Hi families,
Our students came back from Thanksgiving vacation rested and ready! The next few weeks can feel like a "push to the finish" in many ways, but our students are focused and putting forth great effort. We will work to maintain this feeling of productivity right up until break as we wrap up many units of study, such as: our addition/subtraction/money study in math, learning of the lowercase alphabet in cursive, and of course our cross-curricular study of Mexico. This week our students began their research projects on animals found in Mexico. They looked to reliable web sources to identify their animal, and have set up a folder to store their digital sources. We will continue to work on this in small bites every day over the next three weeks. In math this week, we take on a unit study in money, and so far students are very excited to learn more about this! They have picked up a great base of paper money addition through our daily calendar math, but are interested in adding coins into the mix. Any opportunities you could provide them at home to count coins and bills would be extra reinforcement of the skills we are working on at school - thanks! Upcoming information: Monday - our students will participate in their first Sally Borden All School Meeting Friday, Dec. 21st - Winterfest performance 10:00 - 12:00 Dismissal at 12 noon *The after school program will be available until 5:30 pm on December 21st for those families who can not pick up their child(ren) at the 12 noon early dismissal. All the best, Mrs. Tavares
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Hi families,
I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving break, enjoying time with family and delicious food. These past few weeks have brought excited energy, with Book Fair and Turkey Trot preparations. We were all disappointed that the Turkey Trot fell victim to the very rainy weather that has been a hallmark of this fall season, but we made the best of it and enjoyed putting our math and close reading skills to the test while baking ginger pumpkin muffins for our friends and families. At Authorfest, Matt Tavares, told wonderful stories about research and fact finding being an important part of the biographies he writes, like in the life of Babe Ruth. He also inspired us as writers by showing us the many revisions it takes to make a book come to fruition from the idea stage through to the publication stage. As an illustrator, he showed us how his sketches come to life and how they too, require editing. We had multiple opportunities to visit the book fair to add to our personal libraries (and classroom - thank you!), so we were all in the mood for snuggling in with some good books! We are going to have our own opportunity to develop fact finding skills as we begin our research project on the animals of Mexico. Upon our return from break, students will identify their animal, brainstorm questions that they would like to know about that topic, find books/websites that provide relevant information to answer their questions, read through and highlight materials, and record their findings in a note-taking format: two-column notes. Eventually, our findings will be presented on an "eye-catching" poster. This will be another opportunity to practice executive function skills and plan through what elements of the project need to be completed and by when. We will plot out our completion goals on a calendar and check in with the calendar weekly. In Calendar Math we made it to 50 days of school which served as a measure that we are already a third of the way through the school year. It was a nice moment to reflect on how much we have learned since the beginning of the year. It also got us excited about the remaining 2/3 to go! It is impressive how much better their understanding of patterns and multiples are getting through this daily exercise. As we chug along towards the holiday break, we will get to put our addition and subtraction skills to work as we head into a unit on money. We will even set up a class store for all their holiday shopping needs! Upcoming events: Thursday- In-school performance by New Bedford Symphony Orchestra Dec. 3rd. - we will have our first Sally Borden Program All School Meeting of the year. We will met our older "Amigo" students and lead the group in a mindfulness activity. All the best, Mrs. Tavares Hi families,
It was great to have an opportunity to meet with many of you last week to discuss your child's progress and take a look at what your child wanted to share from their third grade experience so far. This week our Halloween parade and party was creative, festive, and tasty - thank you to all! In math, we have been working on combining numbers through addition of digits in the thousands and ten thousands with regrouping. We also got a chance to introduce two fun card games that reinforce numeracy, patterning and order, and planning ahead: Kings in the Corner, and Garbage. The kids loved them and have begun to play during free time. Have your kids teach you how to play and you can get in on the fun! This week, students began writing their Day of the Dead honor stories, to accompany the ofrendas that will be presented at our cultural celebration in the spring. They are taking their answers from the interview questions and turning them into statements that will be woven together to form a cohesive piece, dedicated to their deceased loved one. We also have started to introduce the speech-to-text function on Google Docs. This can be a great accommodation when students have lengthy written work to convert to typed format. For some students who have difficulty with expressing themselves in written form or typing, they often times feel that utilizing this tool can free up the process of expressing their ideas. Students will begin revising and editing their honor stories using COPS (Capitilization, Organization, Punctuation and Spelling). Upcoming events: 3rd grade students will be working with their Kindergarten Buddies to create spirit T-shirts for the upcoming Turkey Trot. The T-shirts for our class will be provided. They will collaborate with their buddies to decorate the shirts that they will wear to the Turkey Trot on Nov. 20th. November 13-16: AuthorFest & Book Fair Celebrated Author Matt Tavares will be with us next Thursday. All next week the book fair will be open to students and families. As a class, we will peruse on Tuesday and shop on Friday, but feel free to visit on your own! Thursday, November 15th: Join us for a great Parents' Night Out at FA in support of the Book Fair. Click here to learn more and register. Childcare is available, but you must register for it in advance. Hope you had a great weekend! Mrs. Tavares |
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March 2019
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Mrs. Tavares' 3rd Grade | Newsletters |