A Sneak Peek at Our Week ...

Word Work:  For the last 6 weeks, students have focused on learning two different affixes each week.  They will have a quiz this Friday.  Students will bring home their note-cards (containing each affix and their definitions and their Morning Work Journals with vocabulary words to help them review.   

Writing:  This week, students will continue practicing writing extended responses for math word problems.  Students have been working very hard, and have demonstrated a lot of great work!

Math:  Division is the focus of Unit 6.  This week, students will learn two different methods for dividing numbers by 1 and 2 digit divisors.  The first is the Partial-Algorithm method, and the second is the Traditional Method.  (Last week they learned the Multiples Method).  What's important is that students feel comfortable and "click" with one strategy, and that they use the strategy that works best for them.  Please remember - the following link is a great resource for parents, explaining each of the algorithms more clearly: Algorithms in Everyday Math.

Reading:  This week students will focus on crafting thoughtful and complete responses to informational and fictional text.  Last week students focused on finding strong text references.  This week, students will focus on finding these text references and then explaining HOW and WHY each reference supports the prompt.  Sentence starters for both of these tasks can be found on the Third Grade Website: Response Sentence Starters. (Will be posted Tuesday)

Science: Students will continue to investigate the rock cycle this week.  They will learn more deeply about the processes of weathering and erosion, and how they are involved in the formation of sedimentary rocks.  The guiding key questions of the week are How are sedimentary rocks formed? and How are metamorphic rocks formed?  We will continue to use their crayon models to represent each of the three rock formations.  

Important Information:  Science Fair projects are due this week!  The final due date for this project is Friday, January 25th.  Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions!