Mr. Wasil’s 3rd Grade Class

In Reading Language Arts we will not be reading a story this week and there will be NO SPELLING words either. We will be finishing holiday projects and starting some projects that will be displayed at Open house this year on February 28^th.  One project is an acrostic poem using the word WINTER and then we type it and glue it onto a colored mitten of the student’s choice.  

In Math we will wrap up our unit on multiplication and division and test over it on Thursday. We will continue our weekly timed tests on Fridays. There will not be a timed test this Friday due to no school. We will take our 5’s on January 11^th the second week back from break. Please review 1-5’s with your child during the holiday break. 

  In Science we will wrap up our science unit on soil, resources and conservation and test over it on Tuesday. Please use the review guide from last week and the vocabulary sheet to study for the test. Our soil is over 6 inches high now. Click here for daily pictures that were taken. Miscellaneous- Monday the 17^th, Sgt. Bill will be here for the D.A.R.E. program.  Holiday Party in the classroom on Wednesday the 19^th from 2:00-3:00. Holiday Sing-A-Long on Thursday from 2:40-3:20 in the cafeteria. Holiday Break starts on Friday the 21^st and continues through Tuesday, January 1^st. School resumes on Wednesday January 2^nd.  
Homework For the Week of December 17^th -20^th  Will always be updated daily with a weekly overview on Monday. 

Monday, December 17^th  - Science- study for test tomorrow. Math- Page 256   

Tuesday, December 18t^h  –  Math boxes 4.9. Social Studies- Dizzy Designer map sheet.

Wednesday, December 19^th-   Math- look over review guide completed in class today for test tomorrow. 

Thursday, December 20^th  -   

Friday, December 21st  – No School Today!!! Have a wonderful Winter/Holiday break. See you back on Wednesday, January 2^nd.

In Reading Language Arts we will be reading a story called The Stories Julian Tells on pages 284-299. The skills we will be concentrating on are reading guided comprehension, vocabulary, spelling words with possessives and plurals, sequencing, following directions, multiple meaning words, plural possessive nouns and writing a persuasive paragraph. We will take our end of selection test on FRIDAY this week due to the Rocks and Minerals field trip on Thursday. 

 In Math we will be concentrating on the factor of 4 all week and reviewing the factors of 0-4.  There will be no math class on Thursday due to the field trip. On Friday, we will take our timed test over the factor of 4. The students have 5 to 6 minutes to complete this test with 100% accuracy. If they miss one or more, they will take it again on Monday.

  In Science We will continue our unit on soil and conserving resources. Our test will be next week so we will be reviewing a lot of vocabulary this week along with collecting soil samples and placing them in soil tubes to observe how the soil settles throughout the week. Also, our grass has really grown in the past week and a half. It is about 3 to 4 inches high already. We have taken a daily picture of the growth process to compare the loam to the clay samples and gather data on both. The students have realized the importance of loam compared to clay. 

Miscellaneous- Field Trip on Thursday, December 13^th. Please make sure your child packs a disposable lunch and also wears his/her Highland Drivestudent signature shirt. Sgt. Bill Goodrich from the Brecksville Police Department will start a 4 week D.A.R.E. program with the students. He will be in our classroom on Mondays from 12:35-1:05. 

  Homework For the Week of December 10^th -14^th  Will always be updated daily with a weekly overview on Monday. 

 Monday, December 10^th  - Spelling- page 45. Math- 6.7 Use What You Know 

Tuesday, December 11t^h  – Spelling- page 44. Math- Math boxes 4.7. Reading- (you have three days for this) take home reading books and read pages 284-299 The Stories Julian Tells for Friday’s comprehension test. 

Wednesday, December 12^{th  –}  Pack a lunch for tomorrow’s field trip. Also, wear your red and yellow Highland Driveshirt.

Thursday, December 13^th  -  Spelling- study for tomorrow’s test. Reading- study vocabulary words for tomorrow’s vocabulary test and make sure reading book comes back by tomorrow for end of selection test.  Math- study 4’s for tomorrow’s test. 

Friday, December 14^th  –

A couple of weeks ago I had a question about backing up files on the network drives here at school. The H drive for teachers is an awesome tool for back up. The question from a colleague was how can I access the H drive from home. You can access the H drive (Click here for directions) from home, but I suggested purchasing a USB flash drive ($12.00-$60.00, depending on the memory it holds) for the same purpose. Flash drives now hold up to 4 GB of information compared to 256 MB of information years ago. This little stick that fits in the size of your hand can hold up to about 6 CD’s of information. That is an incredible amount of information. Computers that are running Windows XP or Vista automatically read the flash drive and there is nothing to load onto your computer. If you are running Windows 98 you will have to download a driver for it. These flash drives work as a hard drive so there is no burning like a cd. You just drag and drop files onto the drive and reverse the process when taking data off of the stick and putting it onto your computer. As always, I have directions on how to do this. Click here.

Below there is a picture of one flash drive. Below that there are 384 discs. A 4GB flash drive could hold about 2,800 discs. Needless to say, I did not feel like putting that many discs in the picture, you get the idea!!!! Or you could walk around like the girl below with your disks around your neck- courtesy of Alvin Trusty. I am sticking with my USB Flash Drive. Believe it or not, I used to have about 300-500 discs full of information that I had to keep around to access. What a pain!!!

Thanks for reading and remember how important it is to back up your data.

In Reading Language Arts We will be theme testing over the past 6 weeks of skills. These skills are word relationships, classifying and categorizing, author’s purpose, compound sentences, common and proper nouns, singular and plural nouns, singular and possessive nouns and writing a paragraph on explaining something. To play review games go to http://www.protopage.com/3rdgrade#General_Page/Language_Arts  then choose Theme 2 links. 

In Math we will be concentrating on sections 4.5- multiplication fact power and shortcuts, 4.6- the multiplication/division facts table and fact families and 4.7- baseball multiplication game to practice facts. On Friday, we will take our timed test over the factor of 3. The students have 5 to 6 minutes to complete this test with 100% accuracy. If they miss one or more, they will take it again on Monday.  

In Science We will be taking soil samples from outside in soil tubes and then observe these tubes the next 2 weeks to see how the soil settles into layers. We also have a naturalist speaker coming to discuss rocks, soil and minerals on Tuesday. 

 Miscellaneous- Music rehearsal at the Middle School on Monday the 3^rd from 9:45-11:30.  Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 is the performance for our school in the cafeteria. Tuesday December 4^th at 7:00 PM at the Middle School is the real performance for parents and family. Please meet Mr. Wasil in room 116 at 6:45 PM dressed appropriately. 

  Homework For the Week of December 3rd -7th  Will always be updated daily with a weekly overview on Monday. 

Monday, December 3rd  - Reading- Review pages 39-40 and look over language arts pretest we completed in class today for tomorrow’s test. Science- Reading review sheet page 87 due in 2 days.  Math- practice factor of 3 all week. No math homework tonight due to the middle school rehearsal this morning.  

Tuesday, December 4^th  – No homework today due to the Music performance tonight at the middle school. Be there at 6:45 in room 116 to meet Mr. Wasil  Science- due by tomorrow if you did not complete last night.

Wednesday, December 5^{th  –}   

Thursday, December 6^th -   Math- Study factor of 3 for test tomorrow. Scholastic due tomorrow if ordering.

Friday, December 7^th-