Week of 9/23

We are getting ready to celebrate Johnny Appleseed's birthday on Thurs. 9/26. Please send in a peeled, cored, sliced apple to school with your child to be used to make homemade applesauce for our class as we celebrate his birthday.  The smell of delicious, warm applesauce will fill the air of the 3rd grade wing on Tuesday! Thank you! 

Thank you for signing and checking your child's assignment notebook every night!! 

I really appreciate it! 

**Second Step: We are working on our new SEL (Social Emotional Learning) curriculum this week. A home link page was sent home with your child today. This is an optional activity, but if you complete it with your child over the weekend and send it back on Monday, they will receive a goodie ticket. We will be discussing the activity on Monday as well. 

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

* Wed. 9/25: Social Studies: Continents and Ocean Quiz 

*Thurs. 9/26: Johnny Appleseed's Birthday Celebration : Don't forget to send in a peeled, cored, and sliced apple! 

* Fri. 9/27: Spelling: 3 spelling activities due and test today 
Math:  

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We will focus on our first unit, Tales as Old as Time, as we explore different types of folktale literature. We will apply our reading strategies to this literature and focus on character traits, sequencing, and using text based evidence to answer our questions. 

*English: We will continue to study the structure of a sentence. We are finishing up our ME bag writing activities and they turned out amazing! Each child will take turn to share their 3 items and their paper to the class. The presentation portion will be graded. Your child brought home their notebook containing their paper today. Please have them refer to the presentation rubric (on green paper) as they practice reading their story out loud. We will present these papers on Monday and Tuesday. 

We are also working on capital letters for proper nouns, beginning of sentences, and using endmarks in DOL. A DOL quiz will be on Friday 10/4. A study guide will be sent home for what to practice. We are practicing this skill in our writing every day as well. 

*Spelling: We are beginning week 2 of our first spelling unit. Your child has been given time in class to work on their spelling menu activities. 3 activities are due by Fri. 9/27. Check in with your child's progress to make sure they will be able to complete these activities. You might need to have them work on some of the work at home.  Homework is a graded activity and each missing or incomplete assignment will reflect missing points. 

The test will be on Friday and will consist of randomly selected 15 words from their word list and then they will choose 2 of those 15 words to write 2 complete, accurate sentences. The test is worth 20 points. 

*Social Studies: We are busy working in cooperative groups to research about our continents. Students are finding WOW facts and then adding them to a poster with their group. We will share these presentations to the class next week. The quiz on continents and locations will be on Wed. 9/25. Students will need to know the location of all continents and oceans.  They will be given a word bank, so spelling counts. 


*Mrs. Olsen's Math Class: We will continue to learn a variety of addition and subtraction strategies to help us solve word problems and more complex problems. 

We are working on our addition and subtraction fluency as well. We will begin "practicing" our subtraction fast facts. If your child passes any of the practice tests with zero or one wrong, they will begin practicing multiplication facts.  The "official" subtraction fast fact test will be on Fri. 9/27. This will be a variety of addition fluency facts 0-12.  If they don't pass the fast fast graded review, they will retake the quiz each day the following week until Thurs.  and receive 1 point off the total grade for each retake. 

Have a great weekend! 
Mrs. Olsen 

Week of 9/16

Odds and Ends: 

A note from our gym teacher, Mrs. Cushing: 

Third graders see Mrs. Cushing for PE first thing in the morning.  There is a good chance there will be dew on the grass.  PE is outdoors into October, weather permitting.  

The students might get their socks/shoes wet.  It is a good idea for the third graders to bring an extra pair of shoes and socks for after PE. A suggestion would be to have your child wear their play shoes to school for PE and then change into another pair after.    Washing and drying them weekly may be of help too!

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

* Wed. 9/18: ME bag items due 
* 

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading We will continue to look at the RACE rubric as we practice writing responses to our reading. RACE means: R: Restate the question, A: Answer, C: Cite Evidence, and E: End your answer.  

*English:  Your child received a Ziploc bag and note explaining their ME bag assignment. They will need to pick 3 items that help describe their personality or hobbies and place them in the bag to bring to school by Wed. 9/18. We will use these items as details in our first paper.  We will focus on writing and important grammar mini lessons as we work to write our ME bag papers. We will focus on capital letters, end marks, and proper organization of paragraphs and main ideas and details in our writing. We will work to make a final "published" copy of our papers and present them the week of 9/ 23. 

*Spelling: Your child's spelling word sort lists will be sent home next week Monday. Every other Monday, your child will receive a new word list. They will keep one list at home to study and one list and a menu in their spelling folder. Most of the spelling work on the menu is done at school and due the day of the test (the 2nd Friday after receiving the new words). Please check on your child's progress to make sure they will be able to complete 3 spelling activities by the due date. The first test and due date will be Fri. 9/27. 




*Social Studies: We will be busy working in cooperative groups to research about our continents. Students will be finding WOW facts and then adding them to a poster to present.  We will share these presentations to the class next week. The quiz on continents and locations will be on Wed. 9/25. Students will need to know the location of all continents and oceans.  They will be given a word bank, so spelling counts. 

*Mrs. Olsen's Math Class: We are continuing to review addition and subtraction strategies. We will practice our fact fluency with addition fast facts this week. A graded checkpoint will be given on Monday. 

We are working on our addition and subtraction fluency as well. We will begin "practicing" our addition fast facts. If your child passes any of the practice tests with zero or one wrong, they will begin practicing subtraction facts.  The "official" addition fast fact test will be on Fri. 9/20. This will be a variety of addition fluency facts 0-12.  If they don't pass the fast fast graded review, they will retake the quiz each day the following week until Thurs.  and receive 1 point off the total grade for each retake. The test is worth 10 points. 

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of 9/9

Odds and Ends

Thank you for attending this year's curriculum night. It was so great to see so many of you. If you were unable to attend, please email me and I can send you a copy of our presentation. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with any questions, comments, or concerns!  Thanks!

*SEE SAW: An email was sent about our classroom See Saw account. I would encourage each family to join this great, safe website to see pictures of your child at school and pictures of their work. It's a great conversation starter to the question...what did YOU do at school today? My own boys have See Saw accounts at their schools and we love looking at what they do at school and they love to tell stories about the photos. Please email me with any questions on how to join this private group. Thanks! 



* Please be sure to check and sign your child's assignment notebook each night. Help them create  a responsible and independent routine at home of unpacking their binder every night and emptying the "Keep at Home" section and checking the homework folder and the assignment notebook. Thanks!

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

*Mon. 9/9: Magazine Kick Off Assembly 

*Tues. 9/10: MAPs Math test 
Picture Day 
Social Studies: Directions Quiz

* Wed. 9/11: MAPs Reading Test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*ELA: We will continue to focus on a variety of reading strategies using various types of literature. We are also starting Daily 5 centers, so we are working on the expectations of each center. 

Your child was given a Sept. reading calendar. Please keep this in a safe spot. It is due 10/1. They need to read 20 min a day for 20 days to receive full credit.  Thanks!

*Spelling: We will begin spelling soon! 

*Social Studies: We are working on learning directions and the compass rose and how to use maps. A study guide was sent home this week.  Our first graded review will be on Tues. 9/10. 

* Mrs. Olsen's math class: We will begin the unit with number sense and addition and subtraction facts. We will be taking time tests on both skills - more info coming soon! Please send your child in with a small cloth (can be an old rag or washcloth or piece of fabric like felt) or an old, clean sock to be used as a dry erase board eraser. Thanks!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Olsen 

Week of 9/3-9/6

Happy Friday everyone!  We have had a terrific first week of

3rd grade. We have really gotten to know each other and I look forward to
a wonderful year with my new students!!   Families, please make sure you
check my blog weekly; I will put out an email with the link every Friday.
Today your child brought home a Star Student poster. Please complete them
and them back to school by Fri. 9/27 or earlier. Thanks!  
Curriculum Night for parents only is Wednesday, 9/4, at 6:30.   See you then

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Mon: No School: Happy Labor Day
9/10: Picture Day

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: SPELLING: We are continuing the spelling series Words Your Way.  Fortunately, the
students have worked with this program in 2nd grade.  I will be taking an inventory
on Tuesday and the students will be working with patterns they struggle with
during Word Work in Daily 5.  I should have their word sorts to them by the end
of next week. We’ll officially start the “menu activities” the following week.

Reading and ELA: We’ll be starting our year focusing on various reading skills
using fun literature.  This week our books will be Rainbow Fish and If you Give a
Mouse a Cookie. The skills studied will be character traits, theme, and cause and
effect.

Today the students will be bringing home their September reading log. I 
expect my students to read for 20 days, 20 minutes.  I know many read more
than that, but this log will be part of their grade.  

Social Science: We will be using a new series this year, Amplify Science;
more to come on that!

In Social Studies, we’ll be learning about directions this week and making our
very own compass rose.  There will be a short quiz on directions on 9/10.
A study guide will go home on 9/5.

Mrs. Olsen's Math Class:   I can’t wait to meet my math class!  Math will start
on Tuesday. Students will be getting a pretest this week to see what they know!

Have a great weekend together!

Mrs. Olsen