A3 News: September in Review

Greetings A-3's!

With the weather just recently turning to fall, it's hard to believe that we just completed our 5th full week of school! We have had a wonderful month of learning about each other, creating community and settling into our routines and learning together. (Be sure to read through this update of what is happening in the classroom and then scroll to the bottom for some fun pictures.)

Our curriculum is up and moving and we are rolling along. Here's a snapshot of each focus area:

Math - We have accomplished Unit 1 (Data & Analysis) and are now in Unit 2 (Place Value & Number Stories). We will do PRE and POST assessments for each unit, which is used as formative and growth assessment data. The PRE assessments help me to know each individual's understanding of the upcoming concepts, so I can best focus my lessons to accommodate the areas of need. The POST assessments help to indicate the individual growth from the beginning to the end of the unit. It also allows me to see how stable concepts are for each individual as we move forward. As we change units, a parent letter is sent home to offer you some "at home" guidance. Look for one in this week's folder.

Reading - Our first unit of reading is "Building a Reading Life". We have been focusing on what we can do to make reading the BEST it can be. We have learned and shared about the importance of reading just right books, finding books that interest us, having a good place to read (at home and in school), setting goals, recording progress and sharing about our reading are all great ways to enhance reading. This week we met our reading partners, so we have someone we can share our reading with, and a partner to challenge us and help us grow. In the next month, we will concentrate on skills to help us strengthen our comprehension.

Writing - Staring at a blank page with no idea of how to get started is NEVER a good place to start or feel good about writing. We have been focusing on strategies for generating ideas. Our current writing unit is narrative writing - Telling True Stories. We have generated ideas from a multitude of strategies and now have many "seeds" to help grow our writing. We have thought about special people, special moments, special places, special items, strong feelings, the first time we. . ., the last time we . . . As we move forward, we will use our ideas to launch us into a story to write and implement more strategies.

SS - As we shift our focus from building our classroom community into our areas of studies this year, we have been discussing the Fundamental Needs of humans. This has been a great cornerstone for building our classroom rules, routines and contract, but will also serve as a strong foundation for us to delve into the study of the history of how humans populated the North American continent and the diversity of the tribes and cultural groupings.

Science - We are in the middle of our our Water unit. We are studying the properties of water - states of matter, surface tension and cohesion. We have had a chance to go down to the new science room and be scientists. This group really knows how to make great hypotheses. So far, we have had the opportunity to experiment with water drops on different surfaces and coins. Be sure to ask your child how many drops of water fit on their penny.

On another note, the Homework Packets seem to be going well. Kids seem to be getting into a good routine with the TO and FROM school. On Fridays, we review and self grade homework as a class. I circulate and call on kids to help with answers. I am most interested in seeing that kids have applied effort and accomplished the task. As we review answers, it is my hope that we can all learn from our mistakes, so we use a color marker to make corrections.

This week we began our in-class independent work called Connection Work (CW). By third grade, it is important that children have time to build their independent work skills as well as have time to practice the skills taught. Connection Work is built with this goal in mind. At the start of each week, we pack our folders with the expected work of the week. Most every day, children are given some time to work on this work. The goal is to finish the work by week's end. If the work is not done, it will be sent home as weekend homework. Please be aware that most children, in the given time frame, DO accomplish this work. If your child is coming home with weekend homework, it may be an indication of a difficult concept, lost time, or lack of focus or time management.

I have developed a sort of grading system with the kids to help guide them in giving strong efforts to their work. A check plus, check, check minus or super star may be awarded to work.

Check Plus ✔+ (Good solid effort)

Check ✔ (OK work)
Check minus ✔- (must be fixed or finished, needs improvement)

Super Star ✶ (Holy Cow Wow! - Above & Beyond!)

As you see work come home, please check in with your child regarding their progress and efforts. Please helps support any Check minus ✔- work to be restored and returned for a better mark.

Next week we will begin our word study program (in place of spelling). The program Words Their Way is research based and specially designed to support children in vocabulary building, spelling and word study. We will roll out the program in class next week to teach the students, then there will be a one page homework component. Be watching your email next week for more information.

As you may recall, we also use a program called SeeSaw as a digital portfolio for your child to share their work. The parent access directions came home in the orange Friday Folder last week. Please look for it and sign on to see what your child has been up to.

This week you received information from Emma Lichtcsien, our student teacher from Northwestern. Please be sure to fill out the form sent home in the orange folder and return it on Monday.

Conferences are coming up soon - click here to access the schedule if you need to check your time. This will be our "Goal Setting" Conference. This is an opportunity for us to build the teacher-parent partnership. I will share what I am seeing so far and you can provide more background. We will create some goals together.

Finally, I just want to say I am thrilled with this class. I hope your child is having as much fun as I am. This is a great group. They are very thoughtful, inquisitive, polite and creative. Their eagerness to learn is refreshing and makes each day a joyous adventure.

Enjoy the pictures. Have a lovely weekend!

Breakout EDU