April 16 - 20

Hi Families,

Whew, testing is well underway! It's crazy to think that our students have already finished four out of the six Forward tests. I know this is A LOT for third grade, but they have been doing their best and keep pushing through! As I told them, this is my first time doing these tests too! They were very patient and respectful as I was figuring out what needed to be done, and they took their time on the tests. This shows me that they really are trying their best and want to show off just how much they learn at their school :)

To celebrate all of the testing that they had to work through this year, Miss Kabara's and our class will be having an ice cream party! The date is TBD, but it will be after the spring MAP tests in early May. I'll be sending a document to sign up for toppings as the date gets closer if you are interested.

Reminders/Updates

• Turn in permission forms and money for our school field trip to the PAC if you haven't yet! The field trip is this week Wednesday in the afternoon!
• I sent home a blank envelope and piece of paper for you (or someone from your child's life) to write them a surprise letter of encouragement to keep pushing through all of these end of year tests! Please return them by April 27th :) 
• We finished all the ELA Wisconsin Forward tests this week! Next week, we will take the two Math Forward tests (and then we'll be done with the state testing!) 
• If you want to practice with the math online tools some more at home, you can click this link and click on Item Samplers Sign In or Online Tools Training - Grade 3 -  Math. 
• We are taking these tests right away in the morning, so it is important for students to get a good night's rest the night before!
• Fang Reading Program: The Fang guy is due April 20th. 

• If you haven't yet, please return your child's portfolio from conferences!

Upcoming Events

April 18: School trip to the PAC
April 19: Forward Test - Math 1 at 8:15
April 19: Family Night at 5:30PM - Community Projects
April 20: Forward Test - Math 2 at 8:15
April 20: Earth Day - Wear green and blue

April 26: Movie Star Day Wear



May 8: Reading MAP test
May 10: Math MAP test

Curriculum Update

Math: Students received their Unit 5 Math tests back this week -- this was a challenging test! There are many parts to each question. Go over the test with your child; even if you're not sure how to do the problem, sometimes just encouraging them to reread the problem, highlighting the important information and figuring out what they need to do is enough for them to find their mistake. We also started our Geometry unit. Next week, we'll continue to talk about different shapes and get in a lot of vocabulary (polygon, parallelogram, trapezoid, right angle, rhombus, and more!) We will also be taking the final two math Forward tests. Keep encouraging your child to do their best :)

Writing: Students have been doing GREAT with our nonfiction writing unit that ties very closely with their current reading unit. We've been working on growing our ideas from pictures and videos. Next week, we'll build our table of contents, organizing our book into chapters. Students will be writing one book with their animal group, so each person will contribute two chapters to the book!

Word Study:  We've been practicing reading and writing words with the r-controlled sounds ER, IR, and UR. They make the same sound, so we've been working on figuring out which r-controlled sound looks right in the word. Our trick words for next week will be mother, brother, and father. The Unit 9 Word Study packet is due Friday, April 20th. If your child needs more time to finish it, that is absolutely fine.

Reading: This past week in reading students did amazing research. We really dived into synthesizing, which is reading a book on a subtopic and then going to the next to learn more about that particular subtopic and adding onto our notes. We even talked about using the expert language we are learning on our animals. This coming week we will finish up researching this animal and then transition into choosing a NEW animal and researching all about that animal. Students will also learn different ways authors structure their books. We will learn that we can take notes based on these structures to help us stay organized. We are doing a lot of nonfiction work during school so please make sure your child is reading at least 25 minutes each night. This means about 20-25 pages out of their books. If your child is bringing home too easy of books please let me know and I will make sure they are bringing home something more appropriate.

Content: We're coming to the end of this Folktales Around the World unit! It has been amazing seeing the work that students did comparing and contrasting Cinderellas from different countries. They were able to learn more about the countries each Cinderella is from by really reading closely and jotting any noticeable differences. We will wrap up this unit by creating a poster each person's country and what they have learned by reading stories and researching that country.

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

Best,

Jenny