Mr. Wasil’s 3rd Grade Class

Reading/Language Arts

This week, we will be starting Theme 5: Good Neighbors. In this theme, students discover that people in communities rely on one another for goods and services as well as support. They take a closer look at the interactions that make communities survive and thrive.

The first story of our theme will be: Leah’s Pony on pages 148-163. When dust storms devastate the crops, Leah’s family must auction off their livestock and farm equipment to repay a bank loan. Leah saves the family’s farm by selling her pony to buy papa’s tractor for $1. This inspires the neighbors to bid low and return everything to the family.

Our skills this week will include: learning new vocabulary, fact and opinion, self-questioning, compound words, alliteration, and vivid verbs.

Our grammar work for the week will be: action verbs. Our spelling words are compound words.

Science

Students will be able to discuss observations and measurements made by other people. We will go outside and look for animal tracks that were made by different animals. We will also create a book on the life cycle of the chicken after comparing the life cycles of different animals including birth to adulthood, reproduction and death (e.g. egg-tadpole-frog) We will conclude the week with various animal centers for the class to explore. They will see what a bird really sees through their eyes. Students will also understand the purpose of different bird beaks.

Math

On Monday we will have our Book Bash assembly during math. On Tuesday and Wednesday, students will extend the partial products method to products of 2 digit numbers and 2-digit multiples of 10. Thursday we will investigate positive and negative numbers. We will end the week with OAT math practice.

Extras

Monday-Book Bash

Friday-Report cards go home

Friday- Store -2:45-3:30

Homework For the Week of March 30^th – April 3^rd

Will always be updated daily with a weekly overview on Monday.

Monday, March 30^th - Spelling- pages 78-80 due by Thursday. Math- skills link page 103 and study 0-9’s all week for timed test on Friday.

Tuesday, March 31^st - Reading- take home book and read Leah’s Pony on pages 148-163. Math- skills link 104

Wednesday, April 1^st -  Vocabulary- study for quiz tomorrow. Math- math boxes 9.11. Science- reading review page 143

Thursday, April 2^nd – Math- skills link 107 and Spelling- study for test tomorrow.

Friday, April 3^rd – Book reports due Today

Reading/Language Arts

This week students will take a pretest and posttest on the reading and language skills that they have learned over the past several weeks. On Monday, we will take the pretest and analyze or re-teach any items needing attention.
These skills are figurative language, summarize, comparing and contrasting, adjectives, adjectives of how many and what kind, articles (a, the, and an), adjectives that compare and writing a comparing/contrasting paragraph.

Students will bring that pretest home to study with for the test on Tuesday. There will be no spelling words this work or story due to testing over skills.

Throughout the week the class will be reading How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell. In this story Billy Forrester’s always up for a dare, but this time he’s in for a real challenge. His friends, Alan and Joe, bet Billy fifty dollars that he can’t eat 15 worms in 15 days. Billy survives the first one, chokes down the second, and practically relishes the third. When Joe and Alan realize that Billy’s going to stick to his goal — and even enjoy doing it — they try everything they can to keep Billy from reaching his goal. Billy, with the help of his family and his friend Tom, tries to stay one step ahead of their tricks. They even create new recipes — from Southern Fried Worm to Whizbang Worm Delight — to help Billy reach his goal. This book goes well with our study on animals and our recent gummy worm lab!

We will also create and recite animal poems as this is one of our common assessments for the month. Students will create a poem and type it in the computer lab. They will also create their illustrations out of tissue paper the way that Eric Carle does. We will have an opportunity to study Eric Carle’s techniques! When the poem is done, it will be shared with the class.

Math

In math students will be able to share whole dollar amounts equally. They will also be introduced to the lattice method of multiplication. (My favorite!) Finally, we will explore 2-digit multiplication, number patterns, and the rigidity of triangles. Thursday we will continue with OAT review.

Science

The class will relate animal structures to their specific survival functions (e.g., obtaining food, escaping or hiding from enemies), such as the habitat they live in. We will also classify animals according to their characteristics (e.g. body coverings and body structure. On Wednesday, we will explore the parts of an egg and discuss the function each part serves to the developing chicken. Of course, the eggs we use are the unfertilized eggs! Thursday, we will have a special visit from some real live chicks!

Extras

Thursday is the end of the grading period.

Friday-No school due to in-service and records day.

Next Monday is our Highland Drive Book Bash!

Homework For the Week of March ^23rd- ^27th

Will always be updated daily with a weekly overview on Monday.

Monday, March ^23rd - Reading- look over pretest completed in class today for test tomorrow. Math- Skills link page 101 andstudy 0-9’s all week for timed test on Friday. Science- due tomorrow if not done yet.

Tuesday, March ^24th -  Math- 9.7 Homelink, Science – RS 27-28 due by Thursday.

Wednesday, March ^25th -  Math- Homelink 9.9 and Science due tomorrow.

Thursday, March ^26th

Friday, March 27th  – No School Today- In-service day for teachers. Work on book reports due by next Friday!!!

Reading/Language Arts

This week, we will be finishing up our work on Theme 4: Tell Me A Story. In this theme, students have learned that storytelling takes many forms and serves many purposes. As they read stories and meet storytellers from around the world, they discover new ways to tell their own stories. The fifth and final story of our theme will be: The Crowded House on pages 120-135. In this play, a large family feels very crowded in its tinyhouse. The village wise man has a solution, but will this solution help,or make things worse?

Our skills this week will include: learning new vocabulary, author’s purpose, word structures (root word + suffix), making predictions, multiple meaning words, and homophones.

Our grammar work for the week will be: adjectives that compare.  Our spelling words are words with –er and –est.

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

Chapter 9 is one of three units in Third Grade Everyday Mathematics that focuses on the important skills of multiplication and division. In this unit, the focus is on a partial-products algorithm for multiplying 1 and 2 digit numbers, as well as developing readiness skills for division,. In addition, children will review important concepts such as remainders in division and positive and negative numbers. Unit 9 has four main areas of focus:

• To multiply and divide with multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000.
• To use mental math to multiply.
• To share money.
• To find products of 2-digit numbers.

This week we will model multiplication with base-10 blocks; to explore relationships; and to find fractions of fractions. We will also multiply 1 digit numbers by multi-digit numbers using a partial-products algorithm.

Science

This week we begin our new unit on Animals. On Monday we will identify parts of a worm anatomy as well as many body functions of worms. We will continue with learning different life cycles of animals. On Friday students will relate animal structures to their specific survival functions (e.g., obtaining food, escaping or hiding from enemies), such as the habitat they live in.

Homework For the Week of March 16^th – 20^th

Will always be updated daily with a weekly overview on Monday.

Monday, March 16^th - Spelling- pages 73-75 due by Thursday. Math- skills link page 83 and study 0-9’s all week for timed test on Friday.

Tuesday, March 17^th - Reading- take home book and read The Crowded House on pages 120-135.  Math- Homelink 9.3

Wednesday, March 18^th -  Language Arts- pages 73-74 and Vocabulary- study for quiz tomorrow, Math- skills link 97

Thursday, March 19^th – Spelling- study for test tomorrow.Math- skills link 98

Friday, March 20^th – Read science pages 114-119 and complete
questions on page 119 due by Tuesday.

Work on Book Reports

Reading/Language Arts

The fourth story of our theme will be: Lon Po Po on pages 96-113. In this Chinese folktale, a mother leaves her daughters at home while she goes to visit their grandmother. A wolf, disguised as the girls’ grandmother, pays a visit. The girls realize the wolf’s trick and outsmart him. Our skills this week will include: learning new vocabulary, comparing and contrasting, summarizing, word structure, and synonyms.

Our grammar work for the week will be the articles “a” , “an” and “the”. This week  students will be working on words with double consonants.

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.

New Book Reports are due by Friday, April 3^rd.

Math

On Monday we will review all that we have learned in chapter 8. Students will complete a review guide and bring it home that night. Tuesday, the class will take a test on chapter 8.

Chapter 9 is one of three units in Third Grade Everyday Mathematics that focuses on the important skills of multiplication and division. In this unit, the focus is on a partial-products algorithm for multiplying 1 and 2 digit numbers, as well as developing readiness skills for division. In addition, children will review important concepts such as remainders in division and positive and negative numbers. Unit 9 has four main areas of focus:

• To multiply and divide with multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000.
• To use mental math to multiply.
• To share money.
• To find products of 2-digit numbers.
  
  

Science

Our unit on force and motion will end this week. Students will take a test on Wednesday. Please use the study guides and book to study for this test. We will complete the week by making our Leprechaun traps using skills we have learned in class. Wish us luck!

Extras

PSO meeting on Wednesday at 9:30 AM.

Third grade teachers at a common assessment workshop on Thursday.

Friday- Wear a hat day! Bring in $1.00 and you can wear your favorite hat. Proceeds go to the South Hills Lend-a-hand program.

Homework For the Week of March 9^{th –} 13^th

Will always be updated daily with a weekly overview on Monday.

Monday, March 9^th - Spelling- pages 70-72 due by Thursday. Math- look over review guide complete in class today for test tomorrow over fractions and study 0-9’s all week for timed test on Friday.

Tuesday, March 10^th - Reading- take home book and read Lon Po Po on pages 96-113. Math- 8.9 math boxes. Science- study for motion and force test.

Wednesday, March 11^th -  Vocabulary- study for quiz tomorrow, Math- skills link page 94

Thursday, March 12^th – Spelling- study for test tomorrow.Math- skills link 95

Friday, March 13^th – Work on Book reports due by Friday, April 3^rd.

Reading/Language Arts

The third story of our theme will be Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears on pages 62-85. This story is A West African written for young children, which tells an African legend. In this origin story, the mosquito lies to a lizard, who puts sticks in his ears and ends up frightening another animal, which down a long line causes a panic. In the end, an owlet is killed and the owl is too sad to wake the sun until the animals hold court and find out who is responsible. The mosquito is eventually found out, but it hides in order to escape punishment. So now it constantly buzzes in people’s ears to find out if everyone is still angry at it.

The skills we will be concentrating on are reading guided comprehension, vocabulary, spelling words with /ur/ sound, summarizing, figurative language, making inferences, adjectives for how many and writing effective sentences.

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.

Book Reports are due by this Friday, March 6^th.

Math

Chapter 8 has two primary objectives: To review the uses of fractions and fraction notation and to help children develop a solid understanding of equivalent fractions. The approach to equivalent fractions in third grade is informal and includes many hands-on activities.

This week students will work with equivalent fractions, comparing fractions, identifying mixed numbers and learn how to solve number stories involving fractions.

Science

SWBAT observe the motion of different kinds of waves, define waves, and describe their motions along with identifying the parts of a wave. Last, we will begin to review the concepts taught in Chapter 6 Motion and Forces for our test next week.

Miscellaneous:

It was wonderful seeing everyone here last Thursday evening for Open House. Thank you all!!!

Book Reports Due by Friday the 6^th!!!

Homework For the Week of March 2^nd- 6^th

Will always be updated daily with a weekly overview on Monday.

Monday, March 2^nd - Spelling- pages 67-69 due by Thursday. Math- skills link page 89 and study 0-9’s all week for timed test on Friday.

Tuesday, March 3^rd - Reading- take home book and read Why Mosquitoes… on pages 62-85. Math- math boxes 8.6.  Science – RS 53-54

Wednesday, March 4^th -  Vocabulary- study for quiz tomorrow, Math- skills link 91

Thursday, March 5^th – Math- skills link 93 Spelling- study for test tomorrow.

Friday, March 6^th – Book reports due Today