Mrs. Kucharski’s 3rd Grade Class

Reading/language Arts
          This week students will be presented a test to demonstrate their knowledge of the skills that have been presented over the past five weeks. We begin our week by taking a pretest on these skills and reviewing anything that needs clarification. This review sheet will come home on Monday to study with.  On Tuesday the students will take this test. Wednesday and Thursday has us working on our monthly common assessment. This month we will identify current events and summarizing skills by reading a current event article. The class will read a current event, fill out a graphic organizer, and begin the summary writing process.
 

Math
          Our new chapter on place value begins this week. Chapter 5 finds us reviewing place value through the ten-thousands on Monday. Tuesday we will practice reading, writing, comparing, and ordering numbers less than 100,000.  On Wednesday and Thursday we will extend place value to millions along with reading and writing it. 
 

Science
          The rocks and minerals test will be on Tuesday. Your child came home with all of the review packets last week to study with. They will have a review game on Monday to help them.  Wednesday we start our new science unit on soil.  Students will identify common resources and recognize the difference between renewable, reusable, and nonrenewable resources and understand that some resources are mined.  On Thursday we will compare different types of soil, identify the different materials in soil and recognize the different layers that soil forms. This will be a two day lesson.
 

Extras
Tuesday-Science test on Rocks and Minerals.
Thursday-Last set of parent-teacher conferences
Friday-Highland Drive Citizenship Day!  The class has earned their 100 gumballs.  An e-mail will come home with the details of this day.
 

Reading/Language Arts
     This week our story is titled Rosie A Visiting Dog’s Storie by Stephanie Calmenson on pages 258-275.  The story is about Rosie, a Tibetan Terrier whose friendly nature makes her a perfect visiting dog. She brings comfort to people in nursing homes and hospitals.
     The skills we will be concentrating on are reading guided comprehension, vocabulary, spelling words with /ou/, decoding long words, classify and categorizing, singular and possessive nouns and writing a How To Essay.
We will also be completing Thanksgiving writing projects from last week. Our end of selection test and vocabulary test will be on Thursday and our spelling test will be on Friday. Students will bring their books home on Tuesday night to reread the story. You can access the spelling words by going to the left side of this page and click on the category spelling lists. Remember, students can also listen to the story at home by clicking on the category- reading stories read aloud on the left side of our web page.   
 

Math
            Students will be able to discuss multiplication facts and the number of dots in large arrays along with identifying map scale and estimating differences.   We will also review the multiplication/division facts table and fact families; and practice multiplication and division facts.  We will discuss the probability of likely events using coins and head or tails experiments. Last, we will test over Unit 4 on Friday. The students will complete a review guide on Thursday and use that to study for their test on Friday.
 

Science
            We will be completing our unit on rocks and minerals and testing over it next Tuesday. The students will complete a review study guide in class and bring it home to use to study for the test next week. We will also look at how erosion and weathering affect rocks and our planet Earth.
 

Extras

Reading/Language Arts
       This week our story is titled Little Grunt and the Big Egg by Tomie DePaola.  When caveboy Little Grunt finds an egg, it hatches into a baby dinosaur he names George. The Grunts let Little Grunt keep George, but he grows too large for the cave and must be exiled to the swamp. Then a volcano erupts, trapping the Grunts, and George is there to save the day.
As we read the story, students will be:  learning new vocabulary, word relationships, self-questioning, multiple meaning words, making predictions, synonyms, and author’s purpose.  In spelling our pattern will be:  words with /oi/.  The grammar lesson this week will involve irregular plural nouns. We will also do Thanksgiving writing projects.
 

Math
            Students will be able to discuss multiplication facts and the importance of fact power; and to review fact shortcuts.  We will also review the multiplication/division facts table and fact families; and practice multiplication and division facts. 
 

Science
            We continue to work on rocks and minerals. Students will be able to identify each mineral by name using an identification sheet. They will use the information they have on their mineral profile sheets to match each of the I.D. cards. The class will also take notes on information they have learned.
 

Social Studies
            Tuesday we will discuss the election process. Voting and electing a President will be one topic. The class will also fill out a voter registration form. Ballots will be passed out on various topics like favorite animal, color, subject, holiday, class reward, food, season, and sport. These will be tallied and the results discussed. We will also turn on CNN and see any Election Day activities.
 

Extras
**Great Lakes Theater will be here all week. Ask your child to share with you all of the amazing activities they will do!
**Friday report cards come home. Please sign the envelope and send it back on Monday.
 

Reading/Language Arts
            This week, we will be reading Wild Shots by Tui De Roy. In this magazine article, a wildlife photographer describes how she took some of her favorite photos.
          As we read the story, students will be: learning new vocabulary, word relationships, self-questioning, multiple-meaning words, making predictions, synonyms, and author’s purpose.
          For writing we will introduce expository writing (summary). This will integrate well with our birthstone report. The focus in grammar will be singular and plural nouns.
Math
          Students will be able to work on division this week along with multiplication. They will learn about division as equal sharing and equal grouping. They will also model division number stories with arrays, multiplication/division diagrams, and number models. Our 3’s will be the focus this week and the times test will be on Thursday.
Science
          We continue to test the different properties of our minerals. On Monday we will test the hardness of our 12 minerals.  Tuesday finds us testing the minerals with a magnet and describing the shapes of these.  On Wednesday we will have a visit from our Historical Society during science time.  Thursday will be our Halloween Party during science at the end of the day.
Extras
Wednesday-Store!
                  -Historical Society here to visit
Thursday-Halloween party 2:00-2:45  Parade 2:45-3:20
 

In Reading Language Arts
This week we continue our second theme “What a Team!” This week will be reading a story called Balto, the Dog Who Saved Nome by Margaret Davidson on pages 184-199.  In this narrative nonfiction story, diphtheria has broken out in Nome, Alaska.  Teams of dog sleds carry medicine 800 miles over snow and ice to prevent an epidemic.
The skills we will be concentrating on are guided reading, comprehension, vocabulary, spelling words with sh, ch, and tch, word relationships, author’s purpose, making predictions, common and proper nouns, and writing a paragraph of information. (Birthstone report) Our end of selection test and vocabulary test will be on Thursday and our spelling test will be on Friday. Students will bring their books home on Tuesday night to reread the story. You can access the spelling words by going to the left side of this blog and click on the category spelling lists. Remember, students can also listen to the story at home by clicking on the category- reading stories read aloud on the left side of our classroom blog.