Dear Parents-
Happy Holidays! It was wonderful to share the breakfast with all of you; thank you for contributing and sharing your time with us. We have had such a rich term, filled with great learning- this month alone feels as if it was chock full of wonderfulness. I've included some pictures from our zoo trip and holiday party to celebrate those events! I am confident that you were as proud of the children's performance at the winter concert as I was. The song selection was fantastic, and tied so nicely into our unit as well as the UNIS idea of building a better world. It was great to see the children share their talents, and so proud of their accomplishments standing before you all. We have also been very successful with writing persuasive pieces that touch on a topic each child cares about. They have developed excellent research and organization skills in writing while also developing their unique author's voices. In math, we continue to develop multiplications skills. As previously mentioned, it is very important that the children practice their times tables until they "know them like they know their name." When we return from break, we will use multiplication skills for our next context for learning exercise. By this point, I would expect the children to have mastery of 0,1,2,3,4,5, and 6 times tables, up to the twelve facts. I wish you all a wonderful new year, safe travels, and happy family time. I look forward to seeing everyone back on January 4! Sincerely, Erin
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Dear Parents-
Welcome to a new week of learning! The next two weeks will be incredibly busy with the music concert, our field trip, kicking off our new unit, and math investigations. Read on to discover what we are studying this week… UNIT STUDIES: This week we will have our tapping-in phase for the new unit. A more comprehensive unit letter will go home next week, but to give you a general idea, we are looking a the biomes/ecosystems of the world. We will identify their features/form to understand how the world's biomes are interdependent, while also looking at how they are changing. We will also inquire into our responsibilities to the environment in an interdependent world. LITERACY: To support our new unit, in reading and writing we are diving into the nonfiction genre. This week we are investigating the features of a nonfiction text, and why people use informational writing. They will be reading nonfiction texts to help build their understanding of the biomes in the world, and will be developing skills as writers to craft a report of information. Grade 3 is an important transition year in the writing skills we expect of our learners, as this is when we work to develop the ability to synthesize information and translate it into our own words. This moves us away from writing about ourselves and what we know into learning about a topic through research then organizing what is learned in writing. Last week we started collaborating in our word work groups. The children are very excited because they are working with different teachers for this. Grouping was determined by pre-assessments and writing samples from the children. Ask your child who they are studying with; I am sure you will hear enthusiasm about this opportunity to work with others. MATH: We are continuing our work in multiplicative thinking, building strategies for understanding the concept of multiplication, ratio, and eventually into division. You will notice on the homework study that we are asking the students to begin working on memorizing their times tables. Knowing the times tables "like we know our name," is a requirement of students in J3. This is one of the few times when we expect students to simply memorize facts, as automaticity with the times tables is important to support the work done with more complex problem solving. Learning happens best when concept/skill is experienced in many ways. For that reason, the children are encouraged to practice using as many senses as possible. For the auditory or musical experience, songs may be the best way to go. For the kinesthetic and visual experience, students may practice using homemade flash cards. Some children will learn best when they speak the drills out loud. Children learn best from a variety of approaches, all enabling the skills to become "muscle memory," deeply imbedded in the children's schema. On the math page you will find some resources for helping your child to learn their facts. They are by no means exhaustive, just a small selection of what is out there in the world! GENERAL NOTES: Attendance: Please be mindful that children are expected to come into the classroom at 8:20. From 8:20-8:30 they settle in and set-up for success. We strive to begin our morning meeting promptly at 8:30. The meeting is an important part of our day as it gives us all the opportunity to come together, preparing our minds for the day ahead, while also letting go of any stress that may have precluded the start of the school day. Please support this by ensuring that your child is on time for morning meeting. With the holidays coming up, I know many people will be traveling. Please remember that it is very challenging to make up learning when children are away before and after a holiday break. While I understand that it can be hard to follow the schedule when travel is involved, it is important that children are here for learning to occur. Thank you for your support with this! Morning Snack: I call this "nourishment break" with the children because that is its intention: to provide healthy brain fuel to keep us going throughout the day. Please avoid sending in potato chips/doritos, and sweets foods for our nourishment breaks. Here are some ideas that might be fun to make with your child- and you could sneak in math skills with measuring! http://www.opi.mt.gov/pdf/SchoolFood/Resources/TN/healthyschoolsnacks.pdf Holiday Celebration: Celebrations are an important part of bringing a community together, so J3 is very excited to announce that, On Dec. 17, we will celebrate the holidays with a rotation through the different J3 classes. While celebrating what we have, we would also like to share with others, and so we have decided to have each child bring in a children's book that will be donated to Children of Bellevue Reach out and Read program. For the rotations, the children will have a dance party with Ms. Mellilo, build edible snowmen with Ms. Reilly, create cards and bookmarks with Ms. Sachro, play holiday games with me, and make snow domes with Ms. Escobar. We are asking each child to bring:
DATES TO REMEMBER: Dec. 10th:
Thank you, as always, for your continued support! Yours in learning and growing- Ms. Erin M. Threlfall |
SnapshotsA peek at life inside of J3T , curated by Ms. Erin M. Threlfall Archives
June 2016
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