March 19-23

Hi Families,

I can tell that spring will be here soon! It has been nice having more hours of sunlight in the day with moving our clocks forward. As the temperatures start to warm up, please be sure to check the weather in the morning so your child is dressed appropriately for two twenty-minute recesses outside!

Reminders/Updates

• Conferences are already next week!! Here are some sign ups if you are interested and available:
• 2018 Spring Conference Teacher Meals
• 2018 Spring Book Fair
• We are starting to practice for the Wisconsin Forward test. Since this is the first time students will be taking this, we went over a practice test in reading and math to have students practice using the tools. If you want to practice some more at home, you can click this link and click on Item Samplers Sign In or Online Tools Training - Grade 3 -  ELA or Math. We gave students the answers to each question so that they can really focus on getting comfortable using the different tools available. 
• Fang Reading Program: "First Base" was due Friday, March 9th. You can turn in each Fang guy with your child on the due date, or you can keep them and turn all of them in at once on April 20th. Here are the rest of the due dates:
• Second base: March 23rd
• Third base: April 6th
• Home plate: April 20th
• Our Knowledge-A-Thon (KAT) will be here before we know it! If you are  interested in volunteering, please sign up by clicking the link: 2018 Knowledge-A-Thon (KAT) Day

• If you would like to volunteer, you will need to have a background check on file. If you do not have one yet, it could take 3 weeks to get approved. 

Upcoming Events

March 19: Badger Sports Wear
March 20: Portfolio Conferences
March 22: Portfolio Conferences
March 28: Early Dismissal (11:30)
March 29: NO SCHOOL
March 30: NO SCHOOL
April 2: NO SCHOOL
April 3: Wear Odd Clothes
April 6: NO SCHOOL
April 13: KAT

Curriculum Update

Math: We began talking about area and perimeter this week. Our mathematicians even helped me design a garden where I'd need the least amount of fencing (perimeter) but have the greatest amount of space to plant my vegetables (area)! We also started to talk about the Wisconsin Forward test and took a practice test on Friday. I just want students to be comfortable with the tools available so that they can focus on the content when the test comes. Next week, we'll find the area and perimeter of shapes made up of rectangles and solve word problems. It can be tricky to know if we're looking for the area, perimeter, or side length so we'll practice reading each problem closely! Continue talking to your child about where they might see area and perimeter outside of school! :)  

Writing: This week we worked to write RADD answers to short response questions! To write a RADD answer, we need to: restate the question, answer the question, write a specific detail from the text, and write a second specific detail from the text. To improve our how our writing looks, next week we will focus on when to capitalize words, correct punctuation, and common misspelled words. We'll pull this all together at the end of the week and type our best response yet, using all that we have learned. As testing is coming up soon, I am trying to get students to see that they CAN do this work, and they ARE doing it, so they feel confident and are able to show off their best work!

Word Study: We will be starting a new unit this week. This will be a short one! We will be reading and writing words with the r-controlled sounds AR and OR (like FORT, PART, ORBIT.) Our trick words will be world, answer, and different. 

Reading: This past week we continued going over test-taking tips. We practiced discussing and answering questions in a different genre, narrative nonfiction. Students are doing a great job! We also watched the Wisconsin Forward test taking tutorials. We even practiced taking the practice test to manipulate the tools they will be able to use on the test. If you would like to have your child practice the tools some more at home you can click here. However, don't worry as much about the correct answers. We don't want to stress them out. I would rather have them feel confident navigating through this new test format. This next week we will venture into nonfiction and remember all of the strategies we already know. Students are continuing to learn so many practical test-taking strategies. I am hoping this is easing their minds and making them feel more confident!

Content: It was AMAZING to hear (and see!) students give their presentations as if they were a Civil Rights leader! Students seemed to enjoy this unit and learning more about our leaders who fought for equality. Next unit will be Folktales Around the World. This social studies unit focuses on the reading of folktales as a way for students to develop their reading skills while also learning about cultures around the world.

Check out Seesaw for some more pictures!

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

Best,

Jenny