Last Two Weeks of 2013!

We are on a sleigh ride to Christmas Break people!  Wow!  Time is just racing by!

Here's what we're up to in Melissa's Third Grade!

Math:  We are plugging along with multiplication and division.  We are learning how to roll our eights and continue practicing with our threes, fours, and sixes.  We just started to learn strategies to help us solve basic division problems and have even dabbled with remainders!

Readers Workshop:  This week readers workshop is divided into two parts; nonfiction reading and fiction reading.

In our nonfiction reading, students will continue to monitor their comprehension and synthesize the information their reading about their french topic.  Many students are doing this independently while others require a bit more support.  Many of us don't have much background knowledge to draw from, so this information is all new.  We are learning so much and having a great time!  Many of us are making plans to visit France ourselves someday!

Fiction reading is focused on continued practice of the skills we have acquired so far this school year.  We are choosing books that are just right, committing to a book from start to finish, and making sure to we are paying attention to what we read, not just skimming over the words.  We make mental movies in our mind and monitor our comprehension.  When our mental movie gets blurry, we stop, ask questions, reread and read on!  We rock!

Writers Workshop:  It's all about France for the next two weeks.  Students are finishing up on their topic paragraphs and are moving on to writing introductions and conclusions. We are hoping to get everyone going on their poster board by Wednesday this week.  We are planning to present our amazing posters next week. I will send home some information later this week about days and times.

Speaking of days and times, here is a list of upcoming events:

This week:
Tuesday December 10:  Health Fair
Friday December 13:  Book Buddy Day  Wear your pajamas, bring your favorite stuffy/pillow to snuggle and read with your kindergarten buddy!

Ski Forms for Ski Program:  They will be coming home today.   Please get them back ASAP!  They are due back by December 18th at the latest!  The cost is $85 per student.  Payments are due by January 10th.

Next week:

Holiday Program!!

The 3rd and 4th grade holiday program is on Thursday December 19 at 5:30 p.m.  Students need to report our classroom at 5:15.  Prepare to have your mind blown!

Thanks for reading!