will be doing in Unit 3 so families can understand this too! :)

Writing: Students were excited to see how many compliments they got on their writing after Family Night! We have been working hard to elaborate on our information writing by adding ideas and facts and connecting our paragraphs and chapters by adding transition words. Next week, we will work on our introductions, conclusions, and adding expert words. We will also be spending time with a partner to help understand where our writing gets confusing and what we can do to clear up that confusion.

Word Study: This week we continued to learn more about suffixes and practiced building words with suffixes. We also talked about how the suffix -ed can make three different sounds: /d/, /id/, or /t/. Next week, we'll go over some more vowel teams (ou, oo, ue, ew) and practice correctly spelling words as we write them in a sentence. 

Reading: This past week we really dug into note taking the main idea of a chunk and chapter of a book and finding the key details that support that main idea. This is tricky but important work. Students are doing a nice job at trying it out. This next week we are starting to think about the authors purpose and perspective of nonfiction texts. We will also talking about how WE can grow our own ideas when reading nonfiction. Remember students should be reading independently at home in their fiction books. Nonfiction can be extra if they'd like! :)

*Scholastic book orders are due December 13. If you would like a gift for the holidays and want it private please let me know and we can work something out. kabarac@kaukaunasd.org

Content: We completed our world maps by adding in some rivers. We also focused on close reading an article about Australia. Close reading is when we look closely and thoughtfully at a text to find evidence of main ideas and key details to help us understand more about the text, like why the author decided to write it or what ideas we have now. Next week, we will begin our centers where students will work in groups to learn more about the world through maps, modeling, statistics, images, reading, and video.



Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny

Week of December 4 - 8

Hello Families,

It's hard to believe it is already December! It was another quick week. I have noticed that I often have to stop myself or a student when sharing because some classmates are talking or not paying attention. We have been talking about how this affects ourselves and others when this happens and ways that we can improve. Feel free to have these conversations with your student at home as well. Sometimes that extra reinforcement helps! Remind your student that they can be (or can continue being!) a role model for our class and our school through their respectful actions and kind words.

Reminders/Updates

• Monday will be Day 6.
• If you haven't yet returned your student's portfolio, you can send it on back so we can fill it with more of their work!
• Some students have a ring of cards attached to their agenda. These are words that I have noticed they have misspelled in their writing that they should know. Students should write these words five times both at school and at home. 
• Your students convinced me (through their opinion writing!) that they should be able to bring in something for share other than pictures. So, for one "round" of shares, they can bring in something to talk about - as long as it can fit in their locker and it is not a pet! :) On Monday we'll figure out who will be sharing this week.
• Half birthdays are starting to come up for those students with summer birthdays. We do celebrate half birthdays! If your child's birthday is during the summer months, feel free to bring in a half birthday snack if you'd like. 

Upcoming Events

December 5: Kaukauna Parade
December 7: Pajama Day
December 7: Family Night: PJ's, Pizza, and Publishing
December 8: NDLC Wear
December 12: NO SCHOOL
December 14: Holiday Wear
December 21: Pajama Day
December 22-January 1: NO SCHOOL

Curriculum Update

Math: We have been working on solving two step problems! Next week, we will continue to work on these types of problems. I sent home a review for students to work on each night for about 10 minutes. If they work through the review, that will help them greatly to be prepared for the test. The test is formatted exactly as the review is! We will go over all that we have learned in Unit 2 (and so far this year!) and take our Unit 2 test at the end of the week. 

You can help you child in math by asking them what math facts (like 5x7 or 2x9) they are working on right now. Have them tell you a strategy they use for solving them. They have about 6 math facts to practice at a time. The more we practice these facts, the more fluent and efficient they will be!

Writing: This week we started our next unit, information writing. We compared teaching things we know a lot about in our writing to YouTubers teaching what they know to their viewers. We also looked at the most effective ways to set up our table of contents for our audience and different ways to structure our writing. Next week we'll work on saying more about each of our facts and writing a lot of books! On Family Night on Thursday, you'll get a chance to see some of your child's writing!

Word Study: This week we learned about suffixes and how they change the meaning of the baseword. I sent home a Word Study packet at the beginning of the week, but it doesn't need to be returned until the end of next week! Next week we'll work on building more words with the suffixes and our trick words: sure, use, and used. 

Reading: This past week we started reading nonfiction books! We are learning that it is very important to take some notes so we can become experts AND teach others what we learn. We learned that we can take these notes by using a boxes and bullets format. The main idea is written in a sentence in the box and the details support it. This is different from second grade because in second-grade students had to write the topic in the box and facts that went with that topic in the bullets. So students are taking the jump to be more organized and get more out of their readings. We will continue to work hard on this. Students are reading mainly nonfiction at school. I'd like students to keep their fiction skills still strong so for homework I would like students to be doing SOME fiction reading. They can also read nonfiction but fiction should be happening. :)

*Scholastic book orders are due December 13. If you would like a gift for the holidays and want it private please let me know and we can work something out. kabarac@kaukaunasd.org

Content: We are continuing to learn all about continents, oceans, and mountain ranges! Next week, we'll learn about some rivers and put them on our maps. Students will start to gain more independence in doing their own learning at different centers that will be set up with maps, pictures, videos, and more!

Here's the link to the continents video/song we watched/sang along to. I apologize in advance if you have been hearing this song on repeat! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6DSMZ8b3LE




Know that you can always contact me with any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend!

Best,
Jenny